A century ago, we imagined futuristic cities full of hulking, steel buildings, their towers surrounded by a lace of elevated roads. But today, the future of architecture is biology. Synthetic biology architects and designers imagine cities that are made from bioengineered materials, fed by energy from sunlight. These cities sometimes look more like forests than metropolises. Here are a few visions of the living cities of tomorrow.

Above, you can see vision of a biological city, from Bakenius on Deviant Art.

Click any image to enlarge or to see the whole thing.


This is concept art of future Chicago, designed by MWDC

Famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright toyed with the idea of a "living city" which would be a perfect balance of urban modernism and natural beauty. Here is one of his sketches of such a city from the 1950s.


ARUP's "building of the future" will be half-biological, half-traditional building materials.

A futuristic eco city from Olga Idealist on Deviant Art.

In this image called "The Advent of Yellowstone," the artist imagines a city in Yellowstone Park, "when humans develop eco-friendly technology to develop cities without harming the environment." The Swordsman77 on Deviant Art

In this concept design of an "Urban Tree" skyscraper, the architecture firm Geotectura imagines solar array-overed rooms "sprouting" from stems, surrounded by greenhouses.

MVRDV designed this self-sufficient city for 77,000 people, to be built in South Korea. Every building would be packed with greenhouses, and designed to look like rolling hills.

The Guardian made fun of Gary Neville's "eco bunker" home, comparing it to a Tellytubby house. But cities of the future may look like this, with houses that blend into the natural landscape.

This city by J. Humphries on Deviant Art is made out of reclaimed space ship parts that have been turned into tree houses on an alien world. Just because we go to other plants doesn't mean we should stop using recycled materials.