Images of the future are littered with multi-layered (mega)cityscapes, highways in the sky, across buildings, underground pipelines for transport of people, data and goods. The main driver? As population increases, people expect space for living, for mobility etc. to decrease below acceptable levels. In other words, the savanna in which our human species grew up and shaped its senses and being, made room for an urban jungle about to suffocate us. If we are not careful and do not start thinking in terms of more sustainable and flexible designs, the fragile balance between ‘the city advantage’ vs. ‘our innate and societal need for space’ risks to tip towards the deep end.

When you lack space you try to compress the things you need the space for, get rid of them entirely or look for space elsewhere as in in the sky, in space, or … underground. According to some, it is one of the only areas of refuge and salvation for sustainable cities in the future. Think: underground construction sites, geothermal energy, groundwater-management, transport, waste-recycling and -upcycling, etc.

On December 14th the Netherlands Centre for Underground Construction will be organizing a Festival of Underground Space. Check out the fascinating preliminary programme here.

Related posts:

1. city beneath the city
2. Plan C launches!
3. big brave Arup

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 11:24 and is filed under envision, events, future, society, sustainability, technology, trends, visions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.