Speculation map of the Baukulturatlas, graphic design: onlab
Speculation: “Wattland”
Germany in the year 2050 is a service economy and knowledge society with high energy requirements. A second—digital—environment has extended across the land and determines the actions of its seventy-five million inhabitants. Knowledge is global and freely available in databases; algorithms are power; large industries are on the decline and are being replaced by decentralized, arbitrarily adjustable automatic modes of production. The primarily digital educational options and a state-organized health system encourage constant immigration to Germany, especially from the global crisis areas of the earth. Society’s core driving force is no longer the euro but the watt—energy, a permanently scarce good. Hence the watt economy dictates geographical developments: a large part of the country’s population has migrated to the heavily populated metropolises to benefit from the energy-optimized conditions of homes and workplaces. Only the watt-wealthy can afford to leave the densely populated cities and withdraw to energy-autonomous rural enclaves. The cities they leave to the lower and middle classes, the new arrivals, and to the global experimenters passing through who want to earn a few quick watts.
More Information in the Baukulturatlas