Design and engineering firm Arup has launched 'It's Alive' – a report that describes how buildings in our cities could look and function in 2050.
The study, undertaken by Arup's Foresight + Innovation team, foresees that structures will be fully integrated into the fabric of the city, responsive to changes in the external environment, and designed for continuous adaptability, according to real-time needs and demands of its users.
This forward-thinking report is illustrated with a series of artist's impressions, to demonstrate how the futuristic components – such as photovoltaic surfaces and algae producing bio-fuel pods – can theoretically enable buildings to produce food, energy and resources.
"By 2050, the human population will have reached 9 billion people with 75 per cent of the world's inhabitants living in cities. We do not want to predict what the built environment may look like in almost 40 years' time, but offers insight and inspiration for what could happen. This report explores the idea of intelligent buildings that are able to make informed and calculated decisions based on their surrounding environment – living and breathing structures that are able to support the cities and people of tomorrow."
— Josef Hargrave, Consultant at Foresight + Innovation, Arup
Arup's Foresight + Innovation group was established to help the firm and its clients understand the future of the built environment. The report can be downloaded here (PDF, 8MB).
