Box 8.1 outlines key characteristics of future places, such as the new cities of Masdar in Abu Dhabi and Songdo in South Korea. Masdar was originally planned as a zero-carbon city for 45,000 to 50,000 residents, 1,500 businesses, and 60,000 commuters. Currently, it houses 300 students and employs around 2,000 people. With the downgrading of Masdar’s sustainability goals, it is now branded as ‘carbon-neutral’ rather than ‘zero-carbon’. Songdo is being built from scratch on 1,500 acres of reclaimed land on the Yellow Sea coast. With a current population of 22,000, the plan is to have around 65,000 residents and 300,000 daily commuters by 2017. The city is trying to implement policies at a city level that previously have been tested only at the neighborhood scale. Both of these cities have been dogged by controversy and are not presented here as best-practice models for connecting places, connecting people. They do, however, demonstrate strong innovative strategies that align with key attributes of the paradigm, as summarized in Box 8.1.
Masdar Map Photo Gallery
Box 8.1 Attributes of Connecting Places, Connecting People Corresponding with Those of Digitally Enabled Future Places First Attribute of Connecting Places, Connecting People: City and Neighborhood Structure
How Do Digitally Enabled Places of the Future Measure Up against the Connecting Places, Connecting People Attributes Outlined in Vacation?
Frost & Sullivan’s conclusion is that the cities of the future will have multiple downtowns and TODs. New York, where around 70 percent of the population lives within half a mile of mass transit and 80 percent of the unit housing capacity created since 2000 is transit accessible, sets a pattern for future cities. Developing infrastructure around transit will retain the role of connecting places while being responsive to the shifting paradigm.
The capacity to work from anywhere generates new networks and mobility patterns. If not content with a conventionally fitted workplace, the urban inhabitant could rent an electric car to move to a space offering a productive environment. This productive environment would be a socially and culturally vibrant place with appropriate equipment suited to the new patterns of living and mobility. Possible negative consequences of such a scenario include atypical power consumption, congestion, and an increase in unproductive parking spaces. Breakthrough technology in electricity generation and storage, vehicle and fuel technology, and collaborative consumption models, along with open data4 and big data,5 would provide ways of alleviating such negative effects, and new opportunities for sustainable and resilient planning, urban design, and development.
Driverfess cars require a gridded structure. Arterials will need to house EV-supportive infrastructure. Wth more retail going online, buildings will be reduced in size. Small block sizes that cater for pop-up commercial/business and concept stores will be in demand.
