The Future of Architects – Involvement in City Shaping Chris Williamson, Partner at WestonWilliamson+Partners and RIBA Ambassador for Business Skills, writes about city-making and the future technologies that present new business opportunities to shape our cities and enable new ways of travelling, living and working. Some of the ideas outlined here are captured in the book The Future for Architects, published in spring 2017 by RIBA Enterprises.
1. This 1748 map of Rome by Giambattista Nolli is regarded by many as one of the most important historical documents of the city ever created. It also established a new standard of mapmaking.
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believe that architects in the future will need to be as involved in what makes cities work as the design of individual buildings. That is certainly borne out by the work of WestonWilliamson+Partners, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. Our mission statement is about “creating civilised cities”. Our work includes masterplanning, and major infrastructure projects such as the Thames Tideway project, Crossrail and HS2: projects that shape the city and make it work effectively. “Those who at any point over the past thirty or so years followed the discourse on the design of the contemporary city cannot help but be led to the conclusion that the architect’s last hope by which to shape and discipline an increasingly unruly and uncontrollable metropolitan condition is through its networks of infrastructure.” Roger Sherman, Associate Professor and Co-Director of cityLAB UCLA, 2014 On looking to the future, it is sensible to reflect on the past. As Steve Jobs said: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” I am an avid reader on the subject of ancient history: the Persians, the ancient Greeks, and the Egyptians. But I am particularly intrigued by the Roman Empire. A comparison of our cities now and Rome two millennia earlier is interesting to consider. If Tiberius were to return to Rome today, he would be astonished by many things. The growth and influence of Christianity, for instance, and the scale of the buildings dwarfing the Pantheon built in Augustus’ reign. Computers, televisions, radio, mobile phones, cameras and other technological advances would amaze him. Building materials and construction techniques unimaginable in ancient Rome allow much greater possibilities. But the biggest shock might be the way we move between and around our cities: the cars, buses, trains, aeroplanes and helicopters. This has probably had the biggest effect on our environment as it has dictated land use and planning, and will continue to do so. Some of these changes can be predicted, but others afford such boundless possibilities; it is only possible to forecast change without the knowledge of what that change will be. It will, however, offer great possibilities to architects.
Architects must meet these challenges to combat climate change attributable to population growth and the move from rural communities to large urban complexes.
The Pace of Change A further influence on the future and any attempt to predict it is also evident in studying the past. That is our development as a species. Here, Tiberius might find the inhabitants of the city relatively little changed: taller, generally better educated and most more travelled, but with broadly similar hopes and fears – a need to love and to be loved, to protect and nurture, and the same capacity for harm (with which he was all too familiar). We still have broadly the same diet (though more plentiful and varied), and feel heat, cold, injuries and hurt in the same way. Modern medicines might improve and extend our lives, but we still die of many of the same ailments as Tiberius’s citizens. He would be amazed by a modern hospital with x-rays and MRI technology, but appreciate that they are essentially powerless against human frailty. For comfort, many of us still believe in an afterlife – though for many millions this is based on the teachings of a man who had few followers during Tiberius’s reign. The divisions of race and religion would also come as little surprise to the emperor, although they have been amplified by modern communications and weaponry. Tiberius would not find much difference in other aspects of our daily lives in our cities. Many of the laws and rules for how we conduct ourselves (or should) in a civilised urban society would be familiar. The duty of a citizen and civic pride would be understood. He would also recognise the hedonism and would appreciate our love of music and entertainment, albeit being astounded by the instrumentation and technology. My point in this absurd imagining is that our minds and bodies are essentially the same after 2,000 years even though the technological advances have been immense. Even in the last 50 years the way our cities are being shaped has developed rapidly, but the focus is still on satisfying the same essential needs in man. So how does this affect our thinking about the future? I think it is an essential reflection because, despite technological advances, we (as rational and emotional beings) still respond to the environment in a similar way, and that will surely continue. The citizens of ancient Rome would gaze with awe and wonder at the Pantheon 2,000 years ago in much the same way as we would at the Bilbao Guggenheim. The technological advances to achieve the latter are incredible, but the effect is the same. Similar advances over the next 50 years will affect the way we design and build, but how might they affect what we build and why?
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2. The way we choose to live has an enormous effect on our planet. In some countries, the suburbs march on for many miles.
