What will the future cities of the world look like? How will we tackle issues like climate change and overpopulation? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world\u2019s urban population is increasing rapidly, especially in the developing world. The proposed solutions to future urban challenges include revegetation, wind gardens, green rooftops, cable cars, smart traffic lights, and underground developments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read on for examples of how the future cities of the world might be different than today’s urban cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
What will the future cities of the world look like? Many new cities are being planned and built around the world. These cities give us the chance to start all over again in creating solutions for climate change, transportation, and space constraints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To deal with rising sea levels<\/a>, city designers are creating floating cities or relocating existing ones. They\u2019re also seeking novel transportation arrangements, such as car-free cities, electric \u201cground to air\u201d vehicles, and hyperloops. And they\u2019re getting around space constraints by building vertically or going under the sea. However, most of these solutions will only work for a limited number of people. We need to find ways to make sure that the world\u2019s poorest don\u2019t get left behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this article, we’ll look at how we\u2019re planning to retool our existing cities<\/em> to tackle future challenges in addition to the plans we’re making for the future cities of the world, which will tackle these same issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most immediate effect of climate change<\/a> will be increasing temperatures. Cities trap heat, creating urban heat islands that will intensify any global heating effects. With recent global heat waves becoming the new normal<\/a>, how will the future cities of the world stay cool?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vegetation is surprisingly powerful<\/a> in mitigating the heat island effect\u2014so the simplest cooling solution is planting more trees. Paris<\/a> and Bangkok<\/a>, for example, are planning vast new urban parks, while a \u201cpocket park<\/a>\u201d initiative in Athens is greening abandoned urban lots. A revamped Toronto waterfront<\/a> will feature a mass timber (compressed wood) building with forested rooftops and balconies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some city planners are seeking inspiration from cultures that know what they\u2019re doing when it comes to heat. Architects in Delhi and around the world, for example, are exploring the use of traditional Indian lattices<\/a> (jaali<\/em>) to encourage breezes to flow through new buildings. A giant wind garden<\/a> in Madrid, which is hoped to cut the city\u2019s daytime temperature by as much as 4\u00b0C (7\u00b0F) upon its opening in 2025, will have a spiral structure inspired by traditional Middle Eastern wind-catching techniques. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The roads and sidewalks in China\u2019s \u201csponge cities<\/a>\u201d are built from newly developed porous materials that can capture, filter, and store water for later use. As an added benefit, these materials also decrease both surface and air temperatures. Singapore is moving in another direction, exploring energy-saving district-level cooling systems<\/a> (designed to replace individual air conditioners) and creating a digital twin<\/a> (a city model) to explore cooling options using big data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While we can offset some aspects of climate change by adapting the cities we already have, other aspects are much more difficult to solve on the run. Rising sea levels, for example, will eventually see many of the world\u2019s coastal cities flooded<\/a>. Floating cities are one proposed solution. The Maldives, which is on track to lose 77% of its land area by 2100<\/a>, is building a floating city<\/a> with a layout inspired by the structure of brain coral. The above-water part will be home to 5,000 people, while the underwater part will be designed to encourage coral growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another solution to rising seas is to simply move to higher ground. With parts of Indonesia\u2019s capital Jakarta (population 10.5 million) sinking<\/a> due to depleted groundwater and increasingly susceptible to sea level rises, the Indonesian government has begun construction on a new capital, Nusantara, that\u2019s due for completion in 2045<\/a>. Nusantara is envisioned as a green, sustainable city and a regional economic hub. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We all know that cars cause congestion and environmental damage. But replacing them with public transport can be tricky: Trains, for example, are expensive and difficult to build through already inhabited areas. Cable cars<\/a> may be a potential solution. As well as keeping the roads clear, cable cars take up less space than railroads and can be constructed much more cheaply. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In South America, Medell\u00edn\u2019s Metrocable and La Paz\u2019s telef\u00e9rico have relieved road congestion while also connecting poorer neighborhoods with the rest of the city, leading to a reduction in socioeconomic inequality. Other cities are taking note: Paris will start work on a cable car line this year<\/a> (expected completion 2025), while Gothenburg, Jerusalem, Mombasa, and Chicago are considering, planning, or actively building new systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plans for most future cities of the world either drastically reduce the number of cars or do away with them entirely. BiodiverCity<\/a>, a planned development on reclaimed land in Penang, Malaysia, will feature artificial islands in the form of \u201curban lilypads\u201d that are fully connected by autonomous transport systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Telosa, a city of 5 million to be built somewhere in the U.S. desert<\/a>, will feature several novel transport systems. The city\u2019s designers are developing versatile electric \u201cGround to Air<\/a>\u201d vehicles that can be fitted with wheels to become cars, rotor blades to become helicopters, and rails for train and hyperloop travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In existing cities, urban planning decisions have to work with what\u2019s already there. But in the future cities of the world, we have the freedom to start all over again and get it right this time. But what are the plans to overcome future space constraints in large, urban cities?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given that most of the technology we need to build underground is already available or will soon be<\/a>, there are surprisingly few plans for underground developments. Aside from a couple of underground agricultural projects<\/a> in London and New York, we haven\u2019t experimented much beneath the surface: maybe because of the cost, maybe because we don\u2019t like it much down there<\/a>, and maybe because it\u2019s unclear who owns underground spaces<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most intriguing proposed underground development is Mexico City\u2019s Earthscraper<\/a>, an inverted pyramid<\/a> (inspired by the Aztec pyramids) to be driven 65 stories into the ground under the city center. Unfortunately, however, the $800 million price tag and location in a known earthquake zone mean that it\u2019s not likely to become reality anytime soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When most of our current cities were designed and built, skyscraper technology wasn\u2019t well developed. But the future cities of the world can take advantage of advances in construction that open up the possibility of vertical cities<\/a>. While no true vertical cities have been green-lit so far, the 632 m (2,000 feet) tall Shanghai Tower and its sky lobbies<\/a> give us a sense of what one might look like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We could also go underwater. We already have the technology<\/a> to build underwater colonies of up to 100 people, and submarine-like technology could be used to build settlements that submerge and resurface periodically for natural light. On the other end of the population scale is Liam Young\u2019s Planet City<\/a> thought experiment<\/a>, a \u201chyper-dense metropolis\u201d that can house 10 billion people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the global urban population is on track to be 6.4 billion in 2050, growth in the developed world will be relatively flat<\/a>: Between 2005 and 2050, cities in developed countries will grow steadily from 900 million to 1.1 billion, while cities in developing countries will balloon from 2.2 billion to 5.3 billion over the same period. This means that while pocket parks and cable cars might work in the developed world, developing countries will need bolder solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\nKeeping Cool With Climate Change<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Greening Urban Areas<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Drawing on Traditional Knowledge<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Developing New Cooling Technologies <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Floating Cities<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Relocation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Tackling Urban Transportation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Accessibility<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
New Vehicles<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Overcoming Space Constraints<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Underground Cities<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Vertical Cities<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Undersea Cities<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Who Gets Left Behind?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n