Review of The Human Scale (2012) by Mike T — 04 Aug 2013

Like 2011 doco Urbanised, The Human Scale deals with the shaping of modern cities to avoid the mistakes of the past and to make urban dwelling more enjoyable and efficient as humanity shifts towards a highly urbanised future.

In a swift global survey the film charts the sometimes painful process of challenging car-centric sprawl in the face of vested interests and outdated worldviews. From an Antipodean perspective, the chapters on smarter growth in Melbourne and the grueling reconstruction in Christchurch (with doomy music for Gerry Brownlee's attempted usurpation of the public-led city plan) are close to home.

But it's the eye-opening dilemmas faced by the tumultuous 'giga-cities' of India, Bangladesh and China that are where the fate of 21st century humanity is being decided. The chapter on Dhaka was most worrying - gaining half a million population every year, the city is increasingly prone to devastation and huge loss of life from even relatively mild earthquakes as building standards are shirked and ground-water is squandered.