Page 14 - Vertical City

14 The vertical city

of course), but at any rate more humanly connected
than their horizontal cousin slums.

This raises the more general question of the future of
cities because over half the world’s population in 2014
lives in cities, and that will rise to two-thirds by 2050 13.

Indeed it is within densely populated cities that the
world’s population wishes to live as 80% of the world’s
wealth is created there as well as opportunities, princi-
pally for women in developing countries.

The most critical issue is about enjoying the essential
contact with the ground and with nature, which remain
intertwined, as well as benefiting from cultural, sporting
and relaxation amenities without fear of traffic, crowds,
criminality, pollution or epidemics.

The problems of poverty, accessible lodging, and
provision of potable water, of sewers and waste mana-
gement, and of traffic jams are nonetheless endemic
in a changing world due to mobile and Internet access,
global climate change and troubled economies.

The polycentric vertical city with its small footprint,
but in contact with the ground, where buildings are
connected by efficient overhead passageways is thus at
the heart of this subject.

This subject is vast and concerns all the sciences and
arts, but first of all it “turns” around the sun, which
determines the climate and the environment reflected

13 “The Future is Cities: Cities of the Future” in Spectrum, Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology, winter, 2014.