Anyone who has seen Blade Runner, Aeon Flux, or Stargate Atlantis has seen a sci-fi version of future cities.  Just as we are seeing environmentally-inspired innovations in cars, and buildings, new concepts for future cities are popping up as well.

One city is a self contained floating pod while the other is a land based green megalopolis.  Both of these cities provide advanced concepts for city development.    Each one uses multiple sources of power and provides controlled habitats.

The remarkable foresight that has gone into these plans is astounding.  The Lilypad provides  shelter for potential transplants due to global warming, while the Green Mega City eliminates almost all pollutants through its ingenious use of multiple sources of energy and green transportation.

LILYPADS

   Lilypads are self sufficient floating cities designed to look like water lilies. These concept cities house 50,000 people each.  The structure is both above and below the water and can free float according to the gulf stream or be anchored off shore.

The water lily shape allows the populace to literally have variety in their environment.  All living, shopping and employment would be self contained within the self contained entity.

The inspiration for this design came from the potential for massive flood refugees from coastal cities destroyed by global warming.  Rather than continue to move inland, the designer, Vincent Callebaut, decided to create cities where the displaced could live floating on the Ocean.

These Lilypads are constructed with a titanium dioxide skin to absorb CO2 and are expected to utilize a number of green technologies; solar, wind, tidal, and biomass.  By generating all of the energy that it  needs from renewable sources and absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere, the Lilypad becomes a zero emission city.

The Lilypad concept is not close to being built but at least someone has begun to think about solutions to problems that are growing closer.

THE GREEN MEGA CITY

PopSci has developed a plan for future city that generates its own energy and purifies its own water.  This land based city, albeit on the ocean shore, is an amazing use of every form of green energy that exists. This city plan has blended advanced transportation and architectural elements to create an ecologically sound city.

Transportation options include both mass transit, and single car options that involve new technology.  The Pod car, a two seater electric car would be  available at mass transit stops like shopping carts in a grocery store.  These cars, based on MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) research, would fold up when parked and would be free for use.  Pod cars would also have solar cells on the roof that would not only provide all the power for the car, but would also generate power for the grid when not in use.

One leg of the mass transit system would include driverless busses.  Imagine a subway car set loose in the city.  The bus would run on a combination of biodiesel and electricity and would be guided by magnets embedded in dedicated lanes.  A central computer would monitor and control the capacity, route and flow of the busses.

A second leg of the mass transit system would be a Maglev Skytran.  This elevated system would travel at speeds up to 150 mph, and would stop at quarter mile intervals.  This rail system would be able to move 14,400 people per hour.  The rail would be lined with magnetic coils and the cars would have actual magnets built in.  This system would cost one tenth of the cost of light rail systems.

Sources of power will come from varied and unique methods.  Sidewalks, and highways would be sources of energy along with currently developing solar, wind, wave and tidal power.

Pedestrians would be doing their bit to power the city by simply walking down the sidewalk.  The paving stones are placed over underlying blocks that depress slightly and slide into each other with the weight and force of people walking.  An attached device converts this power to electricity.

Highways would be a source of energy with special turbines lining the median.  These special turbines designed by Mark Oberholtzer, would be powered by the wind from passing cars.  The faster the cars, the more energy generated.

Hydrogen would be generated by an Algae Park using special algae engineered at U. C. Berkeley.  This algae produces a million times more hydrogen gas that regular algae.  The hydrogen would be collected in balloon like tanks for future use.

The tidal power would be generated by an underwater tidal generator that uses rotating arms to utilize the energy from changing tides.  The Maglev Wind Turbines will have vertical fins and will rest on permanent magnets.  The solar energy will come from paint that contains solar nanoparticles  that turn sunlight into energy and will be painted on most buildings.  The Wavebob will generate energy from the incoming waves.

Clean water would be generated city wide by salt water flowing throw a new type of desalination plant.  The plant would filter the water through a special membrane to separate out salt and bacteria.  Since fresh water is expected to become scarce, this plant would create all of the water needed by the city.

Tunnel robots would be used to find and repair any leaking pipes.  A precursor to the tunnel robots has been developed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.  Researchers have created autonomous robots that have sonar and video cameras to locate problems in pipes.  The ability to autonomously repair the found leaks is still in the future.

Buildings would encompass a variety of uses and ecological systems. The buildings will have their own methods of creating energy, purifying rain water and building temperatures.  Buildings will not just be used for housing and offices but will also used for high tech autonomous farming.

People would live in Bubble Houses.  These houses would be convex in shape and would look like a corrupted inverted contact lens.  The outside would be composed of a skin overlaying the structure called “water jackets” that funnel rain into struts.  The struts purify the rain with ultraviolet light providing tap water for the house. 

The top of the houses would be covered in “pillows" filled with a salt solution that would regulate the inner temperature.  When it is hot outside, the salt would melt and the “pillows” or “bubbles” would absorb the heat.  In cooler weather, the outside bubbles would harden releasing heat.

Fruits and vegetables would be raised in a 30 story automated hydroponic farm.  The plants would be placed in Styrofoam trays resting in a nutrient track.  Each tray would be shift on the track through its life cycle from planting to harvesting. 

Water for the plants would come from sewage filtered through zebra mussels located in the central tower of the farm.  The purified water would not only water over 100 different types of plants but would also provide clean water for 50,000 residents.

Jacques Ferrier’s design for a green tower would be ecologically sound.  This ten story building would have concrete skin that would maintain the buildings integrity, while special channels cut in the concrete would provide rain water channels shunting  the run off into a purification system.

Also embedded in the concrete skin, would be photovoltaic cells that would provide the buildings energy.  The heating and cooling would come from geothermal wells that would keep the buildings temperature constant in both summer and winter.

I would love to visit either one of these cities and just marvel at the many buildings and green systems incorporated.  Riding on mass transit in the Green Mega City would be an adventure.

Hopefully, I will never see the day that Lilypad cities become necessary but I would love to see cities around the globe begin to incorporate the many systems and ideas proposed in the Green Mega City.

A further animated trip through the Green Mega City can be found here.

Related:

Google expands Street View with 4 more cities

Meet Babcock Ranch, a futuristic city being built in Florida

City-wide WiFi plans reduced to pipe dreams

Cisco unveils green tech for cities

Zipcar, car sharing, provides wheels on campuses and in cities across America

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Entry was posted on Saturday, June 21st, 2008 at 11:55 pm under Green Technology, Robotics, Science and technology.

Read more entries by Susan Wilson.
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