Cities and buildings of Tomorrow

By #2050 the world’s population is expected to reach 9.8 billion. Nearly 70 percent of this booming population—6.7 billion people— is projected to live in urban areas. National Geographic asked experts at the architectural and urban planning firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) how they would design a city of the future, educated by lessons of the past and anticipating challenges of the #future. 

Can you imagine our world in 2050? By mid-century there will likely be 9 billion people on the planet, consuming ever more resources and leading ever more technologically complex lives. What will our cities be like? How will we eat in the future of Earth? Will global warming trigger catastrophic changes, or will we be able to engineer our way out of the world climate crisis?

Amaravati, a new town in Andhra Pradesh, India, is transforming from farmland to urban utopia, with British architect Norman Foster's firm at the helm. Will it succeed?