- 2 days ago
A journey through the world’s most futuristic cities — glowing metal forests, drone-filled skies, and engineering that feels like science fiction.
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00:00:02Across our planet, cities are transforming into visions that once belonged to science fiction.
00:00:17A city with a glowing metal forest in an airport built like a tropical paradise.
00:00:26Nights when thousands of drones redraw the sky.
00:00:37And megacities rising at breakneck speed.
00:00:42Upward, outward, building the future.
00:00:50Yet these aren't fantasies.
00:00:53They're the world we're already building.
00:01:01These are the cities of tomorrow.
00:01:16In Chongqing, central China, a train slides through the eighth floor of an apartment block.
00:01:24Not around it. Through it.
00:01:33Lizzyba Station sits inside a residential tower.
00:01:37Commuters step off the metro onto a platform carved into the building itself.
00:01:46The train doesn't slow for ceremony.
00:01:49It just punches through, shakes the walls and keeps moving.
00:02:02Built where the Yangtze meets the Jialing, the city climbs mountains too steep for grid plans.
00:02:16Roads loop over roads.
00:02:20Highways hang in the air.
00:02:23The roots twist through mazes of ramps and curves.
00:02:39At Raffles City, eight skyscrapers rise where the rivers bend.
00:02:49Near the top, a horizontal tower.
00:02:52The crystal floats between them like a glass ship.
00:02:57300 metres above the ground.
00:03:03The centrepiece of a city that builds skyward because it has nowhere else to go.
00:03:18Down by the river, Hongyadong clings to the cliffside.
00:03:22A cascade of wooden balconies and red lanterns spilling down toward the water.
00:03:32As darkness sets in, the wooden facades begin to glow.
00:03:37Warm, amber light spilling from every level.
00:03:57Then, across the water, the rest of the city ignites.
00:04:08Over 200 towers light at once.
00:04:11A synchronised choreography of colour and motion rippling across the Jialing.
00:04:25Buildings become screens.
00:04:27The river becomes a mirror.
00:04:29For 15 minutes, the city performs.
00:04:54The city gets compared to sci-fi movies and video games constantly.
00:04:59It's not hard to see why.
00:05:01There's barely a scene in Chongqing at night that doesn't look plucked straight from Blade Runner.
00:05:19Even the shopping malls look like they're from the future.
00:05:27Inside the Ring shopping park, trees hang from the ceiling.
00:05:32Roots exposed to the air.
00:05:34Suspended through seven floors of tropical rainforest.
00:05:5450 years ago, Chongqing was an industrial backwater.
00:05:59Today, it's home to 31 million people.
00:06:02One of the world's largest cities built in a single generation.
00:06:14It didn't plan to look like the future.
00:06:17It just kept building.
00:06:19Faster than anyone could keep up with.
00:06:40Across the South China Sea, a different kind of modern city takes shape.
00:06:50The bay opens wide.
00:06:53Glass towers rising along the waterfront.
00:07:04Marina Bay Sand sits at the centre.
00:07:09Three towers leaning into each other.
00:07:11A rooftop that looks like a ship balanced on edge.
00:07:27The most expensive standalone casino ever built.
00:07:32And the postcard image of a city that designs for spectacle.
00:07:45Singapore didn't sprawl into a garden.
00:07:48It built the garden first, then put the city inside it.
00:07:57Almost half the land is green space.
00:08:01Not parks wedged between buildings.
00:08:04Green woven into the architecture itself.
00:08:11At Marina One, a rainforest grows in the middle of a skyscraper complex.
00:08:19350 species cooling the towers naturally.
00:08:27Oasia Hotel wraps 21 species of climbing plants around its red aluminum mesh.
00:08:33The facade breathing instead of sealing shut.
00:08:55At gardens by the bay, the cloud forest dome rises like a glass mountain.
00:09:11Inside, a 35 meter waterfall spills down through mist and hanging gardens.
00:09:30You walk up through the canopy on spiralling ramps, surrounded by ferns and orchids suspended in controlled climate.
00:09:45It's not a greenhouse, it's an ecosystem under glass.
00:09:59Outside, the super trees stand.
00:10:02Artificial trunks rising up to 50 meters, branching into steel canopies.
00:10:13They're not just for decoration.
00:10:16Each one collects rainwater, generates solar power and vents air for the gardens below.
00:10:37At night, they pulse with light in synchronized waves.
00:10:42Functional and spectacular.
00:11:09Even the airport feels like paradise.
00:11:15At Jewel Changi, travelers step into a forest.
00:11:21The HSBC Rain Vortex, the world's tallest indoor waterfall.
00:11:29At 40 meters, it pours through the center of the terminal, surrounded by over 2,000 trees.
00:11:42The building was designed to make you feel like you've entered nature, not left it.
