From flying cars to floating cities, see futuristic fair projects

Speculation about the future is often grim, but on its 175th anniversary, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC is presenting a grand vision of how the world could radically change through a “blockbuster” exhibition of technology, design and art.

The “Futures” exhibition, based at the Arte+ Building (AIB), will fill 32,000 square meters of space with a combination of real projects currently being developed, present and past design proposals, and prescient artistic concepts.

Rachel Goslin, director of the Smithsonian AIB, calls the show the “Contemporary World Fair of Ideas”.

“I think it’s safe to say it’s the only exhibition in history where you can play a video game with your eyes, talk to an emotional robot, visit a bakery of the future and do your laundry,” said Goslin.

The Smithsonian is the world’s largest network of museums, education and research centers, and exhibition curator Ashley Molese points out that the AIB has premiered many historical objects on public display for the first time, including the lamp, telephone and rockets of the Apollo spacecraft.

Now they hope to continue their legacy of innovation, she explains.

“We have so much help these days figuring out what could go wrong in the future,” she said. “But we also need help figuring out what could work.”

Here are eight concepts and objects highlighted in the program:

an electric taxi takes off

“Back to the Future 2” predicted we would have flying cars by 2015. “Blade Runner” predicted we would have flying cars by 2019. But it’s 2021 and we haven’t seen cars in our skies yet. (“The Jetsons” bet we still have until 2060; “The Fifth Element” until 2250).

In “Futures,” a new concept will make its debut – the Bell Nexus Air Taxi, designed by aerospace manufacturer Bell Textron, is a flying hybrid car designed to take off and land vertically.

While passengers still have to be patient before they can signal to request a trip from above, this eternal vision of the future may finally arrive soon: Uber and Hyundai have teamed up and set their goals for the first prototype in 2023.

A city that floats on water

With the explosion of urban populations, dispersion can eventually shift from land to sea. That’s the idea behind Bjarke Ingels’ ambitious concept for a floating city, which the Danish architect presented to artist Olaffur Eliasson and the company Oceanix at the UN two years ago.

The Bjake Ingels Group (BIG) has become famous for its attractive, sustainable and modern designs around Denmark and beyond, and is currently building the new Google campus in London.

But the idea of ​​“Oceanix City” is large-scale. The hexagonal and modular layout of the proposed oceanic metropolis claims to be entirely adaptable based on a city’s needs, while the infrastructure is designed to be sustainable and disaster proof.

A new way to raise a family

Can science help same-sex couples have a baby that shares both parents’ DNA? With the progress of stem cell research and technology, such as the CRISPR gene editing technique, this is just a matter of time, and it has already been achieved with mice in a laboratory environment.

Artist and designer Ai Hasegawa envisioned such a future through the speculative design project “(Im)possible Baby”, created when Hasegawa was at MIT. Hasegawa has worked with a couple in which they both want to be birth mothers, and using their DNA data from the 23andMe genetic testing kit, created simulated images of their potential children together. The project featured a family photo album as well as a 30-minute documentary that aired in Japan.

Fast shipping like lightning

A working hyperloop in the US has been spurred on for nearly a decade, and with Virgin completing its first human trial last November, the futuristic travel option finally seems close at hand.

A hyperloop – a vacuum tube for ground travel that achieves flying speeds – has long been imagined in science fiction, but was powered by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Silicon Valley investor Shervin Pishevar in 2012, with Virgin Group founder Richard Branson coming to the table in 2017.

Virgin’s Hyperloop Pegasus, which will be on display at “Futures,” is a high-speed pod designed to travel up to 1000 km/h, designed to connect major cities in minutes instead of hours.

A final ecological rest

When you die, become a tree – that’s what the Italian design team behind the “Capsula Mundi” concept is proposing.

Raoul Pretzel and Anna Citelli’s concept for a biodegradable egg-shaped coffin that serves as the basis for a new tree has been circulating the internet since they first introduced it in 2017. While it’s still hitting the market four years later, the The concept of an eco-friendly coffin has been exposed around the world and will make a stop at “Futures”.

A New Source of Drinking Water

In Frank Herbert’s “Dune” franchise, desert men create clean drinking water by recycling all of their bodily fluids through their suits. They would likely be envious of the solar-powered Waha Water Harvester, which can convert water vapor from the air even in the most arid conditions. In 2019, Waha startup tested its technology in California’s Mojave Desert.

The Harvester can produce enough water for two to three adults — a potentially life-saving device for the bedroom facing extreme water stress — and Waha has plans to scale up to design a harvester with enough energy to hydrate an entire village, according to with Berkeley News.

a farm rover

As the world population continues to grow, food security has become a more pressing issue – especially as climate change threatens our agricultural stability. This is a critical area that Google’s parent company Alphabet is exploring through X, a company dedicated to solving world-scale problems through technology.

The X Mineral Rover prototype, publicly debuting in “Futures”, is a four-wheel autonomous rover the size of a small car that uses artificial intelligence to help farmers maximize crop yields and reduce ecological impact – notably through amount of water and chemicals needed.

Rover Mineral can identify weeds and potential plant problems, as well as assess fruit ripeness, according to the Smithsonian.

A capital returns to nature

What if Washington DC turns into a thriving wild ecosystem again? This question is the basis for a project by artist Tamiko Thiel, who transformed one of the exhibition halls into an idyllic wildflower habitat.

Thiel, who contributed to the design of the first commercial artificial intelligence supercomputer 35 years ago, worked with Smithsonian horticultural experts to envision a radically greener future that participants can experience through an augmented reality overlay.

“Futures” opens on November 20, 2021 and remains on display until July 6, 2022.

*This article has been translated. Read the original in english