City of the Future: City of Broad Waters?

What is the future of the city? A contest set up by the History Channel gave eight teams of architects in Chicago the chance to (quickly) come up with their visions. As described at World Changing, all of the entries were inspiring. Perhaps because, unlike the utopian visions of the recent past, they were both imaginative and realistic in terms of ecology and energy. And not simply in how the city preserves or enhances its own ecology while using energy efficiently--but in how the city responds economically to the challenge (and the opportunity) of future ecological and energy needs beyond its own borders.

For example, the winning entry was a plan to make Chicago, the city of broad shoulders, a prime producer and exporter of...water. Yes, cool, clear water, pure water, drinking water, because water is likely to no longer be everywhere. The Climate Crisis as well as pollution is very likely to make water the most important natural resource of the near future.

This vision (by UrbanLab) lays out an elegant plan for how Chicago can use its river and access to Lake Michigan to produce clean water and export it, and in the venture, become a greener city, with far less dependence on automobiles.

This will become an entry in a national competition, but the beauty of it is that it is site specific--it could really work for Chicago. While politicians and the media babble on, at least some engineers and architects are looking realistically at the likely needs, conditions and opportunities of the 22nd century (though the water crisis is likely to be a mid-21st century situation, if not sooner) and coming up with imaginative solutions that are of the kind that can very well characterize such future planning: win/win, non-zero sum change.