Flexible Buildings: The Future of Architecture | Free Documentary
Urban planners and engineers around the world are looking for answers to some of the most
pressing questions of our time. How can we as citizens of our planet live together happily in the
future, where is there room for the future anyway? We need to build as many buildings in Africa
in the next 15 to 20 years as have been built in Europe in the last 200 years. That's an
unbelievable. Indian architect and urban planning expert Rahul Mehrotra teaches about the
future of cities born in Mumbai. The challenges of metropolitan life have been at the front of his
mind since his early childhood. Urban densification in the modern era has traditionally looked
like this: countless highrise residential buildings packed into a very small geographical space. The
urban shelf seeks to provide solutions to the densely populated city of the future but aims to do
so on a human scale. It creates meeting places that we otherwise lack in cities today not just on
one level but on different levels. People can actually meet and interact on several different
levels.
The urban shelf is the largest open space in the German capital, Berlin. Max Vitale has converted
this space into an experimental laboratory, the first step in turning his design into reality via an
app. A virtual map is created that makes the urban shelf a livable experience. The shelf contains
space both for luxury apartments and affordable homes. The first urban shelf has just been
created in southern Germany. Students and refugees are intended to live here. I believe that
neighborhoods are a measure of how we can support social interaction and contribute towards
it. Music no matter how rapidly they grow our cities must continue to be places of social
interaction. A glance at some of the world's largest cities show what, when taken to their
extreme, can lead to from the favelas in Rio to the slums in Mumbai and New Delhi. More than 1
billion people live in socalled informal settlements today, this figure could triple by 2050.
Urbanization of our planet has led to an insatiable appetite for new buildings worldwide. Four
million tons of cement are produced every year, and the construction industry is responsible for
a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions and the use of precious raw materials. In order
to address these challenges, innovations in building materials are necessary. One such
innovation is polymer concrete, which is made largely of raw material that has so far been
unsuited to building – desert sand. This type of sand is unsuitable for construction and can not
be used in the world's major cities. However, with the help of innovations like polymer concrete,
we can overcome these challenges and continue to build beautiful and sustainable cities
worldwide.
Urban planners and engineers around the world are looking for answers to some of the most
pressing questions of our time. How can we as citizens of our planet live together happily in the
future, where is there room for the future anyway? We need to build as many buildings in Africa
in the next 15 to 20 years as have been built in Europe in the last 200 years. That's an
unbelievable. Indian architect and urban planning expert Rahul Mehrotra teaches about the
future of cities born in Mumbai. The challenges of metropolitan life have been at the front of his
mind since his early childhood. Urban densification in the modern era has traditionally looked
like this: countless highrise residential buildings packed into a very small geographical space. The
urban shelf seeks to provide solutions to the densely populated city of the future but aims to do
so on a human scale. It creates meeting places that we otherwise lack in cities today not just on
one level but on different levels. People can actually meet and interact on several different
levels.
The urban shelf is the largest open space in the German capital, Berlin. Max Vitale has converted
this space into an experimental laboratory, the first step in turning his design into reality via an
app. A virtual map is created that makes the urban shelf a livable experience. The shelf contains
space both for luxury apartments and affordable homes. The first urban shelf has just been
created in southern Germany. Students and refugees are intended to live here. I believe that
neighborhoods are a measure of how we can support social interaction and contribute towards
it. Music no matter how rapidly they grow our cities must continue to be places of social
interaction. A glance at some of the world's largest cities show what, when taken to their
extreme, can lead to from the favelas in Rio to the slums in Mumbai and New Delhi. More than 1
billion people live in socalled informal settlements today, this figure could triple by 2050.
Urbanization of our planet has led to an insatiable appetite for new buildings worldwide. Four
million tons of cement are produced every year, and the construction industry is responsible for
a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions and the use of precious raw materials. In order
to address these challenges, innovations in building materials are necessary. One such
innovation is polymer concrete, which is made largely of raw material that has so far been
unsuited to building – desert sand. This type of sand is unsuitable for construction and can not
be used in the world's major cities. However, with the help of innovations like polymer concrete,
we can overcome these challenges and continue to build beautiful and sustainable cities
worldwide.
