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Imagining a More Sustainable City

Innovating Our Future Cities

With a soaring global population, vast numbers of people are facing living in cities that are decades or centuries old, built for much smaller populations with very different needs. This puts our environment at risk by wasting resources such as land, water and energy, and makes cities harder to manage logistically.

A diverse range of disciplines are helping solve these challenges, aided by a suite of digital tools that allow scientists and city planners to see and explore the futures we are creating and their effects on their inhabitants and the planet as a whole.

This approach could lead to a reimagining of the entire discipline of architecture by focusing not just on the resulting structure but also the impact a building will have on the planet’s resources.

Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCity project aims to create holistic, virtual models that enable urban planners to digitally study and test ideas, to consider the impact urbanization has both within the invisible boundaries of their city, and also on the entire planet and its resources. Click on each asset to learn more.

Video: Innovating Our Future Cities

Article: The Responsive City

It’s rush hour in the city. People make their way home after a hard day’s work. Driverless cars pass by as cyclists stream along purpose-built lanes, safe from motorised traffic and unpredictable pedestrians. As the city unwinds into the evening, indoor sensors adjust the ambient temperature and turn lights on; televisions, radios and even baths are operated with a gesture from an armchair.

Outside, sensors monitor atmospheric irritants, ready to alert those at risk should dangerous levels be reached. A computer planning the city’s waste collection receives data about foul-smelling and full bins. Traffic systems constantly check and adjust, ensuring jams and accidents are a thing of the past. Unbeknown to its citizens, every function of the city is silently optimised to make life simple and efficient.

» Read the article "The Responsive City" (PDF)

If we analyze the patterns and interactions between people and systems – such as transport and waste management – we can develop cities that are still robust while also being highly efficient and sustainable – but in new terms.

Ingeborg Rocker Vice President of 3DEXPERIENCity

Blog: The Cities of the Future

By 2050, the World Health Organization predicts that 70% of the population, or 6.4 billion people, will be urbanites. Many of these will live in cities that are decades or centuries old, built for vastly smaller populations with very different needs. As these new metropolises gestate and grow, they risk becoming sprawling, inefficient sinks, wasting precious resources such as land, water and energy, and becoming harder to manage logistically.

» Read the blog post

Infographic: Can 3D Modeling Be the Key to Future Cities? Performance Footwear

Technology is helping us customize athletic gear to improve performance and comfort Living Heart

3D modeling is giving researchers a revolutionary and comprehensive look into the human heart How can technology shape the future?

Come explore more articles

NOTE: The video, infographic and article were first published as an Advertisement Feature on bbc.com running from 27th June 2014 to 5th September 2014, and were created by the BBC Advertising Commercial Production team in partnership with Dassault Systèmes.