What kind of cities do we want to live in? What do we believe is important for a good life? And what makes a good home for all of us? SPACE10 with gestalten have teamed up to gather insights from world-renowned experts to explore a better urban future for humanity. Compiled in a book entitled The Ideal City, the findings draw five core principles: The city of tomorrow should be resourceful, accessible, shared, safe, and desirable.
Taking a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to rethinking how we could design, plan, build and share our cities going forward, the publication unfolds projects from 53 different cities in 30 different countries. Discover in this article, excerpts from the book, with the foreword by Bjarke Ingels and the last word by Xiye Bastida.
Today, cities are not meeting the essential needs of a big portion of the people living there. Simultaneously, urban areas are the biggest driver of the climate crisis. The challenges are extensive, but so are the opportunities. We really find ourselves at a crossroads: we can continue to hurtle down this well-trodden path, which we know where it leads; or we can explore a new way forward. With The Ideal City, we wanted to scour the world for inspiring chefs and ingredients, and bring them together in an aspirational cookbook for cities — stuffed with recipes on how to create a better home for humanity, while taking care of our planet. Simon Caspersen, co-founder – SPACE10
Bjarke Ingels, Architect
Forward
Designing the ideal city Utopia is a literary invention of a place so perfect that it can’t exist in reality. But that’s exactly what we should be striving towards. Of course, you can’t realize utopia in a single flash. What we can do, however, is make sure that every time you are called upon to design a building or an urban space, you have to make this little fragment of the world more like the way you wish the world to be.
Xiye Bastida, Climate Activist
Last word
We need to meet the greatest challenge of our lives with stubborn optimism. And imagining is the first step. Are you ready to imagine?
This is what your city looks like. It’s green. Everywhere! Streets are pedestrian and kid-friendly. Food growing on rooftops and in car parks—which, by the way, we don’t need anymore because we don’t own cars anymore. Can you imagine your city as a sanctuary for nature and wildlife? There are solar panels on every rooftop. Clean, renewable energy connects every home, every clinic, and every school. We no longer choke on the toxic fumes of fossil fuels. Roads, they’re green too. Traffic is cut right down. Public transport everywhere is electric, dependable, and free. Can you smell the air? Clean.
We can do so much more. Rewild our land. Protect our cities from rising sea levels. These things we’re imagining? They’re all possible now, with technology that exists today.
