Author: ФАРСТОВА ДАРЬЯ АЛЕКСАНДРОВНА | FARSTOVA DARYA
Preface
The architecture of the future is always described first by artists and science fiction writers. They are the ones who try to look into the future by depicting fantastic works. Someone sees the city of the future with giant skyscrapers and smog, someone's city has become very eco-friendly – with green territories and "green houses", and someone imagines the city as futuristic, where buildings in the likeness of Zaha Hadid's projects prevail. Now you will not surprise anyone with such a development of events, although more than once people have witnessed the implementation of buildings and technologies previously described by science fiction writers.
I am a student of the Moscow Architectural Institute. For me, architecture is a reflection of a person's soul, his cultural identity, which cannot be lost over time. I do not pretend to be a science fiction writer, but as a practicing architect, I was interested in imagining what the city of the future might be like, a city in 2100, what human interaction with architecture would be like. The purpose of the story is to analyze human psychology and its interaction with architecture. Thus, I analyzed a possible city of the future, the prerequisites for its formation. I hope that readers will respond to my work. Looking ahead, I urge architects and readers to think about the rationality of using the latest technologies, their necessity and usefulness for humanity. The city of 2100, as I saw it, you can read on.
– Dear passengers, our plane landed at the airport of the city of Zabolotsk. The temperature outside is 18 degrees Celsius, the time is 9 hours. The commander of the ship and the crew say goodbye to you. We hope to see you on board our plane again. Thank you for choosing our airline. The ramp will be served now. Please stay in your seats until you come to a complete stop. – This is how my fascinating journey to my hometown of Zabolotsk began with my faithful four–legged friend, the red cat Markusha.
I had a lot of plans for the weekend: to relax, take a walk with a friend. I haven't seen her for 5 years – I haven't been to my hometown for so long. But the weekend didn't work out from the very first minute – I couldn't get a taxi and had to take public transport. From the window, I watched the skeletons of abandoned buildings, nature, urban areas, strangely assembled according to a principle I did not understand. Well... a lot has changed in 5 years. The city center was heavily rebuilt – instead of merchant buildings of the XVIII century – giant residential complexes made of glass and concrete, skyscrapers. I think I've only seen such skyscrapers in Dubai. The buildings are so thin and tall, how can they not fall and how can people not be afraid to be there! The scariest thing is that there is not a single park area around the buildings. Do I really have to walk around these towers with Anya?
15 minutes later, Anya and I were sitting in a cozy coffee shop and chatting about what had happened during the whole time that we had not seen each other. Anka has become a real businesswoman: a beautiful careerist who will become the head of a large corporation in no time. What's bad is that she became an individualist, devoid of empathy. And she also has her own apartment in an elite residential complex.
– Anya, the city has changed so much over the years, and, it seems to me, the people! The structure of Zabolotsk is completely different, there are almost no historical buildings left, there are no people on the streets, couples in love in cafes... Tell me how it happened? How do you live here now?
– Yes, we have always lived like this! The structure of our Zabolotsk is now modern, it is an advanced city of the country. The heart of the city is located in the center of the city – the dispatch center, which manages all systems in residential complexes built using smart home systems. In the center there are computers for monitoring heating, lighting, ventilation, alarm systems, opening windows, closing doors and the like. After all, the year 2100 is in the yard!
– How is 2100?? It's 2023 now!
They're probably kidding me! But I decided to listen to the rest. Anya continued to talk about the city in 2100. What she said is that for our Zabolotsk it is a whole breakthrough in the organization of the city. Listening to Anya, my eyebrows rose higher and higher with every word she said.
A native zabolotchanka told that in the center of the metropolis, in addition to the dispatcher core, there are residential complexes, along the perimeter of the core of the city there is a forest belt that separates the elite center and industrial zones with factories and business enterprises. The structural satellites around the policy are the isolation areas – mental hospitals and cemeteries.
