Future city city description of the city. The city of the future is a smart city. Green Gothenburg of the future
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Introduction
Section 1. City of the future - science fiction or forecast?
Section 2. The city is one of the most complex systems ever created by mankind.
Conclusion
List of used literature
Introduction
The city, as the most ancient and at the same time the most modern form of human settlement, is the subject of close attention not only by architects, historians, geographers, economists, art historians, but also by a wide range of people of various professions.
Apparently, people learned to mark the boundaries of territory from animals, so the exploration, development and marking of the landscape with the designation of land boundaries preceded the emergence of the first permanent settlements.
Urban planning has a history as long as the city itself. Thus, already in the writing of Ancient Egypt, the city and the fortress were designated by different hieroglyphs, which clearly indicates a fairly in-depth understanding of the nature of the city as a special form of concentration of people in a limited area.
Literature about the city has been growing for two and a half thousand years. The great physician Hippocrates brought together the experience of the functioning of Greek city-policies, outlining the hygienic rules for the orientation of streets. Hippodamus is credited with the invention of a regular grid of city streets, which has survived unchanged to this day - suffice it to recall that New York Manhattan has fully preserved Hippodamus's scheme. Plato tried to describe the ideal model of the city, starting from general philosophical judgments about the nature of interaction between people, while Aristotle summarized the experience of the constitutions of dozens of city policies and discussed the optimal number of free citizens. Rome mastered the experience of the Greeks, generalized it and standardized it. Standards for the design of public baths, markets, amphitheaters and theaters were developed and reproduced, and these standards were embodied everywhere, from the Nile to the Rhine, from the Euphrates to the Thames, adapting to natural conditions. This experience was described in many works, including Frontinus's treatise on aqueducts and fountains and Vitruvius's extensive encyclopedia. The masters of the Italian Renaissance re-read ancient texts and thought a lot about creating an ideal city, not limiting themselves to issues of planning and development. Thus, Filarete carefully describes not only the system of streets and canals, not only the standards of living quarters for representatives of different classes, not only the rules for organizing trade, but even the class schedule and menu for lyceum students. Literature and painting were significantly ahead of practice - people who still lived in medieval houses read treatises and looked at frescoes depicting endless colonnades and domed buildings that did not yet exist. The history of urbanism and urbanization proves that decades, sometimes many decades, pass from the birth of ideas to their implementation in the fabric of cities.
Section 1. City of the future - science fiction or forecast?
“The greatest danger is posed by the Cities of the Future, which are dreamed up every day by city planners who consider themselves prophets. Like Wells, they bring into the future the conditions of today, only by exaggerating some of these characteristic features,” wrote the Italian architect Porcina.
“The basis of any creativity is the struggle between a healthy form that is gaining strength and a counterfeit, imitative form” (A. Malraux). The struggle between architectural and urban planning forms that are gaining strength and counterfeit and imitative forms is not without drama. Gropius, Perret, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and other creators of modern architecture, who throughout their lives had to fight against academicism, in their declining years witnessed the complete victory of their ideas. Le Corbusier was so brilliant that he saw his followers not among those who imitate him, but among those who fight against imitation of Gropius, Perret, Le Corbusier. At all times, the ideas of innovative architects encounter stubborn resistance. There is confusion of concepts. The architecture of dreamers, the architecture of science fiction writers, the architecture of the future - these are purely conventional labels that are sometimes simply stuck at random on works of sometimes diametrically opposite directions. Groundless dreamers and masters with the gift of foresight are lumped together.
Very groundless fantasies in the field of architecture are not uncommon. Most often they appear in painters, and this is confirmed by the history of art. For example, Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel, along with completely realistic images of buildings, sometimes painted some structures that could be mistaken for the fruits of a feverish imagination. Inspired by the Tower of Babel, Desiderio and then Piranesi dreamed of grandiose architecture.
Leonardo da Vinci, who once depicted an ideal city, was considered a utopian, although he himself did not doubt that he was right. Leonardo's architectural ideas were picked up and developed several centuries later in 1914 by his compatriot Antonio Sant'Elia. The architecture of the future of Sant'Elia was also recognized as utopian until it was suddenly discovered that his projects, in which the large-scale structure of the city was radically changed, met the urgent requirements of our recent times. The picturesque architectural compositions of Bosch, Bruegel, Desiderio, Moreau were monstrous combinations of reminiscence and grotesque; they tried to combine impossible styles into a kind of stage set for a theatrical apotheosis. The architectural fantasies of Leonardo da Vinci and Ledoux, for example, are based on engineering concepts. These are not fantastic dreams at all, but fantasies generated by foresight. The house that LeDoux intended to build over the waterfall was undoubtedly the fruit of a fantastic plan. However, two centuries later, Frank Lloyd Wright built his famous house over a waterfall in the USA. Such continuity of design allows us to speak not about fantasy, but about foresight. Gigantomania, delusions of grandeur - this is how the works of visionary architects were characterized. Neither Ledoux nor Bulle escaped these criticisms at one time. But isn't modern Manhattan more fantastic than Boullé's wildest ideas? Ledoux and Bullet were the first to embark on the path of technical imagination back in the 18th century. Rene Sarger, a French architect and engineer, wrote: “Modern science fiction writers remain incomprehensible only to those who do not imagine the truly fantastic possibilities of new technology.”
