We have built our lives upward and outward in concrete, glass, and steel – dense grids where nature is reduced to fragments. Once, human life unfolded in close rhythm with the land; today, it is increasingly shaped by infrastructure, screens, and separation. What we call progress has brought comfort and scale, but also distance – from mother nature, from cycles of life, and often from one another.
In 1900, only about 15% of the world’s population – roughly 220 million people – lived in cities. By 2020, that number had grown to around 56%, more than 4.3 billion people. By 2050, it is projected that nearly 70% of humanity will be urban. As our environments become more constructed, the question remains: what parts of ourselves are we leaving behind in the process?
