Innovative cities from the internet up
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Garbagebots, convertible buildings and self-driving cars are just three of the smart technologies we can expect when Google unveils its new precinct on Toronto’s waterfront.
Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, is transforming a 12-acre slice of the Canadian city into a smart precinct. Thinks sensors that collect data on noise levels and traffic congestion, automated awnings that respond to the harsh Canadian winters and even paths that melt snow.
Bill Gates, meanwhile, is investing $80 million to build a smart city in Arizona, designed around high-speed digital networks, autonomous vehicles, new manufacturing technologies and autonomous logistics hubs.
And Facebook is building its own town directly opposite its headquarters, complete with 1,500 homes, retail stores and a hotel.
These are just three examples of the emerging smart precinct, which is being shaped by a host of megatrends, from growing urban populations to runaway climate change, and from digitally-savvy millennials to the rise of the gig and sharing economies.
These precincts may be the perfect place to trail automation, AI and autonomous vehicles, but they aren’t just testbeds for technological innovation. After all, a place is only smart if it’s a good place for people.
Mirvac, an ASX-listed property company with $18 billion in assets has just launched a new paper, The Future of the Smart Precinct, which emphasises the importance of the human experience within the “physical-digital mix”.
The report identifies five concepts driving the global smart precinct, and they all place people in the centre.
The first is the ‘new bargain’ which ensures the flow of data benefits everyone in the precinct. In light of the Cambridge Analytics scandal, we need to work out how to manage and use data to ensure that everyone benefits.
The second is ‘new space logics’, a phrase coined by Tara Finney who leads City Design at the Royal College of Art in London. She says the way we organise living and working in these innovation districts is set for a shake-up. Technology can create “collectives of intimacy” which brings new groups together, such as large corporates working side by side with start-ups, or retirement villages co-locating with childcare centres.
Mirvac also identifies the ‘civic supermind’ as a trend reshaping our cities, as technology ramps up our collective intelligence.
‘Creative citizenship’ harnesses the power of online platforms to co-design our public spaces. Social networks spark creative citizenship, whether it’s street parties or guerrilla gardening.
Smart precincts will only be successful when they balance ‘foreground-background’, Mirvac’s fifth principal. We need places that blend the old with the new, the loud with the quiet, the experimental with the traditional.
These are all interesting ideas with one core message: technology can help us build smarter precincts, but technology is only a tool. Smart precincts may be built from the internet up, but not at the expense of people.
The rapid rate of urbanisation means that our cities will be the backdrop for most of us, for most of our lives. This means each of us has a stake in the way our cities evolve. Our challenge is to create new places that enhance rather than erode human experience.
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