YAHIAOUI Youssef (Exchange Student – fall semester – France)
December 13th, 2016
We all know the big issues that we are currently facing about climate change and global warming and I have seen one of the scariest information that I have ever read recently about this topic, in the article “Polar ice sheets melting faster than ever” (see the link below).
Indeed, the polar ice caps have melted faster in last 20 years than in the last 10,000 and to confirm that, a comprehensive satellite study say that the melting ice caps are raising sea levels at an accelerating rate. New-York is one of the cities in the world that can be the most affected by that. Thus, I was thinking about how we could counter that and avoid seeing in the future a great city like New-York under water…
The green city, the city of the future – When new technologies and the green towers can save mankind
Climatic deregulation and the melting of the ice are only examples of what man inflicts on the earth. Cities are at the heart of this issue that seems to lead us to our loss. Concentrating large populations and industries, cities with its many buildings generate waste, greenhouse gases and overconsumption of energy. An alternative to this system is indispensable if we want to save mankind.
The “green city” based on green towers (smart buildings) would be the solution?
I was thinking about how we can use new technologies and develop new one to improve and fight against global warming by changing the definition of a city in the world and as a simple thought, I was wondering if we could make our buildings smarter and finally use them as a tool to fight against global warming.
Cities have to change their model and new cities have to be built on ecological standards because currently it’s the nature that absorbs all our pollution.
I would like to show you some ideas of how we can use these new technologies to make the green city, the city of the future. Note that, my main idea in this post is about the Green towers (smart buildings).
This report will be divided into 2 parts/ideas, and each part will involve the use of new technologies. The first part (the main part) will be about how to transform current cities into green cities based on smart buildings and the second part will be about how to create the cities of the future by using new technologies while respecting the environment. For the second part we will use the great example of Masdar City, the greenest city on earth.
I truly believe that these changes will be the next big change not only because these are good ideas, but simply because we have to do it!
New-York / Paris / Rio / Tokyo : New models, New cities : The Green Towers (smart buildings)
The green city is part of a logic of sustainable development
The idea is to change the infrastructure of the city and gather nature and buildings in order to improve the quality of life of citizens and to repay the “ecological debt”. It is better to adapt the city to nature rather than adapting nature to the city
The main idea will be to build what I call the “green towers” -> 
These buildings are considered as smart building. Indeed, this building will be self-sufficient in terms of energies and will generate energies like electricity to the city in order to make the city self-sufficient.
I can support my statement thanks to the article “Smart buildings – partners for intelligent energy networks” by the company Siemens, these buildings are able to do three things: produce, store and consume energy.
In this article it says that through the use of automated technical infrastructure and physical and digital connections to local energy networks; they offer the possibility to buffer excess electricity from fluctuating renewable sources in thermal and electrical storage units.
These green towers (smart buildings) will become an important component for the safe and efficient energy supply of the future.
Therefore, these green towers, will distribute energy to the city. The idea will be that these buildings will consume 50% less energy than normal buildings and it’s not only that.
My idea will be also to use these buildings to recycles directly the waste of the city.
And one of the greatest points of my idea is to use these green towers to absorb the pollution!
As we can see in the article “The building that ‘sucks up’ SMOG: Cement absorbs pollution from the air and turns it into harmless salt that washes off in the rain” An Italian construction firm has developed a ‘biodynamic’ mortar that is able to remove pollutants from the air automatically. The building is located in Milan, Italy.
These buildings will be able to clean the air because they are made from recycled scraps of marble and left over aggregate which absorbs nitrogen oxide and sulphur pollution and converts it into harmless salts.
The building uses a titanium catalyst that is activated by ultraviolet light (the sun) to drive the chemical reaction. The salts then wash off the walls when it rains.
In the same article we can read that the building consumes 40 percent less energy than conventional buildings and has a glass roof that contains solar panels capable of producing 140 kilowatts.
