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| future cities |
My Dream
I always had a dream of waking up by a soft nice voice coming from nowhere, once I open my eyes, the room curtains start rolling slowly to allow some sunlight to enter the room and energize my morning.
I go to my bathroom to brush my teeth, while the mirror in front of me shows me the weather forecast, shows my calendar, important tasks and appointments, suggests the suitable clothes for the day according to the weather, what’s suitable for my meetings and mode, and according to what is already available in my wardrobe.
While I’m getting my clothes on, it starts my favorite TV or radio station or plays a song from my playlist, or chooses a one according to my mood. At the same time, it starts warming up my car and opening my garage door.
In the car, the same system continues with me, it tells the car about where I may be heading according to my calendar and lets me check my emails, add events to my calendar, contact my relatives while my autopilot car is driving me.
The same system is always with me everywhere, it is controlling my smart home, my car, it is in my smart watch, my tablet, my notebook, it is even with me outdoors in the streets and open spaces, it is with me while I’m shopping and suggests things that I may need. It knows when should I charge my car, and when to renew my driving license and national ID.
It always learns more about what I may like, and what I may not. It can predict my behavior and can feel my mood. It can help me stay focused on my goals, and help me give up bad habits. It is the perfect utilization of machine learning, virtual assistant, big data, computer operating systems, embedded devices operating systems, and the internet of things.
One system… only one!
Getting back to the reality
The construction industry is an old one, one of the least digitalized, and one of the least smart industries. But it has a big future waiting ahead. I think that the horizon of innovation in this industry carries a lot for us.
When I think of future homes, buildings, and cities; I think of three things
· smart buildings
· Green Buildings
· 3d printing
But while doing this, we are changing a classic industry, buildings and homes are things that human beings have known from the very ancient ages, people have built homes and cities, designed and redesigned them, improved them, introduced new technologies to them all over the history. But the mistake I’m feeling now is the same mistake the auto industry has made during the last three decades while trying to introduce the electric car to the market.
Big car manufacturers tried to replace the fuel engine with the electric engine, and replace the fuel tank with lithium battery but this didn’t work. Their cars were ugly, inefficient, unreliable, takes a lot of time to charge, their batteries didn’t last for a long time, and had no way to recharge on the go. Until a man we now know as one of the most innovative entrepreneurs in the world, Elon Musk, came with a whole new solution that has been proven to be the biggest innovation in the car industry.
What Elon did is that he reinvented the car, he believed that it takes more than detaching a fuel engine and using an electric one. So, he ended up making the best car, not the best electric car. While other manufacturers tried to make you buy their car because it is electric, he tried to sell you the Tesla because it is the best car, so that, you don’t buy it just to lower your carbon footprint, you buy it because it is the safest, because it has a good design, because you don’t have to fuel it and you can charge it for free.
That is the same thing, I think, the construction industry must do. We need to reinvent homes, buildings, and cities, not just introduce new technologies to them, and improve them one step at a time.
Our new homes and cities must be smart, they must benefit from the new technologies that evolved recently like the internet of things, the big data revolution, they need to be digitalized. The construction industry is one of the least digitalized industries, and this is the time to improve its place in the list. Digitalization should take place in the construction process, and after construction.
Our new homes and cities must be environment-friendly, and this requires a rethinking of the whole construction process, we don’t only need to use environment-friendly production materials, but we need also to introduce new construction technologies with a lower carbon footprint. We need to lower the power consumption of our buildings through smart designs that decrease the building’s need of using electric lights and air conditioning, and by making the building generate its own energy by implementing photovoltaic glass and roofs, and other power generation methods.
Moreover, the concept of modular buildings and 3d printed buildings must be utilized at a wide scale. This concept has a big potential not only for seasonal buildings but also for the whole construction process. Think of using premade modules instead of adding a brick over brick. This will help accelerate the projects execution time, and reduce the need for human resources.
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