3. The way we move around and between cities brings health issues and creates inhospitable environments.
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It is not just on the monumental scale where similarities should be drawn. On a domestic scale, the needs of shelter and also the forms and scale of construction are little changed, though we have much greater capacity to moderate our environment in inhospitable climates. Climate change will continue to increase the occurrences of these unless we act concertedly. This will be an increasing concern in all architectural projects, but also transport projects, which contribute around 46% of global climate change emissions. Computers and building information modelling have transformed what we can build and how it is built, and will continue to do so. Robotics and 3D printing technology will add further capacity for new forms and new ways of construction. I think the greatest effect on our cities will be how we move around them and between them. Economist Paul Buchanan explains that we have traditionally travelled for around one hour to get to work. This would have been true in 16 AD and it is now. The workers of Rome might have walked or ridden to the fields, construction site or port for an hour to their employment each day. With modern travel, that hour covers a greater distance and, when the first phase of HS2 is completed in 2025, the young architects of our office might travel from affordable accommodation south of Birmingham to the office in London and take advantage of connectivity throughout the journey. Connectivity will continue to be a blessing and a curse. The need, or expectation, to be continually connected and constantly available is a pressure. WestonWilliamson+Partners has recently drawn up a scheme for a Hyperloop (a vacuum tube with a maglev train travelling at 1,000km per hour between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane), which will change the way people commute and choose to live in the east of Australia. This will include a number of new cities along the route. The need to combat climate change will be a spur to these advances. The numbers of people currently travelling on planes between these cities is astonishing. Perhaps the need for continual connectivity might render travelling speed secondary to speed of communication. If we can stay in touch, will we need to travel so much? But the technology also empowers us. If we want to move people out of their cars, we have to make public transport much better: more reliable, more comfortable. The timescale for large infrastructure projects such as HS2 is so long that there is a real danger that new technologies will render them irrelevant before they are completed. There is a distinct possibility that automated vehicles could take customers away from HS2, for example. People may choose to relax at a slower speed if they can
4. The Hyperloop system needs to be efficient. Capsule trains will arrive and depart for specific point-to-point destinations every few seconds.
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sleep or work on a door-to-door journey. Or perhaps Hyperloop or automated flying vehicles and other technologies could present a quicker and better alternative? It is for this reason that high-level discussions are taking place between Google, Uber and others in the forefront of these new technologies to involve them in HS2. “Officials hope that signing up digital experts alongside traditional transport operators will ensure that HS2 is future proofed, adding expertise on everything from booking tickets to on-board retail.” Sunday Times 19.02.17
Creating Civilised Cities There are other exciting possibilities. London is being transformed by commitment to good public transport and will continue to attract overseas investment as world cities compete against each other for the same pot of money. WestonWilliamson+Partners’ proposal for an 80-storey tower above a high-speed station linking Singapore and Malaysia contains a hotel and retail at the base, and offices and residential at the top. A research project with ThyssenKrupp Lifts developing innovative lift technology allows personal transportation from underground metro-platform level to various designated locations in surrounding towers, moving both horizontally and vertically. This technology will transform the way we move around tall buildings with the same impact as driverless cars will have on the physical environment of our cities. In addition to the research work with ThyssenKrupp, we are conducting a research project to design and promote a new green city based around high-speed rail. New technologies will transform the way we move around our cities and change the look of them too – a high-rise version of a true garden city: a civilised city. New high-speed rail connections are proposed in the UK, Singapore, the Middle East, the USA and elsewhere. This presents a huge opportunity to re-think how cities work and look. We have taken this opportunity to re-imagine how a new settlement of 350,000 people could be designed around a new high-speed transport hub. It could be northwest England, southern Malaysia, or northern California. The design would be site-specific while adopting the design principles that we suggest.
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5. WW+P’s proposal for a Hyperloop between Perth and Brisbane includes a station at Melbourne’s Flinders Street. The route between Melbourne and Sydney is one of the busiest in the world, with four to five planes per hour at morning and evening peak. The Hyperloop would be a sustainable alternative. 6. The large cities of Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane are capable of being connected efficiently and conveniently.
7. Joseph Bazalgette’s Abbey Mills pumping station. The Victorians took the designing of infrastructure seriously and made it beautiful. WW+P believes in continuing that ideal while providing value for money.
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8. Within the 2.5km-diameter city centre there would be no private vehicles. Electric shared vehicles would be available with a maximum wait of five minutes. At the centre is a high-speed link between cities.
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I believe that current plans for the areas around high-speed stations south of Birmingham and Ebbsfleet are too unambitious and will do little to provide the much-needed quality housing in the UK. At the moment, only 15,000 homes are proposed at Ebbsfleet when so many more are necessary and could be built. High-speed rail would make starter homes more affordable. Developments such as Canary Wharf show how important it is to synchronise the provision of public transport with the rate of development. At times, commuting becomes unbearable. The developer has been instrumental in promoting, financing and building the Crossrail station to ensure greater connectivity. Previous new town examples – such as the Garden City, Milton Keynes, Chandigarh and new settlements in China – have relied too heavily on petrol-fuelled personal transport. Our proposal eliminates the private car entirely within the 2.5km-diameter centre.
