The Relationships City is defined by 8 principles:
1. THE GREATER THE NUMBER OF COLLABORATIVE RELATIONSHIPS A CITY HAS, THE GREATER THE AMOUNT OF VALUE WHICH IS CREATED, INCREASING THE QUALITY OF LIFE
The city is, in essence, a network of planned and spontaneous relationships between its inhabitants and between its inhabitants and their natural environment. When there are more positive exchanges within this network, there is more growth, development and quality and less waste.
2. PUBLIC AND COLLECTIVE ACTIVITY PROMOTES COLLABORATIVE RELATIONSHIPS
The concept of collaboration needs to be instilled in the minds of men and women and should be promoted by public policies. It is important to value common spaces within homes, workplaces, transport routes and urban spaces. Private space should be kept to what is necessary and sufficient.
3. THE CITY’S NATURAL TERRITORY IS UNIQUE AND PERMANENT; IT IS THE INIMITABLE LUXURY OF EACH CITY
Conserving and enriching the land, wildlife and vegetation, natural landscape, air and water are essential for the quality of life of the city’s inhabitants, to root them and enable them to project their lives into the future. The city must ensure free and open access to the natural world: observatories, city parks, perimeter parks and paths and nature reserves should enable people to fully relate to their natural environment.
4. EVERY CITY IS UNIQUE AND INIMITABLE AND THIS IS WHAT DISTINGUISHES IT
The unique nature of each city is made up of the culture of its inhabitants, its history and its natural environment. This is expressed through long-standing traditions and the conservation and enrichment of its cultural heritage. To add value to what a city offers the world, it is important to conserve and cultivate its unique nature and its heritage. Cities which destroy their own distinctiveness become uninteresting and are transformed into purely utilitarian settlements.
5. THERE MUST BE A BALANCE BETWEEN LARGE AND SMALL
There should be proportion in how high-rise buildings relate to the scale of their access on the ground, in how high-speed transport relates to the slow pace of walking and in how millions of inhabitants relate to the familiarity of small neighborhoods. Humans admire the large scale but live on a small scale, because even though they project themselves in an unlimited space, they feel safer when surrounded by that which is familiar and local.
6. QUALITY IS FOR EVERYONE
The fruits of human sophistication which a community is able to create or acquire, such as art, beauty and urban quality, should be distributed equally throughout the city. That which is public should not be segregated. Indeed, by giving importance to the public domain, equality of opportunity is generated for everyone so that they may create value and gain access to a good quality of life. Where there are fewer private resources, there must be greater public investment.
7. THE CITY SHOULD PROVIDE EVERY CONCEIVABLE MEANS FOR DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS
The city should provide places where spontaneous relationships can occur: meeting spaces within buildings, leisure areas on streets and avenues, places which encourage people to walk, contemplate and enjoy nature. Just as today every city has streets and transport, telecommunications, radio and television networks, the same should be true of information networks, to which all should have free and open access.
8. CELEBRATIONS AND LEISURE ARE ESSENTIAL
Public celebrations and cultural activities in the streets are not accessories to the working life which predominates in the city, but are essential to people’s lives. Public activity for leisure and culture is as important as transport and housing construction.