The project is a city on land and under water. Building cities of the future: energy, recycling, waste-free environment. Songdo International Business District, South Korea
According to statistics, 54% of people on our planet live in cities. According to scientists, by the middle of the 21st century there will be 66% of them. Today, engineers and designers are developing projects for the cities of the future, in which all resources will be spent as efficiently as possible. Let's find out about the most interesting of them.
Project of a futuristic city of the future - Masdara
The ecological situation in the United Arab Emirates is far from ideal. This is due to the fact that hundreds of oil production plants have been opened in the country. At the same time, the presence of large reserves of "black gold" makes the UAE also one of the richest states. Here are the most fashionable hotels, the highest skyscraper in the world, artificial archipelagos. And recently, local sheikhs decided to create the first city on the planet without harmful waste and carbon dioxide emissions - Masdar.
Masdar will be powered by 88,000 solar panels located on the outskirts of the city. This decision is due to the fact that clear weather in the region is 355-360 days a year. All light switches in Masdar are equipped with motion sensors - this will help minimize electricity consumption. The city will be surrounded by walls, and its foundation will be raised by 7.5 meters.
The architects designed Masdar so that the buildings would be heated as little as possible, and the pavement would be constantly in the shade. The streets will be laid taking into account the prevailing wind direction and the position of the sun in the sky. This will reduce the temperature near the ground by about 20 degrees.
Cars will be prohibited within the city, and all tourists will have to park outside Masdar. Local residents will move with the help of an underground transport network running on electricity.
This is interesting: The first phase of the construction of Masdar will be completed in 2018. After that, 7,000 people will be able to live in new houses. The engineers plan to complete the project by 2030. After that, the population of Masdar and the surrounding suburbs will reach 100,000.
The industrial corridor will stretch for almost 1.5 thousand kilometers! Today, over 1.2 billion people live in India, a third of whom will move to cities over the next decade. Since the country is predominantly underdeveloped and average age its inhabitants are 27 years old, there is a huge need for jobs. Therefore, the Government of India decided to implement the largest infrastructure project in the history of the country.
The 1,480-kilometer Delhi-Mumbai "corridor" will allow the country to become the cheapest producer of goods on the planet. During the implementation of this project, engineers will build dozens of modern railway lines, through which these goods will be delivered directly from conveyors to ports and airports. Also, 24 environmentally friendly cities with developed infrastructure will be built along the corridor.
This large-scale project is financed not only by the Indian, but also by the Japanese government. The economy of this country is based on the high-tech industry, and the Japanese want to make India their main manufacturing "factory". According to calculations, 90 billion dollars will be spent on the project.
A gift from the King of Saudi Arabia to his people The economic city of King Abdullah is located 100 kilometers north of Jeddah (the second city in Saudi Arabia in terms of population). Its construction will cost $100 billion. The city is about the size of Washington DC.
It will connect Mecca and Medina through a high-tech rail network. Another important stage in the implementation of the project is the construction near the Industrial Valley metropolis. Its center will be a large petrochemical plant.
The largest educational institution in the city, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, began construction in 2009. Abdullah himself donated $20 billion for its construction. After the completion of construction, the university will be inferior in size only to Harvard and Yale.
This city is the legacy that the king of Saudi Arabia will leave to the people. After construction is completed, 2 million residents will receive modern housing. It will also create 900,000 new jobs.
Koreans expect Songdo to become the business center of Northeast Asia Korean engineers are developing a project for the Songdo International Business District. It will cover an area of 607 hectares and will be located near Incheon Airport (65 kilometers from the capital, Seoul).
Songdo will consist of 40% park areas, some of which will become smaller copies of New York's Central Park, Venice canals, etc.
This is interesting: The garbage system that will be implemented in Songdo deserves special mention. Waste will be sucked directly from the baskets and delivered directly to the place of processing through underground pipes.
Another one interesting idea- the use of a powerful information network that will unite all household devices and service systems using wireless technology. This will allow engineers to perfectly coordinate and "synchronize" life in the city.
By the end of 2016, 60,000 Koreans will be able to live in Songdo, and 300,000 new jobs will also be created. Of the project's estimated cost of $30 billion, one-third has already been spent on 120 buildings. The South Korean authorities expect that after the completion of construction, Songdo will become the main business center of the northeastern region of Asia.
6. Skyscraper cities
Skyscraper Burj Khalifa in the UAE Skyscrapers such as the 828-meter Burj Khalifa (Dubai) are an example of the efficient use of space in cities lacking free space for expansion. They are where most of the high-rise buildings are built. The main advantage of this approach is rational use limited resources (fuel, water, electricity, etc.).
Therefore, in some countries, projects for the construction of futuristic skyscrapers are being seriously discussed, which to some extent will become full-fledged cities. They will house parks, shops, offices, entertainment areas, restaurants, etc. That is, people will be able to lead a full life without leaving the high-rise city.
In Kuwait, the construction of the Mubarak al-Kabir building (its height will reach 100 meters) is underway, and in Azerbaijan - the Azerbaijan skyscraper (1049 meters). The first project will be completed in 2016, the second in 2019. Such buildings are, of course, not full-fledged high-rise cities, but simply the right step in this direction.