00:12:04The infrastructure also doubles as green space.
00:12:10The infrastructure also doubles as green space.
00:12:17It's moving back the ocean on one side, while on the other, calm fresh water stretches toward downtown.
00:12:27It's climate engineering at city scale, but it's also a public park.
00:12:41Singapore's Green Plan 2030 commits to planting a million more trees.
00:12:47Phasing out gasoline cars by 2040.
00:12:51And expanding solar energy five-fold.
00:13:02Sustainability here is a top priority as the country looks towards the future.
00:13:29From gardens in the sky to cities in the sand, the future takes many forms.
00:13:41Dubai, 50 years ago.
00:13:44This was desert.
00:13:46Today, it's a city that looks like it escaped from a screen.
00:14:02The museum of the future rises in stainless steel.
00:14:06A hollow oval wrapped in over 1,000 panels of Arabic calligraphy.
00:14:13Each one cut by robots, each one glowing at night with LED light.
00:14:32The script is poetry about humanity's future, written by Dubai's ruler.
00:14:41It's been called the most beautiful building on Earth.
00:14:51Nearby, the Burj Khalifa stands 828 metres tall.
00:14:56Still the world's tallest building.
00:15:00A needle of glass punching into the sky.
00:15:13It holds 163 floors.
00:15:16900 apartments.
00:15:18From studios starting at around 1.5 million.
00:15:22To penthouses that have sold for over $50 million.
00:15:30Residents get libraries, cigar clubs, indoor pools and tennis courts.
00:15:43They have 57 elevators, including the world's fastest double deck lifts that move people vertically at 10 metres per second.
00:16:02At its base, the Dubai fountain fires thousands of litres of water, 150 metres high in perfect sync with music.
00:16:15It's the world's largest choreographed water show, performed multiple times each night.
00:16:43And if you're lucky, you might catch something more.
00:16:46Fireworks explode over the waterfront in synchronised bursts.
00:16:53LED displays ripple across tower facades in waves of colour.
00:17:01Figures streak through the air on water-powered jetpacks.
00:17:05Actual human flight, not CGI.
00:17:08Arcing through this skyline like something out of Iron Man.
00:17:25Offshore.
00:17:26Palm Jumeirah stretches into the Arabian Gulf.
00:17:30560 hectares of land pulled from nothing.
00:17:41It's shaped like a palm tree.
00:17:4317 fronds.
00:17:45Each lined with mansions.
00:17:51A trunk lined with luxury apartments.
00:17:5417 fronds.
00:18:13Construction began in 2001.
00:18:18Developers say the material used could build a 2-metre wall that circles the earth three times.
00:18:29It's a sight to behold.
00:18:30That's the point.
00:18:37At Expo City, the Al-Wassl dome curves 67 metres overhead.
00:18:45The world's largest 360-degree projection surface.
00:18:51At night, it becomes a planet-sized screen.
00:18:55Steel mesh dissolving into light.
00:19:03Expo 2020 turned the site into a tech test bed.
00:19:07Autonomous delivery robots weaving between pavilions.
00:19:13Self-driving shuttles.
00:19:17And drone taxis in demonstration.
00:19:22The Saudi Arabia pavilion rose as a mirror-clad prism.
00:19:27Its surface covered in solar panels, its interior walls projecting AR deserts that climbed vertically
00:19:37through the building.
00:19:52In 1970, oil was just beginning to reshape the emirate.
00:19:58No skyscrapers.
00:19:59No metro.
00:20:00No coastline shaped like palms.
00:20:0350 years later, Dubai is a mega city.
00:20:13The Dubai frame stands 150 metres tall.
00:20:17A golden rectangle framing the transformation.
00:20:22Look through it one way.
00:20:25Low-rise souks.
00:20:27Old Dubai.
00:20:28The past.
00:20:29Look the other way.
00:20:31Glass towers.
00:20:32The future stacked into the sky.
00:20:43But not every future city looks like a skyline race.
00:20:48In Denmark, it looks like this.
00:20:52A power plant you can ski down.
00:21:00Copenhagen.
00:21:01Copenhagen rises on the edge of Copenhagen.
00:21:04A waste-to-energy facility that converts 440,000 tonnes of trash per year into clean electricity for 150,000
00:21:15homes.
00:21:22But instead of hiding the machinery behind walls, they put a ski slope on top of it.
00:21:32An artificial run cuts down the rooftop.
00:21:38Hiking trails loop around it.
00:21:45And bolted to the side, the world's tallest climbing wall, 85 metres of vertical concrete, turns heavy infrastructure into a
00:21:56public playground.
00:22:02If a building has to exist, might as well make it useful twice.
00:22:16Across the city, cycling isn't alternative transportation.
00:22:20It's primary.
00:22:21Bike highways connect districts.
