Earlier this year, Estates Gazette teamed up with Cluttons to launch The Next Big Thing, an international competition that sought to address the issues caused by an increasingly urbanised population. The winning and highly commended solutions are examined here. Below, we take a look at the facts and figures that set the scene for this year’s competition.
According to the latest population report from the United Nations, the globe is becoming increasingly urbanised. Since 2007 there has been a notable shift towards people living and working in cities. Whereas the population was previously skewed towards rural areas, for the past seven years it has been growing steadily in cities. By 2014, some 54% of the world’s population lived in urban areas. In 2050, the urban population is expected to boom to 7.4m – representing two-thirds of the globe’s inhabitants. With landmass as finite entity, innovation is key to maintaining a liveable world.
