A smart city with flying vehicles is coming to the US desert

Last year, a Denmark-based architecture studio BIG announced plans to build a futuristic city in an American desert. The new smart city, known as Telosa, will accommodate up to 5 million people in an unconfirmed location. 

Telosa is the idea of Marc Lore, founder of Jet.com and Diapers.com. According to Lore, this futuristic city will be built from scratch in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, or Texas and “set a new standard for urban living”. The 1500,00-acre mega-project follows the Georgist principles. This ideology was developed by Henry George, who believed that the economic value derived from land and natural resources should be shared among all members of society. 

“If we bought, say, 200,000 acres and built a city of 5 million people, then those acres would go from being worth nothing to being worth about a trillion dollars. And if the community sold the land and created an endowment — similar to a university or hospital endowment — they could earn $50 billion a year. $50 billion that would go back to the citizens in the form of healthcare, education, jobs training, affordable housing, and more,” Lore explained. 

One of the main focuses of Telosa is sustainability, with 100 percent renewable energy and no fossil fuel-powered vehicles. Developers promise that residents of Telosa will be able to commute to work, schools, and amenities within 15 minutes or less. Currently, BIG is working on designing autonomous vehicles. The Ground to Air or G2A will include a set of wheels for driving on the ground and motor blades for flying. There will be no on-ground parking spots in Telosa. But vehicles can park in an automated pod underground. 

“We got very excited, we were talking about autonomous cars and then we were like, we should make our own, so we did," said BIG associate Alana Goldweit. “It (the vehicle) could really do it all. We were looking at these different technologies, and we said, ‘why has no one just put all of these together?’”

The first 50,000 residents will simultaneously move to Telosa before the end of 2030. Marc Lore compares this to a university move-in day. In 40 years, the population might grow to 5 million people with 33 people per acre, equivalent to San Francisco. 

Resources:

“Marc’s Inspiration Story,” (Telosa, 2022)

“BIG designing Ground to Air driverless vehicle for American desert city Telosa,” by Nat Barker (Dezeen, 2022)

“Bjarke Ingels designing "new city in America" for five million people,” by Tom Ravenscroft (Dezeen, 2021)

“For his new smart desert city, billionaire Marc Lore eyes Nevada, Utah and Arizona,” by Adina Solomon (Smart Cities Dive, 2022)

“Imagining the future: 2021’s boldest design proposals,” by Oscar Holland (CNN, 2021)

“What Is Georgism (Geoism) In Economics?” by Benjamin Elisha Sawe (World Atlas, 2017)