00:22:27Recreational spaces are woven into every neighbourhood.
00:22:31Parks aren't afterthoughts.
00:22:33They're infrastructure.
00:22:42Copenhagen aims to be the world's first carbon neutral capital by 2030.
00:22:50Projects like Brunby Haverby, a circular garden community built around shared green space, show Denmark's enduring focus on human scale
00:23:00living.
00:23:07The future of Denmark is renewable energy, green architecture and infrastructure designed for people instead of cars.
00:23:27If Copenhagen builds the future quietly, Las Vegas plugs it in and cranks up the volume.
00:23:43The MSG sphere rises at the edge of the strip,
00:23:47peak wood.
00:23:4712m tall, wrapped in 1.2 million LED panels.
00:23:55The largest spherical structure on Earth.
00:24:03It can display planetary surfaces.
00:24:08Blinking human eyes.
00:24:13Alien faces staring down at traffic
00:24:19Most people can't tell if they love it or hate it
00:24:22Both reactions feel correct
00:24:31Inside, it's just as extreme
00:24:34A 16K wraparound LED screen curves over the audience
00:24:41160,000 speakers, each one capable of targeting individual seats
00:24:48The most advanced immersive venue ever built
00:24:51Not a theatre
00:24:53An experience
00:24:58Outside, the city does what it's always done
00:25:02The Luxor's 30-storey glass pyramid
00:25:06fires the world's most powerful light beam into the sky
00:25:09Visible from 300 miles away
00:25:18Casino floors light up in miles of neon and digital screens
00:25:22Slot machines, card tables and roulette wheels glowing 24 hours straight
00:25:32Five blocks north, the Fremont Street experience stretches overhead
00:25:3849 million LEDs forming one of the world's longest video screens
00:25:50South of the strip, Allegiant Stadium sits sheathed in black glass
00:25:57Nicknamed the Death Star
00:26:00Its three-acre retractable roof glows through the night
00:26:08At the tipsy robot bar, no bartenders
00:26:11Just robotic arms mixing, shaking and pouring drinks
00:26:17Under glowing AI eyes
00:26:20Perfect precision
00:26:21Zero small talk
00:26:29Beneath it all, the Vegas Loop
00:26:33Autonomous Teslas whisking passengers between resorts
00:26:40Still in early stages at 2.2 miles
00:26:43The full 68-mile network is slated to reach the airport and downtown
00:26:56But the loop is just one piece of a larger vision playing out across America
00:27:04A few hours outside of Vegas, Tesla's Gigafactory sprawls across the desert
00:27:12Producing batteries, electric motors and the infrastructure for a different kind of grid
00:27:24Supercharger stations are spreading like nodes across highways
00:27:36Full self-driving software is rolling out in cities nationwide
00:27:44The cyber truck, angular, bulletproof, polarising, is hitting roads
00:27:55And more futuristic developments are being revealed every week
00:28:04Half this stuff would have melted a kid's brain in the 90s
00:28:10Today is just a normal everyday in America
00:28:20Off China's southern coast, glass rises from turquoise water
00:28:27Hainan Province is being billed as the country's answer to tropical luxury
00:28:34Part free trade hub, part resort experiment
00:28:40By 2035, it's planned to be a full free trade port
00:28:46With zero tariff imports, electric transport infrastructure
00:28:50And carbon neutral energy across the island
00:29:00Sanya International Duty Free City sprawls along the coast
00:29:05One of the world's largest luxury retail complexes
00:29:12Part mall, part resort, part architectural statement
00:29:20It was built to turn Hainan into China's Hawaii of the future
00:29:36The architecture doesn't follow normal rules
00:29:44Sanya's pineapple shopping centre is shaped like a golden pineapple
00:29:49150,000 square metres of retail wrapped in fruit-shaped geometry
00:30:00The Grand Tree Hotel rises in nine enormous tree-like structures
00:30:06With stems, branches and leaves that change colour with the seasons
00:30:156,668 rooms spread across its foliage
00:30:25Phoenix Island sits offshore
00:30:27Five sail-shaped skyscrapers that light up the bay at night
00:30:37They curve like coral, designed to look like they grew out of the sea
00:30:50Three artificial flower-shaped islets spanning 800 hectares
00:30:571.5 times bigger than Palm Jumeirah
00:31:07The world's largest man-made tourism island
00:31:12Built by Evergrande Group
00:31:15With a $24 billion investment
00:31:21It's been dubbed the Dubai of China
00:31:51Hainan isn't subtle
00:31:53It's tropical futurism at full volume
00:31:56The future, sun-soaked and strange
00:32:07North from Hainan's islands, the Pearl River cuts through southern China
00:32:17Guangzhou rises along its banks
