‘Urbany’ named a crucial trend for 2010

Trendwatching.com, a consumer trends firm, has named “Urbany” one of their top trends to watch in the upcoming year.

Citing the growing percentage of the world’s population living in urban areas which now exceeds 50% (according to the Global Report on Human Settlements, which includes urbanized sprawl in this figure), Trendwatching calls this push “Urbany,” which is defined by a "new global consumer arena" and accompanying set of more demanding consumers.

“As Alex Steffen, editor of WorldChanging stated:

‘I’m certainly not saying that all innovation is urban, or that the suburbs are brain dead or anything. I am saying that compact, wired and wealthy urban communities seem to me to be becoming the epicenters of innovation these days, and that is going to change what innovations emerge.’"

However, it’s not simply urbanizing for the sake of urbanizing, but doing it in a way that improves the quality of life and runs against the way the public typically think about the “inner-city.” More specifically, it is this style of walkable, mixed-used urbanism that is driving innovation and growth.

Regardless, we applaud Trendwatching for recognizing urbanism as a major trend for the coming years.

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