Urban Mars

Over at WebUrbanist, there's a great post about building cities on Mars, looking at the history of the idea and images of those cities as they might look in the future. [via WebUrbanist, image via Tim Landry]

William Gibson's Bridge City in "Virtual Light" Could Become Real

San Francisco's Bay Bridge is getting a makeover that will leave a large portion of the old bridge unused, but still standing strong. Now two architects are proposing that the city build a neighborhood on it. More »

Is The Bike City An Alternate Universe, Or A Glimpse Of Your Urban Future?

Amsterdam is the future - if you think that cities devoted to bicycle transportation are the next step in urban evolution. More »

The Same Cityscape According To Star Trek And Terminator Salvation

Mega-nerd Protohiro compared screenshots of the exact same view of San Francisco from the Star Trek and Terminator Salvation trailers. Here's Trek's super-bright, super-big Frisco. Click through to see Terminator's gloomy, Skynet-infested version. More »

Under the New Gaian Regime, No Roof May Lie Fallow

Many countries like Germany (pictured) and Switzerland are now mandating that all new buildings with flat roofs must plant a garden on them. What will cities look like when this practice becomes the norm? More »

Kibera's "Instant Farm" System Is the Future of Urban Agriculture

Kibera, a dense, 2.5 square km shantytown outside Nairobi, is the largest slum in Kenya. It's estimated that possibly a million people live its maze of houses and outdoor markets. Now a group there has figured out a fast, efficient way to convert piles of trash into compost — and to convert areas that were once trash heaps into instant organic farms using just recycled PVC piping and other easily-accessible materials. One farm, which now feeds 30 people, was operational in just 3 months. This low-tech form of land reclamation could be a model for rapidly-growing urban populations. More »

Photo-Surrealist Favelas Metastasize in the Citiscape

Dionisio Gonzalez makes photo mashups of urban spaces, converting every kind of city architecture into twisted, brokedown shanties that look a bit like a Brazilian favela and a bit like chunks of mirrored highrises. Marginal II, above, is a great example of his work. It's a sharp rejoinder to designs that portray future cities as all gleaming towers and green parks. Some of his stuff is so realistic you'll think it's an actual favela . . . until you look carefully. Check it out after the jump. More »