00:32:20A city where circular architecture meets synchronised light
00:32:24And the skyline moves like it's alive
00:32:37The Guangzhou Circle Building stands on the water's edge
00:32:43The world's tallest circular skyscraper
00:32:47138 metres high
00:32:49Designed to resemble an ancient jade disc
00:32:52And a Chinese coin
00:33:06The opening in the centre frames the river
00:33:13At night, its reflection completes the circle in the water
00:33:22Canton Tower rises 600 metres into the sky
00:33:26Twisting into a slim waist halfway up
00:33:32It anchors the skyline
00:33:34The spine of the city
00:33:37That everything else arranges itself around
00:33:47Near the top, the bubble tram circles the tower's edge
00:33:53Transparent glass pods rotating on a tilted track
00:33:57Suspended in open air above the entire city
00:34:02You ride as Guangzhou spins slowly beneath you
00:34:22Below, the Pearl River fills with glass roof boats
00:34:28Lights glowing beneath them
00:34:30Streaks of blue and green trailing through the water
00:34:34As they glide past the skyline
00:34:40From these boats, the city takes on new life
00:35:03And above the water, drones rise
00:35:14Hundreds of them lifting into formation above the Pearl River
00:35:29Guangzhou stages some of the world's largest drone shows
00:35:33Synchronised swarms forming 3D animations, text and shapes across the skyline
00:36:06But the future doesn't always appear
00:36:09Where you expect it
00:36:12Kazakhstan's steppe stretches flat and endless
00:36:16Grass, wind, nothing for miles
00:36:21Then without warning, glass and steel rise from the horizon
00:36:31Astana, a capital built from scratch in the 1990s
00:36:35Planted in the middle of nowhere as a vision of the future
00:36:50Kan Shatia rises 150 metres into the sky
00:36:55The world's largest tensile structure
00:36:57A transparent tent designed by Norman Foster
00:37:05Made of ETFE plastic, it maintains summer-like warmth inside
00:37:11Even when it's minus 30 degrees Celsius outside
00:37:17At night, the canopy glows like a landed ship
00:37:21Against the frozen steppe
00:37:30The Bedarek tower stands at the city's centre
00:37:33The symbolic tree of life from Kazakh mythology
00:37:38A golden sphere cradled in steel branches
00:37:46From the top, you see the city's strict geometry
00:37:52Every boulevard aligned to this single axis
00:37:56The entire capital radiates outward from one point
00:38:12The Newralem sphere sits on the edge of the city
00:38:1680 metres in diameter
00:38:18The second largest spherical building on Earth
00:38:21After Vegas
00:38:27Built for Expo 2017
00:38:30It's now the Museum of Future Energy
00:38:33Eight floors dedicated to renewables, innovation and what comes next
00:38:43And rising near the river
00:38:45The Palace of Peace and Reconciliation
00:38:51A 62 metre glass pyramid designed to host the Congress of World Religions
00:39:00A structure built as a metaphor for harmony between civilisations
00:39:10Astana wasn't grown, it was designed
00:39:17Entire districts were planned according to Feng Shui and solar orientation
00:39:21A city imagined on paper
00:39:24Then built in the steppe in less than three decades
00:39:31The future dropped in the middle of nowhere
00:39:43Not every futuristic structure is new
00:39:49Take
00:39:50The Atomium in Brussels
00:39:53Built for Expo 58
00:39:55It is a monument to atomic optimism
00:40:02An iron crystal magnified 165 billion times
00:40:08Nine steel spheres connected by tubes 102 metres tall
00:40:16You walk through it like you're inside a molecule
00:40:22Its polished metal skin reflects the sky
00:40:26On cloudy days, it disappears into grey
00:40:29On clear ones, it mirrors blue
00:40:37Some visions of the future never get old
00:40:52The Noor Ouazazat solar complex spreads across 3,000 hectares of Moroccan desert
00:40:59One of the largest solar power plants on Earth
00:41:07Mirrors stretch to the horizon
00:41:10Reflecting sunlight toward a 243 metre tall tower
00:41:19The tower glows at its peak
00:41:23Molten salt circulates inside
00:41:26Heated to over 500 degrees Celsius
00:41:29Storing energy that generates electricity long after sunset
00:41:34The plant produces enough energy to power over a million homes
00:41:50Morocco's grid now draws over 40% of its power from renewables
00:41:54Aiming for 52% by 2030
00:42:00Quietly moving their country towards the future
00:42:09From solar silence to urban speed
00:42:14Shanghai Tower twists 632 metres into the sky
00:42:20China's tallest building
00:42:22The world's third
00:42:29It spirals as it climbs
00:42:31Rotating 120 degrees from base to top
00:42:38The double-skinned glass facade
00:42:41Cuts wind resistance
00:42:42Letting the tower stand taller
