{"id":9002,"date":"2020-09-24T09:05:56","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T13:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/?p=9002"},"modified":"2020-10-08T10:02:17","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T14:02:17","slug":"exploring-the-potential-for-human-civilizations-underground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/exploring-the-potential-for-human-civilizations-underground\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the potential for human civilizations underground"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In partnership with publisher Lund Humphries, we\u2019ve launched our new book, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/aecom.com\/undergroundcities\/\">Underground Cities: New Frontiers in Urban Living<\/a><\/em>, which journeys across continents and into the future, to explore the new capacity and experiences that the subterranean space can provide for our increasingly urbanized world. It reflects on the excitement generated by pneumatic technologies, rewinds to the utopian techno-futurism of the 1960s and fast forwards to the latest advances in technology that are allowing us to map and construct underground space in new ways to vastly expand this layer of our cities. It also addresses the effects \u2015 psychological and physical \u2015 of spending extended periods underground.<\/p>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/fast.wistia.com\/embed\/medias\/tdex6h2pi1.jsonp\" async><\/script><script src=\"https:\/\/fast.wistia.com\/assets\/external\/E-v1.js\" async><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"wistia_responsive_padding\" style=\"padding:56.25% 0 0 0;position:relative;\">\n<div class=\"wistia_responsive_wrapper\" style=\"height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;top:0;width:100%;\">\n<div class=\"wistia_embed wistia_async_tdex6h2pi1 videoFoam=true\" style=\"height:100%;position:relative;width:100%\">\n<div class=\"wistia_swatch\" style=\"height:100%;left:0;opacity:0;overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0;transition:opacity 200ms;width:100%;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fast.wistia.com\/embed\/medias\/tdex6h2pi1\/swatch\" style=\"filter:blur(5px);height:100%;object-fit:contain;width:100%;\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" onload=\"this.parentNode.style.opacity=1;\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- [video width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" mp4=\"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/UndergroundCities-intro.mp4\"][\/video] --><\/p>\n<p>As the coronavirus pandemic challenges our traditional concepts of space, <em>Underground Cities <\/em>is a timely invitation to look at how this largely untapped resource can open up vast amounts of space both below and above ground for people to use and enjoy in innovative ways.<\/p>\n<p>The book is structured around five key themes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A New Frontier<\/strong> considers visionary blank-slate planning geared toward legacy-building and livability.<\/li>\n<li><strong>People-Centered Spaces<\/strong> shares research and examples on making the Earth\u2019s subsurface viable and appealing for human habitation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Moving People, Transporting Goods<\/strong> examines new infrastructure systems that have the potential to redefine mobility and, in turn, cities.<\/li>\n<li><strong>New Techniques of Representation<\/strong> looks at the digital innovations that are expanding the boundaries of what we can successfully plan, design and deliver.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Looking Forward<\/strong> provides case studies of three densely-populated cities \u2014 Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo \u2014 and explores how they are integrating the subsurface in new and unique ways.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-9004 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/book_cover-001-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"New Frontiers in Urban Living. Underground Cities\" width=\"920\" height=\"518\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/book_cover-001-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/book_cover-001-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 920px) 100vw, 920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Underground Cities<\/em> features contributions from AECOM experts on topics ranging from architecture to geotechnical engineering and social science.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cWith advances in technology and the invention of new materials and tools, what is feasible enters a new dimension. It is time to redefine the underground.\u201d Sean Chiao, President, Asia Pacific<\/li>\n<li>\u201cCities are vital living organisms that need to adapt to survive. To be able to respond to today\u2019s rapidly changing conditions, they must start putting people &#8211; and all their manifest needs \u2013 at the heart of their underground infrastructure.\u201d Will Symons, Asia Pacific Resilience and Sustainability Practice Leader<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe vitality of natural light can now be captured, in part at least, by artificial lighting systems that change color to replicate the visible cycles and qualities found in the natural environment.\u201d Lee Barker-Field, Director, Specialist Lighting, Europe, Middle East &amp; Africa<\/li>\n<li>\u201cAECOM, in collaboration with the Civil Engineering and Development Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has explored ways of integrating the latest Virtual Reality and photogrammetry technologies with more widely used techniques such as Building Information Modeling and 3D spatial data.\u201d Thomson Lai, Greater China Digital Transformation &amp; Innovation Team Leader<\/li>\n<li>\u201cFar from being in the realm of science fiction, these ideas are based on the sensible science of civil engineering. We have barely scratched the surface (so to speak) of the world beneath our feet.\u201d John Endicott, Asia Pacific Geotechnical, AECOM Fellow<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Learn more about Underground Cities <a href=\"https:\/\/aecom.com\/undergroundcities\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The book is now available for purchase on the Lund Humphries <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lundhumphries.com\/products\/118808?_pos=1&amp;_sid=312107a2f&amp;_ss=r\">U.K. site<\/a> and for pre-order on their <a href=\"https:\/\/us.lundhumphries.com\/products\/118808?_pos=1&amp;_sid=eb778f890&amp;_ss=r\">U.S. site<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In partnership with publisher Lund Humphries, we\u2019ve launched our new book, Underground Cities: New Frontiers in Urban Living, which journeys across continents and into the future, to explore the new capacity and experiences that the subterranean space can provide for our increasingly urbanized world. It reflects on the excitement generated by pneumatic technologies, rewinds to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":544,"featured_media":9003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4889,1,256],"tags":[90,110,223,4970,5327,4365],"yst_prominent_words":[5320,335,541,475,5322,420,2101,971,464,5325,1431,5324,5321,5323,367,3056,439,1450,5319,483],"class_list":["post-9002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cities","category-uncategorized","category-urban-design","tag-cities","tag-innovation","tag-livability","tag-resiliency","tag-underground","tag-urban-planning"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/544"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9002"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9017,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9002\/revisions\/9017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9002"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}