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Our Lady Sustainability
Or how to to get a future
an editorial by Francesco Lipari
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She is 24 years old, she works in class A and she only goes combined with the excessive enthusiasm of builders
by three rules. loyal to a style outdated by 50 years or of those that
Everyone yearns for her and dreams of meeting her and try to copy the new designs of the big firms, have
falling in love; some actually claim to have had an affair destroyed our beautiful paper castles (recycled).
with her. This continuous waste of natural resources has even
She is Our Lady Sustainability. The one Italians love the brought back outdated color schemes of yellow and
most, our salvation, our light at the end of the tunnel... black to dress our future.
I hear her name brought up in conversations everywhere We are talking about the future that awaits us as a
I go, but I want to learn more, so I do a quick search on result of events that are happening now. If they did
Wikipedia. I find out that the term sustainability was not occur at all, then it would mean that we are living
first used in 1987 in a document issued by the World in the past.
Commission for Development and the Environment And unless you own a DeLorean time machine, it
(the Brundtland report), which states that «sustainable will be hard to change the course of events and to
development is that which meets the needs of the present correct the improper actions that have occurred and
generation without compromising the ability of future created our current situation and that which is to
generations to also meet their needs». follow.
”Future generations, future generations, future Reading between the lines: we’re succeeding a
generations”. generation that fucked things up for us.
I repeat the terms out In short, the future is
loud three times to already the past and
myself because both we have a lot of
words sound new catching up to do
to me. I now know in order to come
enough about out on top in
sustainability the end; we
though:
I know that it is
often regarded
as a piece of must
jewelry, a prized advance
diamond, an object through
that everyone seeks every car of
but few know its proper use. the train to finally
We must therefore be realistic. If there is anyone who surpass it and arrive at the next station without
thinks he can simply roar out, “SOStainability!” and pull having to chase after the train when it will start
the emergency brake in response to the neglect that has running again.
been going on, he is a dreamer. In any case, looking at the world of Robert Zemeckis’
SOStainability does not only mean recycling, or famous film, Back to the Future, can give us a
leaving your car in the garage on a Sunday, or installing better idea of how exaggerating, or rather removing
photovoltaic panels on your roof. obstacles from our imaginations, makes one start to
SOStainability is a cultural approach that we must all think that a vision of a not-so-distant future where
adopt before it’s too late. social boundaries no longer exist between people, an
Architects should be among the “bishops” of this cultural orgy of sponsors engulfs the city, a bit of nostalgia
evolution, of this historic transition towards an education is closed up in an 80’s bar still playing Thriller, is
that is entirely sustainable, at least when it comes to nothing but an image of who we are today.
the use of nanotechnology professes John M. Johansen, With the exception of flying cars.
speaking of nano-architecture, introducing a challenging
thought to the instant responsiveness and flexibility of www.francescolipari.it
space with a concept of architecture that is in constant
mutation.
Unfortunately, at least in Italy, this is not the reality.
The shortage of new construction opportunities,
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