00:42:44With less steel
00:42:53At ground level highways stack in layers
00:43:00The Nampu Bridge spirals onto itself
00:43:04180 metres of looping concrete
00:43:07Where drivers circle twice just to reach the bridge deck
00:43:13At night, thousands of LEDs light the curves
00:43:28Pedestrian bridges arc over the traffic
00:43:31But instead of just crossing streets
00:43:34They broadcast
00:43:38LED tickers run along the railings
00:43:41Stock prices, indices and market data
00:43:45Scrolling live above the cars below
00:43:50It's the type of detail that feels borderline dystopian
00:44:04Across the Suzhou creek
00:44:061,000 trees rises like a terraced mountain
00:44:11A shopping complex where every level ends in a column
00:44:15Topped with actual trees
00:44:23Nearly 1,000 of them growing from concrete pillars
00:44:30The species were intentionally picked to bloom at different times
00:44:34So the complex changes colour with the seasons
00:44:52The city moves fast
00:44:54Shanghai is always building
00:45:14We now journey west
00:45:16To where the code gets written
00:45:24Silicon Valley
00:45:25Silicon Valley doesn't look like the future
00:45:27Low buildings
00:45:28Tree-lined roads
00:45:30Suburban sprawl that stretches from San Jose to San Francisco
00:45:39No glass towers competing for height
00:45:41Just quiet campuses hidden behind gates
00:45:49But this is where the future gets built
00:45:57Apple Park sits in Cupertino
00:46:00A $5 billion ring of curved glass covering 175 acres
00:46:09They call it the spaceship
00:46:123,000 curved glass panels each up to 14 metres long
00:46:17Form the largest curved glass structure ever built
00:46:37The building runs on 100% renewable energy
00:46:43Powered by a 17-megawatt solar array on its roof
00:46:58Inside the ring
00:47:00A 30-acre forest
00:47:049,000 native and drought-resistant trees
00:47:09Turning the campus into a self-sustaining park
00:47:22At the Apple Visitor Centre nearby
00:47:26iPads project AR models of the entire campus
00:47:31Animations showing how the systems work
00:47:34How the glass curves
00:47:36How the air flows
00:47:54Down the road
00:47:55Google sprawls across Mountain View
00:48:01Meta's campus in Menlo Park
00:48:06Visa's headquarters
00:48:10Over 30 Fortune 500 companies packed into a 50-mile stretch
00:48:20Over $10 trillion in market value
00:48:23Concentrated in an area that looks like any other American suburb
00:48:33Almost every smartphone, computer and connected device on Earth
00:48:37Runs on software designed in this 50-mile stretch
00:48:58But the devices themselves
00:49:00They came from Shenzhen
00:49:05This is where the hardware gets built
00:49:09Huawei, Tencent, BYD, DJI
00:49:14If it's a smartphone, an electric car, a drone or a 5G router
00:49:20There's a good chance it was manufactured here
00:49:25The hardware capital of the planet
00:49:3145 years ago, it was a fishing village of 30,000 people
00:49:35Then, in 1980, China designated Shenzhen
00:49:41The country's first special economic zone
00:49:46A testing ground for opening a closed economy to the world
00:49:53The result, explosive growth
00:49:56GDP jumped from $38 million in 1980
00:50:01To over $500 billion today
00:50:11Shenzhen also makes use of its own products
00:50:14Drones deliver coffee to residents all across the city
00:50:23Our city building the future
00:50:25At the speed of light
00:50:46East again, where centuries collide
00:50:54Seoul doesn't choose between past and future
00:50:57It stacks them on top of each other
00:51:14The Dongdaemun Design Plaza
00:51:17Curves through the city centre
00:51:19Like a spaceship that crash-landed in the wrong era
00:51:29Designed by Zaha Hadid
00:51:32It's wrapped in over 40,000 aluminum panels
00:51:35Each one uniquely shaped
00:51:37No two identical
00:51:44The building sits at the site of an old fortress wall
00:51:47Literally built on top of history
00:51:55Walk north to Bukchon-Hannock village
00:51:58And the city rewinds
00:52:00Traditional wooden houses with curved tile roofs
00:52:04Line narrow streets
00:52:06Then look beyond
00:52:17Lotta tower rises 555 meters into the distance
00:52:24Glass and steel glowing against the horizon
00:52:29Past and future just blocks apart
00:52:40At the Bampo Bridge
00:52:42The world's longest bridge fountain shoots water
00:52:4520 meters out over the Han River
00:52:48Lit in waves of colour
00:53:04And above the bridge
00:53:06Drone shows rise in synchronised formations
00:53:09More advanced even than the ones we saw in Guangzhou
00:53:18Thousands of drones forming complex 3D scenes
00:53:23With incredible depth and movement
00:53:46An hour south-west
00:53:48Another kind of future takes shape
00:53:58Songdo rises from 600 hectares of land
