Future Urban Citycopter

As soon as our personal transportation takes to the skies, this is what I want to be zipping around in! It’s called the Fly Citycopter- a futuristic urban aerial vehicle concept for when cars are a thing of the past. Harnessing solar energy, it’s more efficient and economical than common helicopters. Its tri-rotor design also makes it maneuverable and quieter with a smoother ride while features like auto-pilot and obstacle detection make it easier and safer to control.

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Enclosed Self-Sustaining Floating City: Future of Humanity?

Based on current climate change, there seems to be a good chance that we will have to restructure our way of life within the next several generations. Futurist Phil Pauley has been concocting the perfect underwater city for future humans who may have to abandon land.

Pauley’s Sub-Biosphere 2 proposes creating an entirely self-sustaining civilization that will float in the ocean. The biosphere will need no air, water, or other resources from the outside world because the closed ecosystem will provide everything the residents need.

The futuristic structure will consist of one central “support” sphere and eight off-branching smaller spheres. Each smaller sphere houses about 100 families. Each of the nine spheres contains its own ecosystem, providing the entire structure as a whole with everything it needs to survive. It would certainly be a change from the world we inhabit today, but it could be the idea that will keep the human race afloat in the coming centuries.

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Philips SlimStyle LED bulb drops the heat sink, looks like it’s from the future

The SlimStyle is a 60W-equivalent LED bulb that produces 800 lumens and operates at 10.5W (76 lumens-per-watt). In many ways it’s a standard consumer LED bulb: it’s rated for 25,000 hours of life, it’s dimmable, it has an omnidirectional light pattern, and it has a CRI (color accuracy) rating of 80. All this means that Energy Star certification isn’t just possible… it’s pending. But after a single glance at the SlimStyle you’ll know that it’s not just another LED bulb. In fact, the term “bulb” isn’t exactly appropriate…

When looked at straight on, the SlimStyle appears to be bulb-shaped, but that’s actually only true in 2D. When turned, it’s clear that the lamp is flat on both sides and has a ring running around its outside which serves as a light guide. The design is unlike anything else found in the LED market today but not only because of its unique aesthetics, it’s also missing a part found on every one of its competitors: a metal heatsink.

Basically, LEDs don’t like to get hot — the heat decreases lifetime and brightness (I’ve spent a lot of time explaining that) so a metal heatsink is used to disperse heat, moving it away from the sensitive LEDs. With the SlimStyle Philips was able to move to an all-plastic body and still keep the LEDs cool enough to promise a 25,000 hour lifetime. And, in doing so, the company was able to move to this cool new design. Best of all: not only does the flat design help conduct heat away from the LEDs, says Philips, it also helps cut down on costs.

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Future forms: Lo Monaco House by Tom Wiscombe Design

The architectural designs of Tom Wiscombe are overtly futuristic, to the point that were you to drop his concepts into the depictions of the London and San Francisco of the year 2259 in Star Trek Into Darkness, they wouldn't look out of place. His Lo Monaco House almost resembles a futuristic shuttle on a launchpad, yet the influences for this design are entirely removed from the realm of space fantasy – according to Wiscombe himself, that is.

The Lo Monaco House concept is a tale of two forms: an eye-catching crystal-like pointed mass and the slab-like pedestal it stands on

Inside the crystal

Face masks appear to also have been an influence on the design

Wiscombe compares these lines to Tā moko, the tattoo-like grooves with which Māori people permanently mark their faces and bodies

The Lo Monaco House concept is a tale of two forms: an eye-catching crystal-like pointed mass and the slab-like pedestal it stands on

An 18th-century depiction of a Māori man with distinctive Tā moko

Constantin Brâncuși's Portrait of Mlle Pogany with its limestone pedestal

The layout of Lo Monaco House

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