The interests of theses green towers have concretely a public interest and I will use the current example, like the building in Milan and some studies (in the article) that say that in a large city such as Milan, covering 15 per cent of visible urban surfaces with the smog cleaning cement could cut pollution by half to convince my target.
Therefore, we will be able to offer to the public sector, a good solution to fight against pollution and a problem that occurs in every big cities of the world and improve the air quality of these cities.
The idea of these green towers will also be to implement real farms inside the building in order to cultivate organic fruits and vegetables and grazing animals inside the city center.
This will lead to the fact that people will have an easy access to organic product and that we will reduce the transport costs and thus the oil consumption around the world.
Moreover, while transforming these cities, the objective will be to let trees growing everywhere and to use solar panels and other source of power to make the city self-sufficient.
Here is a picture of What could look like Paris in 2050 from architect Vincent Callebaut.
Vincent Callebaut is a French architect.
You can check out, the following video that gives an overview of how we could transform these cities into green cities and that it will be definitely the next big change.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK-umchL8eU : NATUROPOLIS, the Green revolution.
Create New Cities by using new technologies while respecting the environment: The great example of Masdar city, the city of the future.
In the city of the future everything is sustainable and technologies are everywhere.
Indeed, I want to show you what a green city may involve in terms of technologies and concepts (we have seen some of them in class throughout the semester – Digital libraries & Driverless Cars).
To support my statements I will use the great example of Masdar City.
Masdar (“the source” in Arabic) city is a new city located in the United Arab Emirates, and it is the greatest example in the world of what a green city can look like.
Located 30km away from Abu Dhabi, you can currently visit it like an “attraction”.
In our Green cities we will use only solar panels to generate energy and make the city self-sufficient. In the example of Masdar, the city produces so much power that they sell the excess to Abu Dhabi.
Here are some concepts that we might see more often in the future.
– The green towers, the smart buildings of the future (see explanations in the first part)
– Driverless cars in order to reduce pollution.
– The digital Libraries, the libraries of the future (Objective: Cut fewer trees)
Brief description: The idea will be to have a library that has fewer books than computers, this is the library of the future. Indeed, in these libraries you will have lots of computers, and students will do most of their reading on-line. The screens will be everywhere inside the library and tablets will be available in almost every desk in order to allow students to read books through these tablets and work on it. The libraries of the future are almost fully digital!
You can check out, the following video that gives an overview of how we could create new cities while respecting the environment and using new technologies to save mankind, and that it will be definitely the next big change because as said in this video global warming is THE key issue for the future!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnXQyqdD9XQ&t=3s : Masdar City – The green city project in the UAE
Conclusion
To conclude, I truly believe that the Green towers will be the next big changes in around 50 years because we need to find new ways to fight against pollution and therefore against global warming. Moreover, some of these green towers like the one in Milan have already proved that they can be very useful. Also in a more distant future, I’m sure that we will multiply constructions of cities like “Masdar city” or at least apply some concepts (digital libraries and the multiplication of driverless cars) of a sustainable city like Masdar in our current cities.
So let’s save the world, let’s save New-York, let’s be green!
Sources:
– http://www.dw.com/en/polar-ice-sheets-melting-faster-than-ever/a-16432199 : Polar ice sheets melting faster than ever
– https://www.siemens.com/customer-magazine/en/home/buildings/smart-buildings-partners-for-intelligent-energy-networks.html : Smart buildings – partners for intelligent energy networks
– https://cleantechnica.com/2014/01/23/siemens-masdar-open-leed-platinum-building-masdar-city/ : Siemens & Masdar Open LEED Platinum Building In Masdar City.
– https://weather.com/science/environment/earth-day/news/masdar-united-arab-emirates-sustainable-city-20130726 : Masdar City: The Sustainable City of the Future
– http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3440356/The-buildings-suck-SMOG-Cement-absorbs-pollution-air-turns-harmless-salt-washes-rain.html : The building that ‘sucks up’ SMOG: Cement absorbs pollution from the air and turns it into harmless salt that washes off in the rain
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