In the Press

What Do Future Cities Look Like?

City planning in the 21st century often requires navigating a Pandora’s Box of complicated, interconnected issues. In population-dense urban centers like San Francisco, for example, strict zoning laws clash with a need for more housing. In contrast, further south in Los Angeles, an abundance of new construction has exacerbated the city’s growing population.

3-D printing is garnering attention from the U.S. government, too. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, a prominent architecture firm, developed a 3D-printed housing project alongside the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The project connects a specially designed housing pod to a hybrid electric vehicle powered by natural gas that serves as the energy source for the pod’s kitchen and lighting.