NonA Weekly: CITIES OF THE FUTURE
Image by @undp.
Dear readers and friends,
The cities 30 years from now will continue to be places of human interaction but with the presence of technology rapidly transforming our lives, they will look and feel different from what they are today. Will the human experience and use of the city change and become more intuitive and fluent? Will the omnipresent technology ease our lives with rapid commutes, automated waste collections and increased citizen participation in decision-making? Will cities will be greener, streets more walkable and inclusive of other-than-human ecosystems?
1. SIX WAYS TO CREATE CITIES OF THE FUTURE BY 2050
reSITE’s salon series My City/Your City: City of 2050 returned with a conversation on what cities of 2050 will look like. Through the intersection of architecture, urban design, and smart cities the EVENT looked at ways to design, create, and build the cities of the future, the event addressed the existing challenges and undertook a collective exercise in imagining the cities of the future.
2. CHALLENGES OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN
The urban population is expected to double in the next 40 years, forcing cities to undertake a holistic and sustainable transformation of their model. According to Martha Thorne, Dean of the IE School of Architecture and Design and Executive Director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the great CHALLENGE of architecture has to do with its capacity to create denser metropolises that have high urban quality and offer residents a better quality of life.
3. 7 MASTER PLANS THAT RETHINK THE WAY CITIES WORK
Within the past two decades, slews of NEW CITIES have appeared out of what seems like thin air. Places facing rapid urbanization and population growth have expressed this trend the most. Master-planned cities in developing countries are seen as a potential means to shift away from agricultural and resource-based economies. Another driver behind this new cities trend is the looming threat of climate change.
4. 8 CITIES THAT SHOW YOU WHAT THE FUTURE WILL LOOK LIKE
Cities used to grow by accident. Sure, the location usually made sense – someplace defensible, on a hill or an island, or somewhere near an extractable resource or the confluence of two transport routes. But what happened next was ad hoc. The people who worked in the fort or the mines or the port or the warehouses needed places to eat, to sleep, to worship. At least, that’s the way things worked for most of human history. But around the second decade of the 20th century, things changed. CITIES started to happen on purpose.
5. THE DESIGN OF CITIES IN THE YEAR 2039
By 2039, our world will be home to at least 43 megacities—urban areas with more than 10 million inhabitants. How will the cities of the future deal with such an influx of people? With good design, of course. Architects, engineers, and urban planners of today are already THINKING about the cities of tomorrow.
6. DESIGNING THE CITIES OF THE FUTURE
This vision for the city of the future is a place that values walkability and a mix of uses. It’s a place that is scaled to people, providing safe pedestrian environments and open space for public life. Most importantly, it’s a place that is grounded in the unique culture and values of its people while embracing modern technology and the global COMMUNITY.
Stay creative and see you all next week!
Daniela
