[Music]
[Applause]
good evening don’t you like to look at
those lists that tell you what are the
most liveable global cities we always
like to look to see if our hometown is
in the top ten or even in the top
hundred well cities as we know our are
growing and a scale in size that have
been ever that has never happened in the
history of the world and what makes a
livable city well my love affair with
cities began back in college and it’s
something that I realized cities are
dynamic they’re always changing and they
can change for the good or change for
the bad and that’s another reason that
it makes it hard to understand about
cities now my hometown was the u.s. city
of Rochester New York and back in the
60s and 70s it was on the upswing it was
the hometown for such major companies as
Kodak Xerox Bausch and Lomb and it was a
city that had the first covered mall in
the downtown area to revitalize the
central business district but after that
we know what happened the bad economics
economic times came and Kodak closed
other places left employment declined
and it became a very bad a very sad
place to live well I’m happy to say it’s
on the upswing again and it’s hopefully
we’ll be on a list of those livable
cities in the future but let’s take a
look at some of this livable cities in
other places now you know monocle the
British publication every year they look
at global cities and say what’s the most
livable well they look at things like
cultural events connectivity mobility
they look even at the number of book
shops in this city they also look at
excitement factor in the evenings and
for the last three years Tokyo was
number one this year
Vienna’s number two now there’s another
company Mercer this
a multinational company that specializes
in strategy human resources and they
look at a lot of factors when they
define what is a livable city they look
at things like political stability
quality of public education
transportation things like that and they
came out with Vienna as number one as
well and then Time magazine and its
partner money they look at America’s
best places to live now number one of
their of their list for last year this
year rather Fishers Indiana do you agree
so you can see that there it to know
what makes a city great
there’s not a consensus and so as I
pondered this question I tried to figure
out how can we define what’s a livable
city we all know what we don’t like
about cities right problems of the
cities so what I did is I went back and
I tried to think about how can we define
this how can we approach this question
and what I came up with and I’d like to
share with you this evening is an idea
that dieter Rams came up with his 10
principles for good design now I’m sure
many of you know dieter Rams trained as
an architect and industrial designer and
from 1955 to 1995 was the head of design
for the German company Braun that famous
company that makes home appliances and
home products and what dieter Rams did
is he established 10 principles to query
to find out if his designs or the
designs of the company could stand up to
a level of quality so he sort of put
each design through its through its
paces following these 10 principles and
I thought well maybe this is something
that we can apply not only to products
but we could apply it to strategies and
maybe we could even apply it to cities
so join me while we look at some of
dieter Rams ten principles of good
design and how they relate
two cities and he said cities or he said
design needs to be understandable and I
argue that cities need to be
understandable they need to be
understandable because we have to
navigate in those cities we have to be
able to feel comfortable getting around
and we have to see ourselves in relation
to the city that’s why they need to be
understandable and cities need to be
aesthetic they have to be beautiful and
I’m reminded of a phrase that Chiquito
bond an architect Japanese architect and
winner of the Pritzker architecture
prize said he said if people love
buildings they take care of them and I
would say if people love their city they
also take care of them we need to have
buildings and spaces that reflect our
culture that reflect who we are in the
best way cities need to be long-lasting
now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying
that every building has to last for
hundreds and hundreds of years but in
this throwaway economy being connected
to our past understanding where we came
from where we are those are the keys to
letting us know where we’ll go in the
future
so being long-lasting in many cases
provides that continuum and it lets us
see into the future and cities have to
be honest
just like dieter Rams designs a city
that is a brand that is put out there
just for the purpose of tourists or it’s
a one-liner
that’s out there just to attract a
certain type of people or respond to one
segment of the residences the residents
is losing the ability to embrace
diversity honesty in a city means that
it embraces all the residents it
embraces that diversity and it responds
to all of those people and of course
cities have to be innovative if they’re
not innovative they stop now innovative
means that there are new ideas
new inventions that make our daily life
more comfortable make it a little bit
easier as how we jump on a bus an
innovation of course goes hand in hand
with technology but don’t be confused
because technology is not the goal
technology is not the end innovation has
a goal of making people’s lives more
comfortable and easier to navigate in
the cities easier to use the city and
more fulfilling and cities have to be
good to the last detail we have to care
as much about the sidewalk in front of
our house as we do the superhighway that
connects us to other places we have to
care as much about the architecture of
the elementary school as we care about
the architecture of city hall our famous
monument we have to make sure that it’s
good to the last detail for the people
who are living there and of course
cities need to be environmentally
friendly now when I say environmentally
friendly I don’t only mean that they
have to have green spaces trees
vegetation they have to be open where
people can gather together it has to
have a clean atmosphere quality of air
etc but cities also have to be cognizant
of the role that they play in the global
panorama cities are great contributors
of pollution of co2 and cities only
through cities that are making changes
can they also be contributors to solving
the problems of the environment and
global warming so what makes a great
city well of course the people that’s
probably the most important thing what I
hope today you’ll also think that maybe
it’s a simple thing those 10 principles
of good design of dieter Rams and when
you think about a city and think about
it is it liveable think about his ten
principles and you’ll have the answer
thanks a lot you
[Applause]
