Over the next few decades, cities around the globe will invest more capital in urban development and infrastructure than at any time in history. The city of the future is already taking shape, and those of us living and working there expect a continually improving experience.
For urban planners and designers, new technology tools such as crowdsourcing, social networking and scientific analysis, combined with the need to create sensible reuse and sustainable development, are transforming our practice. Innovation and a growing appreciation for transparency in decision making are redefining the role for city planners.
Here in Boston, we see these transformations taking shape all around us, formed by new technology and new ways of thinking about urban infrastructure. Technology is changing the way we interact in our cities and around the globe where the new demographic alters the patterns of living, commuting, shopping and connecting. This forward-looking, tech-savvy, urban demographic is concerned about its carbon footprint and highly interested in city living.
Addressing Climate Change
The single biggest challenge we all face – and our greatest opportunity – is to ensure that urban development contributes to a sustainable future for us and all who follow. Buildings and transportation are the source of more than half of the carbon emissions produced worldwide. We have the opportunity to apply sustainable practices to every aspect of urban development.
The 21st Century city will value the reuse and repositioning of existing resources instead of the conventional remove and replace strategy. Instead of accepting excessive energy consumption, urban planners and designers will foster net zero solutions capable of leveraging natural resources: Using passive energy strategies, reducing auto dependence, producing energy on site, reusing waste and recycling stormwater in newer developments.
New Tools, Methods
For generations, tracing paper and pens were the go-to tools for design. They were practical, but limited compared with what we have available today. But this doesn’t mean being able to produce flashy digital renderings and animations is sufficient. Instead, leveraging today’s technology, combined with sound principles for planning and development, allows us to forecast and validate many variables of design and benchmark conclusions in ways unthinkable only a few years ago.
In addition to the advantages offered by Building Information Modeling (BIM) and GPS-mapping programs already widely used, we are seeing a wave of new, dynamic tools based on metrics and real-time data. For example, our predecessors never had the ability to measure the carbon footprint or impact on pedestrian mobility of planning proposals as we do today.
The information and technology in itself is not sufficient unless it is creatively translated into design. An example is the recent experiment by MIT’s SENSEable City’s Wiki City Rome Project, where people’s movement in the city was collected by anonymous tracking of cellphone locations to understand real-time movement. Technology has now enabled us to think, measure and forecast many variables that make the planning process far more sophisticated.
In addition, innovative adaptation of aging buildings and infrastructure not only responds to the desires of today’s urbanites, it also can be significantly less expensive. Here in Boston, we are planning a repurposing of the 45-year-old Congress Street Garage as a sustainable alternative to tearing it down. The ability to measure embodied energy savings, along with avoided cost of landfill disposal, enables us to make more informed decisions.
Urban design and planning involves working creatively with a multitude of variables that affect our cities and ultimately produce a cohesive city form. By 2050, 70 percent of the world’s population will live in our cities.
Today’s technology provides planners and designers with a whole new range of tools and information to deliver innovative outcomes around the globe. In the end, these successful outcomes rely on urban planners to provide the right physical and emotional human experience. As the stakes increase for finding the right solutions, it is the human connection – and a truly transparent approach enabled by new technology to stakeholder engagement – that will be our most significant accomplishment.
