The Cities of the Future

The Cities of the Future is a stylish book with a focus on environmental issues and modern cities. It has a mixture of topics: architecture, ecology and design innovation, that would suit the study of settlements or local area topics in school, but would also have some uses for leisure browsing for more design-minded, eco-warriors.

The book explores a range of innovative ways different cities around the world have begun to work on being more future-proof and sustainable. We start the book by looking at ways cities can be greener- such as reclaiming land from disused railway stations into gardens in Berlin. From there we move on to look at growing food in pop up gardens like in Paris, then using local materials like in London where buildings have been built from reused or recycled materials that are powered by natural resources like rain. We then move onto look at transport and ideas like the raised red cycle paths in Copenhagen that seemingly float between buildings and Smart Cities like Singapore where Supertrees are built out of metal, collect rainwater and harness solar energy.

Alongside looking at modern technology, we also go back in time to places such as the working village created for factory workers in Guise, France, in the 1840s, which was innovative in it’s time in providing housing and employment for its workers in the same location. Putting people at the heart of the city we also look at places like Laingsburg in South Africa, where residents worked together to design and build a community building that suited their needs. We end by looking at examples of beautiful architecture like the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain, and repurposing empty spaces after World War II into play areas like in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.

The breadth of topics covered is quite astounding and the illustrations are beautiful- like colourful three-dimensional blueprints. This would be a great browser and study support, especially if you want to inject some eco-friendly vibes into young people’s reading and learning experiences.