good evening don’t you like to look at
those lists that tell you what are the
most liveable global cities we always
like to look to see if our hometown is
in the top ten or even in the top
hundred well cities as we know our are
growing and a scale in size that have
been ever that has never happened in the
history of the world and what makes a
livable city well my love affair with
cities began back in college and it’s
something that I realized cities are
dynamic they’re always changing and they
can change for the good or change for
the bad and that’s another reason that
it makes it hard to understand about
cities now my hometown was the u.s. city
of Rochester New York and back in the
60s and 70s it was on the upswing it was
the hometown for such major companies as
Kodak Xerox Bausch and Lomb and it was a
city that had the first covered mall in
the downtown area to revitalize the
central business district but after that
we know what happened the bad economics
economic times came and Kodak closed
other places left employment declined
and it became a very bad a very sad
place to live well I’m happy to say it’s
on the upswing again and it’s hopefully
we’ll be on a list of those livable
cities in the future but let’s take a
look at some of this livable cities in
other places now you know monocle the
British publication every year they look
at global cities and say what’s the most
livable well they look at things like
cultural events connectivity mobility
they look even at the number of book
shops in this city they also look at
excitement factor in the evenings and
for the last three years Tokyo was
number one this year
Vienna’s number two now there’s another
company Mercer this
a multinational company that specializes
in strategy human resources and they
look at a lot of factors when they
define what is a livable city they look
at things like political stability
quality of public education
transportation things like that and they
came out with Vienna as number one as
well and then Time magazine and its
partner money they look at America’s
best places to live now number one of
their of their list for last year this
year rather Fishers Indiana do you agree
so you can see that there it to know
what makes a city great
there’s not a consensus and so as I
pondered this question I tried to figure
out how can we define what’s a livable
city we all know what we don’t like
about cities right problems of the
cities so what I did is I went back and
I tried to think about how can we define
this how can we approach this question
and what I came up with and I’d like to
share with you this evening is an idea
that dieter Rams came up with his 10
principles for good design now I’m sure
many of you know dieter Rams trained as
an architect and industrial designer and
from 1955 to 1995 was the head of design
for the German company Braun that famous
company that makes home appliances and
home products and what dieter Rams did
is he established 10 principles to query
to find out if his designs or the
designs of the company could stand up to
a level of quality so he sort of put
each design through its through its
paces following these 10 principles and
I thought well maybe this is something
that we can apply not only to products
but we could apply it to strategies and
maybe we could even apply it to cities
so join me while we look at some of
dieter Rams ten principles of good
design and how they relate
two cities and he said cities or he said
design needs to be understandable and I
argue that cities need to be
understandable they need to be
understandable because we have to
navigate in those cities we have to be
able to feel comfortable getting around
and we have to see ourselves in relation
to the city that’s why they need to be
understandable and cities need to be
aesthetic they have to be beautiful and
I’m reminded of a phrase that Chiquito
bond an architect Japanese architect and
winner of the Pritzker architecture
prize said he said if people love
buildings they take care of them and I
would say if people love their city they
also take care of them we need to have
buildings and spaces that reflect our
culture that reflect who we are in the
best way cities need to be long-lasting
now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying
that every building has to last for
hundreds and hundreds of years but in
this throwaway economy being connected
to our past understanding where we came
from where we are those are the keys to
letting us know where we’ll go in the
future
so being long-lasting in many cases
provides that continuum and it lets us
see into the future and cities have to
be honest
just like dieter Rams designs a city
that is a brand that is put out there
just for the purpose of tourists or it’s
a one-liner
that’s out there just to attract a
certain type of people or respond to one
segment of the residences the residents
is losing the ability to embrace
diversity honesty in a city means that
it embraces all the residents it
embraces that diversity and it responds
to all of those people and of course
cities have to be innovative if they’re
not innovative they stop now innovative
means that there are new ideas
new inventions that make our daily life
more comfortable make it a little bit
easier as how we jump on a bus an
innovation of course goes hand in hand
with technology but don’t be confused
because technology is not the goal
technology is not the end innovation has
a goal of making people’s lives more
comfortable and easier to navigate in
the cities easier to use the city and
more fulfilling and cities have to be
good to the last detail we have to care
as much about the sidewalk in front of
our house as we do the superhighway that
connects us to other places we have to
care as much about the architecture of
the elementary school as we care about
the architecture of city hall our famous
monument we have to make sure that it’s
good to the last detail for the people
who are living there and of course
cities need to be environmentally
friendly now when I say environmentally
friendly I don’t only mean that they
have to have green spaces trees
vegetation they have to be open where
people can gather together it has to
have a clean atmosphere quality of air
etc but cities also have to be cognizant
of the role that they play in the global
panorama cities are great contributors
of pollution of co2 and cities only
through cities that are making changes
can they also be contributors to solving
the problems of the environment and
global warming so what makes a great
city well of course the people that’s
probably the most important thing what I
hope today you’ll also think that maybe
it’s a simple thing those 10 principles
of good design of dieter Rams and when
you think about a city and think about
it is it liveable think about his ten
principles and you’ll have the answer
thanks a lot you
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