There's been a lot of talk of a futuristic and historically monumental planned city being built in the United Arab Emirates. I'm referring, of course, to the "zero carbon", "zero waste", "car free" Masdar City. Initiated in 2006, the project is projected to cost US$22 billion and take some eight years to build, with the first phase scheduled to be complete and habitable in 2009. Designed by the British architectural firm Foster + Partners, the city will rely entirely on solar energy and other renewable energy sources, with a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology. The city is being constructed 17 kilometres (11 mi) east-south-east of the city of Abu Dhabi, beside Abu Dhabi International Airport. The city will cover 6 square kilometres (2.3 sq mi) on a site 6.4 km² (2.5 sq mi) in size and will be home to 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses, primarily commercial and manufacturing facilities specialising in environmentally-friendly products.

In addition to many futuristic and environmentally friendly features, automobiles will be banned within the city; travel will be accomplished via public mass transit and personal rapid transit systems, with existing road- and railways connecting to other locations outside the city. Masdar will employ a variety of renewable power sources. Among the first construction projects will be a 40 to 60 megawatt solar power plant, built by the German firm Conergy, which will supply power for all other construction activity. This will later be followed by a larger facility, and additional photovoltaic modules will be placed on rooftops to provide supplemental solar energy totalling 130 megawatts. Wind farms will be established outside the city's perimeter capable of producing up to 20 megawatts, and the city intends to utilise geothermal power as well. In addition, Masdar plans to host the world's largest hydrogen power plant. Water management has been planned in an environmentally-sound manner as well. A solar-powered desalination plant will be used to provide the city's water needs, which is stated to be 60 percent lower than similarly sized communities. Approximately 80 percent of the water used will be recycled and waste water will be reused "as many times as possible," with this so-called greywater being used for crop irrigation and other purposes. The city will also attempt to reduce waste to zero. Biological waste will be used to create nutrient-rich soil and fertiliser, and some may also be utilised through waste incineration as an additional power source. Industrial waste, such as plastics and metals, will be recycled or re-purposed for other uses. The project is supported by the global conservation charity World Wide Fund for Nature and the sustainability group BioRegional. In response to the project's commitment to zero carbon, zero waste and other environmentally friendly goals, WWF and BioRegional have endorsed Masdar City as an official One Planet Living Community. Masdar City will be the latest of a small number of highly planned, specialized, research and technology-intensive municipalities that incorporate a living environment, but the concept and the development of a sustainable city is nothing new. In fact, the terms, "ecocity" or "ecopolis," defined as an entire city dedicated to minimizing the required inputs (of energy, water and food) and its waste output (of heat, air pollution as co2, methane, and water pollution.) have been around for quite some time. Richard Register first coined the term "ecocity" in his 1987 book, Ecocity Berkeley: building cities for a healthy future. Another leading figure who envisioned the sustainable city was architect Paul F. Downton, who later founded the company Ecopolis Architects. However, the presence of proper funding for such a project is indeed historical by every sense of the word.

One city that should be considered when discussing the concept of ecocities is Curitiba. Curitiba is the capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná. The city has the largest population and also the largest economy in Southern Brazil. The population of Curitiba numbers approximately 1.8 million people (7th largest nationwide) and the latest GDP figures for the city surpass US$17 billion (ranking 4th nationwide) according to IBGE. Curitiba is often cited as an example of urban sustainability.

There is another current plan that shouldn't be overlooked for an ecocity to be located in the Republic of Ireland. This city is to be called Clonburris. The plans for Clonburris include countless green innovations such as high levels of energy efficiency, mandatory renewable energy for heating and electricity, the use of recycled and sustainable building materials, a district heating system for distributing heat, the provision of allotments for growing food, and even the banning of tumble driers, with natural drying areas being provided instead.

Purpose-built cities have been being constructed all throughout history. Novosibirsk, Russia, was founded in 1893 as the future site of the Trans-Siberian Railway bridge crossing the great Siberian river Ob, and was known as Novonikolayevsk after Saint Nicholas. Also, it was the name of the Tsar ruling at that time Tsar Nicholas II. The bridge opened for traffic in the spring of 1897. Its importance further increased early in the 20th century with the completion of the Turkestan-Siberia Railway, connecting Novosibirsk to Central Asia and the Caspian Sea. Today Novosibirsk is Russia's third largest city, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast. It is also the largest city in Siberia and the administrative center of Siberian Federal District, in the southwest of which it is located. In addition to the planned city of Tsukuba Science City, Japan has had a few purpose-built cities. Japan's capital of Kyoto was moved from Nagaokakyō and then moved to Tokyo around 1868. Tokyo in japanese means "New Kyoto." In China, Old Beijing (called Zhongdu) burned to ground by Mongols in 1215. A new city, Khanbaliq ("Dadu" in Chinese), the future Beijing, was built nearby as a Mongol capital in 1267, as prelude to Mongol establishment of the Yuan Dynasty in China. The Yuan were forced to move their capital to Karakorum in Mongolia in 1368 as their dynasty ended in China. China's capital moved to Nanjing as the Ming Dynasty started. It returned to Beijing in 1420, and the city remained the capital of China (under the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republic of China) until again the capital moved to Nanjing in 1928. It returned to the city in 1949 with the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China. Several of the world's capital cities are planned cities, including Canberra in Australia, Brasília in Brazil, New Delhi in India, Abuja in Nigeria and Islamabad in Pakistan. The capital of Brazil was moved from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília because of overcrowding and to encourage inland growth. It was also common in the European colonization of the Americas to build according to a plan either on fresh ground or on the ruins of earlier Amerindian cities. The U.S. capital moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. in 1800 is a perfect example of this. It was suposed to help connect the north and south. One of the main ideas of the Baroque period was that counries established capital cities.

