Background

A city is a large, densely populated human settlement. Cities vary dramatically in size. Smaller cities range from fifty thousand to a hundred thousand inhabitants, while the largest ones may have tens of millions of inhabitants. A city will have extensive systems for housing, transportation, sanitation, utilities, land use, manufacture, and communication. A city has advantages over smaller settlements that outweigh its negatives: it is normally a good place to do business because its density facilitates the interaction between people and the efficient distribution of goods and services. A city can be a great place to live because governments can more easily provide services that make life easy, like schools, parks, and bus and metro systems. A city also becomes a magnet for culture and commerce, so that a theatre, a cinema, a laundry, or a supermarket will only be a short trip away. Thus, a city can, in time, evolve into the heart of the economic and cultural life of a nation.

The design brief

Design a city-in-a-building that contains all the services and facilities of a city to accommodate at least 50,000 people. Your city-in-a-building should be a single, massive building that house its population comfortably and healthily, and accommodate them in a variety of abodes, while providing for their immediate needs, such as schools, shops, post offices and other commercial spaces, and government services such as police stations. Design the organisation of the cities functions, such as its homes and other spaces, its transportation systems, and so forth. Consider too, how the city is connected to services and other cities beyond its borders. Your city-in-a-building may have any feasible structure, and employ any materials that you see fit. Some things that are necessary for a city to function, for example: power generation, agriculture, and waste disposal, can be placed beyond the borders of the city, so they need not be a part of your design project. Build a small-scale model of your city-in-a-building to demonstrate your design concept to your fellow students and teachers. Alternatively, you may build a computer-aided design (CAD) model of your design concept, if you prefer. Work on this project in a team with a group of your classmates.

The design thinking process

​​​​​​​Follow the six stages of the design thinking process to ensure that you are thorough and do everything necessary to succeed in your design project. First, you endeavour to understand the design topic and EMPATHISE with the needs of the users. With that understanding, you can DEFINE what is essential to the product or system that you are designing. Then you IDEATE, that is, you creatively come up with ideas and develop them. The next step is to PROTOTYPE your chosen design solution in a physical form and improve it through trial-and-error. Then you TEST your design idea to elicit the opinions of users. And finally, at the end of the process, you REFLECT upon your project to benefit from the experience. Use the appropriate methods from the Design Thinking for Schools website as you proceed along the design thinking process.
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Note for teachers

Read the guide for teachers on Safety for the PROTOTYPE Stage for Level IV to safely supervise this design project.