"Advanced civilization is urban civilization." - Oswald Spengler

The most human thing in the universe is the city. Made by people for people, not for use, but for life, to work in it, to establish social contacts. It includes everything that man has ever made, and there is no other system in which the density of people or human products, feelings and actions are as high as in a city. It is the human ecosystem. Not one to which he has adapted or has adapted to himself according to his ideas. It's a system that he made himself. Some millennia-old, possess the spirit of many cultures, eras and societies. A city is a collective, an organism that consists of various associations of human actions and interactions over millennia and all of them also carry the past in your veins. When a painting puts the artist's soul on paper, it is cities that represent the soul of humanity; the face of civilization!

The future of cities means the future of people. Every aspect that affects human life also affects the city and vice versa. Often, forecasts about the city of the future do not go beyond traffic. It is one of the most important issues in the city but by no means the only one. How will cities develop? Technical progress, culture, activities and social interaction. The driver of change is technological progress, but the consequences will not be limited to technology.

There are numerous global companies and research institutions that are working on the possible cityscapes of tomorrow and there are already several projects to build completely new cities. Masdar City near Abu Dhabi or Neom are such examples. Of course, a distinction must be made between cities that are newly built and those that have existed for a long time, between poor and rich cities and regional differences in terms of weather, culture and preferences. These are factors that have given every city its uniqueness for millennia and will always do so. I will only show developments that are possible without addressing these differences. The picture I paint for you is not a simple fantasy of the future but is based on forecasts and projects of many large organizations. I only consider technologies that already exist or are in development. Economic efficiency is always taken into account as a limiting or accelerating factor. A lot of business ideas and advice for adapting to the change are hidden between the lines.

Progress is always aimed at eliminating disadvantages and at the same time maintaining or expanding advantages. So it makes sense to look at the advantages and disadvantages of living in a city in order to get a guide for the city of tomorrow.

Advantages:

Workplace
Access to all offers (diversity)
Social activities (restaurant, bars, bowling etc.)
Cultural life (museums, opera, cinema)

Disadvantages:

Heavy traffic
Polluted air
Noise pollution
Little nature
Often hot spots, crime
High cost of living

The fact that an individual receives less attention in the city and is thus much more anonymous can be rated as positive or negative, depending on the person. First of all, it can be said that the cost of living is more likely to increase, as most cities are not interested in accelerated demographic growth. It is possible that in some regions there will be a downward trend in terms of urbanization, as some of the advantages of the city through digitalization will also be available in rural areas, such as working from home or accessing a richer range through online shopping.

The most striking difference will probably be the transport system. Autonomous vehicles with quick reactions communicate with each other and thus optimize the flow of traffic and prevent traffic jams. Coupled with a digitally controlled parking space search, it enables you to get on and off at the desired location. The vehicle then drives independently to the parking lot or works as a taxi and earns money. Public transport in the form of capsules on a kind of magnetic rail, the route of which is based on the communicative network that flexibly adapts to the information provided by the passengers. In the event of heavy traffic or a great hurry, drones could be used if the energy expenditure can be reduced. These could detach already occupied capsules from their mobile base on the street and transport them to their destination.

A dynamic public transport system with electric vehicles charging on the road, which, according to the best forecasts, will account for 20% of total traffic by 2040. On the other hand, autonomous driving and, above all, the elimination of the need to search for a parking space will lead to increased traffic in city centers. Especially since population growth and the increase in vehicles per capita represent a higher traffic load anyway. As a redesign of inner cities is usually only possible to a limited extent, some municipalities will probably resort to closing the innermost circles of inner cities to private automobile traffic. There is a lot that would speak for it. In downtown

- Short journeys by car take a long time,
- the distances are not great anyway,
- The heavy traffic affects life in the city center as a whole (noise, exhaust gases, risk of accidents, etc.).

