According to statistics, 54% of the world's population is now concentrated in cities. In some 30 years, this figure, according to scientists' forecasts, will approach 70%. I wonder what conditions the overwhelming majority of the world's population will live in?
Ecology first of all
Many megacities have long faced the problem of overpopulation. Citizens lose many hours in traffic jams, a huge amount of harmful emissions literally poison their lives, infrastructure decays and falls into disrepair. It is becoming more and more difficult to supply the growing population with energy, clean water and food. And at the same time, it is becoming more and more difficult to dispose of waste.
Most architects and scientists are convinced that the current vector of development of large cities has exhausted itself. There is no longer any possibility to grow in breadth, upward is not too correct, since, according to doctors, it is harmful for a person to stay above the level at which birds fly for a long time.
There are enough projects, including the most fantastic ones, since architects are people with a highly developed imagination. Many of these projects are likely to remain on paper because they are too expensive to implement. But in some places the authorities still decided to try and implement bold plans in metal, stone and glass right now.
A bold futuristic project was undertaken by the Chinese government. Not far from the multimillion-dollar metropolis of Chengdu, they are building from scratch the Great City (working title), designed for 100,000 people. The designers believe that if all their ideas are implemented exactly, it will be the most environmentally friendly city in the world. First of all, due to the complete rejection of transport.
Any movement in the Great City can be done on foot or by bicycle without traffic jams and harmful emissions. Its unique layout will help to quickly get to any part of the city - the residential area will be located in the very center, and roads, transport hubs, office and administrative buildings will be around it. To get from the center to the outer ring on foot, you will need to spend no more than 10 minutes.
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The Chinese city of the future is projected to 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. True, so far it has not been possible to interest investors: all work is being carried out exclusively with budget funds. And there are not enough people willing to buy real estate in the Great City.
The authorities of the United Arab Emirates went even further. Already, in the desert not far from Abu Dhabi, a completely new city is being built - Masdar. Its main feature will be complete independence from traditional energy sources. Instead of oil, gas and coal, Masdar will receive energy from the sun, wind and geothermal sources. Thus, it will become the first zero-carbon metropolis. Even high-speed public transport will run on solar panels. Another innovation here will be the rejection of high-rise construction.
Under the same roof
However, solving the environmental problems of big cities is a matter of the very near future. The example of Masdar and the Great City, if successful, will surely follow in many countries. But architects are interested in looking much further.
For example, specialists from the Australian design bureau John Wardle Architects have suggested what Melbourne will look like in a hundred years. They believe that the city is simply doomed to grow not in breadth, but upward. The authors of the project see Melbourne in 2120 as a conglomerate of skyscrapers of 300-400 floors, connected by air and underground routes. At the same time, the entire metropolis will be covered by a common transparent roof. It will not only create an overall comfortable microclimate, but will also be used for collecting water, planting crops and generating solar energy.
The idea of isolating urban space from the environment is quite popular among urbanists. In their opinion, this will expand the geography of the distribution of large settlements. People will be able to settle in the deserts and far beyond the Arctic Circle. In addition, practicing such technological solutions will help in the future to master the Moon, Mars, and, possibly, more distant planets.
However, such projects also have opponents. For example, the founder of the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, Vicente Guayart, predicts an imminent end to cities in our usual sense. He sees the root of the problems of modern megacities in their excessive centralization. This leads to a traffic collapse and a decrease in the quality of public space from the center to the outskirts. Guayart is convinced that the real cities of the future are small settlements scattered over the vast territories of the association. Each of them should include everything necessary for life, but not turn into a huge gathering of people, machines and industries.
Supporters of the Catalan architect are confident that the digitalization of life in developed countries has reached a scale at which the management of such "distributed" cities may well be entrusted to computers. Guayart believes that personal transportation, office centers and industrial zones will inevitably become a thing of the past. True, it is not entirely clear what will happen to the existing cities, many of which were built for hundreds of years around a single center.
Pixels and water scrapes
The principal opponents of the "distributed city" theory argue: there is not enough free land right now, and in the future, the growth of the world population will still force city planners to fight for every piece of free space. To feed billions of people and provide them with oxygen, more and more space will need to be allocated for vegetation and less space for building.
Architectural bureau Neo Tax has proposed an interesting project, tentatively titled "3D City". The essence of innovation is in the construction of houses not only upwards, but also to the sides above the trees. Buildings will occupy only a small area on the ground, but in the air at 10-20 floors they will grow in all directions.
A similar design bureau Design Act offered to the public at the 2010 international exhibition in Singapore. The object is made up of several thousand cubes, which together look like pixels on a monitor. Externally, the building resembles a huge digital cloud hanging over green meadows. So far, however, things are not going further than plans in this direction.
The lack of land resources is perhaps the only thing that urbanists agree on. But if some offer to become like birds and move closer to the clouds, others intend to explore the sea. Indeed, two-thirds of the Earth's area is occupied by water, and as a result of global warming, the land is also continuously retreating. In the foreseeable future, partial flooding threatens such large cities as Jakarta, Amsterdam, Venice, St. Petersburg, Manila.
A very bold and interesting project was proposed by Chinese architects. Their city of the future could be located on the high seas and consist of several towers the size of the famous Empire State Building. But with one important difference: all floors, except for the last two, will be under water.
Each building will be able to generate its own energy using waves, sun and wind. In addition to residential apartments and hotel rooms, the giant "water scrapes" will provide space for farms, desalination plants and more. Each tower will be kept afloat by means of special cables that resemble the tentacles of a crab. These structures will be connected, of course, by water (or rather, underwater) transport.
Through hardship to the stars
However, the most daring projects of cities of the future are associated with near-earth space and other planets. In the USSR, the project of a settlement on the Moon has been developed since the 1960s. The designers came to the understanding that when mastering, for example, the Moon, you will have to start small.
First, on the surface of the only satellite of the Earth, a vanguard must be fixed. The home of the pioneers would be a base made up of transformer modules. Then it was supposed to build landing and launch sites. Further, regular transport communication was established, new modules, "moon-moon" equipment were delivered, a nuclear power plant was mounted, and the planned development of our natural satellite began. The lunar city should have grown not in breadth or upward, but inward.
For a long time they argued about the optimal forms of internal and external premises. As a result, we settled on cylinders and spheres as the most convenient for storing thermal energy and protection from external influences. The interiors were supposed to be equipped with inflatable furniture. Taking into account the recommendations of psychologists, the cells for living were designed for two people.
To remove the effect of a confined space, the architects selected special color combinations for the interior and developed new types of lighting. All this was supposed to solve the problem of living in an underground (sublunary) city, only 1% of which would be on the surface. Yes, and this small part, with the exception of the entrance gateways and communication equipment, was planned to be covered with a meter layer of the lunar soil, which is the best protection against radiation.
Despite the fact that the USSR curtailed its lunar program, these ideas gave a lot of food for thought to architects-futurists. All new projects of lunar or Martian settlements in general outline repeat the plans of Soviet scientists. Moreover, more and more often "space" ideas are adopted by the designers of quite earthly cities. Cylindrical and spherical shapes are used in construction in the Arctic, in the highlands and under water.
How we see the cities of the future largely depends on the imagination of architects and the appetites of investors. But one thing is certain: nothing stands still, and in any case hundreds of interesting solutions await us.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №49. Author: Boris Sharov