WILD CITY: MVRDV: WEAVING NATURE AND THE URBAN

摘要

Now that the urban is an omnipresent concern, what is nature's role in debates, discussions and visions of the city? Homo urbanus has in recent times delegated his quality of life to technology and consumerism, degrading the once more prominent role of nature for leisure and relaxation. We now spend much of our free time indoors - clear evidence of the retreat into the private realm we pursue. This migration indoors is a new trend, alienating us from nature and from other human beings, yet it fulfils our desires of control, comfort and independency. Paradoxically, the moment the middle classes emerge from their busy urban lives and have time to spend, they are too far away from nature to make proper use of it. Their only options are the superficial charm of city parks, or travelling to remote places in order to discover nature's real splendour. But could our urban fabric host culture, history, technology and the wild?