Super cities and resilience | Alessandro Melis | TEDxMestre
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0:24 - 0:26"Freeze" is an English word
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0:26 - 0:30that means: stay still, don't move.
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0:30 - 0:34This word is dear to me,
because it is linked to awakening. -
0:34 - 0:38In fact, I want to speak of awakening
as something necessary -
0:38 - 0:42to shake our inertia, our inaction away.
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0:42 - 0:45And it is important to move right now
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0:45 - 0:50because an unexpected,
risky future awaits us. -
0:50 - 0:51Movement is fundamental
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0:51 - 0:56to reconsider these risks
in a positive way. -
0:58 - 1:00Sure, I talk about it
from my point of view. -
1:00 - 1:02As an architect, I have to understand
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1:02 - 1:06what my role is within this change,
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1:06 - 1:07how I can intervene,
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1:07 - 1:10and above all the importance
of architects and architecture -
1:10 - 1:12within this context.
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1:13 - 1:16The context we are talking about
is climate change. -
1:16 - 1:17A change that entails,
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1:17 - 1:21not just a new, different scenario,
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1:21 - 1:25but rather an ever changing one,
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1:25 - 1:27second by second,
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1:27 - 1:29over the next hundreds,
maybe thousands of years. -
1:31 - 1:32What about architecture?
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1:32 - 1:35Every time I talk about this topic,
the question becomes, -
1:35 - 1:37Yes, this is a political issue
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1:37 - 1:39that's up to decision makers,
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1:39 - 1:41probably corporate CEOs,
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1:41 - 1:44industrial policies and the economy.
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1:44 - 1:47As you can see on this graph,
the reality is not exactly like that. -
1:47 - 1:49Architects play a fundamental role.
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1:49 - 1:51If we talk about CO2,
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1:51 - 1:55we see that probably, indeed certainly,
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1:55 - 2:00CO2 emissions are largely
caused by buildings. -
2:00 - 2:02If we also consider the transport system
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2:02 - 2:04and combine the two together,
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2:04 - 2:08considering how the city shape
affects the transport system, -
2:09 - 2:14we will see that the city itself
is the main cause of CO2 emissions. -
2:14 - 2:18The role of the architect
is therefore important, if not pivotal. -
2:18 - 2:19In fact, we also know
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2:19 - 2:22what ingredients are needed
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2:22 - 2:24to meet this need.
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2:25 - 2:26Research helps us
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2:26 - 2:30so we know that these cities
are more resilient, -
2:30 - 2:33they can adapt to this change more easily,
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2:33 - 2:36and this change comes
with extreme climate changes. -
2:36 - 2:40So cities need to adapt
to these extreme climate changes. -
2:40 - 2:43The second aspect is compactness.
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2:44 - 2:49We have to expect increasingly
dense and compact cities -
2:49 - 2:52because the availability of resources
is increasingly limited; -
2:52 - 2:54it's up to the productive land.
-
2:54 - 2:56The larger the size of the city,
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2:56 - 2:58the greater the availability
of productive land. -
2:58 - 3:02This leads me to conclude,
aware as I am of the population growth, -
3:02 - 3:04if we don't want to get
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3:04 - 3:08to what the Portsmouth research centre
calls the "impossible equation", -
3:08 - 3:10we will have to consider a new element,
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3:10 - 3:14which is the key element
for awakening, and it's creativity. -
3:14 - 3:16That's why we talk about radical Concept,
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3:16 - 3:17we talk about vision,
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3:17 - 3:21the ability to see the world
with different eyes. -
3:21 - 3:23This doesn't actually mean
we just talk about the future -
3:23 - 3:27and no longer have to look at the past.
-
3:27 - 3:29Before the industrial revolution,
we are aware of that, -
3:29 - 3:32some of these models
had already been applied. -
3:32 - 3:35Venice is clearly a radical city,
a visionary city, -
3:35 - 3:38but we could also look to other models
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3:38 - 3:40such as Shibam, in Yemen,
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3:40 - 3:42a city that on every profile
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3:42 - 3:49meets our climate needs
in the desert area. -
3:49 - 3:55An ultra-compact city
that withstands the hot desert winds. -
3:55 - 3:59It has this white upper surface
with high albedo -
3:59 - 4:03that allows a drastic reduction
in the Heat Island Effect, -
4:03 - 4:04something that is often talked about
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4:04 - 4:07as if it was a problem
ancestors weren't aware of. -
4:09 - 4:10Of course,
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4:10 - 4:14even this idea of being visionary
is not new per se. -
4:14 - 4:16We know there was a historical period
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4:16 - 4:18when vision has been decisive,
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4:18 - 4:19and it has been decisive
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4:19 - 4:23precisely for that kind of ability
to see the world in a radical way -
4:23 - 4:26that came from the world
of architecture, or art. -
4:26 - 4:28I'm referring to the Renaissance.
