24
06
08

Bogota: Building a Sustainable City

TransMilenio

My friend Daniel yes­ter­day showed me this doc­u­men­tary pro­duced by Autodesk in part­ner­ship with PBS, nar­rated by Brad Pitt, about the work headed by Bogotá’s ex-mayor Enrique Peñalosa, mak­ing the city one of the most sus­tain­able in the world by imple­ment­ing inno­v­a­tive ideas like the “Trans­Mile­nio” bus sys­tem, and caus­ing crime rate to be reduced by 70% in only three years. Even though the doc­u­men­tary omits other impor­tant changes imple­mented by Mr. Peñalosa (along with other mayor’s before and after him), that greatly improved the life of Bogotá’s cit­i­zens and reduced envi­ron­men­tal prob­lems like the “pico y placa”, it is still a great eye opener. It is nice to see inspir­ing solu­tions com­ing from my coun­try every once in a while. Watch the doc­u­men­tary after the break.

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Posted in: Architecture, Media Gallery.

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  • http://www.d-earle.com international-architects

    it’s good to see proges­sive think­ing towards the cli­mate change prob­lem being imple­mented. Bravo to Bogota!

  • http://noir-artist.blogspot.com/ noir artist

    It’s amaz­ing that cities such as Bogota are now seen as mod­els to emu­late. But is it just a model for the third world, and not the 1st? Is Bogota just being applauded in how far it has come? Would the aver­age West­erner find the stan­dards in such a city to be comfortable?

  • MARCO

    Bogotá is absolutely fierce and fab­u­lous. Talk about pro­gres­sive and mod­ern, Bogotá serves up style, fash­ion and edu­cated, and friendly peo­ple. In their Trasmile­nio sys­tem, they also have an honor book trad­ing sys­tem, where rid­ers share lit­er­a­ture by bring­ing books, leav­ing them on bus and pick­ing up copies that oth­ers have left, then plac­ing them back for oth­ers to read! Colombia’s tex­tile indus­try is up to par with NY and Paris, and their local design­ers are to die for. I’m not Colom­bian, but I do go there a lot for work… and I must say, I have left my heart there. “Colom­bia is Pas­sion” as their slo­gan reads, and they are not kid­ding! Love me some Bogotá, my favorite city in South America!

  • http://www.bogotatravelguide.com Bogota Travel Guide

    At some point all peo­ple from Bogota dream with a renewed city. This vision­ar­ies make part of that a real­ity. Them and some oth­ers like Antanas Mokus inspire young peo­ple to live that vision.

    Inter­est­ing video!!!

  • http://www.socialearth.org/sustainable-nye-city-10-bogota-colombia Sus­tain­able NYE City #10: Bogota, Colom­bia | SocialEarth

    […] bus stops. Even Brad Pitt has taken notice. He acts as the nar­ra­tor in this 20-minute PBS/Autodesk pre­sen­ta­tion on the mak­ing of a more sustainable […]

  • http://iknowhuh.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/google-video-pick-of-the-week-011/ Google Video pick of the week #011 «

    […] build­ing a sus­tain­able city, not because Brad Pitt nar­rates it, but because it’s about Bogotá, Colom­bia. Maternal […]

  • Karen Lee

    this is beau­ti­ful as is this mayor! thank you for such a won­der­ful inspriration.

  • Alxval02

    SOY COLOMBIANO Y COMPARTO TOTALMENTE LOS COMENTARIOS HECHOS EN ESTE ARTICULO.….SIN EMBARGO EN MI PAÍS LOS HABITANTES DE LAS PRINCIPALES CIUDADES DEMUESTRAN CON SUS ACTOS QUE LAS SOCIEDADES DEBEN MERECER A LOS GOBERNANTES.….HABLO ESPECÍFICAMENTE DE LAS ELECCIONES DEMOCRÁTICAS PARA LA ALCALDÍA MAYOR DE LA CIUDAD DE BOGOTA, QUE EN ESTA OCASIÓN AUNQUE EL SEÑOR PEÑALOSA ERA CANDIDATO ESTE NO FUE ELEGIDO.…E INCREÍBLEMENTE SALIO GANADOR UN CANDIDATO CON UNA PREPARACION RETROGRADA QUE EN NADA APORTA AL DESARROLLO VANGUARDISTA DE ESTA METROPOLIS.……ES EN ESTOS CASOS DONDE EL DESARROLLO DE UNA SOCIEDAD SE LIMITA EXCLUSIVAMENTE A LOS ACIERTOS POLÍTICOS MEDIÁTICOS. APLICARIA ENTONCES UNA FRASE AL AIRE DEL ARQUITECTO RENZO PIANO.….¨NO PUEDE HABER BUENA ARQUITECTURA SI NO HAY UNA BUENA SOCIEDAD.