Underground development: a springboard to make city life better in the 21st century

摘要

The 21st century will probably be the century of urban areas and especially megacities. Megacities are continuously growing in size and numbers, they are major economic and political hubs and every event or decision that affects these areas has significant repercussions for the rest of the planet. These large agglomerations have soaring problems that challenge their sustainability goals and their future in general. The development of the urban underground space can offer efficient, long-term and environmental friendly solutions to these problems and keep megacities in the sustainability path. The present paper describes the sustainability problems of modern cities and attempts to outline the new challenges in future underground utilization. The paper also focuses on the people who work in the underground space and analyzes the social and psychological results. Finally, since, contrary to common belief, the most visited places in the world are underground, several issues regarding design, aesthetics and human friendly underground spaces are discussed along with the pioneer role of ACUUS in underground development.