Next time you are walking in a city street, look round and take special note of the street furniture. Very often, you will become aware of a forest of poles, each surmounted by its own separate item of equipment. The mind tends to blank out this visual chaos, but it is always there – background “noise” that pollutes the public realm.In the first decade of the new millennium, cities will acquire a greater importance than ever before in accommodating the world’s population. In the developed world, demographic changes – more elderly people, more divorces, more singles and a corresponding decline in the average family unit size – will create increasing demand for residential accommodation near transportation and information centres. In the developing world, new cities are being created at an unprecedented rate to house growing populations and to cope with the drift of people from the countryside. China, for example, is at present building over 300 cities the size of Bristol. Typically rural/urban population ratios will be reversed, from 80:20 to 20:80, as people move from the land to work in sprawling new industrial centres. The effect of these changes will be to put huge pressure on existing towns and cities in developing countries as well as on agricultural land. Alex Lifschutz