This is interesting: All conceivable records in the near future will be beaten by the skyscraper Dubai City Tower. Its height will exceed 2400 meters! Construction will be completed in 2025.
The Americans were thinking about such a project back in the early nineties. In San Francisco, it was planned to build a 500-story skyscraper Ultima Tower with a height of 3200 meters. It was supposed to be home to 1 million people. Japan a few years ago abandoned the construction of a two-kilometer Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid skyscraper.
This is what a mexican will look like The Mexicans surprised the whole world by announcing the construction of an underground skyscraper. It's funny that it will be called Earthscraper, which means "earth scraper". Architects and engineers expect to build a 65-story building in the form of an upside down pyramid with a base area of 7600 square meters in the center of Mexico City. square meters. The “roof” of the skyscraper going deep into the earth will be a solid glass panel measuring 240 by 240 meters. It will also serve as a public square, where concerts and solemn military parades are planned to be held.
2 years ago, American designer Matthew Fromboluti presented a project for a similar underground building. He proposes to build it near Bisbee, Arizona. The Earthscraper Above Below could be built inside the abandoned Lavender Pit Mine, which is 275 meters deep.
Geothermal energy will be used in these "earthscrapers" to meet the domestic needs of people.
Autonomous Arctic cities projects Meanwhile, in Russia, a project is being discussed autonomous city Umka, named after the polar bear cub from the Soviet cartoon of the same name. It will be located on Kotelny Island, which belongs to the Novosibirsk archipelago. From here to the North Pole - only 1600 kilometers.
Kotelny Island is an inhospitable place. The average air temperature in January here is -30°С, in July - about +1°С. All year round piercing north winds blow from the sea.
The city of Umka will resemble the International Space Station, enlarged dozens of times. Up to 6 thousand people can live in it. The city will be self-sufficient and isolated from the outside world. Umka is a large-scale experiment that, among other things, will help scientists improve the designs of future space colonies.
This is interesting: French scientists went even further and proposed the creation of a floating settlement in the Arctic, designed for 800 people. According to their plans, the city should follow the icebergs, being fully provided with fresh water. And solar panels will generate all the energy necessary for the needs of the population.
The first floating cities will appear in the near future! Issues of global warming, sea level rise and scarcity useful resources prompted Chinese engineers to the idea that it was time to build cities on the water. They developed a project for a metropolis of 10 square kilometers, which will consist of hexagonal modules, united into one by a network of underwater streets and roads.
Engineers of the Japanese company Shimizu do not lag behind colleagues from the Celestial Empire. They plan to create a floating city with the interesting name "Floating Green". It will be covered with vegetation and occupy up to 10 artificial islands. A kilometer-long skyscraper, located in the central part of the city, will become both a vertical farm for growing plants and housing for tens of thousands of people.
No less interesting is the project of the underwater city Ocean Spiral. The huge spherical structure will accommodate 5,000 people and will be completed by 2030. Electricity will be generated from the energy of sea waves.
Note that all of the above-mentioned cities will become self-sufficient in terms of energy, food production and waste disposal.
Ideal City Plan by Jacque Fresco 98-year-old Jacque Fresco has developed an ideal plan for all the cities of the future. According to his plan, all structures must first be made in the form of composite modules, and then delivered to the right place and assembled. This will significantly reduce costs. True, for this you will have to create a mega-factory capable of mass-producing individual apartments or even entire houses for several cities at the same time. It is planned that they will be made of light grades of reinforced concrete with a ceramic coating. This material is durable, fireproof, resistant to any climatic conditions and virtually maintenance-free. Thin-walled structures from it can be mass-produced, the production of each batch will take a few hours. At the same time, they are not afraid of either storms or earthquakes.
It is planned to make each house autonomous, equipping it with its own electric power generator and heat storage. Jean Fresco offers solar panels to be built directly into windows and walls. And the tinted thermal glass will protect people from bright sun rays on a hot day.
This is interesting: The main feature of the city, built according to the plan of the Venus project, will be its shape. The streets will be arranged in concentric circles, so that residents can get to the right place in the shortest possible time.
The e-QBO cube is able to solve the energy problems of modern cities Some of the futuristic projects we talked about above are already underway. Interestingly, they all involve building from scratch. The fact is that building a new city is cheaper and easier than improving an existing one, bringing it to the same standards.
Let's mention a promising development that can simplify the production of electricity in urban areas - the e-QBO cube. The monolithic cube generates energy thanks to photovoltaic panels integrated into its surface.
E-QBO is such an architectural "chameleon" that can harmoniously fit into the urban landscape. At the international conference Milan Innovation Cloud, dedicated to new technologies in the field of energy, the black cube served as an exhibition pavilion. And for the duration of the exhibition-fair MADE 2013, it became the living room that hosted the participants of the event.
Dimensionse- QBOs can vary from a few centimeters to tens of meters. A residential building can easily fit into a large cube, and a small one can easily serve, for example, as a bench in a city park.
There is no doubt that many futuristic projects of the cities of the future will become a reality in the coming decades. But people should also take care of the development of technologies that can make modern megacities self-sufficient, environmentally friendly and more energy efficient. Behind them is the future.
