Lexus: The hybrid debate blog

A city in which the majority of cars were hybrids would look very different from the polluted urban spaces of today. Architects have been conditioned to design buildings that "turn their backs to the street". Since the early 20th Century, they’ve had to grapple with road noise, the dirt from exhaust fumes and the potential damage of high-speed crashes. If city traffic were much cleaner and quieter, buildings would have lighter interiors, better internal quality and façades that were more open and sociable.

Low emissions mean less cleaning. That’s the major benefit of a hybrid future, from the architect’s perspective. You could use more glass, wood and other "natural" materials for building exteriors without having to worry so much about the build-up of dirt. Indeed, this would have knock-on benefits for the environment, such as lower detergent usage; lower energy consumption for cleaning in general; and the increased viability of solar panels.

Meanwhile, lower noise levels on the streets would allow for thinner and less dense façade-cladding systems. This too would help make the external appearance of buildings more varied. It would enable architects to utilise more sustainable and recycled material.

Façades could start to incorporate more delicate and aesthetically pleasing natural elements, including plants. Wildlife - especially birds - could be attracted back to the city. Roofs could become verdant meadows, with small-scale crop cultivation in residential areas, as families supplied their own kitchens with vegetables and herbs. With this in mind, the design of building exteriors could adapt so that more water was attracted, channelled and reutilised, rather than being repelled. Indeed, the recycling of rainwater is already becoming more popular as a growing number of households use it to flush toilets and water plants.

Environmentally friendly alternatives to air-conditioning would also be more viable and desirable in our notional future. If exhaust fumes were significantly lower then natural cross-ventilation could be used to help keep buildings cool. Ultimately, a virtuous circle could be created in which lower emissions from cars led to lower emissions from environmental conditioners of all kinds, and much lower consumption of energy.