When I first started writing this blog I wanted the title to be “Cities of the Future”, but then as I finished writing it I realized I was expressing two different view points – one is about my idea of what our present day cities might evolve in future and another about my apprehension regarding the future of our cities. The two thoughts, even though related, echoes two different sentiments. Hence the title “Future of cities” also appealed to me.
Human requirements are increasing exponentially, and technological progressions are occurring by leaps and bounds. So what will our cities look like in future? Are we slowly moving into the Star wars age or are we designing Glamorous Ghetto versions? Will our house be plastic bubbles? Will our lives become one big science fiction story? Modern cities are facing grave problems of overpopulation, pollution, traffic congestion and urban sprawl. Every square inch of land has a purpose. And after the horizontal space depletion, there has been constant rise in vertical reaches - skyscrapers rising higher, multi-level parking, roof top gardens, fly-overs. Heritage is an important part of our cities, nation - what is Paris without Eiffel Tower, or Rome without Pantheon? What makes heritage so special is its link to our past, a window into human history. It is the preserved proof of human race. What is there to venerate in a skyscraper that is can be repeated elsewhere or anything that gives an impression of being stamped out by a machine. Craftsmanship is nowhere to be found and everything is concrete, glass, steel, and stucco.
Functionalism is everything, right down to the sheer facades. What will make Tokyo different from London or Sydney different from New York when every city has the same jagged skyline? Some argue that this is the first step towards a earth-spanning one nation. Does the evenness in our cities represent our emergent global civilization? Our individual growth is reflected in the growth of our cities. As Churchill once remarked "We shape our cities, thereby our cities shape us." What are we shaping are cities into?
I also wonder what the cities going to look like 50 or 100 years into the future. A 100 years ago, cities were just becoming industrial, downtown was born. A 1000 years ago or earlier, cities were built on prominent sites – such as the Roman Agora on mountain tops or next to fertile river banks like the Ganges or Nile or in vantage trade routes like in China. But back then it was an agriculture based society, which changed with ushering of industrial revolution – population moved towards cities as worker bees fly towards hives. Bauhaus gave birth to colonized living. Then winds changed again – construction technology improved and skyscrapers rose. Offices bottlenecked in downtowns, roads changed to fly-overs as traffic increased. It was essentially functional.
The city that is a massive pile of steel, plastic and glass put together in a way not only has no past but also actively rejects it. Technology and functionalism dictates our city planning. And with that as an agenda, future cites will be a place of heroic technology with skyscrapers the size of whole districts, roof-top aerodromes, wide pedestrian boulevards, and metal roadways strangely devoid of traffic because all transportation is air-borne. Or as some futurists predict huge underwater geodesic polychrome domes as our future ocean cities. Is efficiency robbing us of our personal identity? As was the theme behind Buckminister Fuller's Dymaxion House, factory produced "one-size-fits-all" cookie-cutter approach to housing and living. So, inadvertently or in full awareness, we are moving towards the nuclear-powered age of mass-produced family homes , frozen food, supersonic jet-taxis. What are we building? A sort of technocratic replica of Rome or a eco-friendly plasticized Camelot. Personally, whenever I envision a futuristic city, I see it straight out of the sci-fi movies with state-of-art buildings with air cars whizzing past like flies – not just a skyscraper world, but a technocratic age.
And the days you want to get away from life in a cookie jar, you could go on a Deep Space Holiday!! (whoever heard of Project Inter-Galactic Disneyland would know what I mean.)
Human requirements are increasing exponentially, and technological progressions are occurring by leaps and bounds. So what will our cities look like in future? Are we slowly moving into the Star wars age or are we designing Glamorous Ghetto versions? Will our house be plastic bubbles? Will our lives become one big science fiction story? Modern cities are facing grave problems of overpopulation, pollution, traffic congestion and urban sprawl. Every square inch of land has a purpose. And after the horizontal space depletion, there has been constant rise in vertical reaches - skyscrapers rising higher, multi-level parking, roof top gardens, fly-overs. Heritage is an important part of our cities, nation - what is Paris without Eiffel Tower, or Rome without Pantheon? What makes heritage so special is its link to our past, a window into human history. It is the preserved proof of human race. What is there to venerate in a skyscraper that is can be repeated elsewhere or anything that gives an impression of being stamped out by a machine. Craftsmanship is nowhere to be found and everything is concrete, glass, steel, and stucco.
Functionalism is everything, right down to the sheer facades. What will make Tokyo different from London or Sydney different from New York when every city has the same jagged skyline? Some argue that this is the first step towards a earth-spanning one nation. Does the evenness in our cities represent our emergent global civilization? Our individual growth is reflected in the growth of our cities. As Churchill once remarked "We shape our cities, thereby our cities shape us." What are we shaping are cities into?
I also wonder what the cities going to look like 50 or 100 years into the future. A 100 years ago, cities were just becoming industrial, downtown was born. A 1000 years ago or earlier, cities were built on prominent sites – such as the Roman Agora on mountain tops or next to fertile river banks like the Ganges or Nile or in vantage trade routes like in China. But back then it was an agriculture based society, which changed with ushering of industrial revolution – population moved towards cities as worker bees fly towards hives. Bauhaus gave birth to colonized living. Then winds changed again – construction technology improved and skyscrapers rose. Offices bottlenecked in downtowns, roads changed to fly-overs as traffic increased. It was essentially functional.
The city that is a massive pile of steel, plastic and glass put together in a way not only has no past but also actively rejects it. Technology and functionalism dictates our city planning. And with that as an agenda, future cites will be a place of heroic technology with skyscrapers the size of whole districts, roof-top aerodromes, wide pedestrian boulevards, and metal roadways strangely devoid of traffic because all transportation is air-borne. Or as some futurists predict huge underwater geodesic polychrome domes as our future ocean cities. Is efficiency robbing us of our personal identity? As was the theme behind Buckminister Fuller's Dymaxion House, factory produced "one-size-fits-all" cookie-cutter approach to housing and living. So, inadvertently or in full awareness, we are moving towards the nuclear-powered age of mass-produced family homes , frozen food, supersonic jet-taxis. What are we building? A sort of technocratic replica of Rome or a eco-friendly plasticized Camelot. Personally, whenever I envision a futuristic city, I see it straight out of the sci-fi movies with state-of-art buildings with air cars whizzing past like flies – not just a skyscraper world, but a technocratic age.
And the days you want to get away from life in a cookie jar, you could go on a Deep Space Holiday!! (whoever heard of Project Inter-Galactic Disneyland would know what I mean.)
2 comments:
Thats a nice thought on what its gonna be like in 50-100 years, cant help but agreee.
I think.. whatever the cities will be, they will all be the same. There seems to be a path of convergence, in our different cultures, among people and in cities. People dressed the same way, talking the same language and entering similar chrome plated buildings be it Noida or DC. A 100 years from now there will be no diversity/individuality and just one 'factory cut' model to rule em all.
I would love to see this happen... ! I hope... :)
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