What should the foundation of a city of the future?

Not only is man the motive power of global processes, but a destroyer, too. But the more technologies get incorporated in our lives, the better should man understand the value of environment, simplicity, and availability. A distinguishable feature of a present-day city dweller, recently given a new terminological name ‘Homo Urbanus,’ is that amidst plastic houses and concrete constructions s/he is able to find places for inspiration and realization of own desires. This person is ready to explore the city anew, thus build it in a new way.

Speakers and organizers of the conference TEDxDonetsk “Homo Urbanus” reflected specifically upon this process. Below our readers will find the most interesting ideas voiced at the event.

INNER AND EXTERNAL HEALTH: THE IDEA BELONGS TO DENYS MININ FROM DNIPROPETROVSK, LEADER OF THE MOVEMENT “STREET WORKOUT”

Together with his friends Denys created an organization, which now counts for 300,000 members. Owing to their efforts sports grounds started to be constructed in many Ukrainian cities. But Minin says with confidence: “Healthy lifestyle is not only playing sports, but also developing your intellect.” A person must develop in every direction; otherwise there cannot be a completely healthy nation. “Training of one’s strength refers to the world of human spirit and field of emotions to much greater extent than actually to the muscles. Therefore training requires much intellect and reason,” he is sure.

According to Minin, an ideal Ukrainian family is the one whose members spend time together, in particular, while doing physical exercises. “Only parents can demonstrate to their children with their own example that it is indeed actual, trendy, and healthy,” he is convinced.

Unfortunately, these days family members stop communicating not only in the field of sport, but in their everyday lives. There can be situations when people write messages to one another on the Internet, although they are staying in adjacent rooms. But there can be other ways to spend one’s leisure time, like family strolls, hiking, roller skating, bicycling, table games in the open air. Indisputably, one needs certain infrastructure for this, at minimum – permission of the local authorities to “sit on the lawn.” There can be a variety of steps, from smiling at one another to launching some actions and societies.

A CONCERNED CITIZEN: STANDPOINT OF BORYS KUSHNIRUK, AN ANALYST, ECONOMIST, AND URBANIST (KYIV)

A city is not stadiums, palaces, or supermarkets, it is citizens. Kushniruk is sure that in the new city the determining role will belong to city communities and citizens. There is this kind of practice in some of the regions. “City is your home. When you feel like its host, you are strong. The problem is that many Ukrainians do not feel like the hosts of their homes. And it is practically impossible to do anything on your own in a megalopolis,” he says. According to Kushniruk, people do not feel like hosts of children’s playing grounds, yards, parks, and namely for this reason the authorities take these places away from them. If people understood that they belong to them, the situation would have been totally different.

The Day’s example is the Vasyl Stus public garden in Kyiv’s Sviatoshyn District. The Day has written many times how important it is to preserve this public garden for people. And the fight for the place is going on.

According to Borys Kushniruk, “Everything starts with not knowing one’s neighbors, who are frequently our helpers and support. Realizing common interests, we become cooperators. Leave your illusions aside! The state won’t do anything in your house. The state officials are not interested in this.”

Another example of contribution is the first law, realized and lobbied from below, the anti-tobacco bill whose advancement has been highlighted by The Day. At the moment the activists continue to follow how the law is fulfilled.

On the level of a small town the OSBB – society of co-owners of apartment houses – can be an activist, too. Kushniruk opines that this version is much better than old housing offices.

GENERAL COMFORT – THE IDEA VOICED BY MYROSLAV KOSHELIUK, HEAD OF THE INSTITUTE OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT, ADVISOR OF VINNYTSIA’S MAYOR

In this respect Vinnytsia’s example is demonstrative for Ukraine. It was the first city to implement the system of transparent power, making the offices of state officials available for inspection. In the post-Soviet space this practice was for the first time implemented in Georgia: placing the state officials into a transparent office, they resolved the problem with corruption. Vinnytsia is trying to achieve the same. Currently all problems of the citizens are resolved in a matter of three hours. Vinnytsia’s city authorities process 300,000 contacts with Vinnytsia residents a year, with the population of 370,000 people.

It was in Vinnytsia that free Wi-Fi was provided on trams and sitting on the lawn near city administration was permitted. “Whatever we did, it was broken and destroyed, but we restored it again, and it was broken again. This continued until people got tired of this,” he says.

“Previously Vinnytsia public transport was called cattle carriers. It was impossible to get on them. The entire system was based on route taxis. People did not want to use buses. But if to compare the room taken by one kind of transport, one bus is five route taxis. Why occupy the city’s space with cars? It must belong to people. Therefore it was resolved to change route taxis for buses. At present only 250 route taxis have remained in the city out of 400,” Kosheliuk says.

ELECTRONIC CITY STARTS WITH ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT: ROMAN HALYNSKY’S IDEA (INTERSOFT COMPANY, DONETSK)

Some elements which have been described above are currently used in Donetsk. For example, the city wants to get rid of red tape and corruption with the help of electronic circulation of documents, accounting, greater Internet and social networking integration. “Everything should be simple. Whereas previously we used to go to the authorities, now it is the authorities that must go to people,” Halynsky says. A private entrepreneur does not have much free time, so he does not want to stand in line to get some documents in the state apparatus. Everything should be arranged in such a way that a person could enter the site at home, print the document, fill it in, send it, or bring it.

The problem of communication broached by Kushniruk is present in the link “any city service/structure and citizens.” Halynsky thinks that creating special call-centers could resolve the problem. Say, a call-operator of such center can answer any questions, including the places where one can buy cheese or treat a dog.

Besides, all the questions could be asked in social networks to a statesman responsible for administration. Unfortunately, the state officials in Donetsk oblast have not yet been integrated into social networks, at the same time many departments admit that they follow the situation on the networks. At the same time, for example, in Switzerland the system of electronic government is implemented as an experiment, and in some cantons electronic voting is used. A person can vote both at home, on his/her sofa, via the Internet, or in a polling station where special electronic machines have been installed before. It is so far hard to imagine the same procedure in Ukraine, for some part of the population are computer illiterate and don’t have a PC at home.

FROM PERSONAL COMPUTERS TO PERSONAL PRODUCTION: IDEA VOICED BY KOSTIANTYN LEONENKO, FOUNDER AND CURATOR OF IZOLAB PROJECT (DONETSK)

IZOLab is a production laboratory in Donetsk which is connected with three spheres: pictorial art, technologies, and design. There are already 150 FabLabs of this kind in the world. A city has been built in Spain based on FabLab principles. According to Kostiantyn, with the help of a 3D printer one can build whatever s/he wants – even entire houses, one just needs to calculate the technology and create a program. Currently there are such enthusiasts in the society of architects. Who knows, maybe they will succeed with time.

“Such technologies bring into the world simple things which later create the new world. Previously you needed only to be read and write grammatically correct, today – to create a program,” the speaker says. “Imagine that a person can program and create whatever s/he likes,” he went on.

“The most important thing,” Leonenko admits, “Any person can do today what previously only professionals were able to do. What used to exist only for programmers now is available for any user. From a home-making – to co-makers.”

The ideas voiced by the participants are already being embodied in a variety of cities. The world is developing. Technologies come and change it. We are changing, too. But we should not forget about the thing mentioned by every speaker – the joint work of muscles and brain. For if we don’t take care of our homes, our health, and families, who is going to create new technologies and new possibilities for new generations?