We are used to living in a world of constantly changing technologies. Now you will not surprise anyone with glass skyscrapers and giant shopping centers. Some architectural styles are suddenly replaced by others. But let's look into the future for a moment and imagine what the cities of the future might look like in a few decades? An underwater city, an underground metropolis or a city without a single car. Sounds like fantasy, doesn't it? But projects of such futuristic concepts already exist, and some of them have even begun to translate into reality.
"Great City", China
A few years ago, the Chinese government approved the implementation of the ambitious project "The Great City" - a single-industry city, which will completely lack land transport. The construction of the "Great City" has a very clear goal - to solve China's acute problems, such as infrastructure congestion and environmental pollution. "The Great City" is a project of an environmentally friendly city with an area of 2,000 square kilometers and a population of 80,000 people, built in countryside China. It is estimated that the city will consume 48% less electricity and emit 89% less waste into the atmosphere compared to cities of similar size.
Such impressive results can be achieved due to the unusual design of the city. Residential buildings will be located in the very center of the "Great City", and other buildings will be located around them. Thus, any resident will be able to reach any point of the city in less than 15 minutes on foot or by bike. More than half of the city's area will be occupied by special eco-parks that will process waste and generate electricity. However, there will still be transport in the city, though it will be underground. With it, residents will be able to move around the city itself, as well as travel to other settlements in China.
"Floating Greens", Japan
As we know, Asia is the most densely populated region in the world. Therefore, the standard solution in most Asian cities is to build tall skyscrapers that can accommodate a lot of people. However, for Japan, this option is not entirely suitable due to the frequent occurrence of earthquakes and tsunamis. The Japanese decided to get out of this situation very in an unusual way- build a city in the open ocean, in which the impact of seismic events will be minimal. This is how the project called "Floating Greens" was born - six islands, like water lilies, with central towers stretching up to 1000 meters. Each floating island will be rigidly anchored to the bottom of the ocean.
In total, 30 thousand people can live on the islands. Each of the floating oases is interconnected by a transport system, creating a full-fledged city, which has everything you need for a comfortable life. Each tower is divided into three main levels: the first will contain living quarters, the second industrial premises, farms, etc., and on the third office, shops and other public commercial buildings. The main area of the islands will be occupied by forests, lakes and rural buildings.
"Desert Rose", UAE
"Desert Rose" is a project of an environmentally friendly city located in the heart of the desert of the United Arab Emirates. "Desert Rose" is a small satellite city of 14,000 hectares, which is located ten kilometers from Dubai and is connected to it by an overground metro line. The city will use only environmentally friendly transport, and it is planned to generate electricity using solar panels with a total capacity of 200 megawatts, which will be located on the roof of buildings. Air-conditioned walkways will also be built in the city for walking in hot weather.
The project includes 550 residential villas, educational establishments, hospital, shopping malls and organic farms. The construction of the city began in 2016 and will take place in four stages over 10 years. At first, about 160 thousand inhabitants will be able to live in the city.
"Cloud Resident", China
In the framework of the international architectural competition for the construction of the technological capital of China, the city of Shenzhen, the project of the Urban Future Organization, called "Cloud Resident", won. The presented project completely changes the view on modern design cities. "Cloud Citizen" is the world's first cloud city, located in the center of Shenzhen, which has already marked the future business center of the world.
The project consists of three interconnected towers 600 meters high. The buildings will be interconnected using a special technology, so that the impression will be created that the towers are floating in the air. The buildings will contain residential premises, IT clusters, industrial and public areas, as well as green terraces. The city will be able to be completely independently provided with environmentally friendly electricity. The Cloud Resident windows are planned to be moved towards Hong Kong. This decision was not taken by chance. Thus, the local authorities want to demonstrate new technological capabilities to Hong Kong, which uses the old financial management model.
Earthscraper, Mexico
And if some countries plan to live in the clouds, the Mexicans decided to go underground. The new project, under the uncomplicated name "Earthscraper", is a concept of the city, consisting of only one building, which will go three hundred meters underground. The "Earthscraper" is shaped like a 65-storey inverted pyramid with an area of 7618 square meters. Construction will take place in the heart of Mexico City. The roof of the building will be a glass transparent panel measuring 240 by 240 meters, which will also be a public square where local residents can walk. It will be possible to move around the building on special high-speed elevators. Due to geothermal energy sources, the city will be able to become completely independent in terms of energy.
"Ocean Spiral", Japan
The Japanese never cease to amaze mankind with unusual technological ideas. So, in 2014, Shimizu Corporation introduced the Ocean Spiral project, the world's first underwater city. However, as the company's president Hideo Imamura said, this is a very real goal, not an unrealizable dream. According to him, already in 2035, the first underwater inhabitants will be able to settle in the city. According to the project management, the concept will save people during earthquakes and tsunamis. The project budget will be more than $25 billion.
