Cities will need to be denser and taller in the future. It’s the only way to accommodate a global population of 9 billion-plus people and increasing demand for urban living (70% of us could live in cities by 2050, according to some projections). The alternative is surely worse: More sprawl taking up what little green space is left.

The concept of a “vertical city,” as sketched out in a new book by architects Kenneth King and Kellogg Wong, is something more than a hyper-dense Gotham, though. Yes, there are a lot of towering buildings but also parks, schools, hospitals and restaurants at upper levels, as well. Essentially, it’s a vision of a complete ecosystem in the sky–a place you never have to leave if you don’t want to.

Here is how King and Wong define the idea:

. . . high-capacity, high-efficiency ultra-tall buildings occupying a relatively small car-free, pedestrian-friendly parcel of land. Within this footprint are all the self-sustaining features of infrastructure, buildings, facilities, and services necessary for improving the living, working, cultural, entertainment, sports, recreation, and leisure qualities of life for residents.

The vertical city is split into multiple levels. Near the bottom is a “raised multilevel podium . . . reserved exclusively for pedestrians and bicycles,” they say. Below that, cars are “relegated to circulation and parking.” Above, a first level contains utilities and infrastructure like water, sewer, and power storage plants. Further up is the “street level” with entrances to all building including a “mall-like megabuilding.”





Further up still are sky lobbies with “bracing/bridge connections” that make up “village centers” for shopping, drinking, socializing, and exercise. The building is made up of multiple towers each as high as one mile. The surrounding space is for farmland, which produces food, and also acts as a “buffer between existing urban centers and future Vertical Cities.”

The buildings generate their own energy from renewables sources, use future materials like graphene and bioconcrete (which has fewer associated pollution than today’s concrete) and mechanical innovations like rope-less elevators that can go to limitless heights. It’s quite a vision.