If would If money were no object, what would be the ideal city of the future look like?  Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) answered that question with a spectacular design for the Forest City, a proposed masterplan for a new city in Malaysia.  This 20Km2 green smart city will be built around a central rainforest and mimic the forest’s ecosystem by adopting a closed loop system that reuses all its resources and controls out-flow.

Winner of the second place prizeinternational design competition, the Forest City was created for a 24 hectare heritage site and judged on it's efficiency of land use, sensitivity to the environment, ad inclusion of a landmark building that embodied the notion of a forest city.  "Skylines across the world look the same- usually a couple of iconic towers in the centre surrounded by lots of lesser quality buildings, which all resemble each other", said Chris Bosse, director of LAVA. "Here we have designed an inverse city skyline where the icon of the city is a public space, not an object/building.  Our central space is a Rainforest Valley and demonstrates the equation : PEOPLE = CITY.  From an object   in an object to a place.".  The proposed city for 700,000 people would be located on reclaimed land between Malaysia and Singapore and include office towers, residential areas, parks, hotels, shopping malls, and an international school. The city is organized around a central public space, the Rainforest Valley, which is surrounded by a waterfall and serves as a visual reminder of the city as a three-dimensional ecosystem. The valley extends like fingers in five directions to represent the five elements—wood, fire, earth, metal, and water—as well as the five pillars of sustainability.

http://inhabitat.com/futuristic-green-city-design-runs-like-a-real-rainforest-in-malaysia/