00:54:02Reclaimed from the Yellow Sea
00:54:11A 40 billion dollar city
00:54:14Built from scratch starting in 2003
00:54:17Offices, apartments, parks, universities
00:54:21All designed before a single resident moved in
00:54:29The entire district runs on 500,000 sensors
00:54:33Feeding real-time data on traffic, waste, energy and security
00:54:41Garbage doesn't go to trucks
00:54:43It gets sucked through underground tubes directly from homes
00:54:53It was meant to be the world's first fully smart city
00:54:57But building everything at once made it rigid
00:55:00Systems that work but don't evolve
00:55:05Still, 210,000 people live here
00:55:09And urban planners worldwide study it
00:55:12Both for its successes and its warnings
00:55:30But some visions of the future never even make it that far
00:55:37On Taiwan's northern coast
00:55:39A cluster of UFO-shaped pods sit abandoned
00:55:45Built in the late 1970s as a futuristic resort
00:55:49For Taiwan's rising middle class
00:55:52Circular structures stacked like flying saucers
00:55:55Meant to look like they'd landed from space
00:56:01It was never finished
00:56:02A real estate crash and fatal construction accidents
00:56:07Halted the project mid-build
00:56:14Now the pods sit empty
00:56:17Paint peeling
00:56:18Concrete cracking
00:56:20Jungle creeping through the walls
00:56:31A vision of tomorrow
00:56:33Abandoned before it could arrive
00:56:46A thousand kilometres inland
00:56:49Chengdu lights up the night
00:56:55The Tianfu Twin Towers rise 218 metres
00:56:59In the city's financial district
00:57:05Twin skyscrapers wrapped in LED panels
00:57:09That light up with digital patterns
00:57:12Visible for miles around
00:57:18The towers pulse in sync
00:57:21Shifting colours
00:57:22Displaying animations that ripple across their facades
00:57:42Below the river glows blue
00:57:48Not naturally
00:57:49Lit from beneath
00:57:50Turning the water into a neon channel
00:57:53Cutting through the city
00:58:18Statues along the waterfront light up in waves of colour
00:58:33At the edge of the city
00:58:35The new century global centre sprawls across 1.7 million square metres
00:58:43The largest building in the world by floor area
00:58:49Inside an artificial beach
00:58:54Shopping streets
00:58:58A digital sky projected overhead
00:59:02An entire indoor city under one roof
00:59:25The city hosts China's biggest sci-fi conventions
00:59:33Spectacles that show the country's technological advancements
00:59:45Outside vines crawl up concrete structures
00:59:49Green against grey
00:59:52Nature reclaiming the edges
00:59:54Even as the neon keeps glowing
01:00:01Chengdu is looking towards the future
01:00:05Half the world away
01:00:07Germany is rebuilding the past
01:00:13The buildings stay
01:00:15But the function changes
01:00:24In Berlin
01:00:25Projections light up the Brandenburg Gate
01:00:28Digital art
01:00:30Washing over centuries old stone
01:00:36The Reichstag's glass dome
01:00:39Sits atop the parliament building
01:00:41Like a modern crown
01:00:42And the town on historical powerThe
01:01:09Uppetal
01:01:11a hanging railway glides above the streets, built in 1901, still running 120 years later.
01:01:29Bizarrely, in 1950, a circus loaded an elephant named Toofy onto the railway as a publicity stunt.
01:01:39She panicked, crashed through the side and fell into the river below and somehow survived the fall.
01:01:56But the clearest transformation happens in the Ruhr region.
01:02:00Across former industrial cities like Duisburg and Essen, old factories have been reinvented.
01:02:10At Landschaftspark Duisburg Nord, a shut down steelworks is now covered in climbing vines.
01:02:18You can scuba dive in the old gas tanks.
01:02:23Or walk catwalks through the blast furnaces.
01:02:31At Ferropolis, giant rusting excavators frame the melt festival,
01:02:36where techno music pulses between industrial relics.
01:02:48Germany's approach to the future is built on reuse.
01:02:51Don't erase the past. Reprogram it. Let old infrastructure anchor new systems.
01:03:12We travel east again into the chaos.
01:03:20Tokyo doesn't build the future quietly.
01:03:22It stacks it, lights it, and lets 37 million people move through it every day.
01:03:29The most populated metro area on earth.
01:03:39In Shibuya, nearly 3000 people cross the intersection at once during peak hours.
01:03:49No one collides.
01:03:51No one hesitates.
01:03:53Organized chaos filmed by directors worldwide as the ultimate symbol of urban density in motion.
01:04:20The Shinkansen bullet trains cut through the country at up to 320 kilometers per hour.
01:04:28Tokyo to Osaka in 2 hours and 22 minutes.
01:04:32The trains depart every 3 minutes during rush hour.
