Watch the video about ASCE’s World Vision illustrating theFuture World Vision – 2070 Mega CityLinks to an external site. (Links to an external site.) (6:10) In the discussion board, you will briefly explain two specific lessons you have learned from this video. As you watch this video, take note of the many ways buildings and infrastructure will interact with one another and with the people using them. Notice the sustainability-related solutions that will be part of the design to make the built environment more environmentally friendly. As you hear the comments made throughout the video, pay attention to comments about how we learn from past solutions and re-imagine the future, how buildings resemble human bodies in the way they function, and the relationship between the physical and social environment (which we discussed earlier in this course).
Finally, the videos highlight the work of Civil Engineers while designing this vision, imagine how the Construction Industry will have to adapt and advance its means and methods to build these projects, and what skills will be needed from all involved to build these projects in the future. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO WATCH THE VIDEO: Recognize and explain the many ways in which technology will interact with and support the built environment. Identify emerging technologies that will support how buildings will be designed, built, and operated. Your initial response should be 200-300 words in length, reflecting on the prompt above. Reply to one classmate’s posts. Your response to your classmate’s discussion should be around 50 words. My classmate’s post: “One point that all of the engineers seem to make is that renewability and sustainability is an absolute essential part of the future of construction.
All buildings should be at least equipped with solar panels in order to generate as much of their own power as possible. Water collection, either through rain or treatment of waste water is also something mentioned that would be contained within the building as opposed to putting facilities offsite to do this. As someone who currently works in water infrastructure, I would very interested to see how these buildings would store the water they collected. If the water was collected from rain it would be much more efficient to store on the rooftop as then you would not need to use a pump to distribute it. If the building was going to collect and treat it’s waste water for reuse then you would need a fairly sizable pumping system to get that water from the bottom of the building back to the top levels. The concept of a living building which can sweat or insulate itself to maintain a comfortable environment would be very cool to see attempted. In the video they showed movable shades which could help regulate temperatures in different areas of the buildings, it did not show what types of mechanisms would have to be in place in order to make the shades as mobile as described but it would be a very cool engineering challenge to attempt. Another point in the video is that most buildings of the future will have to make use of vertical space as we attempt to use land area more efficiently.
While the tower showed in the video is something of a skyscraper I would interested to see if any engineers are working on a tower that instead of reaching up from ground level, goes down into the earth. While this would be more difficult in initial construction, building underground has very appealing positives if done in the right areas. Things like weatherizing and climate control are virtually unneeded when building below ground, Artificial light is more essential in underground buildings but you can generate electricity through almost any means you want if you are building the powerplant at ground level as opposed to on a rooftop or the side of a building.”
