DUBAI: Nearly 10 years ago, Saudi actor Moayed Althagafi received a message on Facebook from a total stranger, a young creative named Mohammed Makki. He was putting together a TV series called “Takki,” about the trials and tribulations of young people in Jeddah in a way that had never been displayed before on screen. Makki was hoping that Althagafi might take on the lead role.
“Among all species, it is perhaps only humans who create habitats that are not fit to live in.” – Stephen Marshall
It’s a damning statement but one that can be reasonably argued to be true. We don’t have the best track record in creating lasting and sustainable habitats, especially if one considers cities built in the past century.
The next 50 years will demand a new model of urban development. For a more sustainable future in a world of climate change, 21st-century cities must be based on models of adaptation that learn from natural systems. We now have the digital modelling technology to design such cities, rather than the fixed urban form that now dominates our world.