Neo-Growth in Future Post-Carbon Cities

Ancient Greece had city-states - in 100 years we will have city-worlds. The global challenge of urbanisation has been acerbated due to megatrends such as climate change, demographic change (i.e. ageing of the population in industrialised countries, and increasing populations in developing countries and new economies) globalisation and financial crises. The rise of megacities will speed up urbanisation. The concepts and structures of new cities and the urban sprawl of existing cities has been directly linked to energy, water, food, health and security issues. The consumption of fossil fuels in construction, housing, transport and industry should be minimised and replaced with renewable forms of energy. Future cities will also create a built environment that is based on a different logic than today. Humans started to construct cities thousands of years ago, as shelter for survival and as centres of housing, trading and recreation. In the future, cities will themselves be like organisms; sensitive and responsive to interaction, self-constructing ”cyburgs”. They are foreseen to emerge as self-sufficient isles for energy, food, and comfort in the urban archipelago.