THESE momentous urban developments ARE unlike any you’ve seen before. BY Harnessing the latest technology and groundbreaking engineering techniques, the world’s most inspired architects are reshaping the way our cities work, live and breathe.
Cities that compete on the world stage are complex, inexorably evolving systems. Each one constantly adapts to meet the changing needs and desires of the people who live there (or want to) by rolling out fresh architectural and infrastructural solutions that either bulldoze or painstakingly build on what’s been constructed before.
Very occasionally, grand-scale urban engineering visions leapfrog the usual, laborious evolutionary process to rapidly revolutionize an environment and wow the world. These momentous schemes hinge on pioneering technology and engineering, (of course), but it is the ideas they stand for—whether that’s connecting communities, stimulating economies or celebrating local heritage and ecology—that make them truly successful.
Here we look at five groundbreaking projects that are now underway in dynamic global cities—from a green-shoots underground endeavor to a prescient urban master plan—that go far beyond simply adapting local architecture. These schemes offer the world glimpses of extraordinary urban futures that we can all be inspired by.