The structure will take the form of a giant spiral, going under water to a depth of 12 kilometers. At the top of the spiral, near the surface of the water, there will be a sphere 500 meters in diameter, in the center of which is a giant skyscraper. The building will house a research center, residential modules, shopping and entertainment center, public buildings, offices, etc. In total, about 5,000 people will be able to live in the main area. From the main sphere, special mobile modules will move down the spiral structure. At the bottom of the ocean, at the base of the structure, there will be a mining factory. It is also planned to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen to maintain life, and to use the difference in pressure and temperature to generate electricity.
Already, the face of megacities is rapidly changing under the influence of advances in the development of 3D printing, the Internet of things and composite materials.
Cities of the Future are no longer just projects on paper. Already, the face of megacities is rapidly changing under the influence of advances in the development of 3D printing, the Internet of things and composite materials. The transport system also affects the appearance of the city. More companies are experimenting with passenger drones. Following the transport infrastructure, the city itself will also change.
The city of the future is not only "heaven on Earth", but also new class related problems. Poverty and crime do not disappear in modern progressive agglomerations. So what should the city of tomorrow look like in order to overcome healthy pessimism?
Changing architecture
Moscow was included in the list of seven contenders for the title of the smartest city on the planet (the winners of previous years were Toronto, Montreal, Eindhoven, Stockholm and Glasgow). But even if the capital wins, the actual problems of the present will not disappear - traffic jams, at least.
Innopolis, located in the Verkhneuslonsky district of the Republic of Tatarstan, can be considered a real place for the embodiment of futuristic ideas in Russia.
The architecture of Innopolis pleases the eye, solves the problem of fatigue from the sight of the "urban jungle", relieves part of the psychological stress of the city dweller. The residential complexes of Innopolis repeat the elements of nature - they are unique, diverse, and exclude soulless copying of details. The buildings are bright green, white and woody. Parking - only underground; municipal buildings mimic the natural landscape; Electric buses run throughout the area.
Innopolis has one absolute plus, which makes it possible to implement any ideas - the population today does not exceed 3 thousand people. On such a scale, many problems do not exist at all. For example, transport. Self-driving cars are good for everyone, but they take up as much space as conventional ones. Drones will not save the city from traffic jams - moreover, due to the availability of transport (you no longer need to be able to drive), there will be even more cars.
You can’t just build up everything with parking lots - this is not profitable from the point of view of the economy. A city will prosper if it has large venues where people come together.
The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority announced in early 2017 that flying drones for individual transportation would begin this year. A prototype of a new type of passenger transport can carry one person weighing up to 100 kg in 30 minutes over a distance of 50 km, traveling at speeds up to 160 km/h. The passenger simply selects the destination using the touch screen, boards the capsule and flies.
It is planned that by 2030, 25% of transportation in Dubai will be "smart" and unmanned. However, in other cities, problems are still trying to be solved in other ways.
Even environmentally friendly transport will not save the city from difficulties. The more eco-transport becomes, the more acute the problem of parking. In Hangzhou (China), bicycles are simply thrown around the city - this is a problem of the car sharing model, which is popular (through the application, the bike is unlocked, and then the bike can be left anywhere in the city). As a result, the entire city was littered with thousands of ownerless bicycles. It is also impossible to get rid of them - the city's population annually increases by 200,000 people. It is impossible to demolish old roads and build new ones because of the city center, which has historical value.
The Hangzhou authorities are developing the subway, and have also increased the number of municipal electric transport by purchasing 3,000 buses and taxis. This did not solve the problem, because there are too many people at the moment.
If we move to the other side of the world, to the Swedish city of Malmö, which is already being called the city of the future, we can see an example of the synergy of different approaches to the transport problem. 40% of residents use bicycles to move, and all public transport runs on biofuels, which are collected from the kitchens of city residents. In Malmo, bicycles are not abandoned, but left in special parking lots. Dozens of intersections are equipped with a special sensor system that gives bicycles an advantage on the roads. Many trains and ferries have bike compartments.
Real city of the future
Malmo is Swedish Detroit, a dying industrial city, all the greatness of which has remained in the distant past. But now Malmö, once considered Sweden's highest unemployment rate, has become a thriving eco-reserve for the creative class.
Desperate times call for desperate measures - the city took on the restructuring and renovation on its own. Old industrial shipyards were demolished, instead of them from environmental materials built 600 houses, shops and office buildings equipped with solar panels and wind turbines. The new city block was connected to a water recycling system that uses water first for heating in the winter and then for air conditioning in the summer.
Waste shredders have been installed in every kitchen in the new Malmö house. The resulting material is sorted into several dozen categories - it is sent for processing into biofuel for cars and public transport, used to cover parking lots and roads.
Malmö is one of the greenest cities on the planet, and all this greenery is not only concentrated in parks, but also located in botanical gardens open to citizens. In addition, on those roofs where solar panels are not installed, they break mini-squares and supply them with rainwater collection systems.
In the most advanced area of the city (Hallbarheten), residents can control the level of electricity consumption inside their apartments depending on the time of day and their needs. The temperature in the apartments is controlled by thermostats. The level of illumination in the rooms is adjusted automatically - the parameters change depending on the purpose of the room, time of day and season.
By 2030, the city plans to completely switch to alternative renewable energy sources. Malmo is not included in the tops of the most advanced cities in the world, but if you pay attention to the practicality of various ratings, many questions will arise.
