I was reading the latest issue of Fortune, which contains a special section about architecture. There was an interesting article called, "The New City Beautiful," which discusses buildings being used to help the environment. One key example is proposed for China , which will lose 25% of its farmland in the next 15 years due to its rapid industrialization. The plan is to create a 22 square mile community that utilizes rooftops for farmland. These rooftop gardens and farms will also help clean China's air and water. One way is for the plants on the rooftops to reduce some of the carbon dioxide in the air.

The article also discusses plans for more buildings that have self-shading glass, which I assume would reduce air conditioning costs. Other building materials discussed are carpets and fabrics that clean the air and photovoltaic coatings that can be applied to steel, presumably to make the building itself a recipient of solar power.

I thought the article was interesting because it shows how we can move ahead with industrialization without completely destroying the environment, if we use some ingenuity and respect for the environment. The idea of putting our farms on our roofs sounds rather sad in a way, but if it is a way to cope with the inevitable destruction of farmland, then I guess it's something of a compromise. At least we may be able to minimize the negative environmental impact of a lot of architecture if we use the buildings to offset the environmental damage due to construction and as generators of alternative energy.