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4:28 - 4:32What does the Renaissance have to do
with today's climate crisis? -
4:32 - 4:34Because the crisis of the 14th century
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4:34 - 4:37had characteristics
that closely match the current one: -
4:37 - 4:41a reduction in resources,
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4:41 - 4:46a population that was no longer able
to access these resources, -
4:46 - 4:48climate change in the opposite direction,
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4:48 - 4:50i.e. a mini ice age.
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4:50 - 4:51And last but not least,
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4:51 - 4:56the problem related to the fact
that a disease, the black death, -
4:56 - 4:59was somehow the reason
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4:59 - 5:01why society as a whole
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5:01 - 5:04took a different shape,
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5:04 - 5:08somehow upholstering
economies and societies. -
5:10 - 5:12This is important because, obviously,
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5:12 - 5:15the reference to the first two factors
is quite immediate, -
5:15 - 5:19but the reference to health
is just as important, -
5:19 - 5:20while not self-evident.
-
5:20 - 5:24We know that climate change
will be a major cause of disease -
5:24 - 5:25in the next twenty years.
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5:25 - 5:27People like Leonardo, a visionary,
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5:27 - 5:30people who are able to see the world
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5:30 - 5:31with new, different eyes,
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5:31 - 5:33without the mental frames
that affected us all, -
5:33 - 5:35is fundamental.
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5:36 - 5:38How can we nurture today
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5:39 - 5:43a creative ability
that leads us to awaken? -
5:43 - 5:44I have my personal idea.
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5:44 - 5:47It comes from the fact,
I am also an educator. -
5:47 - 5:50This can be done through education,
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5:51 - 5:53thanks to the fact
that young people and students -
5:53 - 5:56are not conditioned like us dinosaurs
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5:56 - 5:58by a worldview
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5:58 - 6:02that is somehow determined
by the last centuries of history. -
6:02 - 6:06So our job is precisely
to try and ignite in them -
6:06 - 6:10the ability to be creative, inventive,
even radical and extreme. -
6:10 - 6:12Here we see a series of works
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6:12 - 6:17done by students and collaborators
of my Media Hub research centre -
6:17 - 6:22who are, as well as students,
also real researchers. -
6:23 - 6:25This is Liam Stumbles in this example.
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6:26 - 6:30He figured out a city
that is revolutionised -
6:30 - 6:34by the idea of eliminating
car traffic altogether, -
6:34 - 6:36and reusing the stuff
our highways are made of -
6:36 - 6:38to rebuild a new urban fabric.
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6:40 - 6:42Here we see the example
of the city of Auckland -
6:42 - 6:45and the consequences for this city:
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6:45 - 6:48spaces originally intended for motorways
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6:48 - 6:50become parks and structures
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6:52 - 6:54that can be used
by the whole city population. -
6:55 - 7:00We see that the system
tries to take advantage -
7:00 - 7:03of state-of-the-art technologies,
such as the use of drones, -
7:03 - 7:06and the so-called swarm behavior,
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7:06 - 7:09the ability of drones to move in swarms.
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7:10 - 7:12And we see that the possibility
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7:12 - 7:14of changing the performance of the city
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7:14 - 7:16gets critical in this line of thought.
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7:18 - 7:23Another example is to use botany
as an unrban revolution tool; -
7:23 - 7:27the ecological systems that arise
from plants' genetic modification. -
7:29 - 7:32Or to draw a city,
as in the case of Naim Mukif, -
7:32 - 7:35assuming that the city must be drawn
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7:35 - 7:36not only on human flows,
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7:36 - 7:39on those that are the movements
of people and their needs, -
7:39 - 7:41but also on that of bees -
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7:41 - 7:44just today it has been declared
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7:44 - 7:47that bees are the planet's
most important animals. -
7:48 - 7:52Or we can use cellular stuff of this type,
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7:52 - 7:55we can understand how it expands,
and infer from that -
7:55 - 8:02what the rearrangement tendencies
of these organisms are. -
8:02 - 8:04And we can also understand,
at the same time, -
8:04 - 8:09how we can directly use this material
as a building material. -
8:09 - 8:13In this case we use it as a brise soleil,
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8:13 - 8:15as a possibility to make
the windows more opaque, -
8:15 - 8:17by controlling the development.
