Patrick Bailey - Pat Bailey is the Product Manager of AEC Sustainability at Autodesk.
John Kriken - John Kriken is the FAIA, AICP, and Consulting Partner, of the company Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP.
Tom McCawley - Tom McCawley is General Manager of Energy Solutions at Owens Corning Asia Pacific.
Peter Schwartz - Peter Schwartz is cofounder and chairman of Global Business Network (GBN), a unique membership organization and worldwide network of strategists, business executives, scientists, and artists based in Emeryville, California.
Established in 01988, GBN specializes in corporate scenario planning and research on the future of the business environment. From 01982 to 01986, Schwartz headed scenario planning for the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies in London. His team conducted comprehensive analyses of the global business and political environment and worked with senior management to create successful strategies.
Before joining Royal Dutch/Shell, Schwartz directed the Strategic Environment Center at SRI International. The Center researched the business milieu, lifestyles, and consumer values, and conducted scenario planning for corporate and government clients.
Schwartz is the co-author of both the 01999 books The Long Boom, and When Good Companies Do Bad Things: Responsibility and Risk in an Age of Globalization, and is the author of the 01991 book, The Art of the Long View: Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World. This seminal publication on scenario planning has been translated into Dutch, Portuguese, and Chinese.
Schwartz also co-authored Seven Tomorrows: Toward a Voluntary History with James Ogilvy and Paul Hawken in 01982, and The Emergent Paradigm: Changing Patterns of Thought and Belie with James Ogilvy in 01979. He has published and lectured widely and served as a script consultant on the films War Games and Sneakers. Schwartz received a BS in aeronautical engineering and astronautics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Stanley Yip - Stanley Yip is an experienced town planner, land economist and urban designer with more than 20 years experience around the world.
He has led, studied and implemented many major tourism, urban development and infrastructure projects for public and private clients in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Southeast Asia, Canada, Mexico and Europe.
Yip is currently the director of Planning & Development in Arup China. He is responsible for the development and implementation of the planning and landscape design practices in Mainland China.
Yip is currently the Advisor to the Department of Construction of Jiangsu Province, Senior Advisor to the Planning Committee of the City of Harbin and also Special Honorary Professor of the Zhejiang Tourism College.
I would like to engage you in an experiment of thought, one which embraces the creative mind, one that welcomes scientific diversity, but mostly one that sets the state for our humanity.
Imagine yourself in a dark room with one window, now imagine yourself looking out and down from the window where below you notice a metropolis unlike any you have ever seen before. Notice that all the structures seem to circle in towards the center- huge, expansive, intricately embroidered with technical diversity, architecturally abstruse at its center, the buildings are opaque, blackened, not unlike a crystal formation. Out from the center, the architecture starts to blend into buildings of mason, stone and steel. As you look closer, you notice that there are long white cylinder trains that spiral in and out from the city center. In this city, there are no cars. As you peer deeper into the city you are amazed by the diversity of structures: it it truly immense. As you gain elevation you notice that this city is circular, with a diameter approximately ten miles across. When you apply the math you realize that this city is approxiamtely 78 sq. miles- The key here is density. And then you see that the entire inner city is environed by a green belt garden one mile wide. Here you see pebbled pathways, sculpted gardens and the like, and the faint details of people in motion. The trains continue to spiral outwards and inwards, skirting this area altogether. When you apply the math here you find that this recreational belt is approximately 34 sq. miles. As you gain more elevation you can now see for miles in all directions, and you find that beyond the green belt is the agricultural belt, it is by far the largest area of the metropolis, approximately 20 miles wide, extending along the entire perimeter of this virtual metropolis. Lakes and streams are in abundance. You can now see what appear to be greenhouses, open farmlands of grain and orchard, areas with cattle grazing, horses, and other livestock. The trains continue their motion inwards to outwards. When you apply the math here you find this area in approximately 2060 sq. miles. Here you notice that entire area is surrounded by structures that appear to be brick buildings approximately ten stories high. This is where some of people live, as well as where things (goods and surplus) are bought and sold. When you apply the math here you find that the perimeter is approximately 166 miles. By simply redefining the housing grid we manifest soulutons to urban sprawl. Imagine how well these people live, imagine for a moment the wealth and pride each member of this society must enjoy as they look out their windows each and every day, out one side they can see the wilderness beyond, out the other, they look into the farmlands towards their cities center. Beyond the metropolis, heading off in straight lines through natural landscapes, you notice the faint detail of trains heading out towards other circular cites in the distance, and beyond the horizon.
There is much to be learned from this experiment in thought, there are many lessions to be learned from a society such as this- answers, confirmation, for here is civilization with all of its extremes existing in balance with their environment, with a sincere reverence towards nature, this metropolis entertains every human need, it alleviates the technical mind, allows for the natural art of tending to the soil, all within prescribed boundaries: it is truly a sustainable city.
Imagine for a moment this city. Put aside all preconceived notions about the world as we know it today. Simply visualize it. Having been a witness to a society such as this allows for its possibility. Reality has written in its very nature that we must first dream it before we can make it real.
