City project on land and under water. Future cities under construction: energy, recycling, waste-free environment. Songdo International Business District, South Korea
According to statistics, 54% of the people on our planet live in cities. According to forecasts of scientists, by the middle of the XXI century there will be 66%. Today, engineers and designers are developing projects for cities of the future, in which all resources will be spent as efficiently as possible. Let's find out about the most interesting ones.
The project of a futuristic city of the future - Masdar
The environmental 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 countries. The most fashionable hotels, the world's tallest skyscraper and artificial archipelagos are located here. 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 costs 355-360 days a year. All light switches in Masdar are equipped with motion detectors to 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 were heated as little as possible, and the pavement was constantly in the shade. Streets will be laid out taking into account the prevailing wind direction and the position of the sun in the sky. This will lower the temperature near the ground by about 20 degrees.
Cars will be banned within the city, all tourists will have to park outside Masdar. Local residents will travel using an underground transport network powered by electricity.
This is interesting: The first phase of the construction of Masdar will be completed in 2018. After that, 7 thousand people will be able to live in new houses. The engineers plan to complete the project completely by 2030. After that, the population of Masdar and the surrounding suburbs will reach 100 thousand.
The industrial corridor will stretch for almost 1.5 thousand kilometers! India today has over 1.2 billion people, a third of whom will move to cities over the next decade. Since the country is predominantly underdeveloped, and the average age of its inhabitants is 27 years, there is a huge need for jobs. Therefore, the Indian government 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 along which these goods will be delivered straight from conveyors to ports and airports. Also, 24 ecologically clean cities with developed infrastructure will be built along the corridor.
This large-scale project is funded 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 production "factory". It is estimated that $ 90 billion will be spent on the project.
Gift of 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 comparable in size to Washington.
It will connect Mecca and Medina through a high-tech rail network. Another important stage in the implementation of the project is construction near the metropolis of the Industrial Valley. Its center will be a large petrochemical plant.
The largest educational institution in the city, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, began to be built back in 2009. Abdullah himself donated 20 billion dollars for its construction. After completion of construction, the university will be second only to Harvard and Yale in size.
This city is a legacy that the king of Saudi Arabia will leave to the people.Upon completion of construction, 2 million residents will receive modern housing. Also, 900 thousand new jobs will be created.
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 \u200b\u200b607 hectares and will be located close to Incheon Airport (65 kilometers from the capital, Seoul).
Songdo will be 40% parkland, some of which will become smaller copies of New York's Central Park, Venice's canals, etc.
Interesting: The garbage system that will be implemented in Songdo deserves a separate mention. Waste will be sucked directly from the baskets and transported through underground pipes directly to the recycling site.
One more 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 thousand Koreans will be able to live in Songdo, and 300 thousand new jobs will also be created. Of the estimated project cost of $ 30 billion, one third has already gone to the construction of 120 buildings. The South Korean authorities expect that after the completion of the construction Songdo will become the main business center of the northeastern region of Asia.
6. Skyscraper cities
Burj Khalifa skyscraper in the UAE Skyscrapers such as the 828-meter Burj Khalifa (Dubai) are examples of efficient use of space in cities that lack free space for expansion. Most of all high-rise buildings are built in them. 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 will, to some extent, 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 boundaries of a 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 broken by the Dubai City Tower. Its height will exceed 2400 meters! Construction will be completed in 2025.
The Americans were thinking about a similar project back in the early nineties. In San Francisco, it was planned to build a 500-story Ultima Tower skyscraper with a height of 3200 meters. It was supposed to be home to 1 million people. Japan, however, a few years ago abandoned the construction of the two-kilometer Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid skyscraper.
This will look like a Mexican 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, upside-down pyramid-shaped building in downtown Mexico City with a base area of \u200b\u200b7,600 square meters... The "roof" of the skyscraper going deep into the earth will be a durable 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.
Two years ago, American designer Matthew Fromboluti presented a project for a similar underground building. He proposes to build it near Bisbee, Arizona. Above Below's Earthcracker can be built inside the abandoned Lavender Pit Mine, which is 275 meters deep.
