Ideas change everything

7 principles for building better cities

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Peter Calthorpe |

TED2017

• April 2017

More than half of the world's population already lives in cities, and another 2.5 billion people are projected to move to urban areas by 2050. The way we build new cities will be at the heart of so much that matters, from climate change to economic vitality to our very well-being and sense of connectedness. Peter Calthorpe is already at work planning the cities of the future and advocating for community design that's focused on human interaction. He shares seven universal principles for solving sprawl and building smarter, more sustainable cities.

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

More than half of the world's population already lives in cities, and another 2.5 billion people are projected to move to urban areas by 2050. The way we build new cities will be at the heart of so much that matters, from climate change to economic vitality to our very well-being and sense of connectedness. Peter Calthorpe is already at work planning the cities of the future and advocating for community design that's focused on human interaction. He shares seven universal principles for solving sprawl and building smarter, more sustainable cities.

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

Read our curation guidelines.

Learn more about UrbanFootprint, an urban design tool that shows the impact of city planning in real time, integrating scenarios and analysis into decision-making.

About the speaker

Peter Calthorpe

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Through his writing and his realized projects, Peter Calthorpe has spread the vision of New Urbanism, a framework for creating sustainable, human-scaled places.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

Read our curation guidelines.

Learn more about UrbanFootprint, an urban design tool that shows the impact of city planning in real time, integrating scenarios and analysis into decision-making.