Science fiction writers cannot be accused of utopianism - a creative search oriented towards the future is inseparable from utopia, the problem should always be considered from a broader and more far-sighted perspective. Interesting urban planning ideas and futurological proposals were proposed by architects and designers from various countries in the middle of the last century. This time is the beginning of the modern scientific and technological revolution - the development of nuclear energy, space exploration, chemicalization of the national economy, the introduction of cybernetics and bionics into production. All this opened up a qualitatively new stage in the design of cities of the future. During these same years, the concept called the “demographic explosion” was realized, which also determined the amazing scale and perspective of the design. The projects of innovative architects are even more extraordinary because they completely abandon the architectural heritage. An example is bridge cities. I. Friedman developed a project for a bridge city spanning the English Channel, which in its boldness surpasses the architectural fantasies of Filarete or Antoine Caron.
Projects of the so-called spatial urban planning, advocating the reasonable use of land, against the “sprawling” of cities, also offer the convenience of spatial connections between parts of the city using new possibilities of construction technology. In the cone cities designed by Paul Maimon, the diameter of the hollow reinforced concrete support is 20 meters; it is used to house elevators and manifolds for all vertical communications. The cables attached to the support resemble a huge spider web. Any elements of urban development can be suspended from these cables. I. Friedman proposes a project for a spatial city on the territory of Paris: the new city is raised into the air above the old quarters of Paris and over the Seine. Gaps between residential buildings provide insolation of the earth's surface.
In the "crater city" project, the architect Chaneac creates a spatial city using standard elements.
The structural basis is made up of artificial levels - platforms and star-shaped concrete “hedgehogs”. The structure is filled with free-form factory-made volumetric cells that are installed on supporting structures. A composition using such residential units on the scale of a large residential complex would not receive a balanced, static structure; it would form a living, ever-changing combination of residential units.
Projects of the Archigram group develop the idea of “single use” architecture. All elements of the city are designed for use during the period of obsolescence. The shortest term is for a residential cell (15-20 years). Therefore, new cells can be constantly “connected” to the structure of the city.
City project “Plug-i-city” (“socket city”, “plug city”). Architect Cook proposed a solution where a mesh large-modular structure contains all the horizontal, vertical and diagonal connections necessary for the city, transport, pedestrian and essential types of services. City elements are installed and replaced using powerful cranes.
In the cybernetic urban planning of Nikolai Sheffer, the city of work and study is designed in the form of a high-rise volume, and the city of recreation and entertainment is “spread out” horizontally.
The funnel city of Walter Jonas (in the form of a cone or pyramid turned upside down) is like an artificial valley; the apartments open into the interior of the funnel. These funnels, connected by bridges at the top, form a city.
Each funnel represents an independent quarter. Jonas developed a project for an “urban unit of the future” (“Intra-house”) in the form of an open multi-tiered funnel with an internal closed space. The goal of the project is to revive the urban commune and free up the land surface as much as possible.
The Pere Laeja Movable City project envisioned a city that would include a permanent part and a moving part that would consist of individual interlocking cells mounted on rails. Movement around the city was to be carried out using suspended sidewalks.
Arthur Quarmby, who designs plastic living cells, has given high mobility to a spatial system of cells suspended from a central hollow support mast. These cells can be detached from the supporting structure and, at the request of the resident, turned into an individual house installed on the ground, or transported to a new location and attached to other supporting structures of a similar type. Projects for cities on stilts and floating cities have been developed. Scientist Jacques-Yves Cousteau proposed a solution for a house under water.
The new movement contrasted the ideas of the “functional order” underlying the Athens Charter’s dream of “radiant cities” with its understanding of the basic conditions of urban planning: the dynamism of the era, the mobility of the elements and functions of the city. Their ideas boiled down mainly to the development of semi-fantastic projects and ideas for cities of the future, based on the limitless possibilities of technology, as well as on their own ideas about the development of future social conditions of urban planning. Aesthetic criteria are almost impossible to predict - in contrast to predicting the trend of technical and social progress. As a rule, attempts to imagine the future in its concrete reality are unsuccessful - they seem too implausible from the standpoint of today and too naive when they go into the past. Still, an idea of the future is necessary. By expressing ideas about the future, a specialist has the opportunity to express his worldview directly, specifically and in an accessible way for everyone.
The synthesis of a generalized idea of the future presupposes something more than the sum of special knowledge, namely, a holistic and dynamic picture. Of course, such a picture can only be created at the cost of certain conventions and simplifications. However, attempts to integrate all aspects of the forecast into a coherent picture can often yield more than the most in-depth study of one of them in isolation from all the others. Therefore, each researcher has the right to construct his own generalized image of the future, which incorporates a comprehensive assessment of those problems that seem to him the most pressing, in their natural movement and interrelations.
