How to Make Livable Cities

UNTIL RECENTLY I was looking for a new home for my family. I’ve experienced first-hand the extreme buoyancy of the housing market in Amsterdam. Practically every month the price per square metre goes up a notch. If you put up your home for sale, within a week you’ll have hundreds of interested parties lining up to view the property. The asking price is just a starting point, outbidding standard fare.

Amsterdam isn’t on its own. Despite their enormous appeal, world cities such as London, Tel Aviv and Hong Kong can no longer meet the demand for housing. As a result, prices rise, too many homes become vacant investment objects, and the situation deteriorates rather than improves. How can large cities break out of this vicious circle?

More and more architects are addressing that question. In this issue’s Living Lab, we present some of their promising proposals. Examples are MVRDV in Amsterdam and WOHA in Singapore, who suggest multifunctional high-rise. Think of towers that offer not only apartments but also space for offices, retail shops, hospitality enterprises, medical facilities and greenery, lots and lots of greenery. Plants are the focus of Stefano Boeri’s Vertical Forests, for instance, residential towers now sprouting in cities far beyond the architect’s native Milan. Young architecture practice Kwong Von Glinow provides existing buildings with clever architectural interventions and proposes a mix of vertical living complemented by ample communal spaces. The idea is to combine diversity and high density to achieve a healthy and sustainable living environment.

The youngest generation of creatives takes a totally different approach. This issue’s ‘The Challenge’ shows that their interests lie in intangible, psychosocial concerns such as loneliness and inclusivity. Their tools are not architectural in nature and, in many cases, are immaterial. They look for answers in (medical) technology – apps, light fields, nutritional supplements – in an effort to solve housing problems.

It seems impossible to steer urbanization in the right direction without accepting a high density of buildings. The difficulty lies in maintaining a human scale while integrating both mobility and nature. Intelligent architecture will be the hardware for cities of the future. I’m talking about energy-saving – literally green – buildings with extensive facilities aimed at serving a variety of lifestyles. Vertical cities within cities. But who will develop the software for making and keeping increasingly dense housing areas livable? How can we prevent loneliness and isolation? How can we guarantee inclusivity and privacy? How much do we leave to the market?

Architecture isn’t the whole solution. Technology plays a role as well. The rest has to come from good education, responsible upbringing and proper governance. A challenging mix.

By the way, our new home, on the outskirts of Amsterdam, is in a multifunctional apartment complex that’s part of an area marked for new urban development. Looks as if I’ve become a research subject in the ongoing discussion about how cities ought to grow.

ROBERT THIEMANN Editor in chief