Questions to Bangalore and response from Singapore
The consulting agency Jones Lang LaSalle has compiled a rating of the thirty most dynamically developing cities and agglomerations of the world, among which more than half are located in the Asia-Pacific region. Silicon Valley occupies only the third place in the list, but the city of Bangalore came out on top.
This city is the fifth largest in India. Bangalore is considered the scientific center of the whole country - it has a huge number of different IT companies. Bangalore is a huge city of IT people, where hundreds of thousands of programmers come. American, Canadian and Asian companies have opened their offices and call centers here.
Is the city ideal for living? No. Traffic on the roads is very busy and chaotic, the way from home to office takes a long time, the city practically does not use "green" technologies.
But there is an exception to the rule. Singapore has been recognized with many awards supporting its status as the City of the Future. A few years ago, the Smart Nation project was launched, preparing Singapore for the future. According to the plan, the city will become a testing ground for testing technological solutions to various urban problems. One of the main tasks is to simplify the life of citizens with high density population.
Solar panels and vacuum waste disposal systems appeared. Several districts of the city were equipped with sensors that track the consumption of electricity and water. All sensor data will be centrally collected and analyzed to obtain the most complete information about the city.
Caring for people is manifested not only in ordinary things - the authorities have also installed a monitoring system for lonely elderly citizens based on motion sensors. If old man does not move for a long time, the system automatically gives an alarm to relatives and health workers. Another medical innovation is telemedicine, in which patients undergo treatment (most often a recovery period) at home, under the supervision of a physician (via telepresence systems).
"Dead" city of the future
In the state of New Mexico, they want to build a CITE (Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation) city for 35 thousand people, in which no one will live. Telecommunications firm Pegasus Global Holdings is set to invest $1 billion to build it. To capitalize on the project, Pegasus plans to lease buildings and provide services to help clients test, develop and commercialize experimental technologies.
The CITE project is a full-scale model of a typical American city that will be used as a Petri dish to develop new technologies that will shape the future of the urban environment. Corporations, universities and the federal government will use the facility to test new technologies in clean energy, security and autonomous vehicles on a large scale, but without inconveniencing or even threatening the millions of people who live in real cities.
The 33 square miles will host research in transportation, construction, communications and security. CITE will include dedicated areas for the development of new forms of agriculture, energy and water treatment. Unmanned vehicles will drive on special roads and be controlled from above by drones.
The city of CITE should be an "intermediate step" between laboratory testing of the technology and its release to the market. The project allows you to test not only the infrastructure, but also the new city of the future itself.
CITE is planned to be built by 2018, although the official website has not been updated suspiciously since the spring of 2016, but let's hope for the best. In any case, CITE is much closer to reality than thousands of futuristic city concepts.
Masdar that survived the crisis
Masdar in the UAE has long been considered one of the most promising futuristic projects. Although the photographs of Masdar are more likely to indicate the construction of a new "ghost town", there are still people in it. The good news is that since 2015 the city has been making a profit and in two or three years will return the funds invested in it to the state.
At the time of completion of construction (it has been ongoing since 2008), 40 thousand people will live here, and another 50 thousand will come here daily to work from nearby Abu Dhabi, using the fast public transport system (however, you can drive around the city in your car , but only if it is an electric car).
The builders of Masdar aim to minimize their carbon footprint by cutting it in half compared to other cities. Houses are built from eco-friendly materials, and water and energy costs are carefully calculated in them. Narrow (width 3 meters) and short streets do not allow the sun to heat asphalt pavement on footpaths, but the city also has two-lane streets for electric vehicles and bicycles.
Initially, it was planned to completely abandon personal cars, but the development of carsharing and the mass production of environmentally friendly electric vehicles changed the architects' plans.
A careful approach slows down the pace of construction - at the moment 7% of the territory is ready, but by 2020 they promise to rebuild 35-40%, and by 2030 - to complete construction.
The infrastructure of the city includes many small improvements. For example, instead of the usual Wi-Fi points, Li-Fi is used here - a technology for transmitting data through LED lamps street lamps, which allows not to lose the channel width with an increase in the number of subscribers.
In addition, the city has a 45-meter wind tower, a 22-hectare photovoltaic complex, a refrigeration factory with 2.5 km deep wells, and much more.
However, Masdar is not the country's most ambitious project. In 2017, the Emir of Dubai, Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, announced that in 2117 it is planned to build a city on Mars the size of Chicago and with a population of up to 600,000 people.
The first steps in this direction will be taken in a few years - the UAE space agency will send the Hope probe to Mars in 2021. The main goal of the mission is to study the atmosphere in low orbit at different latitudes. Hope will also study how the Martian atmosphere leaks into space.
computer city
In Portugal, they wanted to build a PlanIT Valley smart city, almost all elements of which (from traffic lights to the temperature of the water in the tap) would be controlled using a single operating system, which collects 5 petabytes of information per day from more than 100 million connected sensors.
The unified information system was supposed to link not only sensors in the "smart home - smart city" format, but to unite an unlimited number of smartphones, tablets, computers, roads and buildings in a single communication space.
