Introducción Definitiva

The current tendency of social development are based on urban and globalised conception which due to rapid growth of modern population, its first and foremost objective is to fulfill this demand. Due to such exponentially increasing behavior, the metropolitan zones have undergone a process of excessive expansion in the last few decades. Based on the studies carried by the United Nations in 2008, the number of residents of urban zones was reaching 3.300 million. According this research by the year 2050, this number will increase reaching 5.000 million people; in other words during next the four decades, the planet will be subject to a permanent process of urbanization.

This global pattern of urban growth, although it is translated in the various development of facilities and services, also has brought with itself vital environmental repercussions. Based on the present rate of growth in the largest cities in the world, an estimated total of 6 million hectares of primary forests are destroyed. Only in Mexico, an estimated 395.000 hectares of the natural green environments were severely affected between the years 2000 and the 2005.

According to the research conducted by Energy Information Administration (EIA), it calculates that in the year 2009, 5,978 million tons of carbon dioxide will be generated only in the United States and predicts that for the 2030 this number it will be increased up to 15%.

This urgent situation has lead towards a change of perspective in which, the concept of ecological responsibility has broken the misconception that such subjects being exclusive to “traditional environmental institutions”. Furthermore it is resurfacing itself as part of the analysis, marketing, and public relation campaigns of many production companies to gain competitive advantage. And as a result, the final consumer is also attending to this important factor in his/her final decision. As this awareness movement builds in a global scale, it is vital to build a modern and intelligent culture which contemplates the ecological responsibility as a constant that is integrated in all aspects of life.

The objective of this document is to concretely explore this situation and from this, to propose a socially interactive system that promotes the development of an environmental friendly culture. More specifically, an electronic system that evaluates the various carbon dioxide levels in different areas of a city and analyses and presents the results through an emotional language, which outlines ,in a global way, the quality of the relation between inhabitant and habitat.

The project is the result of a diverse process of creative techniques conceived in three different stages. Firstly, a general elaboration and analysis of the problem from which, it was possible to explore further key situations that together, defined the limits of an area of concrete opportunity to take part. Once such area was identified, the second stage of the project took place. Which had the following objective: to deeply identify the different stakeholders and on the basis of this understanding, to establish a dynamic collaborative design that resulted in the development of a structured proposal that is free of speculations and uncertainties. The creative process culminated with the integration of a graphical data base that allowed us to integrate all the information and the requirements within a unique concept to which is called: “Living Cities”.

To complete the third stage, a qualitative investigation of the alternatives was carried out from which intended to sensitize the urbanization process. The studies performed by the Biomimicry Institute in relation to an artificial photosynthetic process such as gathering energy, or the concepts of functional integration organisms – a technology in development by Voltree-Power, represent a unique and fresh work.

In the case of this project and its objective at hand, Living Cities focuses not only on the creation and application of new technologies but also develops clear solutions to promote the development of a collective intelligence that allows the users of the system, to generate better and more efficient solutions using emotional feedback specifically in regards to the systems communication.