Post on 12-Mar-2015
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
Co-creating real urbanisms for the next three billion
Jeb BrugmannThe World Bank Urban WeekMarch 9, 2009
photo from Karen Seto
Abu Dhabi
Ahmedabad
Kuala Lumpur
Western Cape
Nicaragua
Q: What’s Wrong?
A: The lack of an elaborated discipline of “urban strategy”to put best practice into scaled practice.
These three faculties form a stable ‘regime’
that transformsurban form,
regional markets, andlocal cultureto establish
A New Urbanism.
The Practice of Urbanism
The planning processes, technical solutions,
designs, and business models that together
shape the way the city is built, serviced, and used to
achieve the strategicobjective.
The Strategic Alliance
A stable, highly committed group of
political, economic and social interests that share a common strategic purpose.
Strategic InstitutionsA dedicated apparatus,
responsive to the Alliance, for developing, testing and diffusing new practices of
urbanism.
The essential faculties of the Strategic City
Barcelona Chicago
Spectrum of city-building approachesFo
rmal
Inform
al
Accessibility/affordabilityProductivity
Social cohesion/governabilityResource efficiency
Resilience
Best practice range
PlannedIndustrial
Mass productionCommodification
of the City
Ad hoc(formal/informal)
Planned(institutional)Urbanism
Community‐basedUrbanism
MasterPlannedCity
Spectrum of city-building approachesFo
rmal
Inform
al
PlannedIndustrial
Mass productionCommodification
of the City
Ad hoc(formal/informal)
Planned(institutional)Urbanism
Community‐basedUrbanism
CustomMasterPlannedCity
Community-based urbanismFo
rmal
Inform
al
Spectrum of city-building approachesFo
rmal
Inform
al
PlannedIndustrial
Mass productionCommodification
of the City
Ad hoc(formal/informal)
Planned(institutional)Urbanism
Community‐basedUrbanism
CustomMasterPlannedCity
Planned (institutional) urbanism
Formal Informal
What is an “urbanism?”
Urbanism (ər‐bə‐ni‐zəm), noun
1. The way of life of people who live in a city (Websters).
2. The way that a city‐building community designs, builds, governs, and co‐locates activities to support specialized forms of production and living that give them shared advantage in the world.
The bazaar district (Middle East/West Asia)
Leslieville, Toronto
The central business district and university district
Spectrum of city-building approachesFo
rmal
Inform
al
PlannedIndustrial
Mass productionCommodification
of the City
Ad hoc(formal/informal)
Planned(institutional)Urbanism
Community‐basedUrbanism
CustomMasterPlannedCity
Transforming the Silicon Valley Workplace
Industrial batch productionFo
rmal
Pos
t‐Inform
al
Different approaches create different “economic compacts”
Industrial BatchProduction of City
DeveloperP&L (and
Balance Sheet)
ConsumerP&L (and
Balance Sheet)
OwnerP&L (and
Balance Sheet)
MunicipalP&L (and
Balance Sheet)
A standardized unitof fungible, basic
urban utility
SubprimeLender
Derivatives(CDO)Trader
Asset stripper
(Slumlord)
Spectrum of city-building approachesFo
rmal
Inform
al
PlannedIndustrial
Mass productionCommodification
of the City
Ad hocPlanned
(institutional)Urbanism
Community‐basedUrbanism
CustomMasterPlannedCity
COST EQUATIONLarger homes, more energy intensive,more facilitiesGreater distancesMore road, water & sewerage capacityLarger per capita automobile fleetHigher energy/fuel costsHigher mobility costsHigher infrastructure costsMore dispersed and flexible labor marketsMore frequent change of employmentHigher housing turnover/neighborhood churn
REVENUE EQUATIONLess government capital investmentLess government O&M subsidyReduced employment benefitsDeclining real incomes
NETnever calculated!
“The centre does not hold:” subprime lending was part of the iceberg
Different approaches create different “economic compacts”
An Urbanism
A co‐created system tailored to provide multiple forms of specialized utilitywith a shared P&L and Balance Sheet
BPursues urban
utility & economicadvantage
APursues urban
utility & economicadvantage
DPursues urban
utility & economicadvantage
BPursues urban
utility & economicadvantage
The industrial city neighborhood (N. America)
Strategy = Scaling Quality
PlannedIndustrial
CommodificationAd hoc
CommunityUrbanism
Past Today
Qua
lity of Tot
al City
PlannedUrbanism
Accessibility/affordabilityProductivity
Social cohesion/governabilityResource efficiency
Resilience
CustomMasterPlanned
Quantity of total city (formal)
Commodification
PlannedIndustrial
Ad hoc
PlannedUrbanism
CommunityUrbanism
Past Today
Qua
ntity of Tot
al City Quality & resilience
solutions
Quantity & speedsolutions
Can there be an industrial approach to urbanism?Qua
lity of Tot
al City
Quality of Total City
Industrial‐scaleUrbanism?
Reverse engineering the process of urbanism
PlannedIndustrial
Ad hoc
CommunityUrbanism
Past Today
Qua
lity of Tot
al City
PlannedUrbanism
Reverse engineering
The process of analyzing the construction and operation of a product in order to manufacture a similar one
“Co-creation” and “user-centered design”: the cutting-edge of corporate product strategy
The missing link: organized user communities are required
Solution: “new urbanism incubators” in every city
• study and document existing local urbanisms
• bring user communities together, or respond to their existing demand
•manage the innovation process between users, designers, and the industry
A new industrial urbanism?: Kronsberg (Hannover) Germany
Business process innovation and project cycle reform are key
Product innovation
• pre‐design new urbanism solutions through reverse engineering
• project‐specific co‐creation
Development control process reform
• manage risks associated with process change
• manage risks associated with product innovation
Business model innovation
• share risks associated with process and product innovation
Spectrum of city-building approachesFo
rmal
Inform
al
PlannedIndustrial
Mass productionCommodification
of the City
Ad hoc(formal/informal)
Planned(institutional)Urbanism
Community‐basedUrbanism
CustomMasterPlannedCity
Ad Hoc City Building (planned and unplanned)Fo
rmal
Inform
al
Spectrum of city-building approachesFo
rmal
Inform
al
PlannedIndustrial
Mass productionCommodification
of the City
Ad hoc(formal/informal)
Planned(institutional)Urbanism
Community‐basedUrbanism
CustomMasterPlannedCity
Custom master planned city