The Aquatram: Ziad Guenoun at TEDxCasablanca

Ziad Guenoun is 12 and he will be 50 in 2050. We laid down a challenge for him: imagine Casablanca in 2050. In an inspired talk, he presents his project for Casablanca : the Aquatram.

Hi. My name is Ziad Guenoun,
I am 12 years old.

Before I start, I'd like to tell you
how I ended up here.

A few months ago, I was watching TV,

when mom came and told me:

"Ziad, did you show
your 3D animations to someone ? "

" Yes, mom, why ? "

"I was just asked by an organizer from TEDx

if you want to participate to give
a vision of Casablanca in 2050."

"What?" So then, I bugged, I'm telling you!

But the topic litterelly captivated me.

So I set myself the goal
of rising to the challenge.

That's why I am here today,

to give you my vision of Casablanca in 2050.

(Applause)

Yes, but in 2050, where will we live?

How will we get around?

Where will the energies
we'll be using come from?

But before talking about Casablanca in 2050,

why not look at Casablanca today in 2012?

Many of our neighborhoods look like this!

The moment I get out of the house,
the first thing I see is this!

Three quarters of what I breathe
[ fake coughing ] is this!

Worst of all, there's not much greenery around!

But if tomorrow Casablanca looked like that?

It rocks, right?

But if we raze blocks to the ground to replace them
with parks, where are we going to live?

Green is beautiful, but
would we be sleeping the ground?

I racked my brain a bit more...

... and found the solution:

In 2050, we would live here.

On floating houses!

Those houses would float
on buoys assembled together

to form floating neighborhoods

and they'd even be antiseismic.

Not bad, however,

swimming 2 km everyday
to go home, er, go to work,

is not ideal.

So I looked back on today and I thought:

what's happening today?

Sure there's this talk, but besides that?

There's an even more important event
for Casablanca residents:

the movie premiere of The Hobbit !

Just kidding!

It's the opening of the tramway, of course !

So I combined this advanced technology,

which really is as old as my great-grandparents,

with the fact that we'll have to go from the sea
to the ground, so so as to get he Aquatram!

Let me clarify something here:

I made those images myself.

You can't find them on Google.
Aren't they good ?

(Applause)

So, I get back to 2050,

the houseboats would use
fully renewable energies

such as hydropower thanks to wheels
using ocean current energy,

and solar thanks to solar panels.

While wind power would be used
to supply the dry land

thanks to off-shore farms.

Let's recap :

in 2050, we'll exploit
the maritime space of Casablanca

to extend the city and make it,
why not, a megalopolis,

knowing that we'll also
be using sea transport,

that we'll be using fully renewable energies,

and that we'll build more parks on dry land.

Thank you so much for your attention.

Bye... See you in 2050.

(Applause)