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8:17 - 8:20Or an extreme like this,
designed by Joyce Kwan, -
8:20 - 8:23which is the transformation of cities
in a totally organic solution. -
8:26 - 8:29Here we see a project
by Michael Brewster and Bevin Liang, -
8:29 - 8:30focused on the chance
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8:30 - 8:32of including automation
and robotics in the city. -
8:32 - 8:36This technology allows the city
to be resilient, -
8:36 - 8:38meaning that the ability to adapt
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8:38 - 8:43precisely depends on the city's
robotic equipment. -
8:44 - 8:49It's not just about
speculative elaborations, -
8:49 - 8:52it's also about making responsive models,
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8:52 - 8:54as in this case, using an Arduino,
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8:54 - 8:58to these project hypotheses,
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8:59 - 9:03to the last city in this series
that I'd like to show you, -
9:03 - 9:06which is a city in Antarctica
with extreme conditions. -
9:06 - 9:08What we are talking about here
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9:08 - 9:11is the possibility of using
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9:12 - 9:16our planet's extreme climate conditions
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9:16 - 9:17as resources,
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9:17 - 9:21obviously limiting our carbon footprint.
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9:21 - 9:22However, these extreme areas
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9:22 - 9:25generate usable resources.
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9:25 - 9:28Here we see examples
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9:28 - 9:31of this city system, station system
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9:31 - 9:34which are a form
of colonisation of Antarctica. -
9:34 - 9:35We see that, in some way,
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9:35 - 9:39this system is very similar
to that of oil platforms -
9:39 - 9:41but its goal is completely different:
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9:41 - 9:43harness marine movements, for example,
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9:44 - 9:48and recreate a habitat
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9:49 - 9:54that promotes a good relationship
between humans and animals. -
9:54 - 10:00Here we see how a relationship
is somehow created with the oceanic fauna. -
10:02 - 10:08Now the typical question,
when I talk about these things, is: -
10:08 - 10:10What's the cost for transition?
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10:10 - 10:13The question is not a random one,
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10:13 - 10:16because it is seemingly a rhetorical one.
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10:16 - 10:20Many people say, a change
would cost a hell of a lot. -
10:20 - 10:24After all, our society
is based on fossil fuels, -
10:24 - 10:30and maintaining the status quo,
in many people's opinion, -
10:30 - 10:33is certainly a cheaper strategy.
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10:36 - 10:37The answer is no.
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10:38 - 10:43By "No", I mean that transition
is cheaper than the status quo. -
10:43 - 10:46We do not have time to elaborate here,
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10:46 - 10:49but a few images are enough
to understand why that's not the case. -
10:49 - 10:52Here is a state-of-the-art oil platform
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10:52 - 10:54that digs, sucks
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10:54 - 10:57the last drops of blood from our planet,
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10:57 - 10:58from the depths of the ocean
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10:58 - 11:02with irreversible damage to biodiversity.
-
11:04 - 11:09The second objection
is about the cities I showed you. -
11:09 - 11:13If you asked, I am convinced
more than half of you -
11:13 - 11:15would hold the point,
these are dystopian visions, -
11:16 - 11:21and many among you
have already said to your neighbour: -
11:22 - 11:26"Oh yes, interesting, maybe - hopefully -
but I'd never want to live there". -
11:27 - 11:28This is interesting,
-
11:28 - 11:32because it is probably correct to say
"I would never want to live there". -
11:32 - 11:37But what is dystopia,
if not also a condition -
11:37 - 11:40of unfamiliarity with a certain condition.
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11:43 - 11:46Because our natural condition is this:
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11:46 - 11:49we don't live in country houses
with a backyard. -
11:49 - 11:50We live in this conditions.
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11:50 - 11:5580% of the world's population
already lives like this today, -
11:55 - 11:57and probably much more so in future.
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11:57 - 12:00Either the left or the right one, 50 / 50.