01:04:36And the average delay across the entire network is 36 seconds.
01:04:54In Shinjuku, neon floods the streets.
01:04:59Screens stacked 10 stories high.
01:05:01Signs in every language.
01:05:04Light pollution as infrastructure.
01:05:18For a while you could rent a go-kart dressed as Mario and drive it through real Tokyo traffic.
01:05:28Forget VR headsets.
01:05:30This was the real city turned into a video game.
01:05:36Street cart tours became so popular, they triggered lawsuits over Nintendo copyright and safety violations.
01:05:43For a while you could rent a go-kart on the internet.
01:05:54Beneath all of it, Tokyo's energy network runs on AI regulation.
01:06:00Balancing supply across thousands of microgrids.
01:06:04Keeping the city powered, despite serving more people than most countries.
01:06:27From the world's most crowded city, to one of its emptiest deserts.
01:06:35Saudi Arabia is building what may be the most ambitious urban experiment in history.
01:06:43Neom.
01:06:44A 1.5 trillion dollar megaproject the size of Albania, powered entirely by renewable energy.
01:06:56The city designed to stretch 170 kilometers long, 200 meters wide and 500 meters tall.
01:07:09A single mirrored structure across the desert.
01:07:12No roads, no cars.
01:07:14Just autonomous pods, moving residents end to end in under 20 minutes.
01:07:23Construction has already begun.
01:07:27Excavation underway.
01:07:29Thousands of foundation piles installed.
01:07:33The vision, 9 million people in a zero carbon mega city.
01:07:45In Riyadh, the transformation is already visible.
01:07:49The city is undergoing one of the largest urban expansions in human history, building new metro lines, parks, entire districts.
01:08:09The kingdom center tower rises 302 meters, its sky bridge creating a visual portal through the skyline.
01:08:26A symbol of openness between tradition and modernity.
01:08:54Spain's vision of the future takes on a more unique shape.
01:09:05Designed by Santiago Calatrava, the complex sprawls across gleaming white curves reflected in pools of turquoise water.
01:09:17Each building shaped like something alive.
01:09:37A giant blinking eye inside an IMAX cinema and planetarium.
01:09:44The building opens and closes like an eyelid.
01:09:49A giant blinking eye inside an IMAX cinema and planetarium.
01:09:50A giant blinking eye inside an IMAX cinema and planetarium.
01:10:01A giant blinking eye inside an IMAX cinema and planetarium.
01:10:08The Museu de la Ciencie, Principe Felipe stretches 220 meters long, shaped like a whale skeleton.
01:10:16Glass ribs and steel bones line the structure.
01:10:32Lumbrical, an open air garden walkway.
01:10:35White arches curve overhead filled with native plants and sculptures.
01:10:39A living greenhouse without walls.
01:10:56The Palau de les Arts, the performing arts center.
01:11:01It looks like a spaceship mid-launch.
01:11:08Retractable platforms.
01:11:10Suspended auditoriums.
01:11:11Gravity defied in white and glass.
01:11:33Calatrava didn't design a complex.
01:11:36He designed an ecosystem made of concrete.
01:11:43Futurism that looks alive.
01:11:58In Iceland, the future runs on ancient power.
01:12:02In Iceland, the future runs on ancient power.
01:12:08Reykjavik runs on heat from below.
01:12:1490% of Iceland's homes are powered by geothermal energy.
01:12:20Water heated by magma pipe directly into buildings.
01:12:27Hot water flows underneath streets at 30 degrees Celsius.
01:12:32Melting snow and ice year round.
01:12:45The city sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
01:12:48One of the most tectonically active places on earth.
01:12:55What could have been a liability became infrastructure.
01:12:59Volcanoes and earthquakes turned into a renewable energy grid.
01:13:11The future doesn't always require inventing new technology.
01:13:16Sometimes it's already beneath your feet.
01:13:36In Hong Kong, geography forced innovation in a different way.
01:13:43In Hong Kong, geography forced innovation in a different way.
01:13:46Only about a quarter of Hong Kong's land has been developed.
01:13:51The rest is mountains, steep slopes and protected countryside.
01:13:58So the city stacks.
01:14:00In the densest districts, over 50,000 people live on each square kilometre.
01:14:08And even Hong Kong Island averages more than 16,000.
01:14:13Making this one of the most densely populated places on earth.
01:14:28The so-called monster building complex around Yikcheong in Quarry Bay became a symbol of that density.
01:14:37Around 10,000 residents packed into a single block of interlocking towers.
01:14:47Ordinary private apartments that from below look dystopian.
01:14:52Endless windows, endless balconies, vertical claustrophobia repeating to the sky.
01:15:10During living memory, much of Hong Kong was rice paddies, fish ponds and village houses.
01:15:16Green terraces and still water.
