Architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has recently been involved in many radical and futuristic projects, from creating entire 3-D printed neighborhoods to designing a new city in the United States named Telosa. If built, the first Telosa residents will begin moving in by 2030.
Telosa is American entrepreneur Marc Lore’s plan. The ambitious former banker is a billionaire best known for selling Jet.com (his e-commerce site) to Walmart for US$3.3 billion. Now he wants to take that money and develop the perfect city.
Lore said:
Capitalism has been an incredible economic model, but there are significant flaws, especially around income and wealth inequality. Many of these flaws result from the land ownership model that America was built on. There’s a finite amount of land, and that land was claimed generations ago – communities were created, tax dollars were used to invest in the land, and therefore, the land increased in value over time with landowners not having to produce anything or take any risk. Land could essentially go from a barren piece of desert to a modern-day city worth billions (or even trillions!).
Lore’s response to capitalism is something he calls Equitism. In the case of Telosa, equitism involves acquiring a massive 150,000 acres (roughly 60,700 hectares) plot of land to be donated to a community endowment. The city will democratically manage income via ground leases and land appreciation, which will support city services, healthcare, education, and more, without raising taxes.
While details of the city are still in progress, the renders depict a large tower (Equitism Tower) rising from a central park surrounded by farms and greenery-covered buildings that boast energy-efficient design features like rainwater collection and solar panels. Furthermore, the city prioritizes pedestrians, so transportation consists of slow-moving autonomous cars, cyclists, suspended monorails, and eVTOL air taxis.
In a promotional video, Lore said:
Cities that have been built to date from scratch are more like real estate projects. They don’t start with people at the center because if you started with people at the center, you immediately think: what’s the mission, and what are the values? The mission of Telosa is to create a more equitable and sustainable future. That’s our North Star.
Think about Telosa as being as vibrant and diverse as New York City, combined with the efficiency, safety, and cleanliness of a city like Tokyo, combined with the social services, the sustainability and the governance model of a city like Stockholm. As a result, we are going to be the most open, the fairest, and the most inclusive city in the world.
Telosa will be built in stages, with the initial phase involving a 1,500-acre (607-hectare) residential zone housing 50,000 residents. It will then grow in size to over 5 million residents. Stage one will cost over $25 billion, and the final cost is expected to reach $400 billion – that will happen over decades. Funding would come from private investors, federal and state grants, subsidies, and philanthropists.
Arizona, the Appalachian Region, Idaho, Nevada, Texas, and Utah are potential locations. The chosen place will have natural resources, like water, on-site.
Meanwhile, Bill Gates has also revealed plans to build a smart city in Arizona called Belmont. His investment firm already dished out $80 million to the project and purchased 24,800 acres of desert land less than an hour west of downtown Phoenix.
Belmont Partners said in a press release:
Belmont will create a forward-thinking community with a communication and infrastructure spine that embraces cutting-edge technology, designed around high-speed digital networks, data centers, new manufacturing technologies, and distribution models, autonomous vehicles, and autonomous logistics hubs.
Grady Gammage, a founding partner of legal firm Gammage & Burnham, added:
Envisioning future infrastructure from scratch is far easier and more cost-efficient than retrofitting an existing urban fabric. Belmont presents such an opportunity.
While Telosa and Belmont are new cities yet to be realized, Prince Charles has already successfully created a town in England called Poundbury. The fascinating experiment in urban design attempts to shape the future with precedents from the past. Charles embarked on the mission to create a sustainable and beautiful community in his slice of Dorset in southwest England to prove that such a place stands a chance against unchecked suburban sprawl and ugly modern architecture.
Some leaders see the development of entirely new cities as the better solution to overcome the pressures and problems of existing cities. However, retrofitting cities can cost up to three times more than planning the infrastructure before settlement.
Population increase will add an estimated 2.5 billion more citizens to urban areas by 2050. According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer, many of these will be new cities. So, if it’s going to happen regardless, mina swell be by people dedicated to prioritizing the residents and sustainability!
