THE CITY OF THE FUTURE

If the events of these past years have illuminated anything, it is how deeply interconnected our world actually is and that divisions, both of the material and the metaphorical, are merely imagined divides. It is in this age of heightened coexistence that our cities become even more emblematic of how we will live, far beyond these tumultuous times. The city of the future is in fact, the physical embodiment of our collective vision for ourselves.

As our fellow global citizens look toward brighter horizons, a whole slate of exciting new developments in locales as diverse as that of Paris, Copenhagen, Miami, Tokyo and even on the desert sands of Cairo, are set to create the foundations for large-scale urban planning meant to meet growing demand for green space, enhanced mobility, less pollution and increased electric propulsion.

DEALING WITH DENSITY Statistics make clear that we are in the very midst of the metropolitan age. A United Nations working group estimates that by 2050, upwards of 70 per cent of the global population will be city dwellers. Our large global capitals have been steadily growing since the great industrial and technological leaps of the mid-20th century, with cities like London, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Delhi growing by leaps and bounds, with population densities increasing along with it. With this growth comes the need for more energy to power it all and, once again, the issue of the car is driving so much of the coming change.

“One of the fundamental elements of the city of the future is mobility,” says John Rossant, founder of the NewCities Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the future of our cities with a particular focus on sustainable development. “The post-war boom saw cities that were completely designed around the car.” Rossant sees the future in electric mobility and a shift away from combustion. Even cities like Los Angeles, where the car has reigned supreme for decades, have started looking at ways of creating electric vehicle master plans; an indication of what is to come around the world.

Density, and its associated needs in terms of housing, energy, sanitation and quality of life, is perhaps the twin issue alongside climate change that will determine the direction of our collective urban lives in the coming decades. Hong Kong, with its singular apartment blocks, is one example of how a city responded to a population growth that outweighed its available space. Singapore, which is among the most densely populated places on Earth, has responded to its own crises of sustainable growth with the “greening” of a number of newly created high-rise buildings like Tree House and The Park Royal. Additionally, Singapore’s government recently implemented a mandate that it would produce 30 per cent of its own food by 2030 – a first for a metropolitan city-state of its population numbers, if it can reach this ambitious, and very green, goal.

CITIES AND CLIMATE CHANGE If there is any particular demand among those seeking to define the city of the future, it is one of pedestrianised livability with the health of our planet and populace the guiding force for coming change. In Paris, for example, gone is the focus on the individual automobile and, in its place, is a renaissance of public transportation; so-called ‘last mile’ electric devices; pedestrian-friendly promenades, and the seamless integration of private and public life.

“The ideal city should be three things: desirable, inclusive and sustainable,” says Philippe Chiambaretta, the Paris-based architect responsible for a number of public-private projects that have made great strides in bringing the city’s enchanting built landscape into the contemporary age. Chiambaretta has been commissioned to redesign none other than the Champs-

Élysées, as part of a $304 million project. “The ChampsÉlysées, with the influx of cars in the 1960s, was a disaster,” says Chiambaretta about the famous boulevard that has suffered in the last few decades. “It turned into something like a highway, with noise and air pollution. Nobody wanted to walk around there.” Especially those who actually live in Paris: a steady decline in Parisian residents making use of the storied boulevard means that today the Champs-Élysées has become merely a tourist attraction, where only 5 per cent of pedestrians at any given time are city residents; the rest are tourists from abroad. It’s a dilemma faced by many cities; Venice, Italy, being another prime example. The plan to reinvigorate the Champs-Élysées is projected for completion by 2030. The city of the future, according to Chiambaretta, is one in which pedestrians are given ample, wide space to enjoy new green spaces, art galleries, and restaurants, with the absence of traffic. It’s all in the name of fostering a ‘healthy city’: a trend that is being echoed in city planning from South America to Southeast Asia.

Miami, simultaneously one of the most culturally rich and environmentally challenged of urban centres, has started to answer the call for green, open, pedestrianfriendly spaces, while the ever-present threat of rising sea levels is driving attitudes toward urban development. The newly announced Bentley Residences, to be developed by 2026 in conjunction with the luxury automotive marque, is heeding the call for futureproofed, or at least futuremitigating, luxury residential offerings by building up, and green. Standing at 749 feet and over 60 stories high above the gently rising tides of the Atlantic that will threaten much of that city’s low-lying coastline in the coming century, the tower will feature in-unit multi-car garages and elevators that will whisk your Continental GT directly from the street to your unit. It is projects like this one, wherein vertical luxury serves to create exclusivity, space efficiency and protection from a changing world.

REWILDING THE CITY For anyone looking toward the future, it is clear that urban skylines will be verdant. Milan’s Bosco Verticale, situated in an industrial area of Italy’s northern capital, is a high-rise residential structure positively awash in living plants. With a living façade designed by landscape agronomist Laura Gatti, the building is among the most striking examples of what may be the ‘new glass’. A 2016 study by Arup showed that buildings like this one in Milan, and other examples in cities like Bogota, could reduce air temperatures during heat waves by up to

10°C, as well as convert C02. Bosco Verticale is said to transform 20 tonnes per year of the noxious gas into oxygen.

Plans are also underway for the creation of cities in places where none had existed previously. A whole cluster of ground-up cities of the future in both Japan and the Middle East have broken ground, each one designed for a future where cars are electric, energy is sustainable and life is lived at a human scale. They arise at a time where an everexpanding global populace, must learn to coexist with a changing planet, and the global community is evolving quickly toward an increasingly interdependent world.

LOOKING FORWARD Our changing world will see an increasingly restless, and mobile, populace seeking quality of life, made possible by pedestrianfriendly city centres, efficient and accessible public transportation and reliable

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Opposite page Bosco Verticale, a model for a sustainable residential building, in Milan

This page The world’s first Bentley-branded luxury residential tower in Sunny Isles Beach, Miami infrastructure, including modernised electrical grids and sustainable services, with a well-run government that supports private sector growth. Although this balance sounds slightly utopian, according to findings in JLL’s latest Cities Research Center report and other macroeconomic and real estate investing trends, there are numerous global capitals that fit the bill. Locales in Asia-Pacific like Auckland, Tokyo or Singapore, and European cities like London, Copenhagen or Vienna, to name just a few, offer residents a mix of old and new, with a culture that’s future-focused yet historically rooted. Not to mention a public and private sector with a bent toward that careful tightrope walk between modernisation and preservation. It’s all in the context of forwardthinking infrastructure and development that will likely make for a more stable environment during these most interesting of times.

Where to buy next?

Three urban investment hotspots, as seen in the 2021 Knight Frank Wealth Report

DANUBE RIVERSIDE, VIENNA The ability to live by and access the waterfront is unique to this area of the city. Good connections to the schools, culture and amenities of both Vienna centre and Klosterneuburg, are the main drivers of growth in this neighbourhood.

NOMAD, NEW YORK CITY Exciting new condos in the pipeline include Madison House, The NOMA, plus the first Virgin Hotel location in New York (scheduled to open in 2021), and Jeff Bezos’s $80 million penthouse.

GANGNAM, SEOUL Boasting Seoul’s highest price per square metre, Gangnam has a high concentration of wealth and apartment prices have risen by 86 per cent in the past 18 years. Its location and transport links attract a million commuters every day. LG, Lotte and other firms are redeveloping entire blocks to relocate their headquarters here. Schools are famous for getting students into top universities.