SIEMENS

Shi laboriously picks his way through a thick jungle of vegetation. It’s hot and humid, and clayey soil sticks to his rubber boots. In his right hand Shi carries a willow basket full of fruits and herbs. With his left hand he gives the back of his neck a resounding slap, killing a mosquito. Shi looks at the insect with annoyance. Ever since he left the path, he’s been somewhat disoriented. And all he wanted to do was to look for some coriander! “Li, how did these bloodsuckers get up here?” he barks into his communicator, a device similar to a flat, transparent wristwatch. “I don’t want any pests in my garden, especially not here on the 30th floor!”

Shi sighs. In front of him is a dense bamboo grove that is as impenetrable as a green wall. A chicken picks at Shi’s boots, tilts its head and looks at him reproachfully. “Well, I’ll have to do without fresh coriander,” the master chef thinks to himself. Maybe his assistant Li has a few bunches somewhere, in the kitchen one floor down. It’s actually rather annoying, because Shi’s restaurant in the new Tiger Tower has an outstanding reputation. No other restaurant in this metropolis can offer such fresh products – local ingredients that are speedily delivered to Shi. The vegetables, exotic fruits, and herbs that Shi cooks so expertly grow only a few meters above the heads of his guests in vertical gardens that are allowed to grow naturally over several stories. The gardens provide entire apartment buildings with food. Once in a while Shi also serves locally-raised poultry – in other words, the chickens that wander around in the gardens – but most of the animal products he uses come from refrigerated storage rooms on the first floor of Tiger Towers. Small electric trucks make daily deliveries to these “reservoirs” in the skyscrapers according to a sophisticated logistics system. The customers, including Shi’s restaurant, simply need to pick up the food products they have ordered on the first floor.

Shi tries to shoo the chicken away, trips over a pineapple, and lands in a row of beans. To the right of the beans is a blooming coriander plant. Shi smiles and taps a message into his communicator. “I’ve found everything, Li. I’m coming down now.” The master chef gathers together his harvest and walks to the elevator at the other end of the glassed-in hall.

The elevator door opens with a quiet hiss and a wave of soft music, combined with the sounds of cooking from Shi’s open kitchen downstairs. The scent of fruit trees from several hanging gardens hovers over the dining tables in the mahogany-floored restaurant. Through the large panoramic windows he can see the setting sun, which is coloring the high-rises of this megacity in rosy light.

“Shi, we’ve got a problem,” says his assistant Li as he runs toward the master chef waving a paper-thin tablet PC in front of him. “The Governor just spontaneously ordered a table for dinner tonight. We actually don’t have any more free tables, but I simply seated the two Americans under the rosebushes. The bushes are a bit thorny, but it’s basically okay.” Li pulls out a white handkerchief and mops his forehead. “The only bad thing is that the Governor ordered a special menu: fugu sushi, served with our special chicken soup.” Shi taps something into his tablet. “We don’t have any more organic chicken in the reservoir on the first floor. Send the assistant cook right away to the garden upstairs. A chicken is running around back there behind the bamboo grove. I’ve got a bone to pick with that chicken,” he says.

But now Shi frowns. Fugu is a complicated specialty that his restaurant doesn’t normally serve. It’s a poisonous fish that is extremely difficult to fillet. Even though Shi is a licensed sushi master who is authorized to fillet this kind of fish without risking his guests’ health, the fish first has to be ordered and delivered. However, he has only an hour and a half before his guest arrives. And the guest is an extremely important man who doesn’t like to be disappointed.

Shi uses his tablet to log into the City Logistics Platform. Here it’s possible to order products of every kind that are stored in several central warehouses scattered throughout the city. The system not only tells users whether and when a product is available but also informs them in real time about the product’s location throughout the delivery process. This is possible because all of the products are equipped with RFID chips and networked with one another.

“There’s no fugu in our district’s central warehouse, but a couple of them are swimming in a fish tank across town,” Shi reports. He gives the tablet a couple of voice commands and looks again at the display. “There’s not enough time. They want to initially transport the fish in a freight container via subway, then bring it here from the nearest subway station in an electric truck. But the next truck won’t leave for another hour.” Li’s eyes light up. “I’ve got an idea,” he says. “We’ll do it the traditional way. I’ll pick up the fugu from the subway station in my car. Thanks to the new traffic guidance system, that will be much quicker than it used to be.”

While Li drives to the subway station at high speed in his red electric car, Shi gets busy in the kitchen. A holographic projection keeps him informed about the status of the delivery. The assistant cook appears with a plucked chicken in his hand. “We meet again,” says Shi with a grin and tosses the chicken into a pot. There’s still a half hour left before the honored guest is due to arrive. Shi looks at the hologram. Li has already picked up the fugu at the subway station and is racing back, surfing the “green wave” of coordinated traffic lights thanks to a sophisticated telematics system. The system is rather expensive, but it’s worth the price. According to the system, Li should be arriving at the restaurant in ten minutes. Shi takes a deep breath. A short time later Li bursts into the kitchen holding a small white container under his arm. The master chef tears the package out of his hands and opens it carefully. Li smiles proudly. “The Governor has just arrived,” he announces.