Now people don't live in country cottages and in five-storey buildings. Residential buildings have turned into apartment hotels - hotel–type apartment buildings designed for long-term living. There is only one type of apartment in such houses – studio apartments designed to accommodate 1 person. The whole complex is built on the principle of condominiums. The first floor of such complexes is occupied by transport infrastructure: there are descents to the subway, stops for electric buses, commuter trains and taxis. By the way, there are no private vehicles in the city, only public ones. Urban transport is unmanned. The second, third and fourth floors of the apart-hotel are occupied by all the necessary infrastructure for human life: cleaning, food delivery, gyms, cafes, swimming pools, shops, rooms for intimate meetings, medical centers, beauty salons and more. There are also assistants who, for example, can feed a cat, perhaps even electronically, or order tickets to an online cinema. Thus, residential complexes have turned into high-rise condominium complexes with a commercial and leisure component.
For many years, people have dreamed of living in ecologically clean places. Therefore, in addition to the above, architects and urban planners have designed islands of nature in residential apartment hotels using nanotechnology - green zones. Moreover, the green zones are themed: they are divided into climatic and landscape zones – with forests, ponds, mountains, and even the sea. This is done in order for the resident of the condominium to rejoice and rest his eyes and soul from the metropolis. The courtyard is protected from harmful impurities by a glass dome, thereby protecting it from the aggressive environment and the outside world.
In the modern world, in the year 2100, personal freedom and material prosperity are highly valued. And values such as friendship and love have faded into the background. People sit in their living cells, as in a shell, and almost do not leave the boundaries of their residential complexes. Many people work and study remotely from the comfort of their homes. They also travel virtually. They meet with friends on the Internet, get electronic animals there. Actually, it makes no sense for people to go out somewhere when the house is stuffed with "smart" equipment, and the food is delivered by a delivery robot. People live an independent life, they don't get attached to anything, even to their typical home.
The houses of 2100 were built using artificial intelligence, the role of the architect in the design has become negligible. Buildings are built according to standard designs created by the robot. Therefore, architecture has lost its author's individuality, originality and identity. The only place where an architect can still bring his ideas to life is in the interiors of wealthy customers who want an atypical design apartment so that their home does not look like a neighbor's home. Expensive and unusual materials and landscaping are used in such designer apartments.
Skyscrapers are another type of housing. But the attitude of a person towards them in 2100 is practically the same as the attitude of a person in 2023. Living in a skyscraper is still very prestigious, but expensive and harmful. However, high-rise buildings are used as office and residential facilities. In the minds of many people, skyscrapers symbolize a "predatory" approach to the environment. High-rise construction and operation of such a building are very expensive. In addition, video ecologists believe that contemplation of skyscrapers is unsafe for the mental health of citizens. The huge monotonous planes of the facades of skyscrapers cause depression, aggressiveness, and chronic fatigue. According to scientists, a skyscraper 150 meters high leaves a carbon footprint twice as large as a 10-storey building. Fires, earthquakes, heat from solar heating, wind, terrorism, and technical problems pose a huge danger to people in high-rise buildings.
Skyscrapers standing next to each other create a "wind tunnel" in which a strong wind blows at ground level. Another part of the air flow along the walls of the building lifts the air contaminated with chemicals into the atmosphere. This turns out to be very harmful for the residents of the city.
The so-called "thermal effect" is created around the skyscraper. Concrete and brick, from which buildings are built, absorb solar radiation well. At night, the heat dissipates in the atmosphere. Then the cycle repeats. Therefore, the temperature in cities with skyscrapers is always higher than in neighboring towns. It has also been proven that skyscrapers are capable of causing earthquakes. High-rise buildings can sway (fluctuate) in strong winds.
Realizing the above dangers, people gradually began to leave the skyscrapers, which are now becoming abandoned skeletons of former prestige. One of the advantages is the beautiful views from the windows. Therefore, living in skyscrapers has significant disadvantages. High-rise construction has formed an unfavorable image of the city. Skyscrapers are compared to enclaves in which a person is isolated from society.
In the year 2100, the topic of health is very popular. Living at high altitude, in genetically unusual conditions for humans, is a stressful factor that affects life expectancy. Therefore, high-rise buildings are built on the basis of the latest technologies that compensate for the negative impact of altitude.
