More than 7.7 billion people currently inhabit the earth – and the trend is rising. The question of where each individual should live has not only arisen since today? Futuristic urban planning projects want to be pioneering. It’s about space, quality of life, costs and, above all, sustainability. What do the “cities of the future” have to offer?
USA, the land of unlimited opportunities, as the saying goes. If billionaire Marc Lore (51) has his way, this potential should be put into a mega-city. Telosa, whose name comes from Greek, means “highest goal”. By 2030, it should provide a home for 50,000 people in the middle of the desert. Exactly where the city will be located in the United States has not yet been decided: 36 counties from Nevada, Arizona and Utah could in any case become part of the project. Cost point: 400 billion euros.
According to the website, every resident should be able to reach all places within the city within 15 minutes from their apartment: grocery stores, sports and workplaces… The focus is primarily on pedestrians and cyclists. Cars should drive electrically and autonomously, it goes on to say.
Topics such as sustainability and renewable energies are also part of the plan. The first pictures of what Telosa could look like show modern high-rise buildings with trees even growing on their roofs. Floating passenger cabins, reminiscent of oversized drones, whiz through the city. Greenhouses and wind farms also characterize the cityscape. Telosa aims to be “open, fair and inclusive”.
The whole thing is to be borne by foundations that manage money from the country’s lease licenses and invest in social services. Every inhabitant can directly influence political decisions. It is not known what that looks like in concrete terms. Telosa is still in its infancy, if at all. Because despite good ideas and partial concepts, there is so far little concrete that Lore can present. Especially since it is not even clear where Telosa is to be built at all. It remains to be seen whether this utopia will really emerge or whether the whole thing will remain a utopia.
A different concept is being pursued in Saudi Arabia. Neom is budgeted at $500 billion and is expected to be larger than Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The special feature is the 170 km long, 200 m wide and almost 500 m high building “The Line”. According to the announcement, it will accommodate nine million people and get by without roads, cars and emissions. Those responsible, including the royal family, see it as an opportunity to think beyond the “oil state” era. Solar technology and wind power are used for this.
Similar to Telosa, an important point here is that residents can get from one end to the other within 20 minutes – by high-speed rail. It would not be Saudi Arabia’s first attempt of this kind. They had already tried to push through a mega-city project. At the time the project was presented, four other megacities, including King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), were under construction. By 2030, two million people should actually live in the Kind Abdullah City – so far there are less than 50,000…
