@VideoVampire: Man, that just bums me out. I really hope you don't live in SF, cause anyone who is lucky enough to live there but feels that way about it would be such a waste.

@BiZarRroBALlmeR: While there is noooo question that the gulf nations still want to make their money off of oil, most of them have already diversified into the global real estate market, global stock indexes, capital financing, etc. that when the time comes that the oil is gone, they will be no worse off than any of the other ridiculously rich people in the world.

92BuickLeSabre

@BiZarRroBALlmeR: no it wont because it will cost 500$ a barrel, did you think they will pay for the city? no, we will, we are already

pharago

WHY does every futurist assume that eccentric architecture is going to be all the rage - the less practical the building shape, the more futurey it is, like, "Hey, this is the future... you can tell because our buildings are large spheres stacked on small spheres with dodecahedron windows made of transparent aluminum, and pollution is supposedly really bad, despite the bright blue sky and ocean."

nutbastard

@carnegiesMellons: as much as i want to agree with you, that sail building is being built in dubai, as well as that twisty building, well that's actually in a couple of cities (lil difference) those airship are being planed, and, well i don't know what's up with those martini glasses.

dontforget

@VideoVampire: That's why the parks are elevated above the smoldering ruins of the "lower city." The plants can only survive above the pollution layer.

This looks kinda like Midgar to me (FFVII reference).

berribrand

won't their oil have run out by then?

BiZarRroBALlmeR

Also, I don't see how they will be able to keep Al-Qaeda away? They should paint a huge bullseye in the middle of the city.

Noobs-R-Us

Amen to that! @VideoVampire:

redbearded

That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen. I'm going to get a job as one of these conceptual future artists and draw scenes from the Jetsons. Im ganna blow peoples socks off with my crazy futuristic imagination!!!! Then get paid for it. (PS I'm not cynical, but c'mon... I think the future is ganna be a LOT cooler than THAT!)

carnegiesMellons

@VideoVampire: Sometimes it's nice to simply forget the blemishes and take pleasure in viewing the big picture.

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

You know how beautiful San Francisco looks from a vantage point like the one shown? Its all sparkling and lights and cool looking structures, but when you get on the ground in that city or almost any other for that matter, it is a shithole, it stinks, the bums shit in the street you cant stop anywhere with out smelling the urine of a thousand scumbags. So my questuion is, since this city looks REALLY GREAT from "that vantage point" it is even worse to the same degree on the ground?

VideoVampire

@dontforget: don't forget to use the reply button.

"o ya dude, you're right that was for behavin:"

dontforget

you should read giz more, [gizmodo.com] or not what do i know?

dontforget

kOtic:
its a "vision" of the future not an actual design. Why do you have to go and poop on it with your pragmatism?

"I must admit that it stands in stark contrast to the bleak world of Blade Runner."

I have a few of Syd Mead's books and I can tell you that dark and gloomy is NOT what his vision of the future looks like. He's always had a sunny and optimistic perspective. I would give Ridley Scott credit for the bleak look of Blade Runner. It was his art direction in collaboration with Syd Mead that made the film look the way it did. Watch the documentary that came in the recent 4 DVD box set and check out some of Syd Mead's books. They're pretty inspiring.

redbearded

Why is it that all of these futuristic designs always have giant things floating around in the sky? Are blimp rides going to become the new tourist-y thing to do in the future?

behavin

I adore Mead's work. I want giant whale ships. Now.

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

@uberfu: yeah looney toons told me that we'd have that by 2000 and I'm a little disappointed that I dont have mine yet.

2001: A Space Odyssey

that's just a picture of Dubai.

dontforget

The thing with all these futuristic buildings is that, design-wise, they're gonna cost atleast double to build.

kOtic

I hope our future is a cool blue world and not a burnt brown world that's 122 degrees outside.

Tank

Or just more optimistic about the future of Qatar.

92BuickLeSabre

one small problem - still need to invent mass produced flying car_

uberfu

@Ednonymous: That is one of the dumbest thing I have seen printed here. Cheers to you for mixing it up.

On topic: I'll argue that this is in line with much of Syd Mead's, including Blade Runner. Objects in his worlds do more than one thing. A cooling tower may also have apartments. The green space on top the towers may also be part of a motion dampening system, windows transmit light and generate power, roads are emergency flood paths, etc...

DeadWriter

The only thing missing in this picture is the 1950s style family with the slogan on top "The Future is Now!".

ripfire

If the arabs don't smarten up with the oil prices, places like qatar may wind up looking more like lumpy sheets of brown & green glass.

Ednonymous

I don't get it. Why does Syd Mead have the Pentagon holding five martinis?

wild homes and gardens

Those things look like the bubble arcos (is that what they were called?) from SimCity 2000.

TaitRT

@behavin:

hey, check this out

[www.dezeen.com]

Camperton

Could you do me a favor and ask him to dispel the myth that the AT-AT walkers, which were based on his models, were not actually inspired by Oakland's container cranes.

The Brain

Yup giant parks in mid-air are the wave of the future.

Why..why! would anyone build something like that? There's no practical purpose, especially since there is still room on the surface so he can't be pulling a Coruscant.