Geothermal energy will be used to meet the household needs of people in these "earth scrapers".
Autonomous Arctic Cities Projects Meanwhile, Russia is discussing a project for the autonomous city of 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 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 tenfold. 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 projects of future space colonies.
This is interesting: French scientists went even further and proposed creating a floating settlement in the Arctic for 800 people. According to their plans, the city should move after the icebergs, being completely supplied 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! The problems of global warming, rising sea levels and a lack of useful resources prompted Chinese engineers to think that it was time to build cities on water. They developed a 10-square-kilometer metropolis project that will consist of hexagonal modules linked together by a network of underwater streets and roads.
The engineers of the Japanese company Shimizu are keeping up with their colleagues from the Middle Kingdom. They plan to create a floating city with the interesting name "Floating Greenery". It will be covered with vegetation and will occupy up to 10 artificial islands. A kilometer-long skyscraper, located in the central part of the city, will simultaneously become a vertical farm for growing plants and housing for tens of thousands of people.
The Ocean Spiral underwater city project is no less interesting. The huge spherical structure will hold 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 disposal of waste.
Ideal City Planning by Jacques Fresco Jacques Fresco, 98, has developed the perfect blueprint for all 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 lightweight 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 storms or earthquakes.
Each house is planned to be made autonomous, equipped with its own generator of electrical energy and heat storage. Jean Fresco proposes to build solar panels directly into windows and walls. And the darkened thermal glass will protect people from bright sun rays on a sultry day.
This is interesting: The main feature of the city, built according to the plan of the Venera project, will be its shape. The streets will be arranged in concentric circles, so that residents will be able to get to the desired place in a minimum of time.
E-QBO cube can solve energy problems of modern cities Some of the futuristic projects we've outlined 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 conformity with similar standards.
We will mention a promising development that can simplify the production of electricity in urban environments - 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 blend into the urban look. At the Milan Innovation Cloud, an international conference dedicated to new technologies in the energy sector, the black cube served as an exhibition pavilion. And during the exhibition-fair MADE 2013, it became a living room that received the participants of the event.
Dimensionse-QBOs can vary from a few centimeters to tens of meters. A large cube will easily fit a residential building, and a small one will 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. The future is behind them.
We are used to living in a world of ever-changing technology. Now you will not surprise anyone with glass skyscrapers and gigantic shopping centers. Some architectural styles are suddenly changed by others. But let's look into the future for a second 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 science fiction, doesn't it? But projects of such futuristic concepts already exist and some of them have even begun to be translated into reality.
"Great City", China
Several years ago, the Chinese government approved the implementation of the ambitious project "The Great City" - a mono-city in which there will be no land transportation at all. The construction of the "Great City" has a very clear goal - to solve the acute problems of China, such as overloaded infrastructure and environmental pollution. "The Great City" is a project of an ecologically clean city with an area of \u200b\u200b2 thousand square kilometers and a population of 80 thousand people, built in countryside China. It is estimated that the city will consume 48% less electricity and the amount of waste discharged into the atmosphere will be 89% lower than cities of similar size.
Such impressive results can be achieved through the unusual design of the city. Residential buildings will be located in the very center of the "Great City", while other buildings will be located around them. Thus, any resident will be able to reach anywhere in 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, the city will still have transport, although underground. With the help of it, residents will be able to move around both the city itself and travel to other settlements in China.
Floating Greens, Japan
As we know, Asia is the most populous region in the world. Therefore, the standard solution in most Asian cities is to build tall skyscrapers that can accommodate many people. However, this option is not entirely suitable for Japan due to the frequent occurrence of earthquakes and tsunamis. The Japanese decided to get out of this situation very in an unusual way - to build a city in the open ocean, in which the impact of seismic events will be minimal. This is how a 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 ocean floor
In total, 30 thousand people will be able to live on the islands. Each of the floating oases is connected 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 will contain industrial premises, farms, etc., and the third will contain offices, shops and other public commercial buildings. The main area of \u200b\u200bthe islands will be occupied by forests, lakes and rural buildings.