Section 2. The city is one of the most complex systems ever created by humanity
One of the most difficult problems of urban planning is to create the most favorable living conditions for people. It affects all aspects of a person's life; its solution is associated with a wide variety of issues - economic, social, political, medical, sanitary and hygienic, biological and geographical. An urban planner must also be an expert in spiritual culture, a psychologist - a “human expert”. One of the most important problems is the compliance of a person’s daily activities with his ideals and worldview. An architect must strive to create the most favorable conditions for human life, taking into account his needs and requests.
In our time, progress in the field of science is so rapid, the possibilities of practical activity and the development of human mental abilities are so unlimited that it is impossible even to predict with sufficient confidence where all this may lead. It is difficult to predict what people's needs will be in 2500, what they will consider to be the norm of behavior. We live in a rapidly developing, rapidly changing world. At the same time, some aspects of this development are seriously worrying. Industrial waste pollutes air and water, fauna and flora, disrupts sustainable ecological communities in nature, and worsens the sanitary and hygienic living conditions of people. The ever-increasing pace of life, the need to process the volume of information that increases many times over the life of one generation, the inexorable introduction of standards into consumption and culture - are paid for by huge expenditures of nervous energy, and in some way impoverish emotional life.
Urban planning far exceeds the complexity of architectural design, the skill of linking together the social, economic, geographical, etc. reaches the fullness of the result only when the city appears before us in the fullness of its essence, perceived by all senses. The skill of professional planning, which has absorbed the concentrated knowledge accumulated by many generations of urbanists, ultimately translates into the comfort of life and the comfort of the visible image. And this image is infinitely important, since it includes a wide range of elements - from the first look at the city from afar to the look at the house across the street or through the jets of a fountain in a small square. A city is also something irrational; each city has a unique character, destiny, and history.
Man is also conservative by nature. The explosion of material “nostalgia”, interest in objects of 40-50 years ago that are not of artistic value (kitsch), observed first in the West, and now in our country, is undoubtedly evidence of a longing for the stable things of the past. Previously, this transsubjective world was quite stable - a person was surrounded by things inherited from the previous generation, and the new ones were similar to the old ones. The shape of a clay pot has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years. Automaticity of perception is a great protective mechanism of the psyche; it cannot be violated with impunity. Everything changes too quickly: clothes, dishes, furniture, interiors, architecture. In a world organized in this way, only one’s “I” can be felt as constant. Everything else changes shape, rushing somewhere faster and faster. How long can one maintain a strong sense of self in such a situation? Only careful gradualism and unhurried continuity can preserve the spiritual “I” and mental health of a person in this too quickly changing world. It is almost impossible to write out a universal, generalizing recipe for a dream city.
Conclusion
What will the city be like by the middle of this century? This question needs to be answered, because unlike fantasies, the foundations of a real city of the future are being laid now. But it is difficult to answer. It is necessary to understand the very nature of urban planning, how models of the substantive, physical organization of urban space are associated with ideological positions, on the one hand, and with the economic and managerial rules of the game, enshrined in regulations and standards of behavior, on the other.
Over the past half century, the number of works devoted to urbanism and its various aspects has not only grown enormously, but continues to grow. Opinions change, we have left behind the confidence of people like Camillo Sitte that the rules for creating a beautiful city can be established once and for all, and people like Le Corbusier that the will of an artist can build a city anew. The greatest complexity, and therefore special charm, are found in those ensembles and cities that grow over time, by adding new elements so that the new whole embraces the previous whole and includes it. The architect’s task is also to be able to subordinate his decision to the decision of his predecessors. The cult of authorship and the author's ambitions should not conflict with the long-standing culture of growing an ensemble.
At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it seemed to people that technological progress would by itself solve all the problems of the city and its citizens. Now we know that this progress, the scale of which and the scale of the consequences of which they could not imagine, not only builds and develops cities, but also kills them. We must see anew the evolution of the city as a city of people. Those who consciously create this city, and those who recreate it every day by their behavior in the urban environment.
References:
V.L. Glazychev. Urbanism. Publishing house "Europe", Moscow, 2008.
A.E. Gutnov, I.G. Lezhava. The future of the city. "Stroyizdat", Moscow, 1997.
Michelle Ragon. Cities of the future. Publishing house "Mir", Moscow, 1969.
Red Book of Culture. Publishing house "Art", Moscow, 1989.
Posokhin M. A city for humans. Publishing house "Progress", Moscow, 1980.
Khorev B. Problems of cities, Moscow, 1975.
At the same time, many of these projects seem to be illustrations for as-yet-unwritten science fiction novels. Economically and technically, they are at least on the verge of feasibility. Their main drawback is that they very often contradict human requirements for the living environment, turning it into some kind of warehouses for people.
The current state of most large cities in the world and the projects described above show that the compact and concentrated development of multimillion-dollar metropolises is unacceptable for human society. The picture of the city of the future, developed on the same basis, was insightfully drawn by Anatole France back in 1908. The writer’s warning voice sounded in the description given at the beginning of the 8th book of “Penguin Islands,” entitled “Future Times. - A Story Without End”: “The houses all seemed not high enough, they were constantly being built on, built thirty, forty floors, in which there were offices, shops, banks, and boards of various companies. And, tearing the soil deeper and deeper, they dug tunnels and brought out basements.