Prions

yeah, the only problem is all that shiny chrome.
and all those blind people with their skin being boiled by the massive reflections of our friend, The Sun, off said shiny chrome.

city of the future or City Of the Blind and Broiled?

tehdahl

I still haven't forgiven Syd Mead for the Turn A Gundam designs.

Just a thought for many of the comments: Many of the designs (by folks like Frank Gehry or Zaha Hadid to name the more popular ones) being built today would have been considered impractical by previous generations, maybe even some current critics. Sometimes cool factor just outweighs practicality, and I think that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

MrHaroHaro

@tehdahl: hasn't stopped any of the other skyscrapers around the world, which usually only reflect onto the top of other buildings surrounding them.

I bet those massive towers would be providing acres of shade, they look like they're very high.

skulldriveshaft

@nutbastard: it's always been the rage to have eccentric architecture, now it's just getting way more eccentric.

skulldriveshaft

@BiZarRroBALlmeR: Qatar is not based on a oil export economy.

skulldriveshaft

@Noobs-R-Us: what drugs have you been smoking?

skulldriveshaft

@GadgetPlay: "Not if the US begins to produce it as well."
You don't even need to! The current Canadian government is more than happy to just give you guys Alberta if you promise to stop hitting us with Newfoundland and asking us why we're hitting ourselves!

bailey_ca

@skulldriveshaft:
hush!
you're raining on my fantasy!

;)

tehdahl

@Tank: "and not a burnt brown world that's 122 degrees outside."

No reason to think that it will be.

@VideoVampire: "You know how beautiful San Francisco looks from a vantage point like the one shown?"

San Fran encourages bums and filth. I doubt that Qatar does.

@Noobs-R-Us: "Also, I don't see how they will be able to keep Al-Qaeda away"

Don't worry, we're in the process of kicking their collective ass. You're welcome, world.

@BiZarRroBALlmeR: "won't their oil have run out by then?"

No, not even close.

@pharago: "no it wont because it will cost 500$ a barrel"

Not if the US begins to produce it as well.

GadgetPlay

@nutbastard: Post-modern architecture was simply a warning shot: In the future, taste will be completely eradicated.

bailey_ca

@GadgetPlay: Barring radical improvements in the efficiencies of extracting oil from "dry" beds, the U.S. simply doesn't have enough oil no matter where or how we drill domestically to make more than a few dollars per barrel difference in the "long" term. And we don't have the public or private infrastructure set up to make any difference in the short term.

92BuickLeSabre

This whole thing reminds me of Oscar Niemeyer and Brasilia. The city below the beautiful architecture is less ideal- partiallh because of the futuristic city plans. (Everyone will have a car in the future- a lot of pedestrians die.) It's beautiful though. I wish more crazy cities ended up working that way i.e. not running out of money half way through and leaving building shells up everywhere.

oo0cyst0oo

"he envisions a future city by the name of Doha, Qatar."

As in.. you don't believe Doha exists already? Don't get out from the behind the soft glow of the CRT much, do we now? Time to expand the RSS feed reading beyond the tech sites...

"Doha is Qatar's largest city (and capital!), with over 80% of the nation's population residing in Doha or its surrounding suburbs, and is also the economic center of the country."
[en.wikipedia.org]

olaf74

@92BuickLeSabre: That's why we should have been doing this a long time ago. ANWR might only have enough to make a few dollars difference (I don't necessarily believe that, just stating our intention to drill will bring futures down), not the entire U. S. and its coasts. Ten years from now people will be saying the same thing, unless we do it now.

GadgetPlay

@skulldriveshaft: Huh? You mean you didn't know that Al-Qaeda only condone their brand of Sharia? In fact, anyone who adopts western "decadent" ways of doing things is automatically the enemy. Where have you been in the last 7 years? In a cave?

Noobs-R-Us

@Prions: There is a practical purpose. It expands your available surface space allowing you to reuse the same acreage multiple times. You want your parks to be closer to the sunlight. Why not build them over a factory, which is over an underground freeway, which is over a subway system, which is over your water and sewage system, which would be over a subterranean power plant?

thedancingrogue

@DeadWriter: Just an observation of the type of emotion or reaction which tends to occur at this sort of extravagance which is potentially (please pardon the bad pun) fueled by $4/gallon gas prices?
You know the old saying... Opinions are like assh... etc... we all have one and the right to have one.
Cheers to you as well! :-)

@nutbastard: Don't forget the the hoverboards and conveyor sidewalks!

@dontforget: Sorry... I forgot what I was going to say.

@skulldriveshaft: qatar does not have an oil-based economy? Then the Wikipedia entry should be fixed. [en.wikipedia.org]

@everybody: Which one is the SUV drifting stadium?

Ednonymous

@Tank: If your comments were about "Global Warming", you might be interested to know that when the Polar Ice melts sufficiently, it will cool the oceans enough to cause the Northern Hemisphere to plunge into a mini-Ice Age - so, instead of these 122F degree temperatures as daily high temperatures, you'll more than likely see 52F daily highs in the summer.

Think of it this way: when you drop an icecube into tap water, what happens? The ice melts and makes your drink colder. With the volume of ice that is predicted to melt from Iceland, Greenland and the Arctic Circle due to "Global Warming", the oceans could be cooled enough to cause oceanic air currents to cooled as wel, which could then cause any oceanic evaporation to fall as snow as far south as the 38th or even the 37th Parallel.

ScottKin