Travel with me to some of the most beautiful spots in cities around the

world: Rome's Spanish steps;the historic neighborhoods of Paris and

Shanghai; the rolling landscape of Central Park; the tight-knit blocks of Tokyo or
Fez; the wildly sloping streets of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro; the dizzying
step wells of Jaipur; the arched pedestrian bridges of Venice.
00:41
Now let's go to some newer cities. Six downtowns built across six continents in
the 20th century. Why do none of these places have any of the charming
characteristics of our older cities? Or let's go to six suburbs built on six
continents in the 20th century. Why do none of them have any of the lyrical
qualities that we associate with the places that we cherish the most?
01:15
Now, maybe you think I'm just being nostalgic -- why does it matter? Who cares
if there is this creeping sameness besetting our planet? Well, it matters
because most people around the world are gravitating to urban areas
globally. And how we design those urban areas could well determine whether
we thrive or not as a species. So, we already know that people who live in
transit-rich areas, live in apartment buildings, have a far lower carbon
footprint than their suburban counterparts. So maybe one lesson from that is if
you love nature, you shouldn't live in it.
01:59
(Laughter)
02:03
But I think the dry statistics of what's known as transit-oriented
development only tells part of the story.Because cities, if they're going to
attract people, have to be great. They have to be powerful magnets with
distinctive appeal to bring in all those new green urbanites.
02:24
And this is not just an aesthetic issue, mind you. This is an issue of
international consequence.Because today, every day, literally hundreds of
thousands of people are moving into a city somewhere,mainly in the Global
South. And when you think about that, ask yourself: Are they condemned to
live in the same bland cities we built in the 20th century, or can we offer them
something better? And to answer that question, you have to unpack how we
got here in the first place.
03:01
First: mass production. Just like consumer goods and chain stores, we mass-
produce glass and steel and concrete and asphalt and drywall, and we deploy
them in mind-numbingly similar ways across the planet.
03:19
Second: regulation. So, take cars, for instance. Cars travel at very high
speeds. They're susceptible to human error. So when we're asked, as
architects, to design a new street, we have to look at drawings like this, that
tell us how high a curb needs to be, that pedestrians need to be over here and
vehicles over there, a loading zone here, a drop-off there. What the car really
did in the 20th century is it created this carved-up, segregated landscape. Or
take the ladder fire truck -- you know, those big ladder trucks that are used to
rescue people from burning buildings? Those have such a wide turning
radius, that we have to deploy an enormous amount of pavement, of
asphalt, to accommodate them.Or take the critically important wheelchair. A
wheelchair necessitates a landscape of minimal slopesand redundant vertical
circulation. So wherever there's a stair, there has to be an elevator or a ramp.
04:24
Now, don't get me wrong, please -- I am all for pedestrian
safety, firefighting and certainly, wheelchair access. Both of my parents were in
wheelchairs at the end of their lives, so I understand very much that
struggle. But we also have to acknowledge that all of these well-intentioned
rules, they had the tremendous unintended consequence of making illegal the
ways in which we used to build cities.
04:53
Similarly illegal: at the end of the 19th century, right after the elevator was
invented, we built these charming urban buildings, these lovely buildings, all
over the world, from Italy to India. And they had maybe 10 or 12 apartments in
them. They had one small elevator and a staircase that wrapped themand a
light well. And not only were they charming buildings that were cost-
effective, they were communal -- you ran into your neighbor on that stairwell.
05:23
Well, you can't build this, either. By contrast, today, when we have to build a
major new apartment building somewhere, we have to build lots and lots of
elevators and lots of fire stairs, and we have to connect them with these long,
anonymous, dreary corridors. Now, developers -- when they're confronted with
the cost of all of that common infrastructure, they have to spread that cost
over more apartments, so they want to build bigger buildings. What that results
in is the thud, the dull thud of the same apartment building being built in
every city across the world. And this is not only creating physical sameness, it's
creating social sameness, because these buildings are more expensive to
build, and it helped to create an affordability crisis in cities all over the world,
including places like Vancouver.
06:21
Now, I said there was a third reason for all this sameness, and that's really a
psychological one. It's a fear of difference, and architects hear this all the time
from their clients: "If I try that new idea, will I be sued? Will I be
mocked? Better safe than sorry." And all of these things have conspired
together to blanket our planet with a homogeneity that I think is deeply
