3FOOD

Third Industrial Revolution Consulting Group
and keeping the “beauty” of a building (reference Vincent Callebaut). The group supports that
retrofitting of existing buildings shall be promoted and developed to a maximum, without
introducing an obligation to retrofit but granting incentives in a short time frame.
Luxembourg’s expected economic and population growth as well as the country’s size, will lead
to dense urban and rural environments in the future, requiring careful analysis at the buildings
and urban development levels. The group retained the terminology “IntenCity” for the urban
concept of the future. The group does not only foresee the urbanization of the main cities of
the country, but considers urban development over the whole country (eco-neighborhoods,
cities, grouping of different municipalities, etc.). These issues are also part of the new sectorial
plans for housing, economic activities and landscape.
“Inten” because a city should become intense through attractive urban design and planning
strategies leading to lively public spaces that articulate the many different usages and users.
The concept of IntenCity will embrace art and culture, individual initiative/shared responsibility,
as well as changes across time, age, old and new. Through a more collective spirit the quality of
life of each individual could be enhanced. “IntenCity” is an urban development vision that
integrates multiple information and communication technology (ICT) solutions in a secure way.
ICT is used to improve performance, quality, and interactivity of urban services, to minimize
costs and consumption of resources and to enhance contact between goverment and its
citizenry.
Smart and green building will be completely integrated in the “IntenCity” of tomorrow. Instead
of considering only a building’s “greenness” and “smartness,” buildings will need to be analyzed
within a much broader context by taking into account social, environmental and economic
factors including the consideration of the timeline: from construction to disassembly and new
assembly with the re-use of disassembled parts. Nature offers us many solutions to explore,
and the city of the future shall be seen as a man-made human ecosystem. It is important to
focus on efficient and livable cities as well as economically, socially and environmentally
sustainable cities.
Preparing liveable and sustainable cities will have to take into account the potential
catastrophic impacts that climate change will wreak on habitats and infrastructures. We have
yet to engage a deep conversation on the question of building for “resiliency” on a planet
whose weather patterns are changing exponentially and qualitatively in a matter of decades
beyond anything experienced in the past 65 million years. In short, we need to begin thinking
about a concept of “liquid infrastructure” that can accommodate environmental upheaval and
mass migration on a local and global scale. Like every other country, Luxembourg will have to
prepare a new generation of architects, engineers, urban planners, and ecologists in the
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