Urban Futures: Review of The Sustainable City for Aesthetica

Today, over half of the global population lives in cities, according to the UN. Whilst the image of a modern metropolis – built up with steel and concrete, air thick with car fumes, hardly any greenery in sight – seems a far cry from the bucolic idyll you might associate with aspirational low-carbon living, densely populated urban centres “hold the key to our sustainable future on Earth,” writes Harriet Thorpe. This is the big idea behind The Sustainable City, published by Hoxton Mini Press, that uses London as a blueprint.

Parsloes Park Playground, Becontree Designers: Yinka Ilori Studio Built: 2021

The more tightly knitted our lives, the greater our options for pooling resources and the shorter our commutes. As this fascinating publication, beautifully photographed by Taran Wilku, demonstrates, London is brimming with examples of residential, work, community, cultural and leisure spaces that pave the way for a climate-friendly future. More than a lovely book to leaf through, The Sustainable City provides an in-depth introduction to eco-design principles. Thorpe explains, for example, why timber ­­– an easily recycled wonder-material – might be used to build skyscrapers in years to come. We are reminded of how nature in the urban realm allows other organisms to thrive alongside us and introduced to “passive architecture” – buildings designed to heat and cool with little or no need for energy use at all….

The Sustainable City by Harriet Thorpe and Taran Wilkhu is published by Hoxton Mini Press