Cities are bad for us. Let's fix them
Cities can be inspiring places that bring out the best in us. But they’re often concrete jungles that make us ill and are still designed around the automobile. What if they were places in which you could thrive rather than simply survive? Another model is possible, writes Rasmus Astrup in the December 2024 issue of Monocle.
Our economies, livelihoods, and well-being all depend on our most precious asset: Nature
These were the opening lines of Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta’s report “The Economics of Biodiversity” and were also at the center of the conversation our CEO, Mette Skjold, had with Dasgupta at the UIA World Congress of Architects CPH 2023.
They agreed that we, as humans, depend on nature – not only as a source of resources and wealth but also as the foundation for our physical and mental well-being. We are not separate from nature. We are nature.
Rasmus Astrup: 'City Nature' - The 2022 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Lecture
In spring 2022, SLA partner and design principal Rasmus Astrup was invited to give the annual Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Lecture by the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in Vancouver.