Desert Rose, UAE
"Rose of the Desert" is a project of an ecologically clean city located in the heart of the desert of the United Arab Emirates. Desert Rose is a small satellite city with an area of \u200b\u200b14 thousand hectares, which is located ten kilometers from Dubai and is connected to it by a surface 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 roofs of buildings. Also in the city will be built walking paths with air conditioning for walking in hot weather.
The project includes 550 residential villas, schools, hospital, shopping centers and green 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 Dweller, China
In the framework of the international architectural competition for the development of the technological capital of China, the city of Shenzhen, the winner was the project of the Urban Future Organization, called "Cloud Dweller". The presented project completely changes the view on modern city design. Cloud Dweller is the world's first cloud city located in the center of Shenzhen, which is already marked by the future business center of the world.
The project consists of three interconnected towers 600 meters high. The buildings will be connected to each other using a special technology, so that the impression will be created that the towers are floating in the air. The buildings will house living quarters, IT clusters, production and public areas, and green terraces. The city will be able to fully supply itself with ecologically clean electricity. The windows of the "Cloud Dweller" are planned to be displayed in the direction of Hong Kong. This decision was not made by chance. Thus, the local authorities want to demonstrate the new technological capabilities of Hong Kong, which uses the old financial management model.
"Zemleskreb", Mexico
And if some countries plan to live in the clouds, then the Mexicans have decided to go underground. The new project under the uncomplicated name "Zemleskreb" is a concept of the city, consisting of only one building, which will go three hundred meters underground. "Zemleskreb" has the shape of a 65-storey inverted pyramid with an area of \u200b\u200b7618 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 using special high-speed elevators. Due to geothermal energy sources, the city will be able to become completely energy independent.
Ocean Spiral, Japan
The Japanese never cease to amaze mankind with unusual technological ideas. For example, in 2014 Shimizu Corporation presented the Ocean Spiral project, the world's first underwater city. However, as the president of the company, Hideo Imamura, said, this is a very real goal, not a pipe dream. According to him, 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 have the shape of a giant spiral that goes under water to a depth of 12 kilometers. At the top of the spiral, next to the surface of the water, there will be a sphere with a diameter of 500 meters, 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. Special movable modules will move from the main sphere 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 support life, and 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 city's appearance is also influenced by the transport system. More and more companies are beginning to experiment with passenger drones. Following the transport infrastructure, the city itself will 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 be the settlement of tomorrow to overcome healthy pessimism?
Changing architecture
Moscow was included in the list of seven cities-contenders for the title of the "smartest" city in the world (Toronto, Montreal, Eindhoven, Stockholm and Glasgow were recognized as winners of the past years). 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 is pleasing to the eye, solves the problem of fatigue from the sight of the "urban jungle", relieves part of the psychological stress of a citizen. Residential complexes of Innopolis repeat the elements of nature - they are unique, diverse, excluding soulless copying of details. The buildings are bright green, white and woody. Parking lots - only underground; municipal buildings imitate the natural landscape; electric buses run through the territory.
Innopolis has one definite plus, which makes it possible to implement any ideas - the population today does not exceed 3 thousand people. On this scale, many problems do not exist at all. For example, transport. Self-driving cars are great for everyone, but they take up as much space as regular cars. 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 - it's not profitable from the economic point of view. A city will thrive 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 will begin operating this year. A prototype passenger transport of a new type 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 a destination using the touch screen, gets into the capsule and flies.
It is planned that by 2030, 25% of transport in Dubai will be smart and unmanned. However, other cities are still trying to solve problems in other ways.
Even environmentally friendly transport will not relieve the city of difficulties. The more eco-transport becomes, the more acute the problem of parking. In Hangzhou (China), bicycles began to simply be thrown around the city - this is a problem of the popular car-sharing model (through the application, the lock is removed from the bike, and then the bike can be left anywhere in the city). As a result, the entire city was littered with thousands of abandoned bicycles. It is also impossible to get rid of them - the city's population increases by 200,000 people every year. 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 three thousand buses and taxis. This did not solve the problem, because there are too many people at the moment.
