Headline: Visions for the city of tomorrow

More than seven billion people live on our planet and they are increasingly attracted by living in cities. Especially in developing and emerging countries, the number of those who live in cities is increasing rapidly. In addition to more jobs and better health care, the move into the city often leads to an improvement in personal living conditions. In order to ensure this, a far-sighted urban planning is necessary: This applies especially for energy and power supply, infrastructure, communication and housing.

As part of the Global Sustainability Summer School on the theme “COMPLEX(C)ITY – Urbanization and energy transition in a changing climate”, the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) hosted a public panel discussion on July 8, 2013 titled “The City of the Future and how to get there”:

• How should buildings of the 21^st century be constructed in order to be energy efficient?
• What is the relationship between the global energy supply and the urban energy supplies of the future?
• What type of land use is particularly suitable for a sustainable city?
• How can non-motorized traffic and motorized traffic be reconciled?
• What are the health benefits of non-motorized transport?
• How can energy be saved by an increasing population density?

Participants

• Pierre Laconte (Foundation of the Urban Environment),
• Christian Gaebler (Permanent Secretary in the Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment, Berlin),
• Florian Lennert (InnoZ, Berlin, LSE Cities, London)

The discussion was moderated by Dr. Torsten Schäfer, environmental journalist.