Future Buildings

Architects and civil engineers have a long history of working closely together to design new kinds of buildings that can help cities become more modern and adapt to the needs of the times.  This is also true in the present, and right now architects and civil engineers are working on new ways of designing buildings that can help cities modernize for the 21st century to become more sustainable and also to provide a higher quality of living for the people who live in cities around the world.

One of the biggest problems facing future cities is the fact that there will just be so many people in them.  By 2050 it's said that 2/3 of the world will live in cities, and China is a country that is dealing with this problem right now, where it has over 140 different cities with over 1 million people in them.  America only has 9 cities this large, and so Chinese engineers have started already to come up with ways to allow these people to live in cities with good conditions and not allow them to deteriorate into slums.  One solution that is made possible by many new technologies in engineering is building vertical cities, where instead of cities growing outward and taking up more and more space, the grow upward by building taller and taller buildings that eventually start to connect with each other and form different levels and communities.  An example of this on a small scale is these apartments in Singapore that all connect to create spaces for coffee shops, grocery stores, community areas, and social areas inside the complex.

Because these things are all built into the apartment complex less space is needed for these types of areas outside, so more of the city's land is available for other uses.  This means that cities can start to have more people living in good conditions without forcing them out into slums because more good apartments can be built in the same amount of space.  And these vertical cities can also take advantage of many other types of new city planning ideas to make them more sustainable too.

One popular idea that is starting to take off right now is where the tops and balconies of apartment and office buildings are turned into gardens that can help to grow some of the food that the people in these buildings will need to eat.  These gardens can be watered with recycled water that the building has already used to reduce their impact on the environment even more.  But the roof and balcony space of cities doesn't have to just be used for gardens either.  These future buildings will probably have solar panels on top to help them make more of their own power, and even possibly rain water collectors to help them reduce their impact on water systems too.