The construction needed 20 billion euros, which was never found, but the concept turned out to be so attractive that it survived and spread to other cities - PlanIT elements are now being implemented in different parts of the world. There is no doubt that sooner or later all the elements will be implemented in one place.
PlanIT Valley's unified control center will know everything about temperature, light levels, humidity, traffic, heating and water supply throughout the city. This will allow you to instantly respond to any emergency situations. It will be possible to optimize the use of resources and manage the city in real time.
PlanIT Valley is like a game simulator where instead of one player there are hundreds qualified specialists, around the clock monitoring the state of urban infrastructure. The residents themselves will be able to manage the city with the help of Place Apps - it will be possible, for example, through mobile app turn on a street lamp.
Problems and other projects
In China alone, thousands of new houses are being built right now. The smart city of Iskander in Malaysia is known all over the world. South Korea is building the dream city of Songdo. Even Skolkovo can become an energy efficient, innovative city. Against this background, one somehow does not want to think that some difficulties will remain in the cities of the future.
Overpopulation is one of the main problems of the urban world. When only 100-story skyscrapers remain around, trees will have to make room, and people will have to reduce their living space. Ultra-modern design incubators do not answer the question of where to store millions of electric vehicles.
In 1979, Shenzhen was just a quiet fishing village with 30,000 people. Today, the city's population is over 11 million, driven by an influx of workers from the countryside. Cities attract people. It is possible that in the future there will not even be countries left - there will only be cities stretching for hundreds and thousands of kilometers.
On the other hand, so far we have only come to solving the most obvious problems. No one builds a city for a million inhabitants at once. If we manage to solve all the problems for a thousand people, then the project will scale. And there, the future is at hand. published
Architects around the world are increasingly beginning to realize that city streets should be created primarily for people, and not pieces of metal.
After more than a century of coexistence between man and car, some cities around the world are finally realizing that owning a car doesn't make much sense in an urban environment. And the point here is not only and not so much in the high death rate in road accidents, but in the fact that the car becomes too inconvenient means of transportation around cities. There were simply too many of them.
Car traffic in London today moves slower than the average cyclist. Los Angeles drivers spend 90 hours a year in traffic. And a British study showed that the average motorist spends more than 100 days in a lifetime looking for a parking space.
Now more and more cities are thinking about how to get rid of cars. In some, fines are introduced, and in others, tempting offers. Like, for example, in Milan, where car enthusiasts are paid for leaving the car in the parking lot and using public transport.
Not surprisingly, such changes are occurring most rapidly in European capitals, which were built hundreds and even thousands of years before the invention of the automobile. Their streets simply cannot accommodate the amount of private transport that exists today. So, let's name the cities that most successfully and consistently refuse the domination of machines in favor of people.
Leading cities in car-free
Madrid
It has already banned the movement of private cars on some streets of the city, and this year this zone will be further expanded. It is planned to convert 24 city streets into pedestrian ones over the next five years. The fine for driving in unauthorized places has been increased to one hundred euros. In addition, it is planned to significantly increase the cost of parking in central areas.
Paris
When smog reached critical levels in the French capital last year, the city authorities decided to ban the movement of cars with even or odd numbers on certain days. Air pollution in some neighborhoods immediately dropped by 30%. And since then, the municipality has continued to support restrictive measures against motorists. So, for example, people living in the center of Paris now do not have the right to use cars on weekends.
In addition, by 2020, the French capital plans to double the number of cycle lanes, completely ban diesel cars, and dedicate some streets only to low-emission vehicles (electric vehicles). The measures of the Paris authorities are already beginning to bear fruit: if in 2001 40% of Parisians did not have a personal car, today this figure is 60%.
Chengdu
This city in the southwest of China can serve as a model for everyone else. Its streets are designed so thoughtfully that you can reach any point on foot in no more than 15 minutes. The master plan of the city does not completely prohibit cars, but only half of all roads are reserved for them, and cyclists move along the other.
Hamburg
Although there is no direct ban on the use of road transport in the city center, the authorities are doing everything to make it easier and more pleasant for residents not to drive cars, but to walk or use public transport. The city has a Green Network program, which is planned to be implemented over the next 15-20 years. It includes a number of measures to develop a convenient infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists. Parks will be created throughout the city, interconnected by convenient pedestrian and bicycle paths. The "Green Network" will cover about 40% of the entire urban space and will motivate more people to give up cars.
Helsinki
The Finnish capital is expecting rapid population growth in the coming decades. But the more people will appear in the city, the less cars will remain in it. In the new plan for the development of the city, car traffic will be mainly transferred to the suburbs. The good environmental news is that the center of the capital of Finland is planned to be served only by public transport.
Today, Helsinki is also rolling out a number of innovative ideas to increase the number of people moving away from private cars. For example, a special mobile application has been created that allows you to find a bike for rent in a short time, call a taxi, find a tram or bus stop. In the next decade, the Helsinki authorities intend to make a personal car simply an unnecessary thing.
Milan
As we have already mentioned, the authorities of Milan went the farthest. They financially encourage those who leave the car in the parking lot and move on foot or by public transport. Such people receive free transport vouchers with which they can pay for their travel on municipal buses. It will not work to deceive the system - all cars of participants in such a program are tracked. When information appears in the system that the car has remained in the parking lot, bonuses are automatically credited to the road map.