Fifteen million people worked in a gigantic city under the light of floodlights that did not go out day or night. No daylight penetrated at all through the smoke rising from the factory chimneys that surrounded the city. Sometimes only the red disk of the sun could be seen without rays, gliding across a black horizon cut by iron bridges, from which a continuous rain of soot and coal dust fell. It was the most industrial, richest city in the world. Its device seemed perfect. Not a trace of the old aristocratic or democratic forms of government remained in it; everything in it was subordinated to the interests of the trusts” 33.
However, despite the unattractiveness of such a picture, it is obviously unrealistic to assume that large cities will disappear completely. In any case, one cannot count on eliminating them in the coming decades. On the contrary, we have to increasingly reckon with the fact that, due to the extremely high growth of population and the ongoing process of concentration, new large cities will appear. It is necessary to take into account the understandable desire to intensively use every hectare of expensive urban land for new development.
This raises a whole series of questions. Does the process of further growth of large cities represent an insurmountable pattern, or is there a need and opportunity to manage this process, striving to limit the concentration of settlement? Is it necessary to promote maximum population concentration by creating a completely artificial environment, or, on the contrary, is it necessary to strive to reduce density in large cities, increasingly using greenery and other natural components in them? Are transport and technical problems a consequence of increasing population concentration, or can the question of the basic preconditions for the existence of large cities be resolved? If possible, then at what cost - by spending colossal financial resources or by reducing the quality of the human environment? The entire world theory and practice of urban planning is looking for answers to these pressing questions. We have already become acquainted with a number of concrete and theoretical projects, the authors of which want to solve complex issues of reconstruction and further development of modern large cities, trying to overcome their serious shortcomings. However, we have also seen that often in new projects individual unfavorable aspects of a big city are so intensified that they reach their absurdity.
Taken together, they clearly demonstrate the enormous difficulties standing in the way of solving the problems of a big city - expedient inter-
connections between housing and work, ensuring accessibility to greenery, recreation areas and nature in general, developing efficient transport means and systems. It is in large cities that specific social and hygienic problems arise, and the creation of favorable living conditions for people sometimes turns out to be not only difficult, but also expensive.
At the same time, the creation of a favorable environment for society as a whole and for the individual, for the full development of his physical and spiritual strengths remains the primary problem of the modern and future big city.
A common feature of most modern projects is an attempt to overcome the spontaneous development and chaotic growth of large cities. Many concepts take into account the importance of the planned development of the urban organism. It is clear that most often this applies to projects in which new cities will be created from scratch. The situation with resolving the problems of reconstruction of existing cities is much more complicated and it is not surprising that the least satisfactory results are those of the latest transformations that are observed in the largest cities. It is in this area that there are significant differences in the understanding of the most appropriate structure, which is studied ranging from traditional centric plans up to division along various compositional and operational axes. There are different approaches to the interpretation of the microstructure of individual elements of the city, and to the maximum permissible sizes of urban strata. Over time, more and more attention in theoretical concepts is paid to communication networks, in the development of which an obvious advantage is given to mass modes of transport.
Due to the enormous complexity of the problems, and sometimes the complete inability to solve them, some experts completely deny the possibility of the continued existence of cities. However, if we do not take extremes into account, it should be recognized that a large number of modern plans contain full-fledged, vital ideas and outline specific ways for their implementation. It goes without saying that the implementation of these plans is possible only under conditions of a progressive social system.
Footnotes to Chapter V
Dozens of books, thousands of articles and special developments are devoted to the problems of large cities and their individual components. In this chapter, the material is limited to consideration of the development and current state of theoretical concepts of the big city as a whole.
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What is the city of the future, and what should it be like? Science fiction writers, designers, and engineers think about these questions. Moreover, they often seek answers to these questions in close cooperation with each other.
As a result, there are outlined fundamental points that become an integral part of any modern project of the city of the future. This is a concern for the environment and ease of movement, saving space and the desire for vertical construction.
We propose to get acquainted with 10 projects of cities of the future. Some of the presented conceptual projects are only in the development stage, while others are already under construction in order to give comfort to their residents and capture the imagination of their guests in a few years.
City without cars
The Chinese government has undertaken to build a city in which it will be possible to live without cars, having approved the Great City settlement project. The “Great City” is being built from scratch not far from Chengdu. The city will be designed for 80 thousand inhabitants, and any movement around it can be done on foot or by bicycle without any difficulties.
Its unique design will help you quickly get to anywhere in the city - the residential center will be located in the very center of Great City, and roads, office and administrative buildings will be around it. Thus, to get from the center to the outer ring of parks on foot, you will need to spend no more than 10 minutes.
According to the project, the Chinese city of the future will consume 58% less water and 48% less electricity. At the same time, the amount of waste in it will be 89% lower than in cities of a similar size.
Zero carbon city
If the Chinese Great City is a city without cars, then Masdar in the UAE is a city without cars and without skyscrapers.
