Shanghai skyline: the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Pudong district
“The surface of the earth would change greatly if brick architecture were everywhere displaced by glass architecture,” Paul Scheerbart, the German expressionist writer, wrote in 1914. “It would be as though the Earth clad itself in jewellery of brilliants and enamel. The splendour is absolutely unimaginable.” At about the same time it was being predicted that the horse manure that was piling up in the streets would soon reach the second storeys of buildings in central London and Manhattan.
It never quite worked out either way. Few, if any, of the predictions about the future of the city do. Yet in spite of the pitfalls of predicting the future, it is eternally tempting to do so, particularly as architects, planners and urban economists are effectively building the future city for us. Urbanism is a long game, but what is being built now will define the way we shall live in the future.