Confronting the Impossible | Reimagining the existing city as a tech landscape

atlantis

Confronting the impossible

1

Re-imagining the existing city as a tech landscape by

Michael de Beer

Spatial Practitioner and editor

The New York Times recently posed the question, “Do people love tech companies so much that they would live inside them?”, in a critical review of Willow Village, coined “Zucktown”, Facebook’s 59-acre urban district in San Francisco, California. The article reflects on the privatized environments that litter urban history, questioning the success of these spaces and the values they ascribe to. However, a new kid on the block, Sidewalks Lab, a startup owned by Google’s parent company ALPHABET , repositions the inquiry away from the autonomous urban environment - to the role tech companies could play in reimagining the existing city and engaging those who live in them.

Emily Badger (2018), writing on various initiatives by tech companies to reimagine the cities in which we live introduces a critical point: our cities today are simply not fleet footed enough to respond to our rapidly developing urban environment and the diverse issues they face. Hesitant of those involved in spatial practice, Badger questions whether tech companies could not be more effective at imagining our future cities. Our cities need an overhaul – they are a mess! Far from those isolated cases such as Zucktown, reimagining our cities needs to address what makes a city a city, how they operate and how they engage people. It requires introspection into the role and values of spatial practice itself. It requires an overhaul of how cities develop and function rather than the utopian renders of the good life.

2

B

Mateja Kovacic (2018) a visiting research fellow and member of the Urban Automation and Robotics project team at the University of Sheffield, reflects on the incorporation of robotics in our cities.

Dubai, Tokyo and Singapore have reframed the role of robotics in our cities, from science fiction into real-world applications.

Kovacic admits that there is still a lot of work to be done in understanding the role of these initiatives, their value and impact, however the greatest step forward is social acceptance. Technology is rapidly emerging and it is essential to understand how these various advances will impact the lives of people.

Besides a small avant-garde, spatial practitioners, those involved with the development, policies and management of our cities, remain skeptical. The outcry by urbanists last year responding to Elon Musk’s disdain for public transport is evidence of a deep rooted problem: spatial practitioner’s remain obstinate. The reasons vary, but are largely rooted in an illiteracy of the possibilities that tech can play in reimagining our cities. An archetype has emerged in that spatial practice, to the detriment of stakeholders and citizens alike, as practice remains reactive after the fact. Problems are addressed as they arise on a case-by-case basis without an understanding of the big picture or forecasting issues before they arise. The introduction of Uber, Airbnb and drone technologies into our cities worldwide is a testament to the inability of those

atlantis

involved to proactively engage technological innovations in our cities. The result, public outcry, marginalization, over regulation, and generally a poor fit.

Sidewalk Lab Sidewalks Lab is bridging the gap. A marriage of tech and urbanists, the company has announced a partnership with the City of Toronto that aims to reimagine and intervene in the Eastern Waterfront as both a test case and precedent for future cities. What sets it apart is that it fundamentally aims to address how tech could be involved in our cities and uniquely draws in spatial practice to give core guidance. Through urban principles focused on users, the company aims to draw on a data driven approach as a tool to redesign our cities.

Unlike most smart city initiatives, Sidewalks Lab is deconstructing how urban infrastructure and development is informed.

It aims to enable a holistic picture of the issues and pressures that areas face, while forming a test bed in which scenarios could be assessed. It confronts how spatial practitioners could be working more effectively and in an informed manner to engage city development. It also offers a proactive way to include new technological development in the design and development of our cities.

The vision for sidewalk Toronto is broad and encompassing. It advocates that through the new approach, the company will be able to develop an integrated city with new technologies that speak to human centered design: a city that will afford sustainability, affordability, mobility and economic opportunity to its residents. As a live project, the data driven approach not only helps to implement but maintain and respond. It offers a fleet footed approach that is constantly connected to what is happening on the ground. Although it is only a year into the project with the success of the initiative having yet to be seen, the project challenges standard practice methodologies and suggests how tech could reimagine the cities in which we live.

impossible, are now a couple of years away from practical implementation – spatial practitioners need to recognize the acceleration in technological development and its implementation. The problem we face is how could spatial practitioners apply technologies in a holistic and successful manner? It is essential that the disciplines move from a reactive to a proactive position. Concurrently a return to identifying core problems and understanding holistic effects ought to become central to practice. Enabling the implementation of technologies is critical.

Similarly, policies must proactively engage unknown technologies, creating frameworks for adoption and enable advancement- even if it entails rescinding existing laws.

Confronting the impossible The recent events of Cambridge Analytica, utilizing data broker information to manipulate public interest remains a central concern to the individual. Undoubtedly major ethical issues have and still are arising. The efforts of Sidewalk Lab however, repositions the spatial practitioner as an active agent in technological innovations.

Sidewalks labs approach promises such a transition; however it is up to the discipline to reframe its role in the future of our cities.•

With Uber already testing flying vehicles and autonomous cars, the worldwide hyperloop initiatives and many new technologies that were thought to be

2

References Kovacic, Mateia (2018) Robot cities: three urban prototypes for future living. The Conversation.com Badger, Emily (2018) Tech envisions the ultimate start-up: An Entire City. New York Times Streitfeld, David (2018) Welcome to Zucktown. Where Everything is Just Zucky. New York Times

1. SuperJumbo by Rob Pybus, Badger, Emily (2018) Tech envisions the ultimate start-up 2. Sidewalk lab reimagineing construction.

3. Digital Infrastructure in Toronto waterfront a vision for a means to reimagine the city by Sidewalks lab vision document

3

C