The Cities Being Built Right Now

Masdar City in Abu Dhabi broke ground in 2008 with a plan for zero cars and zero carbon. In Milan, two apartment towers grow nearly 800 real trees on their balconies. In Saudi Arabia, a 170-kilometer straight-line city was supposed to house 9 million people. As of September 2025, construction on that one was paused, with less than 2 percent of the route actually built.

This guide covers what's real, what's stalled, and what these projects actually teach us about how cities might work next.

In this article

• Quick Facts ↓
• History & Origins ↓
• The Real Projects ↓
• What Actually Works ↓
• FAQ ↓

Futuristic Cities Quick Facts

History & Origins

The idea is old. Buckminster Fuller proposed geodesic domes as urban structures in the 1950s. Paolo Soleri coined the word "arcology" in 1969, imagining a city as one single structure fused with its ecosystem. Those ideas sat mostly on paper for decades.

Then, in 2008, two things happened at once. Construction started on Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. And IBM launched a campaign that popularized the term "smart city." That year is when the concept moved from architecture theory into actual concrete and steel.

The Real Projects

Masdar City Runs on Pods, Not Cars

Autonomous electric pods replace personal vehicles here. No exhaust, no parking lots. A solar farm outside the city boundary supplies most of the power. It was designed to house 50,000 people.

Milan Grew an Actual Forest on Two Towers

Bosco Verticale opened in 2014. It holds roughly 480 large and medium trees, 300 smaller ones, and thousands of shrubs and plants across two residential towers. It won the International Highrise Award that same year.

The Line Hit a Wall

Saudi Arabia's Neom project planned a 170-kilometer straight city with zero cars and zero roads, built for 9 million people. In September 2025, the project's governing fund paused construction pending a strategic review. About 2.4 kilometers of foundation had been laid, roughly 1.4 percent of the total length.

What Actually Works

Curitiba Did It Cheap and Early

Jaime Lerner built a bus rapid transit system in Curitiba, Brazil back in 1974. It still runs today. No pods, no mirrored walls, just buses that actually move. Urban planners in over 100 countries have studied it.

Singapore Runs on Sensors

Singapore has required green rooftops on new commercial buildings since 2009. The city-state built a digital simulation of itself to test how new construction affects traffic and air quality before anything gets built.

Songdo Is Mostly Finished

South Korea's Songdo International Business District started construction in 2003 on reclaimed land. It's often cited as the most fully realized smart city actually operating today, pneumatic tubes and all.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Masdar City?

A planned zero-carbon district in Abu Dhabi that broke ground in 2008. It runs on solar power and replaces cars with autonomous electric pods.

Is The Line in Saudi Arabia still being built?

Construction was paused in September 2025 pending a strategic review. At that point only about 1.4 percent of the planned 170-kilometer route had been built.

How many trees does Bosco Verticale actually have?

Roughly 780 trees, split between large, medium, and small sizes, plus thousands of shrubs and plants, spread across two residential towers in Milan.

What does arcology mean?

A term coined by architect Paolo Soleri in 1969 for a city built as one single structure, where architecture and ecology function as a single system.

Which smart city project is furthest along?

Songdo in South Korea, which began construction in 2003 and is widely considered the most fully realized smart city currently operating.

Where can you get skyline decor like this for a desk?

X2Metal offers skyline designs printed on glossy ChromaLuxe metal and sized for a desk, with matching 5mm mouse pads. Browse the World Skylines collection. Everything is handcrafted in North Liberty, Iowa.

About the author: Business Alchemist | Turning Ideas into Products, Brands & Businesses | Navid Malik. Navid is the founder of X2Metal, a metal print studio in North Liberty, Iowa creating bold, durable metal prints and 5mm mouse pads.

Sources: Foster + Partners: Masdar City ↗, Stefano Boeri Architetti: Vertical Forest ↗, The Line, Saudi Arabia, Wikipedia ↗. X2Metal is not affiliated with any organization mentioned in this post.

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