Nuuk

Nuuk, the capital of Greenland located along the island’s western shore, was a small city of approximately16,000 in 2015. In 2100, Nuuk is a strategically located international finance hub, acting as a bridge between the new cities of North America, Europe, and Asia.

As the vast bulk of the world’s population moved poleward, Greenland’s position in the middle of newly established world-travel routes became increasingly important. Nuuk’s expansion site is southeast of the former town center and includes a series of steep cliffs, ranging between 772 and 1,382 meters in height, as well as lakes in the nearby valleys. To achieve the level of density required for a compact megacity, we imagine that a landscraper megastructure typology evolved by 2100, which hugs the cliff faces and follows the natural topography while creating a counterpart to it.

This typology emerged as a result of rethinking critical connections within the city. Movement in and through the landform buildings is a three-dimensional experience, encompassing horizontal and vertical modes of transportation. In this, the system has deviated from the more standard approach of having a public-transportation matrix at grade, with residential and commercial buildings plugging vertically into it.

A tube transportation system—similar to the hyperloop, but slower—allows a seamless transition between the lateral and the vertical. From the airport, visitors can connect to a large transport hub: people traveling from other cities or between neighborhoods are brought across and then up, to central points in-between buildings or within the landscraper structures. From there, they disembark and fan out to a system of moving walkways and elevators in order to access different parts of each megastructure. The city’s seaport serves as an additional means of entry into the city, and also as a center for tidal-energy generation.

A view from inside a mega-scale courtyard space reveals a series of elevated bridges connecting different parts of the settlement, as well as outdoor public spaces punctuated by large openings cut deep into the ground, allowing light to permeate the subterranean portions of the buildings. Other public spaces are higher up, infusing activity and a civic dimension into the ever-climbing and densifying city.