Reason of the foundation is the worlds most excellent gift for a man. Knowledge, however, has its limits. The creative spirit of the designers and architects seeks them overcome the craving for knowledge, not to enter the future to design space for the man soared to perfection. To achieve adequate knowledge architect must broaden their horizons, certain knowledge and in other areas, in particular cooperate with other participants in the process of developing a better future for man. The text discusses the need for sustainable urban development which is a prerequisite for creating a sustainable city, as the basic matrix of the city required for life and the future of the city. To address this man should has knowledge of urban development, urban environment, environmental problems and social and intellectual norms in society variable financial and political parameters. The large number of complex parameters are needed knowledge, patience, perseverance and wisdom of all of us, and every mistake is costly punishable.

Architecture-Design often lack the recognition of macroeconomic and microeconomic variables. Most economic analyzes have rightly spatial research. For this reason it is necessary to find a common language for proper functioning. Construction of a new language requires research, the concept of broader spatial analysis in the design, architecture, urbanism. All the oppressed wider context and factors. The mind needs to have environmental, economic, social aspect and political identity.

Is there a possibility to do something new? What we can change?

Ensuring an appropriate level of useful environment in the current urban environment today is a significant problem. Despite the development of science and technology, many elements of the environment are an urban problem today. To achieve this goal it is necessary to develop an awareness of not only the individual, but the entire society. Economics as one of the key factors should determine priorities, the importance of projects that are invested and thus result. I think that knowledge of one key problem is important for further decision. Therefore, if we are aware, for example, the current state of energy availability in the world we should find a way to improve it. The problem arises because of not developed awareness for the benefit of mankind. The investor is willing to invest in a building of several thousand square meters, regardless of its architectural and social value, considering it will brings him a profit. Nevertheless, sustainable architecture and sustainable resources are completely ignored, because it might be unprofitable in a given time. Energy efficiency is important as a essential for the survival of human society.

Where is the exit? In the future Humanity should be significantly turn to the use of alternative (imperative) energy sources. Knowledge of markets, development needs and potential as a whole, established investigation strategies and strategies of industrial development, are essential in order to identify desirable investors who want a clear insight into the situation and potential of each sector, to invest in what interests them. In the cities of earlier epochs environmental problems were mostly related to the lack of proper infrastructure, underdeveloped hygienic level, overpopulation, over construction and others. Nowadays, problems related to the state of the environment are much more numerous and reaching to the very complex problems of technical nature and psychology of urban living . In order to enable further progress of the human population, it is necessary the adoption and implementation of sustainable development. The basic idea of sustainable development is meeting the needs of present generations, without compromising the possibilities for future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable cities allow the architecture to transform itself, not to be traditional but useful, innovative and economical. As a result we have design that rationally relates to energy use and refrain consumption of limited natural resources. How environmental imperative and a moral imperative become by the fact that designers are constantly exploring models that would be sustainable design is actually implemented in the modern trends of architectural practice. Some of the models, which were presented at the European market actually stress the marketing potential of “sustainable” investments, and so “green building” are more profitable than the label on the real estate market in developed countries. In this case, architecture and economy are finding a common language, not hinder each other.
Sustainable development is based on protection, so it is conditioned by the need to upholding the concept of nature in order to provide the resources and services necessary for life. From this perspective, sustainable development means improving the quality of human life within the limits of the capacity of the submission of ecosystems that support it ‘.
This definition of sustainable development is a normative concept that includes a standard of behavior that should be respected if the human community tends towards satisfying their own needs of survival and well-being. The definition includes three basic components, namely: economic, social and component of environmental protection, which form the basis of sustainable development. All three components are mutually linked and interdependent, and therefore require that everything is being done in the field of development is in line with each of them separately.

