2050 - a smart city odyssey

How different will our cities be in 2050?

For those of you expecting flying cars and forest bridges, you may be disappointed; yet there’s a quiet revolution going on around us.

I spoke to industry experts to gain a greater understanding of the forces that will shape our cities. Even if some of the changes err towards the pragmatic rather than the poetic, there is much to be excited about.

We’re entering an age where the heat from factories, tube trains, and sewage will be used to warm our homes, where the falling cost of solar power will take householders from consumers to generators of electricity. We won’t hear so much as a whisper, but our buildings will soon be talking to each other, trading energy as we sleep. 

Indeed, artificial intelligence and the proliferation of data will personalise the way our homes are heated and the way we travel. The growth of self-driving vehicles and the shared pod could even sound the death knell of the humble bus, and car ownership may become little more than a a quaint notion from the past or a luxury for the petrol-headed hobbyist.  

As we zoom by on shared scooters and pedal down dedicated cycleways, we will look across at odd construction sites - dustless, quiet places where buildings are constructed like Lego. As we gaze across the city-scape, we probably won’t be aware of it but our underground spaces will be different too as rubbish is sucked underground, horizontal lifts ferry people to neighbouring buildings, and the reliable temperatures of underground spaces are exploited to provide relief from the erratic weather.

The elements, too, will sculpt our urban spaces. More parks, ponds, and clever drainage systems will cool the sweltering concrete of summer and wick away flash floods arising from sudden downpours.  

But this is only a snapshot. Why not take a more in-depth look at the changing face of your city. As a lad from Stratford-upon-Avon once wrote: "How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world."

I think his name was William something. 

Here's where you can take a look at the full report - all 5,000 words of it.