Copenhagen
40 years ago road traffic in Copenhagen it was as bad as in any other major city in the world. However, now exactly half of its residents ride bicycles to work every day.
It all started in the 60s, when the municipal authorities began to purposefully introduce more and more pedestrian zones in the city center and gradually narrow the spaces for car traffic. There are currently over 320 kilometers of cycle paths in Copenhagen. An entire highway for cyclists is also under development, which will connect the suburbs with the center.
Copenhagen today has the lowest percentage of car owners in all of Europe.
To date, none of the above cities plans to completely abandon road transport. It is quite possible that this will never happen. Or maybe in the future, someone will be able to create a successful and comprehensive electric car rental system that will forever solve the problem of personal vehicles and harmful emissions. However, these are perspectives. Now one thing is clear: all the largest cities in the world have realized that their streets must first of all be created in such a way that they are convenient for people, and not for soulless iron boxes.
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We are accustomed to living in a constantly changing face of cities. Old buildings are disappearing - new, familiar modes of transport are gradually disappearing into oblivion - more environmentally friendly analogues remain. Some architectural styles crowd out others. These changes happen all the time, and we have already stopped noticing them. And if you look 10-20 years ahead and imagine what the cities of the future look like, built from scratch and overflowing with technology?
And then fantasy draws cities on Mars, cities - space stations, settlements in other galaxies ... Perhaps this will happen. But for now, we will land back on Earth and talk about the projects of the cities of the future, which will change the face of not only countries and entire continents, but the entire 21st century.
"Great City" without cars, China
Source
"Great City" is a green city project built on an area of about 3 square kilometers near the city of Chengdu. It is able to solve China's well-known problem - infrastructure congestion - by almost completely abandoning cars. The city does not consume much energy, does not pollute the environment with carbon dioxide emissions, more than half of its territory is occupied by green spaces, which can be reached from any home in just two minutes.
Eco-parks will process sewage, solid waste and produce electricity. The local climate is not well suited for solar panels, so all buildings are designed to maximize the use of wind energy.
The Great City will become a home for 80,000 people, some of whom will be employed on the project itself. The distance between any two points of the city can be covered on foot in 15 minutes, the need for a car is eliminated. But not completely. Half of the road space will be allocated for non-motorized vehicles. The city will be connected with Chengdu and its surroundings through a network of transport communications, which will form a regional transit hub in the center of the city, taken underground.
Desert Rose, Dubai
Green Desert Rose.
“Desert Rose” is the name of the 14,000-hectare satellite city project, which will use only environmentally friendly transport, and will be connected to Dubai by a surface metro line. Electricity will be supplied from alternative renewable sources. In addition, air-conditioned walking paths are provided in hot weather. The construction of the city will take ten years and will take place in four stages.
The project includes 550 comfortable villas, educational institutions and organic farms, which will be powered by 200 square kilometers of solar panels. Solar panels will be able to provide half of the needs of the city, and the use of ecological transport will compensate for the rest of the carbon dioxide emissions.
"Floating Greens", Japan
Growth up - standard solution for the development of cities in the Asian region, but for Japan this method is not always good due to the frequent threats of earthquakes and tsunamis. But then the Japanese found another way out - to build cities on the water! Such a city was the Floating Green project, consisting of ten islands, similar to water lilies, and with central towers about a kilometer high.
The towers must accommodate more than 30,000 people. The upper part will create space for work, shops and service companies. In the middle of each tower is a farm site for growing fruits and vegetables. The base of the island is used for a residential area that can accommodate 10,000 people, as well as forests and beaches. Each floating oasis will be anchored to the bottom of the ocean.
The world's first underwater city, Japan
Spherical city under water.
But for the Japanese, the idea of a floating city is far from new: by 2035, they plan to create the world's first underwater city, Ocean Spiral. It will be a spherical structure capable of accommodating up to 5,000 people and receiving energy from the bottom of the sea. Oxygen will be converted from carbon dioxide, and a large difference in temperature and pressure will be used to generate electricity.
Inside the spherical structure is a skyscraper designed for living and working 5 thousand people.
The form of a high-tech city is huge balls with a diameter of 500 meters and a capacity of 5 thousand people. The balls will be able to float on the surface or sink under water along a giant spiral structure, extending to a depth of 15 kilometers, where a mining plant will appear. The system of huge balls should save people during earthquakes and tsunamis. The cost of such a structure is estimated at $ 25 billion, and rubber will be the main building material.
A solid spiral rests on the ocean floor, on which the mining plant is located.
Project of the Arctic city "Umka", Russia
A unique project called "Umka": they are going to build a city on the permafrost beyond the Arctic Circle. Based on the structure of the International Space Station. The residents of the city will be provided with a water park, an amusement park, their own production of bread and fish products, houses, scientific laboratories, schools, a temple, hotels, and a hospital. Public transport will run on electricity. The size of such a city will be 1.5 kilometers by 800 meters, and the construction will cost about 5-7 billion dollars.