When it comes to urban sustainability, it must be borne in mind that cities have never been self-sustaining through history, and that they probably never will be in the true sense of the word. The city, as a man’s environment, had to meet its biological, environmental, social, economic, aesthetic and other requirements and needs that have evolved with the development of civilization. In addition, cities are ‘producers’ external influences on the environment, both positive and negative. How is the growing awareness of aspects of environmental pollution associated with urban living and quality of life in cities, increasingly provoking questions about the relationship of the positive to the negative impact and proof that this relationship is disrupted. As a result, more attentiveness to the capacity of the submission of a sustainable city overall area needed a system that would support life in the city, through the production of goods, resources and acceptance of waste materials from the city  often called ecological rate city. It can be concluded that sustainable urban development can only be achieved if the system is established renewing his energy, human, environmental and technological potential.
Cities today are not only a reflection of the society within which the finding they are more a reflection of society is global. Or how Mumford wrote in 1961 in his book ” The city in history ”: ” … slowly we went from being a city that symbolizes the world, to the world that in many practical aspects of becoming a global city ‘. It can be argued that each generation has the right to regulate their environment according to their needs and capabilities, however there is also a parallel obligation of this generation to their successors, in the coming generations, leave enriched, and not wrecked space. The city is one of the artificial creation and its sustainable development in terms of ecological balance can be achieved only if all urban processes are controlled and synchronized with the laws of the natural environment. To achieve the goals of sustainable development, it is necessary to understand that cities play a significant role in this process.

As a development can take and developing of Dubai. Economics allowed expansion and development of the city. The city has in recent years significantly progressed, we can not omit the worldwide economic crisis, which did not avoid this town, but good economic organization allowed the continuation of his progress, urbanization, and lately concept of green architecture. Projects are based on hundreds of lesser energy and water consumption.

To answer the question of what is a sustainable city, it is necessary to sustainability seen in the wider context. It means that one should not only look and talk about the environment in the city, but also to take into account the role that the city has in a broader context. To achieve this goal should be to act as a company which has developed awareness about their future. The model sustainable city, besides it’s strictly defined physical boundaries, reflecting the social and matrix of the city . This model is manifested through a myriad of different forms, depending on the historical heritage, culture, economic base, climatic, geographic and geopolitical characteristics, to all these forms at the end reduced to only a few variables that determine it. Sustainable city no ” recipe ” behavior towards sustainability, but should have defined the elements of measurement achieved. The city can only be considered sustainable if its governing structure the entire planet is seen as unique.
Cities should be considered for places that serve its attractiveness as drivers of economic development in terms of  creativity, innovation and the creation and sharing of knowledge, the stimulation of proactive innovation and educational policies, on sustainable construction, architecture and urban space use, the high development of the local economy, the exploitation of the architectural values, historical heritage buildings and public spaces through the development and reconstruction of the urban landscape.

Cities need to set the positive principles of urban spatial development, which will be based on:
balanced economic growth and territorial organized activities, with a polycentric urban    structure, strong metropolitan region that can provide services of general economic interest, compact structure of settlements with limited urban sprawl, a high level of environmental protection and quality of life in the city and surrounding areas. Sustainable cities must have attractive open public spaces and promote sustainable, inclusive and healthy mobility in a way that cycling and hiking trails that are attractive, and public transport favored. Increased energy efficiency in buildings reduces the economic and energy vulnerability, and associated innovations, technologies and services in the building and energy are important drivers of local development.

Common approach to solving the problem of exclusion, the energy poverty and better housing conditions come to the key elements of development of the city so that the city becomes more beautiful and lively, but also more competitive and eco-friendly. Building a “green and healthy” cities goes beyond simply reducing CO2 emissions. We come to an integrated approach to environmental protection and energy sector in which many components of natural ecosystems are intertwined with those of the social, economic, cultural and political urban system in a single system. His influence is essential for avoiding rural depopulation and to promote balanced territorial development. The question is whether this problem can be solved on a global level in view of the disparities between the countries in the world have never been more obvious.How to awaken man’s awareness of the efficiency of energy resources and the value of what we have to do. Why not let the natural functions, existing natural techniques to be used for greater efficiency. Every place in the world has ups and downs, problems to be solved but the problem lies in spreading the incentives of his subjects.