If you travel to the other end of the world, to the Swedish city of Malmö, which is now called the city of the future, you 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 biofuel, which is collected from the kitchens of city residents. In Malmö, bicycles are not abandoned, but left in special parking lots. Dozens of intersections are equipped with a special sensor system that gives bicycles an edge on the road. 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 is in the distant past. But Malmö, formerly Sweden's highest unemployment area, is now a thriving eco-sanctuary for the creative class.
Desperate times call for desperate measures - the city has independently undertaken restructuring and renovation. Old industrial shipyards were demolished, and instead 600 homes, shops and office buildings equipped with solar panels and wind turbines were built from ecological materials. The new city block was connected to a water recirculation system, in which water is first used for heating in winter and then for air conditioning in summer.
Waste disposers have been installed in every kitchen of 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, and is 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, mini-squares are set up and equipped with rainwater collection systems.
In the most advanced area of \u200b\u200bthe city (Hallbarheten), inside their apartments, residents can control the level of electricity consumption, depending on the time of day and their needs. The temperature in the apartments is controlled by thermostats. The illumination level in the rooms is adjusted automatically - the parameters change depending on the purpose of the room, time of day and time of year.
By 2030, the city plans to completely switch to alternative renewable energy sources. Malmo is not included in the top of the most advanced cities in the world, but if you pay attention to the practicality of the various ratings, many questions arise.
Questions to Bangalore and Singapore's answer
The consulting agency Jones Lang LaSalle has compiled a rating of the thirty most dynamically developing cities and metropolitan areas in the world, of which more than half are located in the Asia-Pacific region. Silicon Valley ranks only third in the list, but the city of Bangalore came out on top.
This city is the fifth largest in India. Bangalore is considered to be the scientific center of the whole country - it contains a huge number of various IT companies. Bangalore is a huge IT city where hundreds of thousands of programmers come to visit. 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 journey from home to office takes a long time, and green technologies are practically not used in the city.
But there is also an exception to the rule. Singapore has received numerous awards to support its status as the city of the future. A few years ago, we launched the Smart Nation project, preparing Singapore for the future. According to the plan, the city will become a testing ground for technological solutions to all kinds of urban problems. One of the main tasks is to simplify the life of citizens when high density population.
Solar panels and vacuum waste disposal systems were introduced. Several districts of the city have been equipped with sensors that track electricity and water consumption. All data from sensors 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 surveillance system for single elderly citizens based on motion sensors. If the elderly person does not move for a long time, the system automatically gives an alarm signal to relatives and health workers. Another medical innovation is telemedicine, in which patients undergo treatment (most often it is a recovery period) at home, under the supervision of a doctor (through telepresence systems).
"Dead" city of the future
In the state of New Mexico, they want to build a city CITE (Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation) for 35 thousand people, in which no one will live. Telecommunications firm Pegasus Global Holdings is planning to invest $ 1 billion in its creation. To profit from the project, Pegasus plans to lease buildings and provide services that will help customers test, develop and find commercial uses of 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, safety and autonomous vehicles on a large scale, but without the inconvenience or even threat to the millions of people who live in real cities.
Research in transportation, construction, communications and security will take place at 33 square miles. CITE will include dedicated zones for the development of new forms of agriculture, energy and water treatment. Unmanned vehicles will travel on special roads and be monitored from above by drones.
CITE should be the “intermediate step” between laboratory testing of the technology and its introduction to the market. The project allows testing not only the infrastructure, but also the new city of the future itself.
CITE plans to build by 2018, although the official site has not been suspiciously updated since spring 2016, but let's hope for the best. In any case, CITE is much closer to reality than thousands of futuristic city concepts.
Masdar surviving the crisis
Masdar in the UAE has long been considered one of the most promising futuristic projects. Although Masdar's photographs are more indicative of 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 will return the funds invested in it to the state in two or three years.
At the time of completion of construction (it has been going on since 2008), 40 thousand people will live here, and another 50 thousand will come here to work every day from nearby Abu Dhabi, using the fast public transport system (however, you can also drive around the city in your car , but only if it's an electric car).
