NPR story on Italian architect Renzo Piano, who believes the future of Europe’s cities is in the suburbs:
Whatever he calls them, Piano believes “the suburbs are the place where energy is in the city — in the good, in the bad. When you say Milan or Rome or Paris or London, you mean that 10 percent of people [living] in the real center. But the 90 percent live in the outskirts.”
And there’s too much prejudice about those outlying neighborhoods. “They were built not with love and affection,” the architect says. “They are like a symbol of disease, of suffering, of bad environment. And that is not true. There is a kind of beauty in the suburbs.”
If Europe is doing it, then the U.S. must surely follow suit, especially since some fledgling downtowns are starting to get a little cramped.