Masdar is already being built from scratch in the middle of the desert near Abu Dhabi. The main feature of the city will be its complete independence from traditional energy sources. Instead of oil, gas and coal, Masdar will receive energy from the sun, wind and geothermal sources. This will make it the first zero-carbon city.
In this city of the future, a special place will be given to high-speed public transport, gigantic “sunflowers” will cover the streets from the heat of the day, and the energy they accumulate will be used only at night.
Green city in the desert
Dubai is another city from the UAE that can become the green city of the future. Specialists from Baharash Architecture created a project in which they used the world's leading achievements in eco-construction.
Their project includes 550 comfortable villas, educational institutions and organic farms, the energy for which will be generated by 200 square kilometers of solar panels.
Solar panels could supply the city with half of its needs, and the use of environmentally friendly public transport would offset the rest of its carbon emissions.
"Green" city with dense buildings
The Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture bureau believes that ultra-dense development is one of the hallmarks of the city of the future.
Bureau specialists propose to transform the second largest Swedish city of Gothenburg into a city of the future. According to their plans, ultra-dense development and the use of roofs to accommodate vegetable gardens, solar panels and windmills will fully satisfy all the residents' needs for food and energy.
In addition, such development will significantly reduce traffic and help make the city river the main transport artery.
Vertical city
John Wardle Architects have suggested what Australian Melbourne might look like in 100 years. Their Multiplicity project demonstrates a huge metropolis growing not in breadth, but down and up.
To move around the Melbourne of the future, underground and air routes will be used, and a common transparent “roof” will be created over the entire city, which will be used to grow food, collect water and solar energy.
Pedestrian city
The Puerto Rican city of San Juan is another city that has decided to go completely car-free. But unlike Great City and Masdar, San Juan is not being created from scratch, but is being rebuilt.
City officials, concerned about the rapid decline in the number of residents, are investing $1.5 billion in the redevelopment. The main task is to abandon cars and create beautiful pedestrian areas. The authorities of San Juan expect that an environmentally friendly city with excellent opportunities for a relaxing holiday will attract both tourists and future residents.
A city with a comfort center
The winner of the competition was a project that proposes to abandon motor transport and fill the center of Athens with green areas to create more comfortable conditions for walking. A small redevelopment will allow you to easily travel on foot from the center to neighboring areas.
Lawn City
Shan-Sui is another Chinese city of the future in our review. The creation of his project is carried out by the MAD Architects studio, and the idea itself is based on the veneration of the water element and mountains in China.
Shan Sui is a city with a large number of multifunctional skyscrapers. In each of them, residents and guests will have access to dozens of public spaces with pieces of wildlife for quiet relaxation and contemplation.
3D city
One of the most original projects of the eVolo 2011 Skyscraper Competition was the NeoTax project. Its essence is to build houses not only upwards, but also to the sides above the trees. Simply put, houses in the city of the future will occupy only a small area on the ground, but in the air at the 10-20th floor level they will grow in all directions.
In this way, it will be possible to preserve green spaces, and the buildings themselves, through the construction of additional modules, will offer people a much larger area for living and working.
City of pebbles
Drawing his ideas from natural forms, Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut proposed a city of the future project for the Chinese city of Shenzhen.
Each building, according to Callebo's idea, will look like a pyramid of sea pebbles stacked on top of each other. The architect emphasizes that such a design will fill the city with positive energy and will make it possible to equip gardens and vegetable gardens directly in the residential towers.
In addition, the “pyramids of pebbles” will have wind generators and solar panels, and the high density of apartments and houses will reduce the role of vehicles.
If we think about this question, it becomes obvious that human settlements have their own power of attraction. Like stars and planets in the Universe, cities attract people from all surrounding areas. The larger the city, the larger the area over which it has a great influence.
Some scientists, such as Geoffrey West of the Santa Fe Institute, believe that cities are "living." Just like animals, cities have a heartbeat and this heartbeat consists of us, its inhabitants. While roads and streets act as the veins and arteries of the body, people act as its blood cells, transferring energy from one place to another. The city experiences an influx of passengers at dawn and then an ebb in the evening, just like the heart.
In any case, cities have always been an important source of knowledge and wealth for humanity, and they will remain so. Approximately 54 percent of the world's total population lives in urban areas and this number is expected to reach 66 percent by 2050. That's about a million people moving into cities per day and that's why we need to make cities self-sufficient as soon as possible.
10. Masdar City – United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates has the most significant environmental footprint per capita in the entire world. And all this is due to the massive production of oil in the country and its distribution, as well as large construction projects of the last decade. In light of this fact, they decided to create the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste city called Masdar.
It is powered entirely by a farm of 88,000 solar panels located right outside on the outskirts of the city. All taps and light switches within the city are automated and based on motion sensors in order to limit energy consumption as much as possible. Architects have studied ancient settlements to better understand and apply various methods to reduce energy consumption. By surrounding it with walls and raising the entire foundation of the city by about 7 meters, and also by building 45-meter skyscraper towers that suck in air from above and drive cold wind through all the streets, the engineers lowered the average temperature of the city by about 20 degrees. The buildings themselves are located close together and designed in such a way that they allow air to pass through much more easily, providing both shade and a comfortable climate, while maintaining the Arabic-style architecture.
