Architecture all over the world is changing with changing technology, economic systems, increasing population, social patterns, and now shaping differently concerning the pandemic outbreak.
After each epidemic outbreak, the urban fabric with its architecture is governed by a new model of social life, interaction, infection directives, and social roles. New urban policies and regulations are imposed after each epidemic. However, with the covid-19 outbreak, it is evident that it is not only about the virus but the speed of society, where old architecture is slow to react or not flexible to meet the needs of the contemporary and immediate situation of the society.
Flexible Architecture
Preventing the obsolescence of architecture and making it more flexible is the future of Architecture. Features like lightness, adaptability with program change, and population change are required to be developed for the upcoming architectural building. Already the world’s architecture is moving towards mobile and modular designs, compact living for accommodating dense population but the most effective solutions to various problems in terms of building, housing, urban cities, and architecture are yet to be discovered and figured out.
Architects, urban planners, and engineers are rethinking the flexible architecture style and urban planning that caters to the bigger problems of increasing population, rapid urbanisation, and pandemic regulations.
Verticle City Vs Horizontal City
Every year, the world population is increasing by 80 million people. With this, urban cities are either expanding vertically or horizontally. Countless high-rise buildings and skyscrapers are emerging in small geographical locations. This picture of urbanization will pose a problem for sustainable living. The towering system disrupts the skyline in the streets of the city and also makes the life of the people monotonous, isolation boxes and unhealing. Vertical cities with compact living become claustrophobic. The city ceased to have places of community gathering and interaction and does not allow for social interaction which is unfavorable for a healthy society. Completely Vertical cities have not emerged but some of the cities of France, Japan, and Osaka are considered in moderate vertical growth and no growth outwardly.
In the horizontal expansion, the building is being built and spread by expanding the urban boundaries. It affects plant and animal biodiversity through the fragmentation of their habitats. Agricultural lands are also disappearing with the horizontal expansion of cities. Suburban expansion in urban cities means greater demand for energy and greater depletion of natural resources. It is not sustainable in the long run. India is mostly outward and little vertical expansion. The term ‘Urban sprawl’ applies to some of the cities of India. Batty et al. defined sprawl as “uncoordinated growth: the expansion of community without concern for its consequences, in short, unplanned, incremental urban growth which is often regarded unsustainable.”
Future cities demand walkable streets, resilient and low-carbon architecture buildings with efficient resources. With the perpetual decline of land and natural resources, the only opportunity for its optimum utilization is creating a better world by conscious decision with the help of technology and algorithms that ensure minimum waste.
Elevators and Cars as Human Isolation Technologies
Two major technologies helping in mobility that is shaping the future of Architecture are ‘Elevators and Cars’. They are the human isolation systems picturing the future urban cities and architecture. Cars symbolize horizontal expansion and increasing carbon content while elevators are the vertical cars that symbolize vertical expansion.
For example, Los Angeles is a city expanding horizontally. Lack of green fields in L.A. and land scarcity has created obstacles for new housing for the increased population. L.A. has wide streets and vast parking lots with buildings. The lack of pedestrian areas and crowds of cars has made it a sprawling urban region. Data says more than 60% of L.A. land is used for cars commuting and thus more CO2 leading to unsustainable living. Roads and parking lots are taking up the whole of the land area and very little of it is left for humans and urban greens.
On the other hand, vertical cities like Hongkong are also unlivable. Estimates reflect that Hongkong has around 7827 buildings more than 35 meters tall, 315 buildings taller than 150 mt. This jungle of skyscrapers shows the condition of groundlessness. There are no parks, no urban spaces in between the towers but the buildings are mashed together with no visible paths. Public space, public seating, and gardens are tucked in the building itself. The housing units in Hongkong are very compact yet functional. On average living space for a person in Hongkong is 15 sq. ft. The future of such a densely populated country makes the imagination of the movie ‘Matrix’ seem true and possible. These vertical cities are driven by elevators in all the high rises that allow stacking buildings vertically, cultivating the culture of social deprivation.
Envisioned Future of Architecture by eminent people
Emerging urban planners and architects are envisioning ways to solve this complex problem of urbanization with a dense population. For example- Babel town by studio Schwitalla proposes a new way of looking at the future cities. Compression and vertical densification of buildings with suburbs and green spaces around is the answer to sustainable urban living, studio Schwitalla mentions. The city is structured as a vertical spiral in a way such that the buildings that used to take the space of agriculture, flora, and fauna are to be hanged beneath the structure, allowing the slope to become a green belt and places for interaction.
Other such examples are The Urban shelf, The V-illage, BFO by Studio Schwitalla, and the village project by Space 10 and EFFEKT.
Conclusion
The future of architecture lies in the next revolution of the development of urban cities in peculiar and innovative ways. However, considering the present development, technology, and limitations, the future of architecture and the urban city can be speculated as:
- Modular designing of units
- Compact living units/Tiny homes
- Fusion of technology, nature, and human behavior
- A.I.-based architectural practice/ Digitally generated buildings
Bibliography
Batty, Michael; Besussi, Elena; Chin, Nancy (November 2003). “Traffic, Urban Growth and Suburban Sprawl” (PDF). UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis Working Papers Series. 70. ISSN 1467-1298. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 26, 2015. Retrieved May 17, 2015.
Jack McManus. “Harvard GSD Student Envisions Autonomous Building that Rearranges Spaces Throughout the Day” 26 May 2018. ArchDaily. Accessed 13 Jun 2021. <https://www.archdaily.com/894566/harvard-gsd-student-envisions-autonomous-building-that-rearranges-spaces-throughout-the-day> ISSN 0719-8884
