Future Cities

Samples

Executive Summary

Venice is a useful historical example of a planned city, born out of the most dire necessity, and one whose inhabitants were forced to invent new systems and structures to fit a unique set of environmental circumstances. Let us treat Venice as a useful if imperfect, framework to consider the situation our modern world is currently facing in how we change our existing cities and build new ones. Venice is commonly thought to have been settled more than 1800 years ago as Rome fell violently. Roman citizens became refugees as the Visigoths and later the Huns ransacked what had been the classical world. The extreme northeastern corner of what is now Italy was and is a series of wetland bogs and open water encircled by the slimmest landmasses. We think of Venice now as a stunningly romantic tourist destination, a seat of trade and luxury complete with pinnacles of architectural sophistication. But think of it then, in the eyes of the displaced Roman citizenry who were forced to leave lands they had farmed for millennia. They encountered an inhospitable stretch of bogs and swamps, the stagnant air full of insects and the promise of death (“malaria” in Latin meant simply “bad air” and was thought to be the source of the disease that now bears this name. Little did the Romans know it was carried by the insects in the air, not the air itself).

The Romans knew two things: That their merciless enemies would not follow them there, and that they had to drastically adapt to this new environment. A once land-based rural population centered on agriculture became overnight a floating civilization focused on trade access and the sea. Wooden pilings were driven deep into the bog bottoms, followed by stone. Primary locomotion and transport ceased to be horses and carts and became boats and barges of all sizes. Avenues became canals, crossed with strategic bridges. The Venetians did not merely survive in this backwater, they became one of the most powerful and successful empires in their own right after the fall of Rome.

Today our planet is exploding in population and our environment is in peril. We must create new ways of living in large numbers in urban settings. Advanced materials, technology, and systems are being used to adapt to all of our new Venices all over Earth. The traditional method of growing cities, namely “sprawl,” will no longer do. This report is an overview of some of the tools we have in hand, and a look at what is coming next as we build cities that are connected, smart, made in new ways, and out of brand new materials. As the population swells and the water rises, we are all now Venetians.

This report looks at the idea of the climate-resilient city, the smart city, the smart space, intelligent waste systems, intelligent ground transport systems, and two of the most exciting and meaningful advanced materials out of which these cities will be built; smart and translucent concrete.