Masdar's builders strive to minimize carbon emissions by halving them compared to other cities. Houses are built from eco-materials, and water and energy costs are carefully calculated. Narrow (3 meters wide) and short streets prevent the sun from heating asphalt pavement on pedestrian paths, but the city also has two-lane streets for electric vehicles and cycling.
Initially, it was planned to completely abandon personal cars, but the development of car sharing and the mass production of eco-friendly electric vehicles changed the plans of the architects.
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 city's infrastructure includes many minor 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, allowing not to lose channel width with the growth of the number of subscribers.
In addition, the city has a 45-meter wind tower, a 22-hectare photovoltaic complex, a cold-supply 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 United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, announced plans to build a city on Mars the size of Chicago and a population of up to 600,000 in 2117.
The first steps in this direction will be taken in a few years - the UAE space agency will send the "Hope" spacecraft 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 smart city PlanIT Valley, almost all elements of which (from traffic lights to water temperature in the tap) would be controlled using a single operating systemcollecting 5 petabytes of information per day from more than 100 million connected sensors.
A 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 - now the PlanIT elements are 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.
A single PlanIT Valley control center will know everything about temperature, lighting, 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 - hundreds qualified specialistsmonitoring the state of the city infrastructure around the clock. Residents themselves will be able to manage the city with the help of Place Apps - it will be possible, for example, to turn on a lantern on their street through a mobile application.
Problems and other projects
In China alone, thousands of new homes are being built right now. The whole world is famous for the smart city of Iskander in Malaysia. Songdo is being built in South Korea. Even Skolkovo can become an energy efficient, innovative city. Against this background, I somehow do 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 there are only 100-story skyscrapers around, trees will have to make room and people will have to reduce their living space. Cutting-edge incubators don't answer the question of where to store millions of electric vehicles.
In 1979, Shenzhen was just a quiet fishing village with 30,000 inhabitants. Today the city's population is over 11 million, driven by the influx of workers from the countryside. Cities beckon people. It is possible that in the future there will not even be countries left - there will be only cities stretching for hundreds and thousands of kilometers.
On the other hand, so far we have only come to the solution of the most obvious problems. No one is building a city with a million inhabitants at once. If we manage to solve all the problems for a thousand people, then the project will be scaled up. And there, the future is just a stone's throw away. published
Architects all over the world are increasingly realizing that city streets should be created primarily for people, and not for pieces of metal.
After more than a century of coexistence between man and car, in some cities around the world there is finally a realization that owning a car does not make much sense in an urban setting. And the point is not only and not so much in the high mortality rate in road accidents, but in the fact that the car is becoming too inconvenient means of transportation in cities. There are simply too many of them.
Traffic in London today is slower than the average cyclist. Los Angeles drivers spend 90 hours a year in traffic. And a British study found 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 imposed, and in others, tempting offers. As, for example, in Milan, where car enthusiasts are paid to leave their car in the parking lot and use public transport.
It is not surprising that such changes occur most rapidly in European capitals, which were built hundreds or even thousands of years before the invention of automobiles. Their streets simply cannot be accommodated for the amount of private transport that exists now. So, let's name the cities that most successfully and consistently abandon the dominance of machines in favor of people.
Leading cities in car abandonment
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 within the next five years. The fine for traveling in the wrong places has been increased to one hundred euros. In addition, it is planned to significantly raise the cost of parking in the central regions.
Paris
When smog levels hit critical levels in the French capital last year, city officials decided to ban even or odd-numbered cars on certain days. Air pollution in some quarters immediately dropped by 30%. And since then, the municipality has continued to support restrictive measures against motorists. For example, people living in the center of Paris are no longer allowed to use cars on weekends.
In addition, by 2020, the French capital plans to double the number of cycle paths, completely ban diesel-powered cars, and also allocate some streets only for low-emission vehicles (electric vehicles). The measures taken by the Parisian authorities are already beginning to bear the first fruits: if in 2001 40% of Parisians did not have a personal car, today this figure is 60%.
Chengdu
This city in southwest 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 general plan of the city does not completely prohibit cars, but only half of all roads are allocated for them, and cyclists move along the other.