There are a number of planned cities that were never built. Welthauptstadt Germania, the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin, part of Hitler's vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II is probably the most well know example. A town called Broughton, in Nova Scotia was expected to be a boomtown when first settled, but was mostly abandoned when mining operations failed. Townsend, Ontario was supposed to have a population of 100,000 people by the year 2000 but they couldn't find enough people to work at the nearby Stelco steel plant and so the community has stagnated over the years. The famous American architect and historical figure, Frank Lloyd Wright, proposed a concept for an urban or suburban development and a Utopian vision of a new type of urban landscape late in his life called Broadacre City which was never build. A collegue of Frank Lloyd Wright, Paolo Soleri, however, found more success venturing into this direction.

Paolo Soleri (born June 21, 1919) is an Italian-American visionary architect with a life-long commitment to research and experimentation in design and town planning. He established Arcosanti and the educational Cosanti Foundation. Soleri is a distinguished lecturer in the College of Architecture at Arizona State University and a National Design Award recipient in 2006. Paolo Soleri is also widely known for popularizing a concept called Arcology. Arcology, from the words "ecology" and "architecture," is a set of architectural design principles aimed toward the design of enormous habitats (hyperstructures) of extremely high human population density. These largely hypothetical structures, called "arcologies," would contain a variety of residential and commercial facilities and minimize individual human environmental impact. They are often portrayed as self-contained or economically self-sufficient.

Minnesota Experimental City, one of Soleri's undeveloped futuristic projects was supposed to be partially enclosed by a geodesic dome, a shape featured in many structures such as the Montreal Biosphère and Spaceship Earth at Epcot, Walt Disney World. Among other proposed features were a car-free zone (cars were to be parked on the edge with a people-mover connecting them to the center), an automated highway system would connect the town with the outside world, waterless toilets and no schools. (the city itself would foster lifelong learning, with everyone both a student and teacher)

Arcosanti is an experimental town that began construction in 1970 in central Arizona, 70 miles (110 km) north of Phoenix, at 34°20′34.72″N, 112°06′05.93″W, elevation 3,732 feet (1,130 meters). Architect Paolo Soleri, using a concept he calls arcology (a portmanteau of architecture and ecology), started the town to demonstrate how urban conditions could be improved while minimizing the destructive impact on the earth. Arcosanti is being built on only 25 acres (0.1 km²) of a 4,060 acre (16 km²) land preserve, keeping its inhabitants near the natural countryside. The Arcosanti web site describes how an arcology functions in Arcosanti: "The built and the living interact as organs would in a highly evolved being. Many systems work together, with efficient circulation of people and resources, multi-use buildings, and solar orientation for lighting, heating and cooling." It has been noted that at the current rate of construction, it may take several hundred years to complete Arcosanti.[citation needed] Therefore, it is suggested that advancing technologies may solve the problems of overpopulation and environmental degradation well before completion, making the Arcosanti project redundant. Similarly, it has also been criticized for a lack of funding to realize its vision within a practical timeframe.

The Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid, another project of Paolo Soleri, is a proposed project for construction of a massive pyramid over Tokyo Bay in Japan. The structure would be 12 times higher than the Great Pyramid at Giza, and would house 750,000 people. If built, it will be the largest man-made structure on Earth. The structure would be 2,004 meters (6,575 feet) high and would answer Tokyo's increasing lack of space. The proposed structure is so large that it cannot be built with currently available materials, due to their weight. The design relies on the future availability of super-strong lightweight materials based on carbon nanotubes. First, the pyramid's foundation would be formed by 36 piers made of special concrete. The pyramid structure would be composed of 55 smaller pyramids stacked five high. Because the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire cuts right through Japan, the external structure of the pyramid would be an open network of megatrusses, supporting struts made from carbon nanotubes to allow the pyramid to stand against and let through high winds, and survive earthquakes and tsunamis. Transportation within the city would be provided by accelerating walkways, inclined elevators, and a personal rapid transit system where individual driverless pods would travel within the trusses. Housing and office space would be provided by 80-story high skyscrapers suspended from above and below, and attached to the pyramid's supporting structure with nanotube cables. The building would be zoned into residential, commercial and leisure areas. 50 km² would be given over to some 240,000 housing units, enough for 750,000 people. Each building would have its own energy resources (sun and wind). 24 km² would be assigned to offices and commercial facilities intended to employ 800,000 people. The remaining 14 km² would be used for research and leisure purposes.

