Whether you're thinking easier ways to park your car or ideas for the home of the future, studying how we'll live in the next 10, 50 or 100 years can reshape the habits and challenges we face today. Take a look at a roundup of 14 of these revolutionary ideas below. Looking for more? Make sure to follow the series — each week, you'll get a new article on the future of urban life.
1. 4 Innovative Solar Tech Projects From Around the World
While the industry isn't booming just yet, it is growing quickly and there is promise — Google invested $280 million in solar energy in June and another $94 million in December, and Warren Buffett recently bought a photovoltaic farm for $2 billion.
2. How One App Empowers Citizens to Take Control of Urban Noise Pollution
3. Pedestrian Safety: How Innovative Tech Could Save Your Life
4. How Video Chat Is Creating a Global Classroom
Until recently, connecting students with those living elsewhere would have likely been a bigger headache than it was worth. But as more teachers look to the Internet to make such global connections, it's become a matter of posting a short blog post in the right place.
5. The Future of Food: 11 Unique Urban Farming Projects
6. 8 Amazing Green Buildings That Break Even on Energy Consumption
A zero-energy building is one that produces as much energy as it consumes, making it a net-zero energy property and eliminating energy bills for its owners. Although zero-energy homes and buildings are quite rare today, increasing concerns about energy waste have set the stage for a growing market.
7. 4 Unique Ways to Generate Renewable Energy
Finding sources of renewable energy is a growing challenge for the modern world. As we strive for energy efficiency and sustainable resources, avenues are opening up for different and exciting ways to power our lifestyles. Companies across the globe are harnessing the potential of renewable energies, including solar and geothermal methods. 8. How Mobile Payments Are Revolutionizing Public Transit
The global transportation industry has become a proving ground for new payment systems, as cutting-edge technologies have been introduced to taxis, buses and trains worldwide to streamline jaunts around town. From reserving and paying for a cab with an app to purchasing train tickets via an iPod, various countries are experimenting with new ways to reach out to travelers and make payment and transport a whole lot easier.
9. Reimagining City Life: One Startup's Vision of the Future
"A lot of people face pretty profound constraints on mobility, enjoy only limited access to opportunity, and face serious difficulty in getting timely, accurate information about services available to them," says Adam Greenfield, founder of Urbanscale. "As far as we're concerned, it's both a matter of basic morality and in our own long-term best interest, to ensure that everyone living in a society has open and unfettered access to these things." And that's exactly what his Manhattan-based company is working toward. 10. Live Greener: 3 Energy-Saving Technologies for Your Home
In the real world, building an energy-friendly home is a lot more difficult than it sounds. While you can make a fairly sustainable home simply by employing sensible green building adjustments to insulation, home materials, lighting and heating, that's not all that goes into a truly efficient home.
11. 7 City Parking Apps to Save You Time, Money and Gas
If you live in a crowded metropolis, then finding a parking spot is a task you'd like to see simplified. Here are seven helpful parking apps to help you find a safe place to park.
12. 5 Home Technologies That Will Save You Energy and Money
From controlling lights at home through a mobile app to investing in smart appliances that cut down on energy use and costs, there are myriad high-tech options on the market that make the home more sustainable.
13. This Is What Your Future Home Might Look Like
Over the years, popular culture has tried to mold and shape the way an urban environment will look an act ten, fifty or even a hundred years from now. Will the cities of the future look like The Jetsons or Blade Runner? Well, if current, feasible development is any indication, the answer is actually neither.
14. High-Tech Threads: Can Your Clothes Do This?
Looking for more great ideas? Take a look at past roundups here and here.
Image courtesy of Flickr, frogman2212
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