In 2018, Orlando Economic Partnership collaborated with Kedge (dba TFSX) to lead a collective effort around OEP’s vision of “a regional approach to broad-based prosperity,” creating the region’s future today through the development and prioritization of strategic transformations. As a part of this process, we developed the Future of Cities motion graphic, a short representation of three landscapes that highlight various trends and emerging issues that will impact the way we learn, work and live.
As subsets of larger cities, Micro Cities would set their own rules regarding taxation and governance, with decisions made by private boards and executives. They would provide all services (i.e. water, sewer, roads) often through ecologically innovative technologies. They would allow cross-national government partnerships, as parent countries transfer existing rules to new settlements.
Advanced simulation software, as well as the increasing adoption of virtual and augmented technologies, is allowing for the creation of Mirror Cities – the digital twins of those in the physical environment – to improve city development and social architecture. Some research suggests that these virtual metropolises may even begin to take precedent over their physical counterparts.
With the growth of augmented reality, smart technologies, digital identities and the Internet of Things, the city stands poised to become more interconnected than ever before. The potential exists to not only create generative, life-giving landscapes, but environments in which the city is seen as a holistic, living entity with people as its wearables or microbiome.
