The second of the four goals formulated by Gerard K. O’Neill is to find (or rather create) an optimal living climate for all of humanity. Not surprisingly he spends a large portion of his book on orbital space settlements, discussing the internal design of space habitats in order to promote public well-being. Continue reading Public Green & Society
Tag Archives: urban design
Urban design & Crime
A study conducted by scientists from the University of Virginia Health System shows that there is a relation between green space and violent crime:
How green space can reduce violent crime (source: ScienceDaily)
Garden cities
Casey Schreiber explains in the video below the Garden City concept as envisioned by Ebenezer Howard.
Here is an interesting read by Jean-Yves Tizot on the political theory behind the garden city movement.
We will discuss the topic of garden cities in more detail in a future posts, in relation to, of course, space habitats (O’Neill cylinders in particular), permaculture and land ownership.
Urban design & public health
Creating an optimal living climate is one of the Four Goals formulated by Gerard O’Neil. This means that urban planners should take public health into account.
We found an important study at ScienceDaily:
Adults in lower walkability neighborhoods found to have a higher predicted cardiovascular risk
Science round up 3
Once again we list some interesting science news items, we believe are relevant for future orbital space settlements. Continue reading Science round up 3
Public green
A Danish study indicated that children who were raised in a green environment have a 55 percent lower risk of developing mental disorders. For the designers of future space settlements this means that they need to ensure that there will be a substantial amount of public green.
For larger free space habitats such as O’Neill cylinders an interesting example is the Wonderwoods project in the Dutch city of Utrecht. This design by Italian architect Stefano Boeri Architetti combines high-rise buildings with forests, a concept he calls vertical forests.
Some numbers
In The High Frontier Gerard O’Neil states that to feed one person we need 65 square meters of agricultural land. Also he argues in the same book that people need 45 square meters of living space per person to live comfortably. These numbers are important for designing space settlements and here we will assume these numbers to be true. Continue reading Some numbers
