Here follows the results of my months of bachelor thesis work: The city of London in the year 2152.
The towering skyscrapers are all supported by structural exoskeletons of superstrong materials, allowing for open and light interiors. Centerpiece of this image is one of the many corporate spires - in this case Avalon Industries - walled off behind battlements and crowned by an imposing statue. Here, the members of the mega-corporations of the future are allowed to live a privileged life, similar to that of nobility in the olden days, in exchange for their generous "donations" to the government treasury.
The buildings' exoskeletons are erected on top of the old city architecture, preserving it for future generations, like objects in a museum.
Memory cloth, or Memcloth, can be used for advertisement banners, projecting various messages while moving of its own accord in an unfelt breeze. Solar glass panels coat the towers and convert sunlight into electricity through a process of artificial photosynthesis, and at the same time acting as air filters and trapping carbon from the atmosphere.
Clear pillars of hydroponics gel line the surface avenues, where layers of shops and restaurants flourish in between the structural roots of the towering buildings. Banners of Memcloth illuminate the night, and police patrol the streets on their synthetic horses. These streets are layered on top of one another to create enough space for the city's vast population.
In some of the many layers below, endless woodlands of genetically height-restricted trees grow towards the artificial sunlight in the ceiling. Some select wildlife frolic here, an ever present connection to nature for the city's inhabitants. Further down still race the ceaseless flow of subways, seeing to all of the city's transportation and shipping needs.
One of the foremost privileges awarded the wealthy corporate nobility is the freedom to close off entire forest floors for a day's hunt astride their synthetic mounts.
The common towers house pentagonal segments of apartment complexes for the people. Groups of 100 individuals live around each elliptical courtyard, in close-knit and largely self-sustainable communities. The prism spires atop the tall buildings capture light from above the clouds and lead it down the central enclosed pillar.
Here, robotic gardeners harvest crops from circulating hydroponic sails onto conveyor belts that deliver the fresh produce directly to the communal kitchens. A central capillary pump pillar supplies the entire building with water. These stacked greenhouse rooms have a carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere and are generally too warm and humid for human comfort, and so they are sealed off from the population.
A closer look at the division of different-size apartments in each "petal". Bachelor pads are interspersed with neighboring family apartments in order to avoid segregating the population.
An apartment courtyard. It's day outside, and so the windows are dimmed in order to absorb the maximum of sunlight. A substitute low-intensity solar lamp supplies light to the inverted flower meadow in the ceiling as well as to the rest of the room. Tapestry walls replace solid doors, adding to the feeling of trust and familiarity. They are sealed by magnetic strips. Each corner of the gangways house gathering spots with a central hearth/table and overhead holographic projector for those important games of football.
A basic apartment. A central sleeping area surrounded by wallscreens of retractable Memcloth curtains. By utilizing a projected soundfield (ultrasonic waves that give the impression of tactile feedback when they intersect with each other) the user can easily manipulate menus and the like in mid air, in three dimensions.
A courtyard feast on the central platform, looking out across the nightscape of future London as the solar glass can remain clear during the night. Above, the bioluminescent flowers of the inverted meadow glow like a miniature starlit sky.
Rather than keeping pets and children cooped up in the tiny apartments, why not let them play together in the large open spaces of the courtyards?
There. It's been a long couple of months of researching and designing and painting, interrupted by pesky school projects all throughout the process, and even a two-week trip to Japan... But I managed. And to tell you the truth, I'm still somewhat amazed that I managed to pass this off as an industrial design project from start to finish.
As it stands, a report full of behind the scenes material is still to be printed, and the whole shebang is to be presented at the school's summer exhibition. But for now, I believe a brief sigh is in order. Phew.
Hope you enjoyed it all, I know I did :)
