This is my personal vision of the new urban realities.

1. HOW DO YOU
ENVISION
THE CITY OF
THE FUTURE?

2. “The city has always been a happiness project”
(Charles Montgomery)
In order to affect positive change, we must first
be happy. And to be happy, we must build cities
that foster health and happiness for all.
Laura Marafioti

3. This presentation provides a
framework about the city of the
future and presents a personal
view on how cities are likely to
evolve. It is not an architectural
or design vision, but an overview
of the main cornerstones on
which, in my opinion, are based
the new urban realities.
Laura Marafioti

4. Laura Marafioti
Why does a
vision of the
cities of the
future needs to
be created?
Building cities of
the future are
crucial for
Sustainable
Globe Growth.

5. The challenges for cities are:
Climate changes
Polluted air
Population boom
Scarcity of resources
Laura Marafioti

6. Between now and the year 2050, urban growth will only continue to rise: 89 million
homes and 190 billion square feet (about 17.5 billion square meters) of retail and
other non-residential space will be built in the United States alone. For all these
reasons we have to reinvent cities.
In my vision, the city of the future will be:
SMART
SHAREABLE
VERTICAL
GREEN
Laura Marafioti

7. SMART
Laura Marafioti

8.  Experts predict the world’s urban population will double by 2050, which means we are
adding the equivalent of seven New York Cities to the planet every single year.
 As our planet becomes more urban, our cities need to get smarter.
 To handle this large-scale urbanization, we’ll need to find new ways to manage
complexity, increase efficiency, reduce expenses, and improve quality of life.
With this rapid growth ahead of us, imagine if our cities could talk, if they could give
us live status updates on traffic patterns, pollution, parking spaces, water, power and
light. Imagine how that kind of information could improve the economic and environmental
health of the city for residents, merchants, and visitors. Imagine how working conditions
and productivity could improve for the people who maintain the city. Emerging
technologies are poised to reshape our urban environments. Using power sensors, wireless
networks, web and mobile-based applications, Smart Cities are becoming a reality.
Laura Marafioti

9. Smart cities will employ sensors, computers and smartphones, and they will implement
new forms of city government, making administrative processes more transparent than
ever before. The idea is that digital technology will help make urban living cleaner, more
sustainable and more pleasant. And, of course, it should increase prosperity as well.
A Smart City is a city well performing in 6 characteristics, built on the smart combination
of endowments and activities of self-decisive, independent and aware citizens.
SMART
ECONOMY
SMART PEOPLE
SMART
GOVERNANCE
SMART
MOBILITY
SMART
ENVIRONMENT
SMART LIVING
Laura Marafioti

10. Characteristics and factors of a smart city:
SMART ECONOMY
(Competitiveness)
SMART PEOPLE
(Social and Human Capital)
SMART GOVERNANCE
(Participation)
 Innovative spirit
 Entrepreneurship
 Economic image & trademarks
 Productivity
 Flexibility of labour market
 International embeddedness
 Ability to transform
 Level of qualification
 Affinity to life long learning
 Social and ethnic plurality
 Flexibility
 Creativity
 Cosmopolitanism/Open-
mindedness
 Participation in public life
 Participation in decision-making
 Public and social services
 Transparent governance
 Political strategies & perspectives
SMART MOBILITY
(Transport and ICT)
SMART ENVIRONMENT
(Natural resources)
SMART LIVING
(Quality of life)
 Local accessibility
 (Inter-)national accessibility
 Availability of ICT-infrastructure
 Sustainable, innovative and safe
transport systems
 Attractivity of natural conditions
 Pollution
 Environmental protection
 Sustainable resource
management
 Cultural facilities
 Health conditions
 Individual safety
 Housing quality
 Education facilities
 Touristic attractivity
 Social cohesion
Laura Marafioti

11. SHAREABLE

12.  With the advent of social media and information technology, new business
opportunities which empower citizens to connect the supply and demand
efficiently at the peer-to-peer level are more widely available than before.
These new ventures are helping to shape a new sharing movement worldwide.
 In these shareable cities, citizens work together to crowdsource goods, services,
funding, transportation, money, knowledge, and more. People have access the
goods and services they need, for the time period they need them, without
requiring ownership. It’s a solution that minimizes idle goods and promotes
sustainable resource use while building resilient community networks.
Laura Marafioti

13.  An effective sharing ecosystem relies heavily on the availability of information
from both business and public sectors. Access to transparent and open data will
enable greater innovations since members of the community can leverage shared
data sets on transportation, healthcare and infrastructure, to build products and
services that serve the public good.
 Sharing has always been a part of city life including through libraries, community
spaces, guilds, and civic structures. In the past decade, there has been a revival
and acceleration in sharing innovations across sectors from mobility (Bixie Bikes,
Coop Cars) to accommodation (AirBnB, coachsurfing) to skills (TaskRabbit).
Businesses are sharing idle supply chain capacity and joining forces in collective
institutional purchasing, and community-based grassroots innovators are creating
neighbourhood community time banks and clothing swaps.
Laura Marafioti

