TEDxZurich 2011: Sprawl Rocks by Matthias Daum

For nearly sixty years, Swiss intellectuals, urban planners and architects have been ranting and raving about the way the country's landscape is developing. But each society gets the landscape it deserves. So why has Switzerland been landed with urban sprawl? Because that is the way we want to live: commuting gives stability to our complicated lives. Thus, instead of arguing against the supposedly immoral form of the suburban lifestyle, we should try to make it sustainable. Sprawl is our future -- if we like it or not.

Matthias Daum has a master degree in history from the University of Zurich. He works as a journalist for the Swiss bureau of the German weekly Die Zeit and is a regular contributor to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. His main interests lie in spatial and urban planning, migration, social politics, higher education, science -- and China.