The experiment known as "15-minute cities" or "20-minute neighborhoods" may begin in 2024 in Oxford. The idea was presented to the World by a Colombian-born French professor, Carlos Moreno, back in 2016. Many people liked the idea, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, made the idea part of her election campaign. The Covid epidemic also favored the revival of the idea, which also found enthusiastic supporters at this year's World Economic Forum.
The essence of the idea is that people can reach all necessary services within 15-20 minutes from their residential area. Whether it's a kindergarten, school, workplace, shops, parks, health facilities, hairdresser or even a gym. The reason for the proximity is that the average person is only willing to walk for this amount of time to reach their goal.
According to the idea, in the future we would move around on foot, by bicycle or by public transport, which would solve the daily crowd caused by the congestion of the city and reduce air pollution.
According to the regulations, the city of Oxford would be divided into six 15-minute zones. As already mentioned, the zones will be freely passable on foot, by bicycle and by public transport, but by car it will only be possible to do so 100 times a year. License plate reading cameras placed on the roads will help to implement the new law, which monitor who has exceeded 100 times and who does not have permission to drive in. Car violators would not go unpunished.
The plan reminds many of the well-known ghettos from history, where free movement is now limited by cameras rather than physical barricades. British TV personality Katie Hopkins has also spoken out on her YouTube channel, as she finds that anyone who tries to criticize the plan is immediately brushed off, even though people bought cars to be able to use them whenever they need them.
Legislators, of course, refute the objections of the "scaremongerers", saying that it is merely the prevention of traffic disturbances and the creation of a more environmentally conscious city, which is absolutely important from the point of view of the protection of the Planet. Not on the margin, improving people's health is also easier to achieve if they sit in the car less and move more instead.
Several big cities have already joined the initiation, including Canterbury, Bristol, Glasgow, Bogotá, Melbourne, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Milan, Paris.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to build an ultra-modern city in the desert that will be more famous than the Egyptian pyramids.
According to the plans, the World's largest structure will consist of two parts, each of them will reach a height of 500 meters. What is even more special is that the two buildings will not be really gigantic in height, but in their length: they will run parallel for 120 kilometers in a line across the coastal, mountain and desert terrain.
The Neom urban complex, which will be home to five million people, is part of the futuristic project called "Mirror Line". A high-speed train will run under the mirror buildings reminding us of sci-fi movies.
To feed the residents, the project plans vertical farming integrated into the buildings. For entertainment, Mirror Line plans a sports stadium that can be up to 300 meters above the ground. The desert space city will also have a marina.
Planners face special challenges such as how to manage the migration of millions of birds through the air corridors that the Mirror Line will cross. Shading the structure consisting of two tall buildings running parallel is also a difficult task, because the lack of sunlight in the deep "valley" can be harmful to health. Developers even have to deal with the curvature of the Earth. Since the Earth curves about 16 centimeters per kilometer, designers suggest leaving a gap at the top of horizontal skyscrapers to allow the structures to "bend" around the world.
An amazing megacity is also being built in the American desert. American billionaire Marc Lore would build a hypermodern city in the middle of nowhere to implement "a new social model". The "Telosa" metropolis (the name comes from the Greek word meaning "highest goal") would cover about 150,000 hectares in the American desert. According to Lore, Telosa will include 36 districts in Nevada, Arizona or Utah. The plan is one of nearly a dozen proposals worldwide to build sustainable and ultramodern cities from scratch that look more like science fiction than reality.
"We're not just building a new city- it's a new social mode."- promises Lore, who says Telosa will also be "fair" for everyone, which experts say looks like a mix of democracy, capitalism and socialism.
