Manifesto; The Inverted City

The first of many editions for this years manifesto:

Conflict. A city is a virus; spreading a global plague of consumption on a planet unable to react. This year, 50% of the world's population of 6.8 billion live in a city, consuming 75% of the world's resources from beyond the city and defecating the waste back again.

By 2050, it has been estimated that 75% of the world's population of 9 billion will live in a city consuming over 90% of the worlds resources and spreading its domain far.  With this current rate of growth, the requirement to consume will strip the planet of all resources.  The influence of the city will be far reaching.

Kyoto, Co₂penhagen and other influencers will do little to change the inevitable growth of this virus.  A plaster on a gaping wound.  A decisive approach is required to reverse the trend.  A new model of a city must be built to create a centre for the population explosion, and to create a city that is in symbiosis with the environment.

 

Strategy: Through the design of a micro city, a seed will be sown; a utopian punctuator that will fold the periphery of the Generic City into its centre.  "The Inverted City" will be a utopian centre in symbiosis with the world beyond its boundary.  The overwhelming attraction of the Inverted City will see a mass exodus of the Generic City.

The exodus will be unstoppable. The Inverted City will spread, replacing the Bad with the Good.  Cities as we know it will become relics of the past.  Unoccupied.  The death of the suburbs will be first.  The environment will envelop the periphery, returning the land to a virgin state.

The Inverted City will be an exemplar.  Generic Cities throughout the world will duplicate its success.

After many many years, the Inverted City will be the only city to exist. The virus on the world's resources will cease, and a new symbiosis between city and environment will prevail.