Enough With the New, Greenfield Utopias

Sarah Goodyear of Grist thinks Masdar, Songdu City and other smart mega-projects are fascinating, but, she says, what about fixing the cities we already have instead?

1 minute read

November 10, 2010, 12:00 PM PST

By Tim Halbur


Goodyear points out that these new "sustainable" cities are all greenfield development: "Constructing these places inevitably means a huge expenditure of natural resources."

She also notes that these are basically company towns, with a distinct risk that they'll be unloved and homogeneous.

"...how do we make cities smarter (in the sustainability sense) without building a world of sterile, personality-challenged municipalities from the ground up?"

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 in Grist

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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