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He is not romantic about human nature, however. When he talks about progress, he is careful to separate technological advance from, say, "ethics", which he says, smiling wryly, show no signs of improving. He was not surprised by the riots in the suburbs of Paris and he relates them to a misconception politicians have about the function of cities and their peripheries, which he believes have been vilely neglected by the planning authorities.

After Paris, what can be done to improve the suburbs? This, he says, is the key question. "The big topic of today, and of the next 20 years, will be peripheries. How you can transform peripheries into a town. What is happening today in Paris is happening everywhere. It is mad, mad, and the insensitivity of people and politicians . . . They create ghettos. In Paris it is particularly bad. Now people are starting to understand that the real challenge of the next 30 years is to turn peripheries into cities. The peripheries are the cities that will be. Or not. Or will never be."
renzo piano


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