{"id":527741,"date":"2018-11-21T12:58:02","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T12:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/?p=527741"},"modified":"2020-10-25T10:25:17","modified_gmt":"2020-10-25T10:25:17","slug":"flexible-and-sustainable-here-s-how-the-cities-of-the-future-will-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/thought-leaders-interviews\/flexible-and-sustainable-here-s-how-the-cities-of-the-future-will-look.html","title":{"rendered":"Flexible and sustainable: here\u2019s how the cities of the future will look"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"carlo-ratti-interview\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What will the cities of the future look like? Sustainable <\/strong>and sensitive<\/strong>,\n built to fit the current and future needs of their inhabitants, and \ncapable of using data gathered by technology in the service of improving\n people\u2019s lives. 
\nThat\u2019s the view of Carlo Ratti <\/strong>\u2013 architect, engineer and expert of new technology applied to urban planning. The director of the Senseable City Lab<\/strong> at Boston\u2019s Massachusetts Institute<\/strong> of Technology<\/strong>, elaborated on his outlook during a speech on November 20 at the workshop called \u201cFlexible Cities. Advancing Australia<\/strong>\u201d,\n organized by Salini Impregilo in collaboration with the University of \nTechnology Sydney-UTS. The Australian model as one example of \nsustainable and modern urban development was at the center of the event,\n where the Economist Intelligence Unit presented the report \u201cFlexible \nCities. The Future of Australian Infrastructure.\u201d Carlo Ratti <\/strong>dived deeper into this subject in an exclusive interview<\/strong> with \u201cWe Build Value.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth: some of Australia\u2019s largest \ncities are at the center of important urban renewal projects. How would \nyou define the model of urban development that they are experiencing? <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u00abI don\u2019t think it is a single model. The big question is: is it \nbetter to expand up or out? Horizontal expansion means consuming \ngreenfield or virgin space, while vertical expansion means increasing \nthe urban density. Personally I tend towards the second option. Among \nthe many models you mention, I like to point out the positive example of Melbourne<\/strong>,\n which is based on an increase in urban density. In the 1980s, the city \ncenter was neglected and run-down, and it really needed to turn the \npage.  It was my friend Rob Adams, who had lived in South Africa and \nlater became Chief Architect in Melbourne, who enacted a different sort \nof urban development strategy<\/strong> that turned the situation around in the space of just a few years. The idea was to pull people<\/strong> back to living in the city center<\/strong>,\n therefore harnessing a greater urban density as a motor for rebirth. In\n support of this goal, the city got a new transport system, and new public spaces contributed to transforming the dynamics of people\u2019s interactions<\/strong>, making Melbourne into the city it is today, and propelling it into the top ranks of the world\u2019s most livable cities\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the infrastructure spending in Australia, both at the \nfederal and state level, is for  railway transport. Subways, above all, \nbut also light railways. Is this the way to make cities more \nsustainable? <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u00abI believe we are headed towards a diversification of means of \ntransport, facilitated by an ever increasing use of data. Digital data \ncan enable people to choose between a broad \u2018transport portfolio\u2019<\/strong>,\n or a menu of options based on real time information: the freedom to \nride a bicycle, share a car, walk, take a taxi, use the subway or train,\n or hitchhike with friends. In this new scenario, investing in rail \ntransport is certainly very important\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The example of Paris, which is building the Grand Paris Express (the\n largest sustainable mobility project in the world) seems to confirm \nthis trend. Does the French capital demonstrate that major European \ncities can also have a large and efficient public transport network?  <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u00abAbsolutely. I think it is about time to start discouraging the use of private cars<\/strong>,\n in favor of more sustainable mobility models such as car and bike \nsharing, the use of public transport and, in the not-too-far-off future,\n self-driving cars, either individually owned or for shared use\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can technology and new discoveries help improve the quality of \ntransportation in large metropolitan areas? Could you give us an \nexample? <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u00abLet\u2019s take autonomous driving. The benefits from self-driving cars<\/strong>\n is not so much the simple act of no longer having to keep your hands on\n the wheel, but rather the advantages it brings to the road and street \ninfrastructure.  A self-driving car acts like a completely different \ncar:  after it brings us to work in the morning, it can be right back on\n the road, giving our children a ride to school, or the neighbor\u2019s \nchildren, are anyone else in the city for that matter. So we\u2019re talking \nabout a hybrid public-private transport system<\/strong>, which in theory could lead to a reduction in the number of cars on the streets.  