Hamburg
Although Hamburg does not explicitly ban the use of road transport in the center of the city, the authorities are doing everything to make it easier and more pleasant for residents not to drive by car, 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 convenient infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists. Parks will be created throughout the city, connected by convenient pedestrian and bicycle paths. The Green Network will cover about 40% of the entire urban space and will motivate more people to abandon cars.
Helsinki
The Finnish capital expects rapid population growth in the coming decades. But the more people appear in the city, the fewer cars will remain in it. In the new development plan for the city, car traffic will mainly be transferred to the suburbs. The good news for the environment is that the center of the Finnish capital is planned to be served only by public transport.
Today, Helsinki is also implementing a number of innovative ideas to increase the number of people leaving private cars. For example, a special mobile application has been created that allows you to find a bike for rent, call a taxi, find a tram or bus stop in a short time. 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 farthest. They financially reward those who leave the car in the parking lot and move on foot or by public transport. These 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 the participants of 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 roadmap.
Copenhagen
40 years ago road traffic Copenhagen was as bad as any other major city in the world. However, now exactly half of its inhabitants ride bicycles to work every day.
It all began in the 60s, when the municipal authorities began to purposefully introduce new pedestrian zones in the city center and gradually narrow the spaces for car traffic. Copenhagen currently has over 320 kilometers of bike paths. An entire cyclist highway is also under development that will connect the suburbs to the city center.
Copenhagen has the lowest percentage of car owners in all of Europe today.
Today, none of the above cities plans to completely abandon road transport. It is 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 transportation and harmful emissions. However, these are prospects. Now one thing is clear: all the largest cities in the world have realized that their streets, first of all, should be created so that they would be convenient for people, and not for soulless iron boxes.
Photo: dapperguide.com, 999images.com, 4onatrip.com, 1.bp.blogspot.com, traveljapanblog.com, static.panoramio.com, ricknunn.com. Based on materials: fastcoexist.com
We are accustomed to living in an ever-changing city landscape. Old buildings disappear - new ones appear, the usual types of transport gradually disappear into oblivion - more environmentally friendly analogues remain. Some architectural styles are supplanting others. These changes are constantly occurring, and we have already stopped noticing them. And if you look 10-20 years ahead and imagine what the cities of the future, built from scratch and overflowing with technology, look like?
And here 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 projects for cities of the future that will change the face not only of countries and entire continents, but of the entire 21st century.
"Great city" without cars, China
A source
“Great City” is a green city project built on an area of \u200b\u200babout 3 square kilometers near the city of Chengdu. It is able to solve China's widely recognized problem - infrastructure congestion - by virtually eliminating cars. The city does not consume a lot of 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 house in just two minutes.
Eco-parks will recycle wastewater, solid waste and generate electricity. The local climate is not well suited for solar panels, so all buildings are designed to maximize wind power.
The “Great City” will be home to 80 thousand people, some of whom will be employed on the project itself. The distance between any two points of the city can be walked 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 the surrounding environs through a network of transport communications, which will form a regional transit hub in the city center, taken out underground.
Desert Rose, Dubai
Green "Rose of the Desert".
"Rose of the Desert" is the name of the project of a satellite city with an area of \u200b\u200b14 thousand hectares, which will use only environmentally friendly transport, and will be connected with Dubai by a surface metro line. Electricity will be supplied from alternative renewable sources. In addition, there are air-conditioned walking paths 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 city's needs, and the use of ecological transport will offset 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 because of the frequent threats of earthquakes and tsunamis. But then the Japanese found another way out - to build cities on the water! Such a city became the "Floating Greens" project, which consists of ten islands similar to water lilies and with central towers about a kilometer high.
The towers are supposed to accommodate more than 30 thousand people. The upper part will create space for work, shops and service companies. In the middle of each tower, there is a farm for growing fruits and vegetables. The base of the island is used for a residential area that can accommodate 10 thousand people, as well as forests and beaches. Each floating oasis will be anchored to the ocean floor.
The world's first underwater city, Japan
A spherical city under water.
