Future Architecture....

I've begun to look again at future architecture, to see what ideas are currently available about the aesthetic that buildings will take. From our current location in time, it is hard to determine what building "style" will be prominent in the future, as I'm sure many medieval architects couldn't have seen the contemporary style in which we build today. Upon looking at these predictions, it became apparent that most people believe the future will be closer to utopia than it is today.

The overall aesthetic is a smooth exterior, normally white, with some interesting formal play happening. However, the thing that struck me as being the most peculiar is that these buildings are always shown as a single building standing by themselves. However, all data is showing how human population numbers are growing, with an increasing amount of people moving towards the cities and urban areas. Therefore, where are the surrounding buildings and living conditions. I believe that if designs were created with their context in mind, they would appear less utopian than these ideas submit. Surely the cramped conditions, fight over services and the overlap of basic infrastructure would cause any place to become severely dsytopian.

I found a few projects which presented a future setting, which again appeared very utopian. 

Once again, the basic aesthetic is smooth and white. Granted that these buildings look better in their context, but the fact is that these contexts are once again made up, and are not based on any existing infrastructure. Either this is showing that in the future humans begin to build mega cities within what are now rural areas, or that we completely destroy the existing context, and our heritage and culture along with it, to start again.

For example, if this was London, then where is Tower Bridge or the Houses of Parliament? If it were Paris, then where is the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe? 

A more defined idea would be an urban context which can be justified in terms of data to accommodate a future vision, maintaining a utopian ideal (as much as I disagree with them) with a sense of realism. Such as in the next project below.

 

In this project, the basic premise of a satisfactory life is present, however the image also shows industrial transport links, grotty advertising campaigns and the rusty demeanour of service pipes and loading docks.