How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster?

I have just watched the DVD How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster? (Norberto Lopez Amado & Carlos Carcas, 2010), and all I can say is that it is a beautiful little movie about an outstanding architect in his twilight years, but who is far from declining in output, quantity or quality. That Norman Foster, who has already had one brush with mortality, won’t be with us forever, is a sad enough thought. More sad again, is the thought that I may never live in a place like Masdar City, the zero-carbon, zero-waste mini-city in the desert near Abu Dhabi.
As I watched the CG imagery of this place-to-be, a feeling of déjà vu crept over me. Many years ago, in my hapless beginnings as a creative writer, I wrote a sc-fi story – what aspiring writer hasn’t? – about a group of people in a zero-carbon, zero-waste city, where the streets were made for people, where cars were left outside the city walls and pedestrians, when they wanted to move from one side of the town to the other, travelled on an automated system below the level of the raised streets – aaah! By the same token, my futuristic city also embraced the shady streets and oases of green as Foster’s Masdar. My town was no utopia, however, nor a ‘totalitarian’ society, neither. There was still rich and poor, still deep class division, but rich and poor alike lived in an unpolluted atmosphere. Yes.
Too bad that I will never live the Metropolis dream, and it probably wouldn’t be a good idea, but there are some things worth salvaging. We have long trounced the notion of architect as social engineer, but I believe the idea of living in an unpolluted atmosphere, is one worth striving for. Nor is it an ‘impossible dream’. It is not that long ago since non-smoking employees were routinely exposed to the fallout of their smoke-happy colleagues. They don't get away with it, now. The zero-carbon city will happen, but for my generation and upwards, I fear it will be all too little, too late. What do other readers think?