City

"A truly sustainable city is a city where the least human energy and time is spent in getting things done. Then people have time for reflection and can once again act like human beings, not the robots they have been forced to become." Balkrishna Dolshi in this months Wallpaper* 

In September's Wallpaper*  magazine, Architecture Icon, Balkrishna Dolshi, discusses how both his career and the cities of India have progressed and evolved in the past 60 years. I have to disagree with his closing statement that suggests a City should provide time and space for reflection. To me, cities are squashed spaces of hedonism and haste where time is running away so fast that you are constantly chasing after it so as not to miss out on a single second. This is not necessarily a negative characteristic, more of a lifestyle choice. Those who desire time for reflection retreat to environments that are both physically and spiritually spacious and wholesome. What makes a city a city is its continual roar of happening. Whether it is the 8am commute on the district and circle line, or the lunch time squabble for that small patch of grass to lunch on, or the gaggle of workers slowly coming down off their office-high at 7pm with a cosmo, or the dull ring of tender, fuzzy heads getting the night bus home after a heavy night out. Yes, a true city should provide minimal space for thought and reflection to ensure the harsh reality of the inevitable robot lifestyle is avoided for as long as humanly possible.