The participants were asked to create an image of the city in 2106, and it was not about an abstract metropolis, but about three real-life American cities: New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The assignment was not a theoretical discussion of the prospects for urban development over the next hundred years, but, on the contrary, drew attention to today's problems. An increase in building density, a decrease in the relative area of public space, an insufficient amount of greenery and fresh air, seemingly insoluble problems of the transport system, an ever-increasing social segregation - all this can be found in the reality around us, and so far there are no prerequisites for improving the situation in the future. But if architects, engineers, urban planners try to find a solution to these problems, then big cities still have a chance to remain the most important centers of the social and cultural life of mankind in the next century.
The winner in the Los Angeles project category was Eric Owen Moss. His proposal is based on the idea of changing the essence of this metropolis. Occupying a huge territory, this city is divided into parts by railways, bridges, overpasses, power lines. They are designed to tie it together, in reality, they turn it into a patchwork quilt of poor and rich areas, white and black quarters, industrial zones and residential areas … Moss sees the future of Los Angeles in overcoming these artificial boundaries, in building under, above and around these lines of the transport and energy system, in the creation of new areas, addressed to the inhabitants and their needs and wants.
ARO: Architecture Research Office ranked # 1 in New York City. The architects assume that as a result of global warming, the city will be flooded and its streets will turn into canals. Above them will grow tiers of new buildings, residential buildings, offices, shops, as well as parks and squares. The city will not only not become less livable, but, on the contrary, will acquire new, individual features.
The main prize of the competition and the first place in the Chicago category went to the UrbanLab workshop. According to their project, some streets of the city will also go under water, but, unlike New York, it will be fresh water, "oil of the year 2106", as the architects call it. By this time, according to the forecasts of experts, only one of the three inhabitants of the Earth will have access to sufficient quantity of fresh water for a full life.
On the "eco-boulevards" of Chicago, it is this most valuable resource that will be naturally cleansed and returned to the Great Lakes, which now contain 20% of the world's fresh water. Wastewater and rainwater will interact in these channels with microorganisms, fish, algae, etc. and then flow into Lake Michigan, on the shores of which Chicago is located, or be used by city residents.
