A master planned city called Telosa is the end goal of a project from Marc Lore, entrepreneur and former CEO of e-commerce at retailer Walmart.
Architecture studio BIG is designing the master plan, which is imagined as being built on an unoccupied 60,700- hectare (150,000-acre) site, possibly in the western United States. The project envisions creating a city for 50,000 people by 2030.
The crux of the project would be that the city would retain ownership of the land. A community endowment would then fold the increasing value of the land over time into the city’s development. Community-owned land is a concept already in use in other parts of the United States. There are 277 community land trusts in the country, which aim to keep housing affordable, according to an article in Fortune.
Broadly based on the principles of urbanist Ebenezer Howard’s Garden Cities in the UK, the city would have a density similar to San Francisco. One stated goal for the project is to make it highly sustainable by leveraging strategies, policies, and design that are only possible when starting with a clean slate. These would include sustainable building materials, autonomous vehicles, electric aircraft, and underground movement of materials.
At the center of the city, Equitism, a tall viewing tower, would rise from a central park. It would house a photovoltaic roof, elevated water storage, and aeroponic farms.
Another stated goal for the city would be equitable access to resources, from education to housing to healthcare.
For more on this story, go to Dezeen and Fortune.