FEATURE STATE OF PRACTICE
FRANTOM, INTERNATIONAL WYATT MATT DUMICH, AND PRACTICE ALISON LAAS A LIVE WEBINAR BY
BY JEFF PASTVA, AIA
Densification
We are all aware that our global population has recently surpassed 7 billion people and is projected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050. The most telling fact about world population growth is that populations had grown very slowly until recent centuries when they increased dramatically. Between 1900 and 2000, as the most conspicuous century, the increase in world population was three times greater than the entire previous history of humanity – an increase from 1.5 to 6.1 billion in just 100 years.
Globalization
There has, over the course of decades if not centuries, been a leveling-out and homogenization of our individual international cultures into a singular world culture prompted by the import/export of respective cultures and societal values. This is made most evident by our increasing connectivity. Where once we had trade routes by land and then sea, now we have satellite-fed virtual interactions a world away that will continue to “flatten” our global experience.
Urbanization
For the first time in human history, the majority of our global population is now residing in cities. By 2030, a mere fourteen years away, 70 percent of our population will live in urban conditions. In terms of where that population occurs, twenty-two of the megacities (defined as cities or metropolitan areas with greater than 10 million in population) will be located in Asia as opposed to those few megacities located in the western hemisphere – with only three in North America currently. All of that is to say that 95 percent of all global development currently occurs outside the US and is a trend that will persist.
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CONNECTION
Above: The opening of Genler's offices around the world. Image courtesy Wyatt Frantom & Gensler. Below: Visual depictions of Densification, Urbanization, and Globalization with descriptions in the sidebar to the left. All images courtesy Wyatt Frantom.
THE ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN JOURNAL OF THE YOUNG ARCHITECTS FORUM