Perhaps the first futuristic idea for a purpose-built city was conceived by Walt Disney. Currently one of the four Disney theme parks located in Orlando Florida, Epcot was originally supposed to be a purpose-built city. Near the end of Walt Disney's lifetime, he had begun to to notice the many unfavorable characteristics of modern cities and the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) was conceived. Walt Disney's goal was to create a community of the future that would never be completed and collaborate with major American corporations by making offices and laboratories at their disposal in order to develop new technologies to be showcased, tested and demonstrated at EPCOT. Epcot was not only intended to stimulate American corporations to come up with new ideas for urban living, but to stimulate people to return to their own communities and encourage technological growth where they live as well.

Many of Walt Disney's ideas have been incorporated into the Disney theme parks. Probably the most commonly known ideas are two of the types of transportation still used today: The Monorail System and The PeopleMover. The monorail system, which was introduced by Walt Disney at Disneyland in 1959, was intended to be Disney World's main line of transportation connecting Epcot to the all of Disney World. Every trip to Epcot would have started from the Disney World Airport, located in the southern part of the property, where vistors could board the monorail to be taken to the Disney World Welcome Center, where guests were to be be welcomed by Disney's multilingual staff in the guests' native languages. The other concept still widely known today was the PeopleMover. Themed as an urban mass transit system of the future, the PeopleMover is known today as the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. The idea was originally intended to serve as Epcot's internal transportation system transporting residents to and from the metropolitan center and the outer residential areas. This transportation system is driven by motors that are embedded within the track rather than in the vehicle itself. The Peoplemover is, in fact, one vehicle which remains in motion at all times. Moving walkways are incorporated into the platforms of each each station which makes it possible board and disembark the vehicle while it remains in motion. The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow project was abondoned and eventually evolved into the Epcot theme park in 1982.

Another eco-concept is the "ecovillage" or "ecologicical village," an intentional community which is socially, economically and ecologically sustainable. There has been a rising number of ecovillages worldwide. Some European ecovillages are the Zonneterp-project in the Netherlands and Freetown Christiania, AiH and Munksøgård in Denmark. ZEGG and Stamm der Likatier are a couple ecological villiges located in Germany. There are a few in the United Kingdom. Ecovillages in the UK include BedZED in England, Brithdir Mawr in Wales annd the Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland. Other ecological villages located in Europe include Ecoforest in Spain, Tamera in Portugal, Torri Superiore in Italy, Keuruu in Finland, the Hermes Projekt in Turkey and Zajezka in Slovakia.

The Keuruu Ecovillage (Ekokylä Yhteisö, in Finnish / Swedish: Keuru), a member of GEN-Europe and GEN-Finland, is a municipality and town located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Central Finland region. Keuruu is situated 300 km from Helsinki, 150 km from Tampere and 65 km from Jyväskylä, has a population of 11,262 (2005-01-01) and covers an area of 1,430.79 km² of which 170.17 km² is water. The Keuruu Ecovillage is accessible by train or by bus. The purpose of Keuruu Ecovillage is to pursue a sustainable lifestyle and to preserve original plant and animal species. Keuruu's habitants renovate and maintain culture historically valuable buildings and sites located within the village. The population density is 8.0 inhabitants per km². At the moment there are about 25 people living in Keuruu Ecovillage. There are many artistically talented people in Keuruu Ecovillage, and they use art and art therapy as a means of exploring issues that are related to living in a community. In art therapy the process of making visual art, and sometimes movement, writing and sound is used in a therapeutic process. Art therapy used in Keuruu Ecovillage is based on Humanistic-Existential approach. The village offers meals and accommodation to those interested in visiting. Meals are mainly organically produced lakto-vegetarian. The habitants of the Keuruu Ecovillage grow most of their food. There is also a garden in which herbs are grown to be used as spices and medicine. There are also four horses in Keuruu that are mainly used for riding and driving. Visitors of Ecovillage are welcome to meet the horses. Riding is also possible. Guests who visit Keuruu Ecovillage may ask for an art therapy workshop. It is possible to come and work as a voluntary worker in our Ecovillage. Voluntary workers participate in the daily life and work of the community. People who are interested in coming to Ecovillage on a volunteer basis are usually welcome for one week. Voluntary workers work in Ecovillage for 6 hours a day.

The multitude of ecological problems arising today have become unavoidable. In more recent years, our rising concern of issues such as global warming, rising energy costs as well as other environmentally centered issues can be view in parallel with rising popularity of films about environmental issues such as "The Day After Tomorrow," "Zeitgeist," "The 11th hour," "An Inconvenient Truth" and National Geographic's "Aftermath Population Zero." Masdar City is not only widely excepted, but applauded as well simply due to the fact that Masdar City is a tangible project for a planned city. Paolo Soleri's concept of arcology has seen much publicity simply because the Try2004 Hyperstructure has been featured on the Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering. Futuristic concepts for planned cities were once viewed as ecentric and grandiose, but nowadays such ideas are not viewed as far-fetched nor extreme simply because the world is ready for them.