problematic.
06:51
So how can we do the opposite? How can we go back to building cities that are
physically and culturally varied again? How can we build cities of difference? I
would argue that we should start by injecting into the global the local.
07:08
This is already happening with food, for instance. You just look at the way in
which craft beer has taken on corporate beer. Or, how many of you still eat
Wonder Bread? I'd bet most of you don't. And I bet you don't because you don't
want processed food in your life. So if you don't want processed food, why
would you want processed cities? Why would you want these mass-
produced, bleached places where all of us have to live and work every day?
07:41
(Applause)
07:46
So, technology was a big part of the problem in the 20th century. When we
invented the automobile, what happened is, the world all bent towards the
invention. And we recreated our landscape around it.In the 21st
century, technology can be part of the solution -- if it bends to the needs of the
world.
08:09
So what do I mean by that? Take the autonomous vehicle. I don't think the
autonomous vehicle is exciting because it's a driverless car. That, to me, only
implies that there's even more congestion on the roads, frankly. I think what's
exciting about the autonomous vehicle is the promise -- and I want to stress the
word "promise," given the recent accident in Arizona -- the promise that we
could have these small, urban vehicles that could safely comingle with
pedestrians and bicycles. That would enable us to design humane streets
again, streets without curbs, maybe streets like the wooden walkways on Fire
Island.
08:49
Or maybe we could design streets with the cobblestone of the 21st
century, something that captures kinetic energy, melts snow, helps you with
your fitness when you walk. Or remember those big ladder fire trucks? What if
we could replace them and all the asphalt that comes with them with drones
and robots that could rescue people from burning buildings? And if you think
that's outlandish, you'd be amazed to know how much of that technology is
already being used today in rescue activity.
09:21
But now I'd like you to really imagine with me. Imagine if we could design the
hovercraft wheelchair.Right? An invention that would not only allow equal
access, but would enable us to build the Italian hill town of the 21st century. I
think you'd be amazed to know that just a few of these inventions, responsive
to human need, would completely transform the way we could build our cities.
09:54
Now, I bet you're also thinking: "We don't have kinetic cobblestones or flying
wheelchairs yet, so what can we do about this problem with today's
technology?" And my inspiration for that question comes from a very different
city, the city of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. I have clients there who have asked us
to design a 21st-century open-air village that's sustainably heated using
today's technology, in the heart of their downtown. And that's to cope with
their frigid winters.
10:26
And the project is both poetry and prose. The poetry is really about evoking the
local: the mountainous terrain, using colors to pick up the spectacular
light, understanding how to interpret the nomadic traditions that animate the
nation of Mongolia. The prose has been the development of a catalogue of
buildings, of small buildings that are fairly affordable, using local construction
materials and technologythat can still provide new forms of housing, new
workspace, new shops and cultural buildings, like a theater or a museum
-- even a haunted house.
11:09
While working on this in our office, we've realized that we're building upon the
work of our colleagues,including architect Tatiana Bilbao, working in Mexico
City; Pritzker laureate Alejandro Aravena, working in Chile; and recent Pritzker
winner Balkrishna Doshi, working in India. And all of them are building
spectacular new forms of affordable housing, but they're also building cities of
difference, because they're building cities that respond to local
communities, local climates and local construction methods.
11:45
We're doubling down on that idea, we're researching a new model for our
growing cities with gentrification pressures, that could build upon that late-
19th-century model with that center core, but a prototype that could shape-
shift in response to local needs and local building materials. All of these ideas,
to me, are nostalgia-free. They all tell me that we can build cities that can
grow, but grow in a way that reflects the diverse residents that live in those
cities; grow in a way that can accommodate all income groups, all colors,
creeds, genders.
12:30
We could build such spectacular cities that we could disincentivize sprawl and
actually protect nature.We can grow cities that are high-tech, but also respond
to the timeless cultural needs of the human spirit. I'm convinced that we can
build cities of difference that help to create the global mosaic to which so many
of us aspire.
12:55
Thank you.
Words to remember

dizzying

bland

distinctive appeal

besetting

deploy

thud

congestion

gentrification

While listening, try to answer these questions

What 3 reasons does he mention for the sameness of modern cities?

How can technology eventually help with this?