14.  WHAT SHARE
The universe of sharing crosses many areas of our lives including transportation,
food, space, funding, and goods. It’s quite different if we are sharing things
(books, cars, art), services (rides, child care, time) or experiences (skill sharing).
There are also varying types of ownership – some sharing innovations are public,
some private and others are cooperative.
 WHO SHARE
Most attention has been on individual peer-to-peer sharing and business to
consumer enterprises. Sharing is also taking place among businesses and within
communities. We can also explore the diversity of networks emerging to support
sharing innovators.
 HOW SHARE
The way we share also varies from money exchanges to non-monetized
transactions, formal and informal innovations, and socially connected and more
impersonal interactions.
Laura Marafioti

15. VERTICAL
Laura Marafioti

16.  With the world’s urban population growing at an unprecedented rate, high-rise
buildings will feature prominently in future cities. The concept of the vertical city
could be a solution to the challenge of high-density urbanisation.
 More than 75% of the world’s population is expected live in urban areas by 2050.
New residential, commercial and office spaces within major cities will be needed
to accommodate millions of people, leading cities to invest in innovative,
integrated and sustainable solutions to cope with the rapid growth of
urbanisation.
 Architects from various parts of the world believe that in order to make a city life
more livable in the future, we should combine home, office, retail and recreational
spaces into one gigantic superstructure. So buildings in vertical scenario will
simultaneously act as a residential sector providing all the amenities, such as
public space. They will act as an interactive transmitter and receiver for
communication, information and media exchange.
Laura Marafioti

17.  The vertical city will be split into multiple levels, with complete residential,
commercial units as well as gardens and small trams, all within the structure itself:
a vertical city provides millions of inhabitants all the urban facilities under one
roof.
 By building Vertical Cities we will be able to save energy, support our growing
population and preserve our horizontal spaces for food production, nature and
recreation.
 Vertical Cities could renew weak urban zones in decline by filling voids and dead
space with functioning, thriving neighbourhoods. Most importantly, this new
typology would have the capacity to maximize green space and solve
infrastructural issues while creating an efficient, accessible circulation system for
public transit.
Laura Marafioti

18.  The Mirador building in Madrid, Spain, designed by MVRDV and completed in 2005,
is an example of the several projects based on a vertical city concept. The building
is a collection of mini neighbourhoods stacked vertically around a semi-public sky-
plaza that acts as a counterpoint against the massive uniformity of the surrounding
housing blocks.
Laura Marafioti

19. GREEN
Laura Marafioti

20.  Cities face the challenge of combining competitiveness and sustainable urban
development simultaneously, against the background of economic and
technological changes caused by the globalization and the integration process,.
Very evidently, this challenge is likely to have an impact on issues of urban quality
such as housing, economy, culture, social and environmental conditions.
 Many countries started building green cities. At the present it is possible to
identify some common features inherent in this kind of cities: they minimize the
amount of fossil fuel use, they have rational site development; not only are they
promoting clean air and green space, but they are also introducing energy-efficient
and widely accessible public transport, project those kind of districts, that combine
residences, shops and office buildings etc. Eco-city should focus on the pedestrian
rather than car, that will mean lower levels of smog and traffic.
Laura Marafioti

21.  If the right investments are made in energy, transportation and green buildings,
the cities of the future could look very different than the cities of today. Our
communities could be cleaner and more sustainable. Our quality of life could be
better.
 We face great challenges, for sure, such as a changing climate, a rapidly growing
population, a scarcity of resources, but in the same time we come across great
opportunities such as redesign and transform cities, harness the power of human
innovation, live more sustainably in order to live better.
Laura Marafioti

22. What this future will look like…
 Living Buildings
Homes and buildings will operate as living organisms, monitoring performance and
adapting to our needs in real time, saving us energy and money.
 Solar-Powered Public Transportation
Cities will be connected by lightning-fast, solar-powered public transportation options
that are clean and convenient. They may even be stilted above existing roadways.
 Solar Surfaces
Solar panels will begin to appear in unlikely places. They will cover sidewalks, line the
outside of buildings, and double as fully functional windows.
 Solar Energy from Space
Solar energy will be harvested from space and beamed down to earth, providing clean,
cheap and efficient electricity to power our cities.
Laura Marafioti

23.  High-Speed Long-Distance Travel
People will travel hundreds of miles in just minutes through solar-powered pods that travel
through elevated and depressurized tubes.
 Self-Driving Electric Cars
All vehicles will get their energy from the electrical grid. There will be no exhaust pipes, no
carbon dioxide emissions, no gas stations, and no car accidents.
 Smart Grids
Consumers and power sources will communicate in real time through fiber optic smart grids
that will reduce blackouts, maximize energy efficiency, and save money.
 Energy Independent Homes
Homes will be adorned with solar panels, small-scale wind turbines and other sources of
electrical generation, allowing them to operate independently from the grid, when necessary.
 Efficient Water Use
Buildings will be equipped with comprehensive water management systems, allowing them
to collect rainwater, monitor water use, and efficiently recycle graywater.
Laura Marafioti