Every building in the city of 2100 is designed from refractory material. The foundation consists of three layers, representing concrete bars connected by a hydraulic mechanism on hinges so that the structure remains stable during seismic activity. In the buildings of the year 2100, nanostyles, nanocomposites, nanostyle, and nanocrete are used.
– I have always believed that people need live communication, eye contact. It turns out that in such an architecture, which affects the psycho-physical state, a person is isolated from society. Are there many psychological help centers in the city?
– Alas, psychological assistance to people is provided only by appointment of a doctor in hospitals in apartment hotels.
Then Anya told about the companions of the policy. Since humans are social beings, they need communication. In the world of modern complexes of the year 2100, people spend a lot of time alone. Because of this, the number of suicides and the number of people who go crazy is increasing. For suicides, there are territories in the city where specialized cemeteries are located. The burial grounds are open spaces, such as a columbarium, with concrete tiered rows of cells. An open access Wi-fi network is embedded in each cell. This way people can quickly find the resting place of their relative and honor his memory.
In the isolation zone from the elite center and the industrial zone there are zones for mentally ill people, of whom there are also many in the city of 2100 due to the aggressive psychological environment. Psychiatric hospitals are located in converted buildings built 70-100 years ago. Hospitals, unlike residential buildings, are bright, low-rise complexes. Each building has large windows that let in a lot of light, high ceilings, large rooms, joyful calm shades in the interiors. There are parks and contact zoos on the territory of the hospitals. Religious buildings in 2100 exist only in hospitals. In residential areas, people do not have time and place to communicate with God. Strangely enough, mental hospitals are a place where people communicate live without the use of artificial intelligence. In addition, patients can do something with their own hands - grow plants, take care of each other, pet animals – all that the people of a large metropolis have lost. A mental hospital is an oasis in the modern world of 2100, where a person can communicate verbally and on an extraverbal level, as well as feel like in the recent past. Generations of people who found the beginning of the century, no matter how strange it may sound, would like to get into a hospital and feel like a living person. In principle, getting into a psychiatric hospital is the best thing for a person.
In the world of 2100, humanity still wants to establish communication with extraterrestrial civilizations and start living on other planets. People of the year 2100 regularly send messages into space: discs with drawings, recordings of wildlife, objects of worship, products. And they hope for an answer. On the Moon and Mars, people decided not to develop life. Now they are attracted to exoplanets. In total, in relative proximity to the Solar system, scientists know 12 exoplanets that are of interest to humans. These planets are located in the "zone of life" – they have liquid water and climatic conditions close to those of Earth. Proxima b and Ross 128 b are of the greatest interest. On these exoplanets, the city consists of cylindrical houses under domes, on legs – on stilts. The volume of the building is enclosed in glass capsules, where a comfortable climate for humans is maintained. A winter garden, gyms, cinemas where you can watch the northern lights have been built on the planets. People travel between planets on unmanned space transport, starting from special space stations on the ground floors of apartment hotels. Many people have country residences on exoplanets…
***
- Mrrrryuu, mrryayayayuu!!! – Markusha grumbled in his ear – his favorite chicken sandwich was carried on the plane. I was in a trance. I had just been in a place unfamiliar in architecture, and now I found myself in a comfortable environment again. She must have fallen asleep. And now I'm in shock from what I saw. Will people really be lonely and live in shells, will they really be controlled by artificial intelligence? How will architecture exist if there is no human being in its living social essence, because there is no architecture without a human being.
The near future of humanity may not be as rosy as it seems at first glance. The architecture will reflect a lonely person – it will be ascetic and robot-like. Like the man of the future, there will be no soul in her, although she will languish somewhere in the secret zones of the city structure. An aggressive environment will negatively affect a person, the loss of the cultural layer will entail the loss of cultural identity, the loss of temples as an important urban and spiritual dominant will lead to depersonalization and loss of their origins, identity. A positive component of the future is the use of innovative materials and systems aimed at helping to create a unique, rather than a typical architecture.