HUTOPIA

The city expands and it swallows everything on its way. People can no longer live inside the city and the further they live, the further the city spreads. The remedy for the city is acupuncture – choose the points where the flow of energy is blocked and relieve it using architecture. The needle transforms into a vertical community that brings people together with their stories and not just piles up human beings. A vertical community is built. The city develops by recycling every problematic area that exists inside its own limits. Beijing the Supercity absorbs the best features from the satellites-cities and mixes them in order to obtain a vertical community – just like as if several hutongs were built one on the top of each other. Since one of the best examples for a community is the hutong, why not customize this way of living with the help of technology? One cultural element of the city of Beijing –hutong- blends with technology –the best resource the human being has- in order to create the Evolution Era. The vertical community is a parallel reality of the urban context, it explores the permeable borders of the existing city and it mixes them with technology in order to create a progressive future. This is the new Beijing. A variable from the past is reprogrammed so that it creates a breach into the past and implicitly the future, while a new context and way of living develops. This way a new story starts to be written, a story where the characters have the feeling of experiencing life a second time, but in a different manner. This is the new life where technology is engraved in a daily context and in everyday actions. Tuo,25 years old, moved in a vertical community a couple of months ago. He used to live in the outskirts of Beijing, but when he found out that a new vertical community was being built he applied right away for one of the 150 houses from the vertical community. For him this decision was the beginning of the Evolution Era. The 2nd of July 2114 “When I moved to the vertical community, named Hutopia, I had all my stuff packed in lots and lots of boxes. I thought it was going to take an eternity to unpack all those things, but in the end it was so easy. Ah Kum, my robot, took care of everything, it was waiting for me at the entrance and after I turned it on it took all my things and moved them to my new house. I was surprised to see that my apartment was in fact just a module that was added to the building only after I had entered my password. The building is a work in progress construction site, because modular components are added and rearranged every time a new person moves in.“ The 3rd of July 2114 “I woke up around 9, actually Ah Kum woke me up using as an alarm the Four Seasons by Vivaldi, pretty nice way to start the day. Having breakfast prepared was a piece of cake, just choose what I wanted to eat on my touch screen computer and in a couple of minutes everything was on the table. Ah Kum told me all the fruits were picked up from the vertical farm on the 50th floor of the building. It told me I could go there one day and do that by myself since it’s a good way of relaxing after a day of work.” The 4th of July 2114 “Yesterday I worked from the co-working centre on the first floor where telepresence facilities were implemented for mobile workers like me. But since today I had to meet with a client I have decided for a face to face meeting since it was the beginning of our collaboration. We will have plenty of time to telecommunicate. To get to his office I took the flying car and drove it on the raised highways that provide inner-city mobility. The building has a very efficient car and bike sharing system, using just a few commands you can book a car or a bike, in this way the number of cars in Beijing was divided by two. All these means of transport are stocked on the logistic floor. Ah Kum also told me I could have taken the underground transport since every vertical community is a transport hub that integrates the subway with the infrastructure of the building.” The 5th of July 2114 “After I finished worked I decided I should exercise a little bit, so I asked Ah Kum what were the possibilities, I could choose between swimming into the roof pool that collects water from the building and recycles it, jogging on the roof track, or going to the gym on 4th floor, where the community health and education centre is situated. This time I chose the swimming pool.” The 6th of July 2114 “I was surprised when Ah Kum explained to me that the windows from my apartment use algae in order to produce biofuel. She also told me that some of the façades of the building are covered with a solar photovoltaic paint. The whole envelop of the building has sensors that are integrated and that respond to local climate conditions. It is just like a huge computer that gives you real-time data feeds, displaying the energy consumption, the weather and the news.” The 7th of July 2114 “Today my friends came to visit, they live not far from me. In a few minutes’ walk on the pedestrian connector bridge we met in front of the prehistory museum, situated on the 25th floor. We visited a little bit and then we went to the cinema on the 20th floor. Ah Kum suggested the movie and where to go for an after drink. She knows exactly what I like, I think, I wonder if I’m not falling in love with her… she’s more than a robot for me!” The 8th of July 2114 “My mom called me today, she’s 89 and in very good shape. 10 years ago I got her for her birthday a pair of hybrid assistive limbs and since that day she became a new person. I think this year I should get her one of Ah Kum’s friends, it might help with her daily routine and she would definitely stop feeling lonely. On the phone she was asking me about my wearable technology and my answer was right away “Yes sure the best way of experiencing the world through the eyes of internet 24hours/24hours and 7 days a week. You definitely should get that!”