In addition, the steadily growing health awareness, especially among urban populations, and the steadily increasing lack of exercise due to digitization are leading to a rethinking of society in highly urbanized regions. Roads could be converted into paths for bicycles, scooters and electric wheelchairs, which at certain hours are activated for low-noise and automated freight traffic by e-trucks. Increasing the capacity of local public transport would absorb a further part of the burden. But even in cities, where vehicles can penetrate any area, there may be bans or restrictions on internal combustion engines. Green city centers with cleaner air and more exercise would cause less stress and increase people's productivity. Since advancing technologies remove the need for real contact with people and physical movements, both are satisfied by communal outdoor and indoor activities in the open spaces of the inner cities. Here, too, digitization allows previously unimaginable possibilities.

Orders will be delivered to each location quickly and by drone. If Elon Musk is right and goods and people are transported by rocket propulsion in just 10 years, a dish from an Indian restaurant in Mumbai could be served on the picnic blanket in 30 minutes in Munich and a few minutes later by drone at the Olympic Park. It also promises new technologies in tunnel construction that enable high-speed trains to travel in a vacuum from Frankfurt to Cologne in 15 minutes.

A restaurant that consists of cabins that can reproduce different places in the world very realistically in picture and sound. A café in Singapore rents a space with a 360 ° camera and microphones to various “cabin restaurants” around the world. Artificial wind and the adjustment of the characteristic scent make the experience even more realistic. So people can relive the experience of their last vacation without investing a lot of time and money. The increasingly affordable hologram technology also enables friends and family to eat together in distant places.

This is just one possibility out of the seemingly endless number of possible businesses and start-ups that will soon enter our lives. International virtual discussions are held in the fresh air using VR glasses, the chat rooms and forums of the future, in which very lively and fascinating presentations can be made. A very diverse and rich world is approaching us. Appointments and orders can be perfectly adjusted via location access and the time efficiency of the shops increased. It is difficult to predict whether an improved human-computer interface and improved voice control will lead to a different form of smartphone or whether it will be replaced by smartwatches with hologram capabilities. But since almost every aspect of life is controlled by it, a name like “Smartlife” makes more sense. Leaders in innovation and high tech are also working on processors that can be implemented in the body and could even work with the neural network. But this idea will meet with a lot of resistance since the intervention in the human organism causes very negative associations for most people. It remains to be seen whether it will ever be realized.

In the retail trade, the cash register is increasingly being abolished and when leaving the store, the purchase is recorded and deducted from the account. The smartphone navigates through the shops and reports on products. So-called vertical agriculture will find its way into the cities in order to meet the increasing demand for food. Fruit and vegetables are grown in layers on several floors in buildings or containers, thus ensuring less transport and a more independent supply. The canteen at the workplace will be able to use fresh ingredients from the in-house cultivation. Robots will also find their way into our lives. As a waiter at the reception or as a household helper, where they are already available. The development of robot technology will ensure innovations and changes in the city of tomorrow for a long time to come.

These and other developments and growing populations are increasing the already enormous energy consumption of large cities. Many concepts for the efficient use of energy, as well as large systems of predominantly renewable energies, are in the vicinity of the cities and move small plants to cities.

Even if there are already very progressive and energy-efficient smart homes today, only a few aspects of them will move into the city centers, because other aspects require a completely new house, the market of which is generally very small in city centers. But in the outskirts of the city and new districts, complete smart home systems will be created.

There are so many business opportunities right now. Change is taking place on the shoulders of IT professionals. Hence it is just for IT companies there is an inexhaustible potential of possibilities. There are also countless opportunities for the builders of our cities, the construction companies. By introducing innovations, retailers and restaurateurs can become drivers of change and attain a completely new status as pioneers. During this time, corporations have to think "out of the box" and get rid of some traditional thought patterns, because whoever does not adapt to the speed, will fall by the wayside. Even size doesn't protect.

Get a consultant on board who will determine and evaluate all financially feasible options for you in order to then develop and implement an action plan that is perfectly tailored to your company. Let's go this way together.