Image references:

https://www.google.com/search?q=sustainable+dubai&biw=1600&bih=746&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=DEqGVO6IOcLxUpCJg-gP&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg

https://www.google.com/search?q=sustainable+cities&biw=1600&bih=746&source=lnms&sa=X&ei=OkqGVNuRGYHlUri2gugP&ved=0CAUQ_AUoAA&dpr=1

Introduction:

It is impossible to explain Venice by words: you cannot understand its uniqueness until you see this city with your own eyes. The beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks are the reasons why Venice is listed as a World Heritage Site in its entirety.

 Venice is made of 117 little islands separated by canals and linked by bridges. Venice has grown on the water and thanks to it, the city flourished for centuries as a Maritime Republic. However the water has been also the main Venetian enemy (after Napoleon): the city was born on a river mouth (the Brenta’s). During the Middle Ages the Venetians massively intervened on the surrounding ecosystem: the Brenta and other small rivers were deviated and the canals excavated in order to prevent the city’s sinking and permit their navigation.

 Nowadays the water is still a problem for Venice: the high-tide phenomenon is more and more frequent, due to the climatic changes. This photogenic event attracts and seduces millions of tourists every year, but for those who live and work in Venice the high-tide is an economical bother, as well as an impediment to a normal daily life. The municipality has activated several devices in order to inform people of the incoming phenomenon: an SMS is sent to mobiles the day before and, from the bell towers, an acoustic alarm alerts Venetians a couple of hours before (it sounds differently according to the supposed tide level). So people are informed they have to wear boots! But basically the diseases are not cancelled: the public transport is not regular because water-buses cannot pass under the bridges and a lot of fondamente, calli and campielli (the Venice streets) are underwater and not served by gangways. The M.O.S.E., the great engineering project still under construction, maybe one day will solve or, at least, will limit the damages.

 However I am not going to talk about that, because I think the water is not the main city hazard, but the millions of tourists I have mentioned before. The excessive commercial exploitation of the city centre is damaging the fragile Venetian equilibrium and creating serious problems for its population.

Moreover, a bad city management has been producing the gradual death of Venice.

THE VENICE’S PLAGUES

 Mass tourism:

Tourism has been an important sector of Venetian industry since the 18^th century, when it became a necessary step of the Grand Tour because of its beautiful cityscape, uniqueness, and rich musical and artistic cultural heritage. In the 19^th century the city was a fashionable centre for the rich and famous, often staying or dining at luxury establishments such as the Danieli Hotel and the Cafè Florian. It continued being an in vogue city right into the early 20^th century. In the 1980^s, the Carnival of Venice was revived and the city has become a major centre of international conferences and festivals, such as the prestigious Venice Biennale and the Venice Film Festival, which attract visitors from all over the World for their theatrical, cultural, cinematic, artistic, and musical productions.

 Today Venice is the second most visited city in Italy (source: Hotel Price Index) and one of the most desired destination in the World. Euromonitor International estimates that 3’165’000 people visited Venice during the 2013 (the 45^th most visited city in the World).

Nevertheless, according to the cultural association ItaliaNostra, in 2013 at least 30’000’000 of tourists visited Venice (that means 82’000 tourists a day in less than 4 km²) but in the majority they stayed in the city just for one day, booking an hotel in the nearby cities and arriving in Venice thanks to the public transports (so they are not included into the internationals statistics).

 A lot of shops in the area between San Marco and Rialto’s Bridge have been converted in touristic stores and all the public facilities are more and more “in tune” with the guests, while all the activities not strictly related to the tourism are moving to terraferma (inshore).

 The promotion of a policy of investments deeply connected to the mass tourism (considered as the cardinal economical source of the city) has soon created a huge facilities imbalance.