But for the Japanese, the idea of \u200b\u200ba floating city is far from new: by 2035, they plan to create the world's first underwater city, the Ocean Spiral. It will be a spherical structure that can accommodate up to 5 thousand people and receive energy from the bottom of the sea. Oxygen will be converted from carbon dioxide, and large differences in temperature and pressure are used to generate electricity.
Inside the spherical structure there is a skyscraper designed to accommodate and work 5 thousand people.
The shape 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 descend under the 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 protect people during earthquakes and tsunamis. The cost of such a structure is estimated at $ 25 billion, and the main building material will be rubber.
The rigid spiral abuts 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. The structure of the International Space Station is taken as a basis. For residents of the city, there will be a water park, an amusement park, their own production of bread and fish products, houses, scientific laboratories, schools, a temple, hotels, and a hospital. City transport will be powered by electricity. The dimensions of such a city will be 1.5 kilometers by 800 meters, and the construction will cost about $ 5-7 billion.
The proposed location is Kotelny Island of the Novosibirsk Islands archipelago 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. A floating nuclear power plant will be the source of electricity, and all types of waste will be processed at two plants.
India's first smart city
Metropolitan areas such as Delhi and Mumbai are famous for their developed industry, infrastructure, financial markets, skilled labor and the presence of foreign companies. But most of India is poor provinces with very low living standards. Therefore, the idea of \u200b\u200bbuilding an industrial corridor (DMIC) between the largest metropolitan areas was born, which will allow provinces to develop, creating new jobs and high-tech infrastructure. Such a project will cost $ 90 billion.
India's first smart city to be built as part of the 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, Karl! 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. For comparison, Dholera will be twice the size of Mumbai.
The International City of Finance and Technology Gujarat will be one of the earliest Indian smart cities.
In the same state, another equally futuristic project is underway - (GIFT). It also envisages providing the population with the infrastructure of the future and many jobs. The complex will include offices, schools, living quarters, hotels, a convention center and retail space. The most striking building in 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 \u200b\u200b3,000 hectares. The Khazar Island will have an airport, a yacht club, a Formula 1 track, houses for 800 thousand residents and the world's longest boulevard - 150 kilometers. The project cost is estimated at $ 100 billion.
Tower Azerbaijan may become the tallest tower in the world.
But the main attraction of the archipelago will become. Its height will reach 1,050 meters, which could break the record for the tallest tower of the Burj Khalifa. The Azerbaijan Tower will be very strong and can withstand a magnitude nine earthquake. The skyscraper was scheduled to be completed by 2018-2019, and the islands by 2022, but construction was postponed indefinitely last year 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 heavenly city - a new business center of the world. It will include residential units, office and IT clusters, public and commercial areas and green terraces. The city will include three interconnected towers approximately 600 meters high. The total area of \u200b\u200bthe building is commensurate with the area of \u200b\u200bthe Principality of Monaco, and the windows of the towers will overlook Hong Kong. And this is done on purpose. Local authorities want to demonstrate the new financial capabilities of the Hong Kong region, which is the old financial model of the world. The smart heavenly city will be able to fully provide itself with ecologically clean electricity.
Earth scraper in Mexico
Not a bunker, but a city of the future of a 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 \u200b\u200b7,618 square meters. It will appear in the center of Mexico City. The roof of the building will be a 240 x 240 meter clear glass panel. “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 be 137 times the size of London.
In China, it is planned to create a city - 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 area, Tianjin is an industrial area, and small industries will be concentrated in Hebei. To make the journey from one city to another take no more than an hour, new high-speed trains are being built.
3D printed city on water, Rio de Janeiro
Noteworthy is a very unusual concept by the Belgian architect Vincent 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 with calcium carbonate in the water, which can form the outer skeleton and semi-permeable membranes to desalinate seawater, while 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 a workspace, workshops, factories for recyclable, scientific laboratories, sports grounds 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 the 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: and still about Mars
For some, fantasies about cities on Mars become not just a plot for a science fiction book, but a whole architectural project.
The UAE plans to create a "mini-state and a kind of commune" on Mars for further "international cooperation". While the city-project 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.
