Say what you will about the opulence of the United Arab Emirates, you have to respect the wisdom and visionary planning behind the Masdar Initiative. I just wish the planners in the booming Emirate of Dubai would take some notes. But who am I to hate? Nobody in the US is really making a concrete investment in creating a sustainable infrastructure within our own cities to meet the demands of the 21st Century. You would think that American innovation would be at the forefront of this movement. Yet, here we are, business as usual.
This is most certainly a problem.
What I really love is how evident our lack of foresight is when looking within the great irony incubator of Iraq. The Homeresque folly of our plans for a green zone shopping center is further adding insult to injury, and not only because its aesthetically un-Iraqi. Withstanding the argument that most Iraqi's don't even have running water or a solid 24 hours of electricity, this 'heart of the city' is a reminder that our billions are being invested in a beige 20th century architecture relic, rife with all of last century's design problems, modeled after the great abyss that is the American suburban shopping center. Say what you will however, its a perfect literal monument to the insanity of a culture who's democracy, vision, and 'innovation' are severely out of touch with a techno-posh and globally literate existence beyond 2008.
I'm sure the parking ramps are tears-in-the-eyes breathtaking. Enjoy your McFreedom, Iraq. We've bombed your buildings and replaced them with concrete resource hogging turds in our infinitely superior forward-thinking American wisdom. But at least you can buy jeans at the Gap.
How did we get here? Back in America we're facing the certain and expensive challenge of reinventing our society to remain relevant, let alone competitive. This is across the board - philosophically, academically, architecturally, and globally. My mind boggles at just how much time, capital, and effort we waste in ignoring our problems at home while devoting our attention and resources elsewhere. And surprise - we're even doing a really good job of fucking that up.
If we want America to be relevant in the next century, we must evolve. It starts with leadership.