Our lives in urban centers have been completely upended over the last 16 months.
As we look into the near future, some of us begin to experience the call back into our workplaces and experience the awakening of a long slumber of cities, it’s without a doubt that life as we knew it will never be the same.
While some on the extreme end have been asking “will we even need cities?” (to which the answer is a very definite yes), how will cities change if we continue to move forward in this digital era of work and life that was accelerated by the pandemic?
Some believe that this will push cities in a direction that makes them become more of “Urban Hotels” where people will come and go on a more frequent basis, forcing businesses to change to accommodate those peak hours when people will be in the area. It will make downtowns more of a clearly defined destination with very specific offerings. In turn, the suburbs will also need to evolve with the creation of more dense housing and the amenities that historically, downtowns have offered. The suburbs of the future might be seen as less “boring”, and become more desirable, especially to younger generations.
Green Building Africa promotes the need for net carbon zero buildings and cities in Africa. We are fiercely independent and encourage outlying thinkers to contribute to the #netcarbonzero movement. Climate change is upon us and now is the time to react in a more diverse and broader approach to sustainability in the built environment. We challenge architects, property developers, urban planners, renewable energy professionals and green building specialists. We also challenge the funding houses and regulators and the role they play in facilitating investment into green projects. Lastly, we explore and investigate new technology and real-time data to speed up the journey in realising a net carbon zero environment for our children.