European City Tours (ECT)
FUTURE CITY PROJECT
Three possible ways to create a palpable end product:
- Designate an existing town – nearly anywhere on the globe – or a part or a district of this town and make students re-design it. Giving them an exact size (km2) and population is highly advisable.
- Designate a bare place on the globe and make students design a new town on that very spot. Giving them an exact size (km2) and population is highly advisable.
- Students design Utopia. They are free to place it anywhere on the globe, size and population is also up to them.
The five groups are responsible for:
- Geographical features
- urban green and blue infrastructure
- hydrography: surface waters, ground waters, ponds, lakes, streams, rivers both natural and artificial,
- altitudinal lines: stormwater management? Does it go to a river or a lake? Shall we collect it in cisterns under parks for irrigation?
- ground conditions: erosion, types of soil, etc.
- solar positioning: position building roofs to the South
- wind conditions: positioning of buildings considering the prevailing wind direction to be able to sweep smog out of town
- flora: both existing and planted; new species? indigenous species? possibly concentrate on home species
- Infrastructure
- roads for cars and other vehicles; cycle lanes; transportation related objects, like traffic lights, bridges, roundabouts, flyovers, tunnels, railroads, tram and trolley lines and lanes, carparks,
- squares, public gathering places, places to sit and relax
- telecommunications and internet connectivity
- Architecture
Depending on the annual climate of the place of the future town:
- all modern architectural aspects of designing buildings
- green and energy saving or even energy producing technologies included in a building
- What are the basics of building a house today? standards? building materials
- Societal aspects
- residential houses
- community houses
- office blocks
- factories
- shopping facilities
- schools, nurseries, sheltered homes, hospice homes
- buildings for another hundred different functions
- Sustainability
All aspects that cover all four previous areas. Although I am not at all sure how this 5th aspect could stand independently as all the four areas must automatically include sustainability.
