Institute For The Future

From #10YF2014: 3D-Printed Cities

The 2014 Ten-Year Forecast Annual Retreat explored the landscape of change over the next decade by inviting attendees to contemplate ten projects that—if successfully undertaken today—could change the paradigm in their fields in the next ten years. These bold projects are already taking shape in the dark underside of the internet, in the foundations of our global cities, in the no-man’s land of our prisons, and in the microbes of our bodies and our planet. They are rapidly recoloring our world.

During this retreat on May 1-2, 2014, IFTF Distinguished Fellow Jamais Cascio explored the potential of 3D printing to change the way we rebuild, restore, and recreate our failed or failing cities.

 

 

Cities are the fundamental technology of civilization, and have been so for nearly 12,000 years. How we think of cities, and how we create them, has evolved along with our economies and cultures. And the economic and cultural transformation now underway promises to radically reshape how we make and remake our cities.

The 3D/3R forecast asks the following questions:

• What if we could use the emerging distributed manufacturing technologies (like 3D printing) to re-imagine the processes by which we rebuild, restore, and recreate our cities?
• What if the kinds of bottom-up empowerment that characterizes so much of the “maker movement” becomes part of how we understand the evolution of cities?

And while the idea of using 3D printers to build and rebuild our urban landscape may sound science-fictional, massive 3D printers are already in use for rapid home construction in parts of China, able to print out 10 houses per day. More advanced forms of this technology are in development globally.

The forecast uses the example of Detroit – a city that’s been failed by conventional political and economic institutions – as a location that could be well-served with the introduction of a 3D/3R approach.

• The use of 3D/3R would enable neighborhoods and local communities to have a greater say in (and greater responsibility for) the transformation of their urban environment.
• It would build on projects already underway in cities around the world, from open sensor technologies to rooftop farms.
• The skills developed would be infinitely reusable, applicable almost anywhere, and in rapidly increasing demand.

It would be a revolution not just in what the city can be, and not just in how we make cities. It would be a revolution in how cities and citizenry remake each other.

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This post is from our 2014 Ten-Year Forecast, which explores 10 bold projects that have the potential to change the world over the next 10 years. In the coming weeks, look for more about the projects and the futures they would make.

Curious about the Ten-Year Forecast Program?

• Follow the projects at @iftf, #10YF2014, and #10projects10years
• Take a sneak peek at our plans for 2015
• Find out more about the Ten-Year Forecast program
• Check out previous years' Ten-Year Forecast research
• Contact Sean Ness ([email protected])