Why POC?

THE IMPORTANCE OF CITIES IN FRONT OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND PEAK OIL CHALLENGES

Lluís Sabadell Artiga
Founder and Director of POST-OIL CITIES

“City is not a problem, city is solution.” - Jaime Lerner

We know for certain that if we want to sustain human life on this planet we have to change our ways of living. The longer we wait, the less we will have the opportunity to choose what changes to make. That’s why it’s so important to start planning cities that are more independent of oil. Cities are open fields for the exploration of new ways of living and they have the potential to become the best living environments that we can imagine. The Post Oil Cities project focuses on envisioning how we can transform our cities into sustainable and an appealing living environments through urban planning, architectural design as well as through direct action by inhabitants.

Why will the ‘next cities’ be post-oil cities?

There are two main reasons why post-oil cities will be the "next cities": climate change and the depletion of oil and other resources. We need to change our modes of transport, our housing, our food habits and our energy habits to so that our cities can be less dependent on fossil fuels. Depending on oil as much as we do today makes our system very fragile - about 90% of our activities depend on oil in one way or another, be it for food production (pesticides, fertilizers, fuel for machinery and transportation), industry (for use in the manufacture of plastics and many other petroleum-based products), for medicine, for transportation, for electricity…

Oil is a great source of energy and materials but its use is also detrimental to our planet and society - making our lives more independent of it also means that we will be able to make our cities and and society more sustainable and thriving in all ways.

We believe in cities

Cities are the place where the potential to change society is at its most powerful. According to UN estimates, more than the half of the world’s population currently live in urban areas.  In a time of energy crisis, food crisis, economic crisis and social crisis, it is fundamental that we develop the the ability to create and organise communities that allow the supply of knowledge, skills, materials and technologies necessary for creating a good quality of life. Cities are the place where we can find the people and networks that can generate the necessary change - communities and collaboration have the power to change things we normally think impossible to change, a fact witnessed by the countless community-owned energy projects emerging all over the world.

How can urban planning, architecture and design help?

How can urban planning, architecture and design help create more decentralized and self-sufficient energy and food communities? How can they help to bring communities together to generate new solutions for a more resilient society? How can new technologies make cities more sustainable and their inhabitants more empowered? How can our cities be transformed into the most positive living environments that we ever dreamed of?

Architecture, design and urban planning cannot offer all the solutions to these questions, but they have an important role. The Post Oil Cities project features and promote a range of projects that offer ways forward for addressing the most pressing issues of our time. We are facing one of the most exciting moments in our history; a time of big changes which demands both much creativity and effort. The challenges we face also represent a great opportunity to build a better society and a better world for us all.

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