170627 towards a new urban solution

Towards A New Urban Solution

27/06/2017

Image: BWPI

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Our cities and lifestyles have been shaped by what’s gone before. In the midst of what is now the 4th industrial revolution, as the impossible becomes possible, we urgently need to relinquish outdated ‘planning as usual models’, envision the world in which we want to live, and then urgently take step to change it and shape it for the better. Time is against us.

The following is a transcript from Mr.Wilson's speech at the Promotion Conference of High-tech Park in Shenzhen, Heyuan, Shanwei and Guang'an.

Conference: Tech Park Development Conference

Manchester Streets in 1970s. (image: Peter Alan Lloyd)

I am looking out of the window of my home. What do I see? Not so much in the distance since the air is thick with smog. Down on the street someone has thrown their trash into the small river. It smells a bit and there are no fish, it’s a dead river, so people continue throwing in their waste. I can see a rusty old shopping trolley just emerging from the blackness. Some of my neighbours grow vegetables on the river bank, but I wonder whether they are safe to eat. I don’t trust the tap water.

This is a memory I have. It’s of growing up in the UK in the 1970’s. Frequently I get asked to say what it is like overseas, is it better there, how do they solve things? How can we make our cities in China better? They have the solutions overseas, don’t they?

I remember that we had dirty streets, polluted rivers, acid rain and choking chimneys. Accidents were common. We had all the same problems 40 years ago as we have today in China.

Birmingham city centre completely redeveloped with the Bull Ring in the 1964. (image: Pinterest)

We all want to live in a greener, cleaner, safer world. I think this is a common vision. Its shared in the United Nations Sustainable Development goals. Its shared by your governments, shared by all peoples, shared by you.

We want to live and work in cities that puts health and wellness first. In lively, safe environments. In caring communities, where stress is minimised. What might those cities look like?

Would they have cars clogging the streets?

Could you walk your kids safely?

Could you see into the distance from the top of a tower block?

Would you know your neighbours?

Could you drink clean water straight from the tap?

Could the buildings create energy rather than consuming it?

Would they have green streets. Clean streets. Clean air, soil and water?

When Fantasy Becomes Reality...

" Plant a tree in 73" , children of Morrison County Primary School, Liverpool (image: @B4Biodiversity)

Back in 1973 I remember planting a tree with all my school friends. There was a national promotion “plant a tree in ’73. Then we got to “plant one more in ‘74”. It was the start of a new awareness for me.

I remember all the old, industrial buildings where we used to play, being demolished, whole city centres being torn up under the planners hand, those tight, twisting streets of ancient memories disappearing forever and being replaced with huge, modern, impersonal, blocks of car parking, barriers and highways. Long standing, friendly communities were torn apart and scattered far out of town; all in the name of supposed progress.

St Katherine's Dock. The area now features offices, public and private housing, a large hotel, shops and restaurants, a pub (The Dickens Inn, a former brewery dating back to the 18th century), a yachting marina and other recreational facilities. The east dock is now dominated by the City Quay residential development whilst the south side of the east dock is surrounded by the social housing of South Quay Estate. (image: rightmove.co.uk)

Slowly the rivers cleaned up; the fish came back.

Slowly the trees were planted; the birds and wildlife came back.

Slowly buildings smelt clean and old industry was replaced; the sky came back.

Slowly old buildings were saved and transformed to new uses, communities reinvigorated and new jobs created.

Then I remember litter bins arriving everywhere, plus the signs reminding you of fines for littering. I remember school education programs telling us
Don’t dump rubbish in rivers and streams;
Don’t throw garbage on the streets for someone else to pick up; Don’t smoke cigarettes which foul the air and harm others.

Education was the key to a new generation of thinking about the environment we wanted to live in. Change in behavior was essential.

Lots of these problems seemed insurmountable at the time, but they were surmounted.

Today we have new and bigger problems than ever in maintaining the huge and aging populations moving into cities, through urbanisation. We have the ever-increasing risk of major and repeated catastrophes caused by climate change. We have the loss of cultural heritage and diversity from globalization. We have environmental degradation from developing in the wrong place.