Cars are prohibited within the city walls, causing all commuters and tourists to park their cars outside the city. Transportation within the city walls is provided by an underground network of automated electric vehicles that transport people from place to place. The lack of private cars eliminates the need for "normal" city streets, which is why Masdar has none. The city also has a light elevated rail system that helps people reach their destinations.
Once completed, Masdar will be able to accommodate approximately 40,000 residents and will also provide jobs for another 50,000 commuters. The reason for the creation of this experimental city is its possible position as a world center for the development of renewable energy. Today, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology occupies one of the first completed buildings. German engineering company Siemens also has its Middle East headquarters there, as does IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency).
9. Delhi - Mumbai Industrial Corridor - India 
India, on the other hand, faces an even bigger problem. It is currently home to more than 1.2 billion people, 350 million of whom will move to cities in the next decade. Since the country is predominantly underdeveloped and the majority of its population is approximately 27 years old, the need for stable jobs has never been greater than it is now. That is why the Indian government is embarking on the largest infrastructure project in the history of this country: the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor.
The idea behind this 1,480 kilometer corridor is that India will become the cheapest producer of goods in the world. In order to do this, a series of modern railway lines will be built that will directly transport these goods from the assembly line to ports and airports (which have yet to be built). Along the route of the corridor, 24 brand new smart cities will be built that will be superior to any other Indian city in terms of infrastructure, quality of life and services. These cities will also be built as environmentally friendly as possible, relying mainly on renewable energy sources.
This mega-project is being financed in large part by the Japanese, whose economy is based on the high-tech industry, and who want India to become their main manufacturing "factory". Estimated costs will reach $90 billion, but as most of us know, the initial estimates rarely match the final result.
8. King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) – Saudi Arabia
Considering that 24 percent of all world trade passes through the Red Sea, it is not at all surprising that the Saudis have completed the largest port (King Abdullah Port - KAP) in the region. But this is just the beginning, as the entire project revolves around one of the most sophisticated and well-planned cities in the Arab world, King Abdullah Economic City.
This $100 billion vision, located just an hour north of Jeddah (the second largest city in Saudi Arabia), is set to be as huge as Washington, D.C., while connecting the cities of Mecca at the same time (Makkah) and Madinah (Madinah) through a high-tech, high-speed rail network. The second stage in the development of the project is the Industrial Valley, in which a large petrochemical plant is located. Industrial Valley has successfully attracted more than 60 national and international companies, some of which are already operating in King Abdullah Port.
No city will ever be complete without access to higher education. That is why the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology began to be built back in 2009. It is one of the best-funded universities in the world, with an initial endowment of $20 billion donated by the King himself. It is surpassed only by Harvard and Yale. It is also the first gender-mixed university in the country.
In all likelihood, this multi-billion dollar mega-project will be the legacy that King Abdullah leaves for his people, housing more than 2 million people and creating an estimated one million jobs by the time the project is completed.
7. Songdo International Business District - South Korea
South Korean engineers are currently developing the Songdo International Business District on 607 hectares of reclaimed land near Incheon International Airport, about 65 kilometers from Seoul. One of the key features of the project is its proximity to the airport, which is directly connected to the Songdo International Business District by the 11-kilometer Incheon Bridge. This will shorten the trip from the city center directly to the airport, which will take no more than 10 minutes.
The city itself will consist of about 40 percent parks and green spaces, with some emulating places like New York's Central Park, the canals of Venice and Savannah, Georgia. One of the most ingenious technologies being used in the construction of the Songdo International Business District is a waste disposal system that will suck garbage directly from bins through a series of underground pipes directly into a waste treatment facility. Another interesting idea used in city design is the use of an information network that connects all devices, services and components through wireless communication technology. This allows for a more coordinated and synchronized city.
By the end of 2016, the Songdo International Business District will be able to accommodate approximately 60,000 citizens and provide jobs for another 300,000 people. Of the initial $30 billion investment, $10 billion has already been spent on approximately 100+ buildings. Upon completion of the project, the Songdo International Business District is expected to become the central business hub of Northeast Asia.
6. One tower, one city, several countries
When it comes to city planning, building up is almost always the best choice. Today's skyscrapers, such as the 828-metre Burj Khalifa in London, provide the most efficient use of space in terms of people per square meter. Cities that lack land to expand tend to create the most skyscrapers. The boundaries of a typical city typically extend for many kilometers beyond the densely populated core in the form of residential, commercial and industrial zones. They create an incredible amount of wasted resources such as fuel, energy and water, not to mention the enormous number of hours spent in traffic on a daily basis.
That is why some countries around the world are already beginning their journey towards achieving the incredible goal of building the first tower-type megacities in history. Kuwait and Azerbaijan are waiting for the completion of their Mubarak al-Kabir (1001 meters high) and Azerbaijan (1049 meters high). The towers are due to be completed in 2016 and 2019 respectively. These, of course, are not separate cities, but rather a step in the right direction, which, by the way, has been taken upward. Next on the list is the Dubai City Tower (2400 meters high), whose name alone shows how close we are to making this dream a reality. The estimated completion date is set for 2025.