A non-policy of modernization:

The problem of the mass tourism is combined with a policy that does not care about the city modernization. The last intervention dates back to 1810 and was promoted by Napoleon.

 This is unfortunately a typical Italian affliction: preserving the historical/artistic heritage means to keep the status quo. The “experts” think that restoring an historical site could pervert its nature and spirit, as well as keep it less attractive to tourists.

 So Italy has created hundreds of laws “for the preservation”, as well as a lot of authorities for the artistic and cultural heritage management, producing the total paralysis of any initiative of urban redevelopment.

The Campanile di San Marco parable (the Venetian St. Mark’s Bell Tower) is maybe the best example to illustrate this concept. They said: “Com’era, dov’era”, which means “As it was, where it was”. So after the 1902 collapse, the Campanile was re-built in 1912 by copying the first one: exactly as it was, exactly where it was, creating an historical fake.

 Replacing a window with a new one could be a big problem in Venice: you have to question the Municipality Architectural Heritage Office, which needs from three to six months to answer, and usually the answer is a negative one. The main policy could be resumed as following: do not authorise any architectural intervention that can barely modify the buildings aspect.

So the private citizen has only two choices: to restore without authorization, or to let the house perish.

Public facilities:

This preservative mania unfortunately involves the public service too.

For example, the public transportation does not answer to the current needs. The “fashionable” transportation by boats on the water has always been preferred to a better and faster system such as the subway: there is a project of a lagoon subway for 35 years and still under consideration of the committees.

The result is the complete collapse of a system that is not able to match supply with demand. Furthermore the timetable seems to be conceived to satisfy tourists routes and needs rather than the citizens and workers ones.

The currently recession forced the transportation public service to cut down some lines, but it seems the top management preferred to cut the citizens lines than the tourists ones. Tourism is always considered as the main income source, the only strategic asset of the town.

 Also the waste management has great problems.

The ancient method door-to-door is still in force, demanding a great employment of human and economical sources, but not leading to results up to the civilised cities standards. The inability to act in the interest of the city and the lack of a modern system are carrying the actual waste management to the collapse. The public waste baskets are few (to do not ruin the landscape) and always full, so along the streets it is not so difficult to find piles of trash that rude tourists throw down.

The death of Venice:

This blind and one-directional policy is getting to a slow depopulation of the city. The number of young people deciding to move to Mestre (the part of Venice grown up on the lagoon border) or the hinterlands is increasing every year. In the 16^th century Venice had 200’000 inhabitants, today they are less the 55’000 and still decreasing.

Those few “survivors” feel lonely, emarginated by their own institutions and forced to live in those areas not yet invaded by the mass tourism. They are witnessing the transformation of the city in a tourist attraction, the morphing of Venice into “Veniceland” (as Disneyland), as they sadly started to call it.

This dramatic situation is due to the wrong city planning and management, unidirectional and more focused on the economical profit than the social equity and welfare, bringing the city to paralysis as well as to its gradual depopulation.

 Only a new urban and social long run plan conceived by a knowledgeable management could carry Venice to its rebirth as city.

IS A DIFFERENT CITY POSSIBLE?

Intervening in a city as Venice is not so easy.

Therefore each involvement should be discussed and shared with the citizenry and the small available resources should be concentrated on really essential projects.

It could have been avoided colossal and high-priced projects such as the M.O.S.E. or the Constitutional Bridge (Calatrava’s Bridge), preferring social and urban micro-re-qualification projects, able to awake the citizen social identity as well as a series of private initiatives.

 The social participation in the public management is another important topic.

Thanks to the social networks, independent groups of users have been constituted in order to suggest ideas, signal interventions or just promoting social initiatives. However, the city’s managers have always unheeded these free and passionate contributes, considering them useless and inappropriate.

For example, when the Venetian transportation company (A.C.T.V.) in 2013 decided to change the transportation timetable, a Facebook group tried to collaborate with the company to prevent potential problems for the users.

