The Unsustainable City

Sustainability

Matthias Berger¹ 

[1] Future Cities Laboratory, Singapore-ETH Centre, 1 CREATE Way, 06-01 CREATE Tower,Singapore 138602, Singapore;

关键词: cities;    land-use;    perception;    sustainable development;    unsustainability;    urban planning;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su6010365

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

“Make cities more sustainable” is an omnipresent slogan in architecture and urban planning. This article is a discussion on theoretical and practical boundaries of using the expression “sustainability” with respect to the scientific community, therefore avoiding sustainability becoming a euphemism for “doing good”. By definition, it can be concluded, cities developed as counterparts to the hinterland and, therefore, they axiomatically should be and are as a matter of fact unsustainable. Furthermore, sustainability is a binary, not a gradual concept. Something is either sustainable or not. Aiming to increase the sustainability is consequently a sham battle. It would be necessary to change our perception to acknowledge that cities should be unsustainable in order to become efficient, seen from a global perspective including the hinterland.

【 授权许可】

Unknown