What happens when you envision a sustainable city?

Cross-section of the sustainable city concept

A long time ago – maybe around 2003 – I gave myself the task of envisioning what a sustainable place might look like. Instead of using conventional invention techniques I chose to use Imagestreaming. Imagestreaming is an instant-answer method that was invented by educationalist Wim Wenger based on his studies of past geniuses.

The results became a novel, Inventing for the Sustainable Planet.

I thought, in the light of the growing meed for sustainable solutions and the plethora of ideas that have arisen since that time, that I’d revisit the Sustainable city of Porena, as it was called.

Another thing…. using imagestreaming you get a detailed answer. It is another thing if you understand it. I could not believe that a city of 1 million could be set up in a way that was efficient, so I spent ages with my limited mathematical abilities checking and cross-checking population density, travel times, availability of green spaces etc.

The results astounded me as there was less travel time, zero fossil fueled transport and higher availability of green spaces than any city I know of. I could be wrong as this is not my research area.

Some highlights:

Sustainable cities are walking cities without asphalt
Food is grown everywhere. Literally.
Transport of things is by underground pipelines and by hand carts overground
Transport of people is by subway
Paid work is abolished, so there is no commuting or large workplaces although people participate in producing what is needed
Large transport is done on water
The city is laid out in a circular way based on Radiality – a new science

Interestingly, some of the ideas have become reality. Growing food everywhere is the approach “Incredible Edible” from the UK town of Todmorden.

Anyway, judge for yourselves. The quick introduction is the video, and the longer intro is the mathematical approach outlined in the “article from the future”. The article, from 2029, is an attempt to describe the city in its historical context – as the first one that tried the approach.