Unfortunately the company did not accept the users’ suggestions and when the timetable changed, those problems the users widely forecasted have been emerged.

Tourism:

No one can deny that tourism is a vital asset for Venice. However, the city cannot live basing its economy only on this sector. New commercial activities must be promoted and a “business bio-diversity” should be subsidized.

 In addition to that, tourism should be regulated in a more rational way, disciplining the touristic flows and the city pathways. For example, it could be interesting to promote alternative ways to discover the city, trying to decongest the main touristic stream and spreading it in a bigger area.

Moreover the visit of alternative sites could be encouraged. For example, the islands faced to the Bacino Marciano (like San Giorgio and the Giudecca) hide little known treasures, and from their banks it is possible to admire Venice from a different perspective.

Buildings:

Defining Venice as a “different” or a “particular” city and consequently banning any kind of energy upgrading intervention is not acceptable. The municipality must change its conservation concept. It should be understood that Venice must adapt itself to the 21^th century needs and adopt any kind of sustainable progress as done in the other cities of the World. Venice cannot consume three time more energy as a normal city.

 From this perspective, the bureaucratic grip should be reduced and case study projects could be promoted, in order to demonstrate the benefits (even economical) of using solar or photovoltaic panels (now prohibited in Venice), insulated glazing windows and thermal insulations.

According to a recent research promoted by the Venetian architect Board, most of the houses in Venice are rated as F in the energy class scale. A series of small intervention such as windows upgrading as well as the development of a minimal insulation layer to the external walls could reduce the entire annual energetic balance up to 40%. Less consumptions means less monthly bills as well as less CO₂ emissions.

So why Venice cannot be a more eco-friendly city?

Another interesting topic could be the real-estate market regulation.

Nowadays a speculator is totally free to buy and rent apartments to tourists; this market fosters a big housing bubble that does not permit to young couples and not very wealthy families to buy a house in Venice.

It could be interesting to create a touristic houses register, establishing an upper limit for the tenement (for tourist purposes), in order to incentivize the real citizen market.

Public facilities:

The public transportation system needs a careful planning and it should consider social participation in order to share ideas and proposals.

New forms of transportation should be discussed (boat sharing), and the system map could be reshaped in order to solve the actual frictions between tourists and citizens.

 As well as the waste management is concern, many alternatives could be developed and debated with the venetians.

On one hand, new generations could be educated, teaching them the importance of recycling. This really easy action has carried several other Italian cities to increase their recycling part in the total amount of waste. Indeed for an adult is easier to change its behaviour if this has been asked by his son: the generational interaction is the most extraordinary sword to a radical change of habits.

 From the other hand the waste collect system should be changed, especially because the actual one is not able to supply the total daily amount of waste. It could be useful studying how other historical cities have solved their waste management problems.

In Perugia, for example, in the historical city centre an automatized system (using robots) has been experimented. For the same purpose the city centre of Barcelona  is served by the automated vacuum waste collection system that ensures a good clearness level, avoiding an excessive waste stock.

CONCLUSIONS:

 A different city is possible.

Even if Venice is actually flogged by problems only at first glance unsolvable, its citizens conditions could be changed and improved. It must be understood that Venice, despite it has 1500 years of history, can be transformed, adapting itself to the current humans lifestyle.

 After all, Venice is still a very liveable human-scale city. The imbalance caused by the excessive touristic exploitation could be fixed only by a good planning that considers the citizens’ needs, and during this process the social participation should be held in high regard.

 In conclusion, I believe that most of the above proposal could be developed with minimum investments and have immediate benefits for the venetians.

Next spring, after years of scandals and corruption, Venetians will elect the new major. We all hope it will be able to take, for the first time, important and radical decisions thinking about the citizens’ welfare and not only aimed by personal or lobbyist interests.

image: courtesy from venessia.com