Beautiful organizations

The cities of the future will have waste-to-energy plants, not shopping malls or churches, at their center, according to urban designer Mitchell Joachim of Terreform ONE. At DLD Cities in London, he said "cities have centers that celebrate previous centuries -- in Europe, the cities celebrated spirituality, with cathedrals. After some time, the cathedrals became downtown cores- and celebrations of capitalism and commercialism". The cities of the future will celebrate "the belief of what keeps us alive" - or elements of the city that make our lives better.

Terreform ONE, a green design company in Brooklyn, explores biohacks for the ecological issues facing modern cities. For instance, the waste New York City produces every hour weighs as much as the Statue of Liberty - in the future that waste could be recompacted into building blocks, or recycled "bales". Looking beyond recycling, though, it would be even better to create a city which didn't produce waste in the first place. That means growing thousands of homes -- building a new suburb could involve twisting, pruning and manipulating large trees into the frames of buildings. "There would be no difference between the home and nature -- it would be something that would be a positive addition to the ecology," explained Joachim.

For more information on these innovative concepts, including biomimicry and new green technology proposals for future cities, stop by to read the complete article and visit referenced links on urban sustainability.