How do you imagine cities in a few decades?
Predicting the future is not easy, even more so when technology is involved. Just look at the science fiction movies that imagined what a not-too-distant tomorrow would be like. If Marty McFly had landed with his Delorean, as the fiction promised, in the reality of this 2015, he would have been very disappointed. Those who would not have felt at home either are the replicants and other inhabitants of the futuristic Los Angeles that we saw in Blade Runner if they had taken a tour of our world.
Although it is true that that city was set in the year 2019, and between now and then many things can change, what we now find when taking a walk through the big cities bears little resemblance to the panorama that Ridley Scott imagined. The buildings have not yet reached the heights they had in the film, the giant screens do not follow one after another and, although there are already cars that fly, most of the vehicles (come on, practically all) still circulate on the asphalt.
However, there are certain details of these films that, if we compare them with what famous futurists predict, were not on the wrong track. If we look at the latest forecasts by Ian Pearson, who presumes to have an effectiveness in his predictions of 85%, the size of the buildings that appeared in Blade Runner will not be unreasonable in 2045. According to Pearson, by then, the 828-meter Burj Khalifa in Dubai will be a trifle compared to the 30 kilometers that the largest buildings in the world will rise.
This will be possible thanks to the use of ultra-strong carbon-based materials. , and such will be the importance of these gigantic buildings that some may have their own autonomy. “Some of these structures will be so large that their capacity will allow them to function as small cities in their own right,” says Pearson.
This scholar of times to come predicts that, In 30 years, our houses will have no windows. . In light of the boom that virtual reality is experiencing, Pearson predicts that the buildings that humans erect in 2045 will have screens instead of glass, so that we can see what we most want at any time or recreate an environment to our liking.
"Augmented reality will play an important role in the aesthetics of a building," says this futurist. Of course, they will be intelligent constructions, capable of understanding what we tell them and adjusting the air conditioning and lighting to our preferences based on experience.
On the other hand, and despite everything, Ian Pearson prefers to be cautious and put aside the idea of flying cars. In terms of transport, he does believe that in 30 years we will move from one point to another in cars with much more capacity and that they will be governed autonomously. We won't have to worry about taking the wheel or whether they pollute or not, since In his opinion, electric vehicles will prevail.
Burj Khalifa: 828 'modest' meters
When it comes to imagining what cities will be like in 30 years, it all depends on who we listen to. Although predicting the future is somewhat complicated, there are many brave people willing to risk their lives. For example, if we review the forecasts contemplated by the research A Visual History of the Future , carried out by experts from the Universities of Lancaster and Hertfordshire , we will see how there are those who bet on other elements.
Without going any further, those who think that skyscrapers will be flooded with gardens and orchards . “The Garden City paradigm is one of those that always keeps re-emerging, with a different 'remix' each time”, says one of the authors of the study. Nevertheless, the ideas of visionaries go from one side to another . From those cities packed with natural landscapes, impregnated with green, to those in which mammoth constructions could prevail.
And there are those who dare to go further. There are not a few designers and architects who predict that the cities of the future , as a consequence of the increase in sea level, they will be immersed or floating on the water. Already in 1978, the German Wolf Hilbert dared to launch this idea, proposing what he called the Autopia Ampere. It was an underwater city built around coral reefs, no more, no less.
The sure thing: we will have to live in the heights
Some decades later, some Chinese designers proposed to create cities on oil platforms. Totally sustainable cities whose inhabitants dedicate their time to collecting crude oil residues from the bottom of the sea to reuse them and make plastic with which to continue building buildings. Another proposal that follows this trend is that of the Spanish illustrator Dani Páez, who with his building ** Twin Twist imagines us living on the sea surface.**
But not everything is good omens. In the opposite direction to all these visionaries, who bet on cities in which the environment plays a major role, There are also those who have a somewhat darker vision of what lies ahead. Some of the illustrators who participated in the first edition of Il·lustraFuturs expressed it in this way.
As part of this initiative, creators from all over the world had the audacity to portray the future, and there were those who imagined a scenario much closer to what Blade Runner showed us. Although they proposed a further journey in time, to the year 2100, some they opted for current futuristic elements such as drones (which are already a reality) or flying cars.
Of course, if there is a trend that most visionaries agree on, it is that people with vertigo will have to overcome it. There are many who believe that the cities will grow in height and that we will have to get used to living many meters from the mainland . Let's hope that elevator technology advances at a frantic pace to make them infallible, because it hurts to imagine the day when we arrive at our block of hundreds of floors and we are told that it is broken. On that day, we will begin to curse the future.
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