The proposed location is Kotelny Island in the archipelago of the New Siberian Islands in the Arctic Ocean (about 1.5 thousand kilometers from the North Pole).
The city is going to create a controlled climate system using space and other advanced technologies. The source of electricity will be a floating nuclear power plant, and all types of waste will be processed at two plants.
India's first smart city
Megacities such as Delhi and Mumbai are famous for their developed industry, infrastructure, financial markets, skilled workforce and the presence of foreign companies. But most of India is a poor province with a very low standard of living of the population. That is why the idea of building an industrial corridor (DMIC) between the largest megacities was born, which will allow the provinces to develop, creating new jobs and high-tech infrastructure. Such a project would cost $90 billion.
India's first smart city to be built as part of Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor project
Let's note one very pretentious fact: the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor is one of the most important parts of the plan to build hundreds of smart cities throughout the country. Hundreds, Carl! In India! And the first such city will appear in the state of Gujarat. Dholera will be built in ten years and will become a real technological gem of India: digital traffic control, no pollution, traffic jams and crowds of people. By comparison, Dholera will be twice the size of Mumbai.
The Gujarat International City of Finance and Technology will be one of India's very first smart cities.
In the same state, another no less futuristic project is under implementation - (GIFT). It also involves providing the population with the infrastructure of the future and many jobs. The complex will include offices, schools, residential areas, hotels, a conference center and retail space. And the most striking building of this city will be the Diamond GIFT Tower.
"Khazar Islands", Azerbaijan
To build a new smart city, Azerbaijan decided to create an artificial archipelago of 44 islands with a total area of 3,000 hectares. The Khazar Islands will have an airport, a yacht club, a Formula 1 track, homes for 800,000 residents, and the world's longest boulevard, 150 kilometers long. The cost of the project is estimated at $100 billion.
Azerbaijan Tower can become the tallest tower in the world.
But the main attraction of the archipelago will become. Its height will reach 1050 meters, which could break the record for the tallest Burj Khalifa. The Azerbaijan Tower will be very strong and will be able to withstand a magnitude nine earthquake. The skyscraper was planned to be completed by 2018-2019, and the islands by 2022, but last year construction was postponed indefinitely due to lack of funding.
China's "cloud dweller"
Cities in the clouds are a dream for densely populated areas of the planet.
In the Chinese city of Shenzhen, it is planned to build a sky city - a new business center of the world. It will have residential modules, office and IT clusters, public and commercial zones and green terraces. The city will include three interconnected towers approximately 600 meters high. The total area of the building is commensurate with the area of the Principality of Monaco, and the windows of the towers will overlook Hong Kong. And it's done on purpose. Local authorities want to demonstrate the new financial opportunities of the region to Hong Kong, which is an old financial model of the world. A smart sky city will be able to fully provide itself with environmentally friendly electricity.
Earthscraper in Mexico
Not a bunker, but a city of a future new type - an earth scraper!
While other countries see the future of cities in the clouds, Mexico has found another way - underground. The Earthscraper is a 65-story inverted pyramid with an area of 7618 square meters. It will appear in the center of Mexico City. The roof of the building will be a transparent glass panel 240 by 240 meters. "Outside" it will look like a public square, where residents can enjoy walks, concerts, exhibitions and military parades. The energy source for the building will be geothermal energy, which will make the underground city self-sufficient.
China's first megalopolis
The size of the new Chinese city will exceed the size of London by 137 times.
In China, it is planned to create the city of Jing-Jin-Ji, which will unite Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. It is expected to be home to 130 million people, and its size (212 thousand square kilometers) will exceed the size of more than half of the individual countries of the world. Each city in this association has its own role: Beijing is a cultural and technological region, Tianjin is a manufacturing region, and small industries will be concentrated in Hebei. To ensure that the journey from one city to another takes no more than an hour, new high-speed trains are being built.
City on the water, printed on a 3D printer, Rio de Janeiro
Worthy of attention is a very unusual concept of the Belgian architect Vincento Callebo, who proposed to build a city on the water in the coastal zone of Rio de Janeiro. building material a composite of recycled plastic waste and algae will serve, and the city itself will be printed using a 3D printer. Structures for construction can grow on their own due to the calcium carbonate contained in the water, which can form the outer skeleton and semi-permeable membranes for desalination sea water, and microalgae will be used to generate energy for heating and climate control.
Externally, residential structures with a diameter of about 500 meters will resemble jellyfish. They will house the workspace, workshops, factories for recycling, scientific laboratories, sports fields and farms. Such a city will be able to provide housing for about 20 thousand people.
The architect solves the problem of lack of food with the help of huge farms (Farmscrapers) in which plants will be grown. The place of the farms is at the very top of the structures. One of the main tasks of such a city will be the construction of scientific centers for ocean research.
Instead of a conclusion: still about Mars
For some, fantasies about cities on Mars become not just the plot for a science fiction book, but an entire architectural project.
The UAE plans to create a "mini-state and a kind of commune" on Mars for further "international cooperation". While the project city is called "Mars 2117", its construction will begin at least not in the near future. The concept assumes the size of Chicago and a population of 600 thousand people, other details of the project have not yet been disclosed.
