Page 11 - Vertical City

INTRODUCTION 11

Paradoxically, prevention of criminality and security
as to terrorism are, in reality, socially less worrisome and
easier to manage and control in vertical structures than
surface 6 development, just as the definition of accep-
table risk and appropriate response as we shall see in
Chapter IV 7.

The issue of the necessity of vertical cities has to do
with the occupation of the earth’s surface by more and
more constructions as consequence of a growing world
population and environmental pressures that this occu-
pation addresses in the largest sense.

While only a century ago, natural and agricultural
spaces everywhere constituted a continuum in which
built-up spaces occurred here and there (and were
connected by roads of modest width that did not limit
the passage of fauna), vast territories, such as Belgium,
became constructed agglomerations that interrupted
the connection of the natural world into islands that
were no longer connected to one another.

Re-concentration of cities allows for the restoration
of the continuum of nature if enough “ecoducts” are
envisaged along the routes that connect them.

It is of interest to note that over 120 new (and ver-
tical) cities, each with at least 1 million inhabitants, have

6 It is the sad reason for the preference of high-rise buildings in cities
where criminal rates are high.

7 With the exception of walled neighborhoods where the feeling of
exclusion is reinforced.