“A new era”, more ecological and without fossil fuels, will open after the coronavirus pandemic, estimates the Italian architect and urban planner Stefano Boeri, known for his “vertical forests”.
In a Facebook interview with foreign journalists, the president of the Milan Triennale, a great institution of architecture, design and art, affirms that the capital of Lombardy, the Italian region most affected with almost half of the deaths registered in the peninsula, will have to change.
“Returning to normality would be very serious,” he warns. “Normality is one of the causes of this disaster,” insists the town planner, known for his innovative projects of skyscrapers covered with vegetation where ecology and sustainable development combine.
“Now is the time to make brave and pragmatic decisions,” said the architect, whose greener, more social architecture has inspired many of his colleagues around the world, from China to Mexico.
With a group of sociologists, anthropologists, town planners and artists, he is reflecting on the methods of establishing the “biological wall” that the coronavirus now imposes between people, as well as on the introduction of a new way of life.
“Otherwise, cities will turn into contamination bombs,” said Stefano Boeri, professor at the prestigious Milan Polytechnic.
As Italian authorities prepare to relax containment measures and revive the economic machine on May 4, Stefano Boeri is launching a series of proposals that could change the future of the peninsula and serve as a model for many countries.
“Back to the villages”
“This is a national project. Italy has 5,800 villages with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, of which 2,300 are almost abandoned. If the 14 metropolises of the country ‘adopt’ these small uninhabited historic centers, by giving them fiscal advantages, means of transport, etc … it would be a way out. This is the future, “enthused the urban planner in the columns of the daily newspaper. La Repubblica.
This proposal seems to address the problems posed by the current situation, where the pandemic forces the population to respect the social distance of at least one meter between individuals, which is difficult in overcrowded cities, especially in crowded public transport and offices with reduced surfaces.
“We understood that we can telecommute and that we will spend more time at home. We must control this evolution. The countryside makes it easier, because there is a need to free up space in urban areas, “he said.
According to sociologists, because of the virus, many people want to leave the big cities to spend more time in the countryside.
And the man who converted buildings into forests, who designed a forest city in China with houses, schools and offices covered with a million plants on 140 hectares, is convinced that Rome is the ideal city to host this project.
“Rome is the city of the future, it has everything: unique monuments and lots of green space thanks to its parks, and in addition a series of villages around it”.
Boer’s idea coincides with the theme of the next Venice Biennale of Architecture, which postponed its opening at the end of August, originally scheduled for May: “How will we live together?” “
The question posed by the commissioner of the Biennial, Hashim Sarkis, Lebanese architect who teaches at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), paradoxically forces the world of architecture to divest public space and to withdraw collective activities from it.
“It will be necessary to modify the timetables of public administrations so that they do not coincide with those of schools, to avoid the great flows in transport (…) We will have to reclaim space for cars and focus on green”.
“This is what happened in New York in the middle of the 19th century: the population had quadrupled, and there was no more space, the density was enormous. Landscape architect Olmsted created Central Park, a gigantic park that was born out of a concern for hygiene, “he recalls.
AFP
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