Better Cities for the Future Especially for the Third World

Abstract

In future competition between metropolitan regions basic human needs should lead to a novel urban form in the less developed countries as new resource-conserving technologies are becoming available. Water is best conserved as marketable commodities of different qualities, allowing recycling when economic. Organic contents of sewage can be returned to the city as fish, poultry, and pork; and ‘grey’ water could be channeled into intensive gardening. Thus, the bulk of perishable foods could be produced in the interstices of urban settlement. Transport in poor cities is most economic by bus and jitney, with bicycle and moped for personal vehicles and carts, vans and trucks for goods movement. Land use should remain mixed. Housing that is predominantly multistory walk-up would save time, energy, effort, space, materials and capital. New forms of participation in the community improvement process deserve imitation. A quality of life roughly equivalent to the best in the West should be achievable at one-fifth the consumption of fuel and materials.