A Sponge City - working with nature, a better idea

General Discussion
1

I think back on those heady 70s, the awakening of a new appreciation forEarth and her nature and all of her amazing processes that we were just beginning to learn in deep detail. It was obvious that the way to human long term sustainability was to better adapt to nature’s processes and rhythms. That and slowing down, less babies, less focus on, and embrace of, glorious gluttony.

But, no peddle to the metal. Faust’s Bargain and our grand geophysical experiment are starting to ripen.

It could have been so different. Here’s a for instance,

Berlin is becoming a "Sponge City" designed to tackle two issues - heat and flooding - by imitating nature.

Bloomberg | Published on Aug 23, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWjGGvY65jk


Designing buildings and city space to accommodate rainfall, and mitigate flooding.

2

Almost lost this one in the shuffle. Very cool. There is still that problem of “if we survive”, but if we do, cities of the future might actually make sense. These ideas have been around for a long time, it’s kind of surprising that you rarely see this in any sci-if literature. It’s always a future where the cities and countryside are even more divided.