Wuhan overwhelmed by flood, July, 2016 (image: Reuters)

On top of all this, the rapid pace of change in our lives makes us busier than ever and it becomes overwhelming in just trying to keep up. Technology, business and social structures are rapidly evolving to meet new challenges. But cities are slow to respond. They take time to plan, finance and construct. And by the time they are built they are already out of date.

Typically, we have used past examples, regardless of good or bad to plan future development. In China we have repeatedly looked overseas for ideas and tried to replicate them. Today this appears to be an unacceptable solution for a rapidly changing world. We are at the very forefront of change right here in China and we need to plan and design by anticipating tomorrow’s world. By expecting the unexpected. By envisioning our own futures.

No Stopping Rapid Change...

The world's first passenger drone ehang 184, planned to operate in July, 2017. (image: Les Numériques)

A year ago, I had no idea I was going to be regularly collecting a shared bike from the street to go to work. Just 3 years ago I couldn’t anticipate calling a car share like Didi on my cellphone. Three years from now however I can anticipate calling a vehicle and it being without a driver. But will it be a car or will it be a drone that arrives? Will I need to travel by road or can I fly? Will I have to use my cellphone to call or could I just “think it to arrive”.

We need to URGENTLY adjust the ongoing planning of our cities to an unknown, but very different future, to provide shock absorbers to change and to then flexibly align our ongoing development thinking to that unknown future. We keep developing based on a past that we already know is obsolete. Why do we do that?

The world’s best ever hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, is said to have come up with this famous quote “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been”. This has been taken as standard business consultant advise for 15 years in how to achieve success. Its important today that we decide where we want the puck to arrive and then to make sure it comes there, otherwise we will forever be playing catch up.

Change Is Coming...... Too Fast Or Not Fast Enough?

Image: AZ QUOTES

What then should cities be doing immediately, to equip themselves sufficiently for the unknowns resulting from the rapid urban transformations in progress and how should they futureproof today’s investments so that they are relevant for tomorrow?

I have developed 10 simple, low cost and effective methods, based on up to the moment International urban design thinking, in which to act immediately to shift our cities to the real needs of both today and tomorrow.

They do include new ways of thinking and require behavioural change. They include suspending existing costly and wasteful planning and development practices and anticipating new lifestyles based on 3 key areas :-

future transport and technology needs;
minimised environmental, social and cultural impact; and
reduced disaster risk.

It’s important that we have a vision of much better living places than we have at present and then use the fantastic new technology available to help us get there.

Affordable Housing in Urban Centres Essential to Cities...

"Every social transformation requires ... the bravery of Churchill, the vision of JFK, the determination of Reagan, the rare ability to galvanize a country or the world to take the right step for a greater cause. We are standing on the verge of such an event."

Shai Agassi, founder of Better Place

We must throw out the business-as-usual planning approaches that have brought us to this rather desperate point. We must be bold, visionary and create new urban solutions.

My new urban solution looks like this.

I’m looking out of the window of my home. It used to be an old glass factory but was converted into a high-tech park and mixed development of affordable housing, elderly accommodation and loft accommodation for young people. It’s really friendly and has lots of activities. There is a kindergarden and a healthcare centre where the staff check on the local residents using both IT and regular personal visits. It has a business incubator where I run my new “city planning” business so I don’t have to travel to work every day.

Outside the window I am surrounded by trees and see a stream with white ducks on it. I can see far into the distance and the sky is bright blue. There are no roads and I see people leaving to go to their work from the rooftop aerial taxi station and others in electric pods, slowly mingling with bikes and pedestrians on their way to the metro station.

There is a ‘ring ring’ and an image of my daughter pops up as a hologram in front of me. She tells me it’s a beautiful day outside and suggests I join her at the local community farm on the roof to do some gardening and eat our own grown vegetables together for lunch.

What future do you want to build for your children?

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