This book talk is part of the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival 2017, the Oxford Martin School is the Festival Ideas Partner
Leading American thinker on urban planning and the creation of well-integrated communities Jonathan Rose argues that cities are well-placed to address the environmental, economic and social challenges of this century.
Cities will be home to 80 per cent of the world’s population by 2050 and will fell the full force of climate change, dwindling resources, population growth, mass migration and inequalities. Rose draws on the musical concept of ‘temperament’ to argue that cities can be infused with systems that bend them towards equality, resilience, wellbeing and a harmony between civilisation and nature.
This is a ticketed event and the tickets are £12.50. For more information and to purchase a ticket please visit this website: www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/322244
About the speaker
Jonathan F. P. Rose works with cities and not-for-profits to plan and build affordable and mixed-income green housing, and cultural, health, and educational centers. Recognised for creating communities that literally heal both residents and neighbourhoods, Rose is one of the nation’s leading thinkers on the integration of environmental, social, and economic solutions to urban development issues facing us today.
Rose’s work as founder of investment, development, and urban planning firm Jonathan Rose Companies has received awards from The Urban Land Institute, The American Institute of Architects, The American Planning Association, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, and many others. With his wife, Diana Calthorpe Rose, he is cofounder of the Garrison Institute and the creator of its Climate, Mind, and Behavior program.
About the book
Cities are birthplaces of civilisation; centres of culture, trade, and progress; cauldrons of opportunity - and the home of eighty percent of the world’s population by 2050. As the 21st century progresses, metropolitan areas will bear the brunt of global megatrends such as climate change, natural resource depletion, population growth, income inequality, mass migrations, education and health disparities, among many others.
In The Well-Tempered City, Jonathan F. P. Rose - the man who “repairs the fabric of cities” - distills a lifetime of interdisciplinary research and firsthand experience into a five-pronged model for how to design and reshape our cities with the goal of equalising their landscape of opportunity. Drawing from the musical concept of “temperament” as a way to achieve harmony, Rose argues that well-tempered cities can be infused with systems that bend the arc of their development toward equality, resilience, adaptability, well-being, and the ever-unfolding harmony between civilisation and nature. These goals may never be fully achieved, but our cities will be richer and happier if we aspire to them, and if we infuse our every plan and constructive step with this intention.
A celebration of the city and an impassioned argument for its role in addressing the important issues in these volatile times, The Well-Tempered City is a reasoned, hopeful blueprint for a thriving metropolis - and the future.