4 Amazing Urban Planning Innovations!

There is no doubt the world is getting bigger and issues like housing, poverty, climate change and food production are only becoming more prevalent. However, architects, engineers and construction workers are coming together to build structures to fix these problems. We have compiled four of the coolest innovations just around the corner!

1. Urban Bee Hives

You have probably seen reports on television about the concern of the dwindling bee population. Bees are a vital resource for agriculture as they are the world’s most efficient pollinators. It is estimated that bees are responsible for $15 billion of crops in the US each year. Currently bees are under threat form Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), where worker bees suddenly go missing. They are also threatened by viruses, pathogens, parasites, nutritional issues from lack of variety and pesticides. Without bees the world risks food shortage, luckily for Australia, our bee colonies are amongst the healthiest.

A Norwegian design firm has designed a structure to replicate the hive environment in urban cities. It is made up of two birch veneer hexagonal volumes that houses the bees while teaching the public about the current threats to bees. So far the hives have produced 80 kilograms of honey. Currently, Sydney and Melbourne are replicating these hives all over the city before Australia’s bee population dwindles.

2. Pay Phones are being replaced by WIFI pillars in New York City

Link NYC is one of the biggest public WIFI projects ever undertaken. The project involves replacing 10,000 aging public pay phones with “Links”. These 24/7 “Links” are fixed internet pillars in the shape of a smartphone. Not only do these pillars enable high speed internet but they are also equipped with touchscreen tablets that enable access to city information. They will also allow users to make free domestic phone calls and charge their personal devices. Link NYC promises that the internet speeds will be 100 times faster than the average public WIFI and 20 times faster than the average home internet.

3. The World’s Deepest Swimming Pool

Italian Architect Emanuele Boaretto, supported by the Boaretto Group Hotel and Resort have designed a pool reaching depths of 40 metres. The pool is called The Deep Joy and is located in the Terme Millepini Hotel outside Venice. The pool itself is 21 by 18 metres, contains 4,300 cubic metres of thermal spa water, maintains a temperature of 32 to 34 degrees, contains scuba diving teaching apparatus and has a suspended transparent tunnel five metres long allowing guests to see without getting wet. The pool is currently used for scuba diving and an array of aquatic activities. It is even equipped with caves to teach scuba divers techniques. 

4. Rooftops being used for sports fields

As cities get bigger there is less room for recreational space, therefore engineers are looking up. Schools are being built all over Asia with sports fields, courts and swimming pools on the roof in order to meet physical education requirements. This innovation is changing the shape of buildings which now follow the curve of a sports field. The US is following the Asian trend, opening Seatle Northwest Schools 6,000 square metre rooftop field earlier this year. 

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