10 statements

The difference between Los Angeles and Tokyo is obvious to everyone. Los Angeles, the city of the twentieth century, is designed for cars, which are literally given more room than people are. There are more square metres of car parks than of built-up areas. There is an abundance of land and it is almost valueless. This is bound to change in the twenty-first century. Tokyo is a gigantic village of millions of people and public transport. Every square metre has been thought about and put to use, above and below ground. Land is very expensive, even more expensive than the houses and buildings that stand on it. The Netherlands is a country with a high population density and a shortage of land. At the same time it is the country that wastes its land because the price of land is much too low. We have to search for intelligent solutions such as dual use of land, inventive combinations of infrastructure and building.