not just the object but the city as a whole

“conjoining of ecology and urbanism can provide the knowledge, methods, and clues of what the urban can be in the years to come”

Mohsen Mostafavi

The thought of sustainability alone is good, but what happens when that is the only aspect thought of. Mostafavi brought up an interesting idea of scale, being a current issue for the application of sustainability. Yes, LEED is helpful in a way to bring the importance of the issue back in play but misses the mark on the execution at times. The fact that LEED is specific to the one project and not the area or system as a whole is only helping part of the sustainability efforts. Mostafavi’s quote on combining the ecology and urbanism seems like a natural connection that hasn’t been made yet. Who is looking after the state of the city and the metro area? What type of procedures can we agree on to make the city-state one that can more easily become “one planet living”? Why can’t we as humans, not see the huge implications these decisions have on our planet and our future? The fact that we cannot come together as a group to develop a better system for implementing and innovating the city does not bode well for our future. The notion that the quality of life is less when you implement sustainable aspects has to do with our connotation of the word sustainable to equating as something without. We may loose some of our convenience of our throw away items, or reusable cups, but thinking of it as a large system than what we eat and drink out of, The walkability of a city will be paramount, and the access to efficient public transportation is key. It is wasteful for all of us to drive the 1 mile to school or to the grocery store, but we do anyways because we do not feel safe to walk/bike along the busy roads, if more people start to do these acts we as a population can change our city and the way we live in them.