It was extremely hot in the Netherlands in the summer of 2019. In some places it became a whopping 42 degrees. The number of cities where it can get extremely hot in the Netherlands will triple in the coming decades. Appropriate measures are of vital importance at temperatures close to 50 degrees. So get started, with city planning, greenery and coconut-fibres. Dealing with ever-rising temperatures is more recent and more important than ever within the theme “the city of the future”.
Cities arm themselves against temperatures from extreme heat
De Volkskrant published an interesting article last week about how cities arm themselves against temperatures of around 50 degrees. The article described the looming problem that more and more cities in the coming decades will face an average temperature of more than 35 degrees. Cities will also continue to grow and the population density in cities will continue to rise. For a few years now, more people worldwide have been living in the city than in the countryside, and that process is continuing. According to the United Nations, 70 percent of the world’s population will live in the city by 2050.
What can cities do?
Plan, plan and plan again. Where cities grow, both architects and planners must keep the heat in mind. Make the city map look like a hand with fingers, with green strips between the neighborhoods. Huge glass fronts are a deadly sin, and good sun protection (on the outside) is necessary and use light colors for surfaces of roads and buildings. It is important to ensure that heat is absorbed as little as possible and can be released as easily as possible. For this, in a number of cities in India, roofs in slums are being replaced by coconut-fibres and paper. In cities that are already finished, trees are a possible solution. They provide shade and evaporate stored moisture, which has a cooling effect. But also consider other forms of vegetation: the city of Singapore already has 100 hectares of greenery in the sky.
Sustainable cross-thinkers on the “City of the Future” theme.
Our cross thinking business club ‘Duurzame Dwarsdenkers’ held a meeting on 26 October on the theme “City of the future” in which Arie Voorburg spoke about the phenomenon “city” in all its facets. He told about how we can deal with future sustainable developments in cities in a predictive and anticipatory manner. He uses the Urban System Scan to provide insight into the complex world in cities. This scan provides a systematic overview of the critical causes of social problems, which can then be used to work on sustainable system solutions within our urban habitat. Arie also talked about the concept of organic building, use of bio-based materials and new construction forms. IBI² is happy to consider these options. A number of our ideas and solutions can be found on our site under project portfolio.
For the entire article in the Volkskrant you can read further here:
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