01:15:24The urbanisation happened so fast that you can still find fields and old villages right at the city's edge.
01:15:31Where the high rises suddenly begin.
01:15:56And to bind itself more tightly to the mainland, it built a bridge.
01:16:06The Hong Kong Zhuhai Macau Bridge stretches 55 kilometres across the Pearl River Delta.
01:16:14The world's longest sea crossing.
01:16:17The world's longest sea crossing.
01:16:27Bridges, artificial islands and a 6.7 kilometre undersea tunnel link.
01:16:33Three cities under three governments.
01:16:42It connects 7 million people in Hong Kong to tens of millions more in the Pearl River Delta.
01:16:50A mega region whose economy rivals most countries.
01:17:02At the western end, Macau.
01:17:04A city where gambling became architecture.
01:17:09athon country.
01:17:10Sometimes, you know, the günstery of the city.
01:17:12And of course, you go there.
01:17:12What is that, Macau?
01:17:12Why is that, Macau?
01:17:20For me, Macau.
01:17:37The Grand Lisboa rises like a golden lotus wrapped in LEDs, its facade pulsing and shifting over the harbour.
01:18:05Elsewhere in the city, the Morpheus Hotel twists into the skyline.
01:18:11A Zaha Hadid Tower, wrapped in a freeform steel exoskeleton.
01:18:19One of the most structurally complex hotel buildings in Asia.
01:18:31But not every vision of the future is steel and glass.
01:18:36Two residential towers rise in Milan, Italy, wrapped entirely in forest.
01:18:48800 trees, 4,500 shrubs and 15,000 plants growing from the balconies.
01:19:02Designed by Stefan Obori, the towers absorb CO2, lower temperatures and bring biodiversity back to the city centre.
01:19:18Aerial arborists climb the facades to prune.
01:19:22Residents live inside a vertical forest.
01:19:26Architecture that breathes.
01:19:44New York City.
01:19:47Where density becomes invention.
01:19:49Manhattan ran out of space decades ago.
01:19:53So it started building in new directions.
01:20:02Little Island floats on 132 concrete tulip shaped columns, rising from the Hudson River.
01:20:17An artificial park built above water.
01:20:21Reclaimed pier space turned into a sculptural landscape.
01:20:25Trees and amphitheatres suspended over the river.
01:20:42When vertical space maxes out, Manhattan proposes curves.
01:20:49The big bend, a conceptual supertall that bends into a U shape.
01:20:58A single continuous structure, taller than any building if measured end to end.
01:21:05When you can't go higher, loop.
01:21:19And in 2024, the NYC Dublin portal connected two continents in real time.
01:21:31A live video wall with motion sensors.
01:21:37Pedestrians in New York could see and interact with people in Dublin, 5,000 kilometres away.
01:21:52The city ran out of space decades ago.
01:21:55It's been improvising ever since.
01:22:15Across the Persian Gulf, Qatar is building its way beyond oil.
01:22:29Losale City rises north of Doha.
01:22:33A smart city built from scratch.
01:22:37Designed with renewable energy systems, district cooling networks and advanced waste management infrastructure.
01:22:48The skyline reflects that ambition.
01:22:55The Katara towers curve like twin scimitars wrapped in gold.
01:23:02Glass towers gleaming along the waterfront.
01:23:23Burj Doha, designed by Jean Nouvel, wraps itself in an intricate metal lattice.
01:23:37The pattern filters sunlight and heat, a modern reinterpretation of the Mashrabiya, traditional
01:23:45Arabic window screens.
01:23:49Ancient cooling techniques rendered in contemporary steel.
01:24:10And at camel racing facilities across the country, tradition meets technology.
01:24:16The jockeys are robots.
01:24:21Lightweight machines strapped to camels controlled remotely by owners in trucks racing alongside.
01:24:41Across the Atlantic, the United States builds its own visions of the future, aimed upward,
01:24:47not outward.
01:24:55At Cape Canaveral, rockets rise from launch pads older than the space age itself.
01:25:04Falcon 9 boosters land on drone ships like automated skyscrapers returning home.
01:25:14In Houston, mission control still hums.
01:25:19Rows of consoles guiding machines across millions of kilometres of void.
01:25:34Every nation on Earth is trying to build its version of the future.
01:25:38Upward, outward, smarter, cleaner.
01:25:41But the biggest leap might not happen on Earth at all.
01:25:49If humanity ever pushes far enough, if technology, economics and willpower align, the first real,
01:25:58future city could rise on a completely different planet.
01:26:07Until then, the skylines on Earth keep rising.
01:26:33And if you enjoyed seeing the cities of tomorrow, how about going back to where it all began?
01:26:42Click on screen now to see where the human species took our first ever steps.
01:26:47how about going back to where the world should be a new identity of a new climate.
01:26:56I'll see you next time.
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