I'm an architect with a strong background in Urban Design, I've even designed (and it was built) what they now call a sustainable neighborhood. One of the recent lectures I attended contained some surprising information. The speaker claimed that this next decade 2/3rd's of all new buildings will be in urban areas, building up as they call it. The other 1/3 will be suburban and rural.
This will be an inverse to what has been happening the last 60 years or so. However, it is a return to the expansion and increasing density of cities, a 10,000 year old pattern.
What is old, is new again. The post WWII growth pattern anomaly is over.
Cities with mass transit, elevators, and walkable streets are the most energy efficient means of living, or so the experts tell us.
The Millennials raised in the boring suburbs want the action an excitement cities offer, and the smaller (often childless) households they have (and will have), have little need for lawns and other suburban things (such as cars).
And if you don't think the best and the brightest haven't been gearing up for this transition, you haven't been keeping up.
Example:
3D Solar Towers Could Prove 20X More Effective Than Flat Panels
http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/
Quote:
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The application and usage of flat solar panels has ballooned in the last decade, but MIT researchers have proposed a more efficient model in harnessing the sun’s energy. The team constructed scale models of three-dimensional solar photovoltaic towers, comprised of a series of panels configured in a zig-zag form capable of capturing the sun’s rays at all times of the day, from the early morning to light fall. This increased exposure yields a greater and more uniform production of electricity in amounts 2 to 20 times larger than those generated by flat panels with comparable footprints.
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I don't know about you, but those mini solar towers above look suspiciously like scale buildings to me.