masdar city (credit: gwire
I only caught a small piece of Human Planet last night so I’ll be catching up on BBC iPlayer later. The part of the programme that i did manage to concentrate on was about Masdar City and a little bit of hunting around on the web really does show what a fascinating eco-city this will be when completed. It is a shame we don’t have such far-sighted urban planners and planning committees in the UK.
A British designed eco-city.
The city is being designed to be a carbon neutral and zero waste home to over 50,000 people in the middle of the desert. The latest in urban planning design, building materials and renewable energy technology is being put into practise. The designers of the city are British – Foster and Partners. This is a fascinating experiment where all the latest knowledge and techniques will be put into place. But it’s not just the latest techniques, the design will incorporate the tradition narrow streets of desert towns that help encourage breezes and shade to reduce the need for air conditioning.
Surely the time has come for the UK to also start looking at innovative and sustainable projects such as this. At the moment we have exceptional architects and urban planners but how much longer will that remain the case. We are not building the estates that give our architects the experience to build according to latest sustainable methods. Slowly the housing stock in Britain is falling behind many other countries in terms of quality and fuel efficiency. A number of emerging nations now have better and more sustainable housing policies that the UK.
Being serious about sustainable development means building large housing estates.
If we are serious about living in a sustainable way, one in which we use energy efficiently and set up communities that work with minimum waste and pollution then we have to build those communities from scratch. Adapting old warehouses into flats or squeezing in one or two houses here and there are not going to provide the levels of sustainability that is required.
The system that we have at the moment of preventing houses from being built is not sustainable and definitely not fair to the next generation of young people who want to live their own lives. Is it really right that the average age of a first time buyer is now 37! Is it right that more and more people in their late 20′s and early 30′s are still living with their parents because there is nowhere else for them to live. This is not sustainable development.
Baby boomers have to start getting the balance right.
The baby boomer generation who are still in charge and hold the reigns of power have got to start getting the balance right. We’ve spent the first three quarters of our lives stripping the Earth bare with no thought for the future and now that we’ve made our money we’re trying to completely halt development denying the next generation jobs, education and homes.
It’s time that the baby boomers started to actually make a positive impact for the future instead of just passing down a wrecked economy and environment. We need to start building good quality affordable homes that have minimum impact on the environment. The Arabs and some of the developing nations in Asia such as Indonesia and China are leading the way. In the UK we need to wake up and join them so that there are enough affordable homes for young people to buy and rent.
No excuses for not building new sustainable affordable homes in the UK.
There are no excuses why we can not do it. It’s purely whether the will of the generation that has slashed and burnt the environment for their own selfish needs are willing to allow the next generation to have the same standard or better standard of housing and living that they have had. I’m not too certain that my generation and my parents generation have that level of altruism though. We’re too selfish as a generation to allow house prices to drop to allow others to achieve their aspiration of a warm affordable home in which to bring up their own families.
We have plenty of undeveloped land in Britain to build on. In one of my previous posts I highlighted the official figures which shows that the UK is one of the most unurbanised countries in Europe on a percentage of land basis. The land is there for development, we have the technology and knowledge to build low impact homes and estates – it’s just the will of the people who have their hands on power that is preventing a fair and prosperous future for the generations to come.