The Americans had their own design back in 1991. They were going to build a 500-story tower approximately 3.2 kilometers high. They called it Ultima Tower, placed it in San Francisco and designed it to accommodate over one million people. However, the plans started were never translated into reality. Also gone are Japan's plans to build the "Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid" (2003 meters high), which had one of the most efficient lighting systems in the world.
5. Rabbit Hole of Mexico 
As with the tower cities we talked about earlier, Mexico plans to follow the same principle, but in reverse. Instead of going up to the clouds, they decided to go underground. The name "Earthscraper" appears to have been chosen in the same way. Architects and engineers are planning to build this 65-story, 7,618-square-meter inverted pyramid right in the center of Mexico City. The “roof” of this underground building will be a 240 by 240 meter panel of transparent glass, which will act as a public square where residents of the city can walk and entertain each other with concerts, open exhibitions or military parades.
On the other hand, American designer Matthew Fromboluti has drawn up his own plans for a similar underground settlement near Bisbee, Arizona, called Above Below. His project is based on the existing abandoned Lavender Pit Mine, which is 275 meters deep and 91 meters wide. By using a series of pipes that will allow air to circulate and conduct light, much of the original surface area can be returned to its natural shape.
Geothermal energy could be the primary energy source in both of these cases, allowing these future cities to make the most of the resources of their surroundings and design to become as self-sufficient as possible.
4. Arctic Russians
Next, we will look at Russia's attempts to colonize the Arctic. Deciding that now was the time to start pushing through the Siberian tundra, the Russians developed a self-contained city called Umka (after the popular Soviet cartoon polar bear character) that would hopefully keep its inhabitants from freezing to death.
Its location will be Kotelny Island, which is part of the Novosibirsk archipelago, which is located approximately 1,609 kilometers from the North Pole. It is one of the most inhospitable places on Earth, where temperatures rarely rise above the freezing point of water. It also has some of the strongest and coldest winds. The design of Umka is reminiscent of the International Space Station, but on a much larger scale, given the fact that more than 5,000 citizens will live in the city. Since a city of this type can be built on any type of terrain, being completely self-sufficient and independent from the outside world, Umka is a large-scale experiment for future Russian space colonies.
Other, more futuristic plans include a floating settlement capable of housing approximately 800 people. It will literally be able to “feed” on melting icebergs. This Arctic Harvester was dreamed up by French students who envisioned the city following icebergs on their annual migration route south, while being provided with fresh water the entire time. Thanks to a combination of solar energy and an osmotic system that uses a combination of fresh and salt water, the Arctic Harvester will generate all the energy it will ever need.
3. Conquest of the sea
Like the Arctic Harvester we talked about above, the Chinese have begun drawing plans for their own floating city. Driven by climate change, rising sea levels and dwindling resources, China has decided it is time to consider moving some of its people to sea. This future metropolis, with an area of about 10 square kilometers, will consist of hexagonal modules interconnected by an underwater network of streets and roads.
The Japanese company Shimizu has developed its own floating city and called it Floating Greenery. As the name suggests, this floating "Ecopolis" will be almost entirely covered in vegetation and will extend over several artificial islands. The thousand-meter-tall tower in the city center will act as a vertical farm and housing for city residents. Their vision extends even further, as Japan plans to build the world's first underwater city called Ocean Spiral by 2030. It will be a spherical structure that can accommodate up to 5,000 people. It will receive its energy from the bottom of the sea.
We can only wait and see which of all these projects will be built first. However, regardless of this, it is safe to say that they were all designed to be self-sufficient in terms of food production, reducing energy consumption and optimizing waste disposal.
2. Venus Project
The Venus Project is the vision of 98-year-old Jacque Fresco, who has developed an ideal plan for future cities. If we ever build entirely new, high-tech cities on a regular basis, this design will certainly come in handy. All buildings and structures are pre-fabricated and then sent to the construction site. This system allows for better coordination and much lower construction costs. Standardization of basic structural elements allows changes to be made to meet different needs in terms of new technologies and different structural designs in the future.
One of its main characteristics is its round shape. It will provide the ability to make the most efficient use of available resources, which also includes time. Time spent either going to work, or simply moving from point “A” to point “B”. Since the project does not have the “hard edges” of a regular rectangular city, “walking around the city” takes on a more literal meaning and thus saves you time on your way back. This is effective and progressive thinking!
The basis of the Venus project will certainly be a “mega city-factory”, which will be able to mass produce entire apartments or houses in one mold for several cities at the same time. These one-piece structures will be lightweight and weather-resistant, greatly reducing the risk of damage from earthquakes, fires or floods. Did we already mention that these “modules” can be easily moved from place to place?
Once the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor technology becomes available, it is possible that countries like India, with its industrial corridor, will be able to afford to host and maintain a plant of this scale.
1. Elimination of an existing problem
These future plans and projects already underway that we have discussed so far all refer to starting construction from scratch. Building an entirely new city from scratch is usually cheaper and much easier than improving an old city to the same standards. This is the most difficult undertaking in which ingenious micro-projects thrive.
