What is The Future for Cities?

Fanni Melles
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Social Sciences
  • Weekly

WTF for Cities? is a platform to introduce and connect people who are actively and consciously working on the future of cities and to introduce research about the future of cities.

  1. 12h ago

    Cities that work with natural cycles - Moein Nodehi (478)

    Moein Nodehi, Founder and CEO of Biotonomy, argues that cities have been built in a way that disrupts almost every natural cycle, and that every building decision stays in the city for about a hundred years. Water is his first concern: paving caps the ground, groundwater is taken and never put back, and designers are barely taught what water is. He adds wind, food and green space, then puts the responsibility on every developer, architect and builder rather than waiting for policy, citing a wastewater reuse project the city later turned into standards. He closes on holistic design, grey water reuse, paving the road for the next generation, and doing what is needed. (00:00) Cities against natural cycles (05:00) Why cities exist (08:30) Growing constructively (10:15) Water, the cycle we don't understand (13:19) Wind and food cycles (16:02) Green is how water gets back (17:40) Whose responsibility? (20:53) Build it, then the policy follows (22:35) Fears: water and heat (25:38) Human wellbeing and nature (29:01) The solutions are easier (33:18) Holistic design and the greenhouse (36:33) Water recycling within reach (41:03) Paving the road (44:32) Be bold, do what is needed Show notes Pairs with episode 477 What is The Future for Cities? If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our Patreon! Episode generated with Descript assistance (affiliate link). Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

    Cities that work with natural cycles - Moein Nodehi (478)

  2. Episode 478

    Don't save the world. Do what is needed. - Moein Nodehi (478)

    Moein Nodehi tells people they will not save the world on their own, but their contribution matters. There will be broken pipes and hard days, and the advice is not to give up: do what you love, but if you want to contribute, do what is needed. From the interview with Moein Nodehi in episode 478, on natural cycles and water recycling. If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our Patreon! Episode generated with Descript assistance (affiliate link). Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

    Don't save the world. Do what is needed. - Moein Nodehi (478)

  3. 2d ago

    Nature-based solutions and the water-energy-food nexus (477)

    Carvalho and colleagues' review of 19 urban case studies asks whether nature-based solutions can manage a city's water, energy and food together. This debate tests whether living infrastructure is a system or a set of single-purpose pilots. One side points to Brooklyn Grange's rooftop farm, Singapore's vertical gardens, constructed wetlands that turn biomass into energy, and Seoul's Cheonggyecheon River restoration, and argues that a mosaic of small projects adds up to a citywide nexus. The other points to the missing food-energy data at large scales, the lack of grey water guidelines and the cost of retrofitting, and calls citywide reliance premature. Both agree the field needs standardised, multipurpose indicators that measure water, energy and food together. The research transcript is on the site. (00:00) Living infrastructure or grey pipes (03:03) The water-energy-food nexus (04:27) The central question (05:11) Brooklyn Grange and the Treehouse (07:20) Micro success, macro silence (08:23) The roof mosaic (09:06) Missing food-energy data (10:37) Constructed wetlands (11:40) Grey water and technical barriers (12:52) Cheonggyecheon River (14:16) Costs and retrofitting (16:03) Closing positions (16:49) Where both sides meet Research article: Nature-based solutions addressing the water-energy-food nexus: Review of theoretical concepts and urban case studies Shownotes Pairs with episode 478 If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our Patreon! Episode generated with Descript assistance (affiliate link). Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

    Nature-based solutions and the water-energy-food nexus (477)

  4. Episode 478

    One greenhouse ties water, food, and heat - Moein Nodehi (478)

    Moein Nodehi designs every project holistically. Shower water is treated by plants in a greenhouse that also grows food and works as a buffer space, so water recycling, food production, heating and cooling are designed together. From the interview with Moein Nodehi in episode 478, on natural cycles and water recycling. If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our Patreon! Episode generated with Descript assistance (affiliate link). Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

    One greenhouse ties water, food, and heat - Moein Nodehi (478)

  5. Episode 478

    Do the right project, then the policy follows - Moein Nodehi (478)

    Moein Nodehi says it is the responsibility of every developer, architect and home builder to do the right thing. His team reused a building's wastewater for its green walls and roofs without any policy, and the city then came asking for standards. From the interview with Moein Nodehi in episode 478, on natural cycles and water recycling. If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our Patreon! Episode generated with Descript assistance (affiliate link). Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

    Do the right project, then the policy follows - Moein Nodehi (478)

  6. Oct 28

    Public space as the product - Howard Kozloff (476)

    Howard Kozloff, founder of Agora Partners, argues that public space is the product and buildings are the walls around it. Projects, in his practice, have to be financially viable and civically valuable together. He calls the method entrepreneurial planning: developer discipline and risk tolerance applied to problems usually left to policy, so a plan shapes what gets built. Cities, he says, absorb shocks and still gather, and public space is what makes density livable. Government's useful role is a rule the land market can price on day one, and someone still has to own the operating costs or the welcome fails. He closes on people in the street, and on the claim that the demise of the city is greatly overstated. (00:00) Cities absorb every shock (02:11) Entrepreneurial planning (06:40) Capital, design, and policy (09:55) Why cities still gather (12:47) Public space, not just density (16:04) Capital misses the public realm (18:48) Affordability is structural (23:14) The developer's social contract (27:36) Fears for the future of cities (32:01) Government and predictable rules (35:47) Innovation and building risk (44:45) Reuse, stewardship, and labs (52:11) People on the street Show notes Pairs with episode 475 What is The Future for Cities? If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our Patreon! Episode generated with Descript assistance (affiliate link). Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

  7. Episode 476

    Who pays to run a public space - Howard Kozloff (476)

    Howard Kozloff says someone has to own the operating costs of a public space, and that this is a design and financing question if the welcome is going to last. Stewardship, for him, belongs in the capital structure. From the interview with Howard Kozloff in episode 476, on public space as the product. If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our Patreon! Episode generated with Descript assistance (affiliate link). Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

  8. Oct 26

    How much are public spaces worth? (475)

    Jagoda Adamus's 2023 paper asks what public spaces are worth when the market will not name a price. This debate tests whether total economic value can hold a plaza's cultural worth. One side of the conversation treats culture, bequest, and the joy of a bench as human utility already inside the economic account, and points to hedonic prices and contingent valuation as the tools. The other treats David Throsby's cultural capital as a separate category, and argues that genius loci cannot be transferred to a shopping mall that only copies the functions. Both agree that floor area and commercial income miss what public space does for wellbeing, and that a city negotiates better when it can speak about worth in more than one language. The research transcript is on the site. (00:00) What a plaza is worth (03:17) Total economic value (04:16) Cultural capital apart (05:02) Pricing the unpriceable (06:03) Urban squares resist the tools (07:37) Scarcity and free riders (09:28) Replacement and the mall (10:18) Genius loci (11:10) The language of capital (12:28) Where both sides meet https://doi.org/10.33119/GN/163105 Shownotes Pairs with episode 476 If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our Patreon! Episode generated with Descript assistance (affiliate link) Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

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WTF for Cities? is a platform to introduce and connect people who are actively and consciously working on the future of cities and to introduce research about the future of cities.

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