What will cities look like in 100 years

Virtual decorations will alter with changing tastes, moods and whims; and the entire interior surface of the home will be implanted with LED technology—television screens and computer displays will form and unform in any room, as needed. Even our furniture will be adaptable, molding to custom fit our bodies, responding to changes in posture, or disappearing altogether when not needed. No problem. Just use an online search function to find it. Hate the color of that accent wall? Delete it.

Need more storage space? Watch new shelves appear, as if by magic. For his part, Perrograff hopes his community work will soon go beyond two dimensions. Solution: a separate, inner counterweight ring. It echoes the flying-saucer shape of a convention center down the road. For five days every year, the population of Saudi Arabia increases by 3 million.

The result is a city of carefully regulated experiences, with more work yet to be done. Inspired by traditional Bedouin tents, the 2. Passengers grab their luggage in the climate-controlled section; natural ventilation in the open-air waiting area keeps temperatures around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, even while they hit a searing outside. There pilgrims wait—sometimes up to 36 hours—for their ride to Mecca, 43 miles to the east.

The Masjid al-Haram, the Great Mosque of Mecca, is an ever-expanding house of worship built around the holiest shrine in all of Islam—the cloth-draped granite cube known as the Kaaba. Architects from the firm Gensler took a cue from those rooftop pilgrims and proposed a series of eight-sided platforms surrounding the Kaaba.

Buildings around the Masjid al-Haram have been received less fondly, though. Abraj Al-Bait is the least-likely second-tallest building in the world, dominated by a Big Ben-like central clock tower that looms 1, feet above the mosque. The hotel is augmented by a light show at night. Planned for completion in , the Abraj Kudai will be the biggest hotel in the world—12 towers, 10, hotel rooms, 70 restaurants, four helipads, a shopping mall, and a bus station.

Five floors are said to be reserved for the exclusive use of the Saudi royal family; the merely wealthy will have to make do with standard accommodations.

For decades the sandy plain was crammed with simple cotton tents, but a deadly fire in sent the Saudi government searching for a durable fireproof replacement. Now an extensive network of permanent hydrants helps protect more than , air-conditioned, semipermanent structures of Teflon-coated fiberglass, each ranging from to square feet. And since close quarters can also aid the spread of illness, Mina has dedicated hospitals and ambulances too.

Now people have better access to the pillars, and a handful of exit ramps can now help quickly clear the structure, though the area still gets crammed with people. Most people get around Nairobi in minibuses. Run by various entrepreneurs, the vehicles—called matatus—are cheap, plentiful, and known for loud music and sparkly disco balls. But schedules in this ad hoc network change at will, and finding the right route or stop is a crapshoot—a wrong decision can add hours to your trip.

Enter a group of researchers and designers called Digital Matatus. It tasked local university students with riding the buses and using a smartphone app to track the routes and stops. When Digital Matatus released its subway-style map of more than routes and major stops last year, people snatched them up. But it gets even cooler: A few months ago, the Nairobi matatus became the first informal transit system on Google Maps.

The move to a global platform legitimizes the zippy little vehicles and shows other cities how they too might harness these networks. Ultimately the goal is to strengthen the matatu system even further—fingers crossed it will still include a disco ball or two.

Enter WeWork, the biggest name in coworking. Our Partners. Medical Production Robotics Security Wireless. Analysis Appointments Blog Events Latest. Engineering Distiblog Student Circuit. Samsung Semiconductor Europe Ltd. Featured products. Product Spotlight. Buy Now Learn More. Adam-Tech Wire-to-Board Solutions. Population: City: will be more dense, larger and older. Mobility: City: will be more multi-modal and less reliant on cars: Walking — Denser cities make walking a viable mode for many people once more.

City: may actually resemble walkable neighborhoods common in the early to mid-Twentieth Century. By , many of those suburbs will be years old or older and will have evolved into stand-alone, mixed-use, urbanizing areas and employment centers; Automobiles — Should current trends continue, car ownership should decrease in favor of car sharing, autonomous vehicles and other disruptive technologies. And our lives will not rely solely on cars for mobility; Planes, Trains, and Loops — Airports will still be part of our long-distance travel plans, but there will be other options.

High-speed rail projects are accelerating pun intended across the U. Dense population centers make these modes more viable; and, Flying Vehicles — City: will witness the beginnings of the autonomous flying car. This is not science fiction, research is already underway in numerous countries for this next leap in mobility. The U. Department of Transportation is currently working on the technical guidelines for this new technology. Flying cars may not be available to everyone by , but they could be one of many future transportation choices.

Architecture: It is not unreasonable for a building to have a lifespan of 30 years or more. More Mixed Use — Expect fewer monolithic single-use buildings. And retail? Well, it is no secret that the retail sector is currently undergoing a massive transformation. How it reinvents itself is still up for debate, but there should be a continuing need for retail spaces that bring people together. Maybe even a return to more specialization and the local store bakery, wine shop, etc. Today, Gensler is advising clients to future-proof new garages by building flat floorplates with taller floor-to-floor heights — at least 11 feet for future residential, and ideally 15 feet to accommodate just about anything from residential to office and beyond.

As car ownership and use decreases, and if local zoning regulations follow suit, demand for on-site parking will experience a parallel decrease. Infrastructure: Supporting million Americans will require massive reinvestments in our current infrastructure — water, sewer, storm drainage, electrical power, telecommunications, etc.