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12:00 - 12:04Are we sure that this condition
is not a dystopian condition, -
12:04 - 12:06or it just so happens,
-
12:06 - 12:10our feeling of comfort
with the environment we live in -
12:10 - 12:13is only related to familiarity
with this environment? -
12:14 - 12:19This is a question
I'd rather not to answer. -
12:20 - 12:21You probably already understood
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12:21 - 12:25that those cities I took as examples
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12:25 - 12:30try to say one very precise thing,
that is, to stimulate this discussion. -
12:30 - 12:34It would come handy for me
to show you much more reassuring models. -
12:36 - 12:40I'd wrap up saying that awakening,
in my point of view, -
12:40 - 12:43asks to see the world
from a completely different perspective. -
12:43 - 12:45I was lucky in my life:
-
12:45 - 12:49for work and research,
I was able to move to New Zealand -
12:49 - 12:53and this allowed me
to actually see the world -
12:53 - 12:57from as far as possible from my country,
-
12:57 - 13:00and from the most
different perspective also. -
13:00 - 13:02From the South Pacific,
-
13:02 - 13:05and in particular from a fauna,
from an environmental context -
13:05 - 13:07that's so different from ours,
-
13:08 - 13:12even if it is said that 2.000 years ago,
even before the Roman Empire, -
13:12 - 13:15New Zealand looked very much like Italy.
-
13:16 - 13:19What particularly strikes me
about New Zealand -
13:19 - 13:24is the biodiversity
and the characteristics of the fauna. -
13:25 - 13:26New Zealand, mind you,
-
13:26 - 13:31is a place where humans, Maori,
didn't get until 1200-1300, -
13:31 - 13:35and in 1700 we Westerners
came to colonise it. -
13:35 - 13:38So a natural habitat thrived
-
13:38 - 13:40that's extremely different
from our usual one. -
13:40 - 13:42The kakapo, in my opinion,
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13:42 - 13:45is an animal that somewhat
represents this condition. -
13:45 - 13:50Kakapos don't fly,
-
13:50 - 13:52despite being large parrots.
-
13:52 - 13:54When it has to reproduce
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13:54 - 13:58it chooses one of the dozens of volcanoes
that are found for example in Auckland - -
13:58 - 14:01hundreds, maybe thousands
are all across New Zealand, -
14:01 - 14:03and goes to the top of this hill.
-
14:03 - 14:06Once at the top of this hill,
it starts screaming. -
14:06 - 14:10This is his way of attracting his partner,
-
14:10 - 14:14who in turn climbs this hill to mate.
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14:14 - 14:17Now, I always think about this condition
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14:17 - 14:19because I come from Tuscany,
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14:19 - 14:23and I imagine a wild boar
climbing up a hill and screaming. -
14:25 - 14:26I don't know how long it would take
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14:26 - 14:31before a hunter goes and takes the dinner,
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14:31 - 14:34hinted at by this signal.
-
14:35 - 14:37Another very interesting aspect
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14:37 - 14:42is that at a certain point in his life
the kakapo met humanity, -
14:42 - 14:44And what the kakapo did,
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14:44 - 14:46when he met man for the first time,
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14:46 - 14:51was freezing: he stopped, he got stuck,
-
14:51 - 14:54hoping that the hunter
would not detect him, -
14:54 - 15:01hoping to trick him into thinking
the kakapo was actually a tree or a stone. -
15:01 - 15:04Just imagine how successful
this strategy turned out to be, -
15:04 - 15:09and the risks of extinction
the kakapo still faces today. -
15:10 - 15:16And that's my bottom line:
basically, we are the kakapo today, -
15:17 - 15:22And I hope that's a consideration
that you will share with me. -
15:24 - 15:27(Applause)
- Title:
- Super cities and resilience | Alessandro Melis | TEDxMestre
- Description:
-
The cities we live in will face many challenges because of climate change. In order not to "freeze" us before this new breed of problems, creativity will be a key skill to grasp the potential of future scenarios, and the job of architecture will be to instill in new generations the ability to use technology and scientific innovation to rethink, and finally reawaken the city as it is now.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
- Video Language:
- Italian
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 15:38
Michele Gianella approved English subtitles for Supercittà e resilienza | Alessandro Melis | TEDxMestre | Alessandro Melis | TEDxMestre | ||
Michele Gianella accepted English subtitles for Supercittà e resilienza | Alessandro Melis | TEDxMestre | Alessandro Melis | TEDxMestre | ||
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Matteo Maggiò edited English subtitles for Supercittà e resilienza | Alessandro Melis | TEDxMestre | Alessandro Melis | TEDxMestre |