We're talking about things like electronic QBO (e-QBO), which could revolutionize photovoltaic power generation in urban environments. Its initial design is a standard dark cube, but it can come in a variety of shapes and sizes. It has a pleasant appearance and fits well into the city skyline. It acts like a regular solar panel, but aside from producing free energy, it can also be used in a number of other practical applications, such as housing someone's home in it, or using it as a park bench, or just a paperweight on your desk. table.
How about something like a Masdar-style automated electric vehicle system that could easily replace many private cars in any city? This is the main goal in Masdar. We need to find and show different and better ways to make our cities energy efficient.
In any case, this will be a difficult task for any country, regardless of its economic power. The nice aspect of this idea is that underdeveloped cities have an advantage because much of their infrastructure can be built from scratch and made initially self-sufficient.
This question is not new. Scientists, writers, architects, and probably each of us have thought about it. Now let's get acquainted with some of the most interesting projects of the city of the future and, of course, share our impressions.
1. A city without cars
This idea is far from new. After all, everyone knows that cars cause a lot of harm to the environment, but China is the first country where the idea of building a city in which there will not be a single car arose.The city will be designed for a population of about 80 thousand. All residential complexes will be located in the city center, and offices, service centers, shops and other facilities will be built up from the complex and further to the periphery. The city will have a park infrastructure, thanks to which residents will be able to get to its outskirts in just 10-15 minutes. Getting around in such a city will be done by bicycle or on foot.
According to forecasts, the city, which, by the way, will be called Great City, which means Great City, will consume much less water and electricity. And its emissions will be almost 90% lower than other cities of the same size.
2. Low carbon city
But the United Arab Emirates went even further. The city in the United Arab Emirates, Masdar, will not only be without vfiby, but it will also be missing skyscrapers. And the brilliant idea is that this city will completely do without conventional energy sources. Instead, the needs of city residents will be provided by natural sources, including solar energy, as well as wind energy, and geothermal sources. As a result, the amount of waste harmful to the environment will be reduced to a minimum.
3. An oasis city in the desert
Masdar is not the only city of the future in the UAE. If Masdar is a project that will be created from the very beginning, then Dubai is a really existing city, known to everyone. And now specialists from one of the leading architectural companies have created a project to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere.It is planned to build 550 buildings for various purposes in Dubai (from residential buildings to public institutions). And the energy for these premises will be generated using, attention, 200 square kilometers of solar modules. The city also plans to introduce transport that will not pollute the environment.
4. A city with empty buildings
Another project to “remake” an already built city into an environmentally friendly one is the project of the Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture bureau. The idea of the project is to fill the city of Gothenburg, which is located in Sweden, with dense buildings. And to save even more space, it is proposed to place areas for growing vegetables, solar panels and windmills on the roofs of houses. This will help meet the needs of residents at minimal cost.
5. Vertical city
Australian architects have proposed a rather extraordinary design. According to their idea, the city of Melbourne will develop not horizontally, but vertically, both up and down. And they plan to build a transparent cover over the city itself, which will be designed to accumulate solar energy and grow fruits and vegetables. Movement in the city will be carried out in two ways: underground and in the air.
6. Pedestrian city
Another city that plans to phase out cars is San Juan, Puerto Rico. The city is experiencing a decline in the number of residents, and this has become the impetus for investment in the city's redevelopment project. According to the project, beautiful park areas will be created in the city, and cars will be completely excluded from use. This will make the city attractive to both tourists and permanent residents. The project will cost approximately one and a half billion dollars.
7. A city with a center of relaxation
The Greeks also became “infected” with the idea of stopping the use of cars. A competition was held for the best project to change the city. Such a project was found, and now it is planned to create a “green corner” in the city center, which will serve as a place for recreation and walking. Also, minor redevelopment will be carried out, as a result of which it will be possible to move to different parts of the city on foot.
8. Glade city
The next "city of the future" in China is Shan-Sui. The city plans to build many skyscrapers to increase population density. But that is not all. In the skyscrapers themselves they plan to create various public spaces and green corners where skyscraper residents can relax and escape from everyday worries.The implementation of such a project will also make it easier to travel around the city itself. Residents will be able to quickly and easily reach various areas of the city on foot or by transport.
9. 3D city
Another project to reduce the building area and increase population density is the NeoTax project. Its essence is to build multi-storey buildings not only vertically, but also, starting from a certain height, also horizontally. This will help preserve green spaces and the environment, as well as provide housing for a larger number of people using a minimum amount of space. Such houses will be built below according to the principle of traditional high-rise buildings, and above they will branch in different directions. Quite an original project.
10. Stone Town
An interesting project was developed by the Belgian architect Vincent Callebaud for the Chinese city of Shenzhen. The Belgian was inspired by natural piles of stones and proposed building houses in the form of stones set on top of one another.This will not only save space, but also reduce the role of transport. You can also install a solar module on each “stone wing” and grow a vegetable garden.
As we have seen, there are many interesting “city of the future” projects, some of which may come to life in the near future. And, perhaps, their large-scale implementation will help us preserve the Earth’s resources and improve the state of the environment.