Designed For The Future: 80 Practical Ideas For A Sustainable World
In Designed for the Future, author Jared Green — known from ASLA and The Dirt — asks 80 architects, urban planners, landscape architects, journalists, artists and environmental leaders one question: What gives you the hope that a sustainable future is possible? As a result, the book offers 80 projects that give them hope that a sustainable future is possible.
Designed for the Future offers a plethora of sustainable ideas related to people, land, water and air. In the book itself, Green shows illustrative examples of this, like Christoph Gielen‘s essay on the carbon emission-reducing Solar Roadways. In this project, solar-powered panels are being used as building blocks for ‘smart roads’. Through their photovoltaic cells, these solar roads produce electricity for nearby homes or feed into the electrical grip.
Solar panels by Solar Roadways
Green’s main message in the book is that ‘design can be key in helping people to handle the consequences of climate change, biodiversity loss or ever-changing economics, and to safe the future op the planet’. Another illustrative project is Emscher Park in Germany’s Ruhr Valley. To Alan M. Berger, Professor at MIT, this project provides hope for the future. While the place used to be the epicenter of Germany’s steel industry, it has been changed to a large regional park system, with all sorts of sustainable projects and features.
Emscher Park (Ruhr Valley, Germany)
In the book, examples range from the cooling strategies at Cambodia’s ancient temple of Angkor Wat to the transformation of an old office building in the city of Rotterdam. To journalist Tracy Metz, it is important to ‘take matters into our own hands’ when it comes to our cities. And that’s exactly wat Kristian Koreman and Elma van Boxel of ZUS Architects did with their project Luchtsingel and the transformation of het Schieblok. With their own proactivity and desire to bring change, they managed to kickstart a massive transformation of Rotterdam’s city center and revitalize the entire are.
Het Schieblok and the yellow, 400-meter long pedestrian bridge as part of project Luchtsingel in Rotterdam
Designed for the Future doesn’t offer a clear structure. Rather, the book offers an overview of interesting ideas and projects that should give us hope for the future. Written in an uncomplicated way and being highly visual, it should inspire many on how we can bring (sustainable) change to our own world. The book is definitely a must-read for all that want to be inspired by great ideas and projects on how we can make a difference in the future!
Designed For The Future: 80 Practical Ideas For A Sustainable World
By Jared Green
Published by Princeton Architectural Press
Papberback, 176 pages
Language: English
ISBN: 9781616893002