\nParking lots would also become something different with self-driving \ncars. In a study by our lab at MIT using data provided by the city of \nSingapore \u2013 one of the most avant-garde places for mobility \u2013 we \nobserved that the space needed for parking could fall as  much as 70%<\/strong>\n in an autonomous driving scenario, changing the urban landscape. \nImagine what it would be like if each unnecessary parking space could be\n replaced by a tree or a small garden. Or if a street could change \nconfiguration according to how it is used: a few months ago, for \nexample, CRA (Carlo Ratti Associati) worked with SideWalk Labs (which is\n owned by the Google group) to develop a system of self-configuring \nstreets in Toronto, where the same stretch of lane could change function\n during the arc of a single day: in the morning it could be a commuter \nlane, and in the evening, a pedestrian walkway<\/strong>\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"story-bridge–brisbane\"
Story Bridge, Brisbane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Uber is testing the idea of transporting its customers with flying cars. Could these sort of solutions work for urban areas? <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u00abTo be honest, even if flying cars<\/strong> appear in a lot of science fiction \u2013 starting with \u2018Metropolis\u2019 envisioned by Fritz Lang\u2019s film in the 1920s \u2013 I don\u2019t think that flying cars are a credible alternative for the future of mobility.<\/strong>\n There are a lot of limitations, starting with the laws of physics: to \nkeep a person weighing 60 or 70 kilograms up in the air, you need to \nmove a huge amount of air. This is why helicopters are so noisy and why \nthey consume so much fuel\u2026All you would need would be ten of them flying\n around a city center to make it unlivable\u2026 imagine the noise, and the \ndanger, if there were tens or hundreds of thousands of them\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it is true that the future of our planet will belong to cities, what will the city of the future be like? <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u00abThey will be more sustainable by necessity. Cities have a large \nimpact, on a global scale. Their impact can be summed up in four \nnumbers: 2-5-75-80. On a global level, cities take up 2% of the Earth\u2019s surface<\/strong>, but hold 50% of the world\u2019s population<\/strong>, and they are responsible for 75% of energy consumption and 80% of CO2<\/sub> emissions<\/strong>. If we can improve cities, even just a little bit, we can have a big impact on the entire planet. 
\nFrom this point of view, the new technologies<\/strong> will \nenable us to make a better use of our existing infrastructure, through \nsharing. Today, on average, a car is only moving for 5% of the time. The\n remaining 95% of the time<\/strong>, on the other hand, it sits unused, parked somewhere. If self-driving cars were able to also increase the demand for car sharing<\/strong>, we could create urban transport systems that would be a lot more sustainable\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can the large amount of data produced by a city be used to improve the life of its inhabitants? <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u00abIt is already happening. Using the data from cellular phones, for example, we can find out about traffic conditions<\/strong> in real time<\/strong>. We already ran tests on this in Italy with Telecom Italia Mobile back in 2006, with the project Real Time Rome. It was the first pilot project<\/strong>\n in the world where data from the cellular phone network was used on a \nlarge scale and in a shared manner in order to better understand a city \u2013\n Rome<\/strong>, in this case. Today, this exact same data, with similar algorithms, enables us to see on Google Maps<\/strong> which streets are clogged with traffic<\/strong>\n and which are not — and to change our route accordingly in real time. I\n think that in the future we will see a lot more \u2018feedback loops\u2019 like \nthis, which will enable us to make quick decisions that lead to a better quality of life<\/strong>.
\nOne last reflection:  the goal of getting a better understanding of traffic flows is an old dream of Ildefonso Cerd\u00e0, the architect who is the father of modern Barcelona<\/strong>.\n He was one of many people who dreamed about improving the quality of \nurban planning. \u00abBuilding a city [\u2026] will soon become really and truly a\n science\u00bb. Today, with the spread of networks, sensors and electronic \ntools like cellphones, a lot is changing about our dynamic understanding<\/strong> of how cities work\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which urban development project happening right now excites you the most? <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u00abThe one I\u2019m following most closely: the plan to transform the former site of Expo 2015 World Fair in Milan into MIND-Milano Innovation District<\/strong>. Our design studio Carlo Ratti Associati<\/strong>\n is working with Lendlease. A new area will be created on the border \nbetween Milan and the neighboring town of Rho for research and \ninnovation centers, which will be concentrated around a linear park that\n is among the largest in Europe. It will also be the first neighborhood \nto be designed for driverless cars<\/strong>\u00bb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What will the cities of the future look like? Sustainable and sensitive, built to fit the current and future needs of their inhabitants, and capable of using data gathered by technology in the service of improving people\u2019s lives.  That\u2019s the view of Carlo Ratti \u2013 architect, engineer and expert of new technology applied to urban […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":175456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[19017,19016],"yst_prominent_words":[3815,16533,3448,14289,377,2037,16532,2837],"class_list":["post-527741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thought-leaders-interviews","tag-city-of-tomorrow","tag-demographic-boom-and-megacities"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527741"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":542227,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527741\/revisions\/542227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527741"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=527741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}