What responsibility does the real estate sector have for new urban lifestyles?
From now until 2050, there will be an increase of 2.5bn people living in cities. A number of challenges – sanitary, social, environmental, economic and urban – go hand in hand with the attractivity of urban metropolises, but cities know how to bring about innovations and experimentations in order to reinvent themselves.
The health crisis has accelerated the need for a range of different interactions, on the scale of a neighbourhood, a block of homes or even a building. We are now entering into a period of “Re” meaning resilience, rehabilitation, reorganisation, reversibility, reuse, regeneration and reinvention. Just a few of the ideas that must now be converted into real actions in order to build real estate that is more sustainable and promotes quality moments of life.
In the way we design our cities, it is essential to reinvent ourselves, office buildings must become more open and be useful for the community during the day as well as in the evening and at weekends. Today we must optimise the way we operate and use buildings. Residential buildings could, for example, be used by hotels, co-living and co-working facilities or even home schooling.
It has also become essential to design buildings in such a way as to offer greater proximity and reconnect to nature. Urbanism must go beyond mere greening projects and fully embrace eco-systems. Cities are undergoing profound changes to better protect themselves against bioclimatic influences, whilst at the same time reducing their environmental impact. This must be done in such a way as to promote the circular economy and the reuse and recycling of building materials.
City life is also about honouring the history, which is written into every stone, building and neighbourhood. In order to preserve and protect this heritage, it is important to renovate and restructure the existing, in line with the new environmental norms and interactions that are reshaping our future environments.
Real estate is at the heart of urban construction and it can offer appropriate solutions to support cities and their stakeholders on a path to resilience. For BNP Paribas Real Estate, buildings are more than just constructions - they are resource centres where people should feel comfortable and be able to live and work together. Today, they are drivers for inclusion and sharing.
There’s just a small step between the quality of cities and the quality of life. To solve this equation, we must all work together; architects and urban designers, political and economic stakeholders and associations, with citizens at the forefront.
With the adoption of sustainable transport, greening, hybrid buildings, a new relationship to time and co-constructed projects, there are infinite possibilities for the cities of the future, and that’s what makes our shared mission so exciting.
To find out more, download 'Cities of Tomorrow: Resilient and Inclusive' below.
