'Typical American Idealism': City of the Future in Midst of US Desert Triggers Scepticism
© AP Photo / Bullit Marquez
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Due to be fully up and running within 40 years, the nearly $400 billion project is expected to provide a city that will fill 60,000 hectares and house 5 million inhabitants.
US entrepreneur, billionaire and former Walmart director Marc Lore and award-winning Danish architect Bjarke Ingels have teamed up to create an environmentally friendly and sustainable city of the future in the middle of the American desert.
The city called Telosa is scheduled for completion within 40 years and is estimated to cost around DKK 2,500 billion (nearly $400 billion), Danish TV2 reported. The financing of the gargantuan project must come from private investors, philanthropists and government grants.
With Telosa, Lore's ambition is to realise his lifelong dream to create a completely new kind of community that combines the best of the existing megalopolises.
In the words of Lore, Telosa must be “as lively and versatile as New York City, efficient, safe and clean like Tokyo, and it must have welfare, sustainability and governance like Stockholm”. Combining these qualities, it is touted as “the most open, fair and inclusive city in the world” in a bid to create a more sustainable future.
If you really want to go after a moonshot — you have to start with a big, bold vision, you need to raise the required capital, and surround yourself with the very best people in the world. If you get those three things right you can do incredible, magical things.
— City of Telosa (@CityofTelosa) September 2, 2021
— @MarcLore pic.twitter.com/jnRfNKGJ2p
The exact location of this futuristic city has not been settled yet, but the choice is between the US states of Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Arizona and Texas.
Once complete, the city is expected to house 5 million people and fill 60,000 hectares. The first phase of the city is expected to be completed in 2030. By this time, Telosa is planned to host 50,000 residents, be self-sufficient in terms of green energy and water recycling.
Pedestrians and cyclists will be heavily favoured, and the city will be designed in a way to provide its inhabitants with access to workplaces, schools and other facilities within a quarter of an hour's transport from their homes.
Pedestrians and cyclists will be heavily favoured, and the city will be designed in a way to provide its inhabitants with access to workplaces, schools and other facilities within a quarter of an hour's transport from their homes.
However, the magnificent promises of a city of milk and honey have been met with disbelief, not least from futurist Jesper Bo Jensen, the director of the Centre for Futures Studies.
Jensen has predicted that it will be difficult to get residents to settle down in the middle of the American desert, despite all the rosy promises.
Jensen has predicted that it will be difficult to get residents to settle down in the middle of the American desert, despite all the rosy promises.
“It is a typical American idealism for a completely clean world. It won't be like that. There is a long way to go,” Jensen told TV2.
50-year-old Marc Eric Lore is a US businessman, and investor, named “entrepreneur of the year” and dubbed “one of the smartest people in technology” and “the LeBron James of e-commerce”.
50-year-old Marc Eric Lore is a US businessman, and investor, named “entrepreneur of the year” and dubbed “one of the smartest people in technology” and “the LeBron James of e-commerce”.
46-year-old Bjarke Ingels is a Danish architect, founder and creative partner of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) who shot to fame through innovative housing complexes in Ørestad, Denmark. Over the past decade, Ingels has won several architectural competitions and was even named one of the 100 Most Influential People by the Time magazine.
.@BjarkeIngels is an architectural trailblazer who is quite literally shaping the world around us — so excited to be partnering with him and his team at @BIGstertweets.#CityofTelosa #NewCity #CityoftheFuture pic.twitter.com/CKBHBBQeKC
— City of Telosa (@CityofTelosa) September 2, 2021