Passion for Infrastructure Greener technologies will power new vehicles and, if automated vehicles can be designed to move on a variety of terrains, we can dispense with roads altogether. These vehicles will be able to move through any landscape. This will totally redraw man’s imprint on the planet. There will be land available that is currently used for car parking, which will no longer be necessary. This alone will transform the look and feel of our cities. The UK Government’s passion for infrastructure is welcome. When WestonWilliamson+Partners designed the London Bridge station for the Jubilee line extension in the 1990s, it was seen as a purely transport-oriented project: the movement of people. The regeneration effects were amazing and, since then, successive governments have looked closely at the regeneration possibilities of infrastructure projects. Other countries have also taken up the challenge. Singapore is leading the way with its vision for public transport and long-term planning. Sydney and Melbourne also have ambitious plans. The new uses for the laneways have transformed these cities. Charles Montgomery says in his excellent book, Happy City: “Rome rose as its wealth was poured into the common good of aqueducts and roads then declined as it was hoarded in private villas and palaces.”
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9. Unlike other dystopian visions of the future, WW+P believes new technologies and modes of transport will facilitate a green and pleasant environment for all. WW+P is developing this model city as a research project, testing ideas and beginning to examine where particular uses should go and how they might look.
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10. The UK Government’s investments in infrastructure such as Crossrail are attracting development opportunities along the route. At Paddington, plans from Sellar Property Group (the developers behind The Shard) have been brought forward due to better connectivity.
Costs to be verified
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Importance of Partnerships Another area of opportunity for architects to explore is the relationship between the funding of public infrastructure from private development. This is already happening at Woolwich, where Berkeley Homes contributed towards the Crossrail station, and at Canary Wharf, where the developer saw the advantage of investing in the Crossrail station because of the increased numbers of people that could be moved. Companies will not relocate their headquarters unless their workers can move around the city in a humane way. Crossrail will be 30% funded by private finance through a combination of rates, taxes and levies. Crossrail 2 will see this figure increase to closer to 50%. When WestonWilliamson+Partners designed the London Bridge Jubilee line station in the 1990s, most of the uplift in commended values was to the benefit of the developers. Some contribution was expected from specific developers, such as at Canary Wharf, but little of the value was captured. Similarly, for a relatively modest investment in infrastructure, the East London line has transformed this part of the city. WestonWilliamson+Partners estimated that infrastructure costs are dwarfed by the development benefits on an average of 300%, even on modest projects like Hoxton or Dalston. Kingsland Road, for example, which the route follows, has been transformed by the commercial and residential investment that was attracted due to the increased connectivity. Newspapers in Malaysia and Singapore contain full-page adverts for developments, stating their proximity to the nearest Crossrail station. This leads to difficult social and political issues. Successive governments have shied away from penalising overseas buyers, not wishing to discourage inward investment. The infrastructure investment, however, is therefore driving up prices, making it unaffordable for domestic first-time buyers. The delivery of transport-oriented development (TOD) projects is complicated when sites are under different ownerships. Woolwich was possible because Berkeley Homes was the principal landowner and wanted a Crossrail station within their curtilage. Old Oak Common and Manchester Piccadilly are complex because of multiple ownerships with different structures and timescales. At Old Oak Common, a development agency formed under the Greater London Authority is empowered to pull this together.
11,12,+13. These diagrams show the estimated cost of the line and the value of the development that the investment in infrastructure has attracted.
14. WW+P’s competition-winning design for the ‘Archaeology Towers’ in Hong Kong is viable only because of the proposed metro station below. The towers join together to provide social space on levels 11–15, but divide to provide a new urban public space at street level. New lift technology by ThyssenKrupp is incorporated into the project.
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Our passion for TOD comes from our interest in the future of the planet. We are now used to severe climate conditions on an almost yearly basis. There are still some sceptics who do not believe that our pollution is causing climate change. But, even if this were the case, mental and physical health benefits can come of changing the way we design our cities. In Sydney, we are working on the metro system, which will provide a high-speed, high-frequency service through the city. This is a city-shaping project on the same level of ambition as Crossrail. On reappraising the reference design, our focus has been on the relationship of the station with the public realm. At Martin Place in the central banking district, we have moved the station entrance onto the pedestrianised urban space to animate this area and avoid passengers spilling out onto the congested Castlereagh and Elizabeth streets. The entrance would open onto the axis to present a vista of the Macquarie bank – an iconic heritage building. But, as with Crossrail, the more exciting regeneration projects are at the edge of the city, such as in Waterloo and Crow’s Nest. We are also working on proposals for TOD schemes around the Old Kent Road because of its adjacency to the Bakerloo line extension. These are exciting opportunities in transport-related developments. We all have our own vision of the future. The fact is we can’t know what it will be like and when. We know what it might or could be like, but changes often happen in random leaps rather than as a smooth continuum. What we do know is that not only architects, but society at large, face great challenges. If robots print, deliver, assemble and install our buildings and infrastructure, what will the ageing population demanding ever-better healthcare and amenities be contributing? This may be a question the robots will be asking themselves (as we will have taught them to reason), and they will be deciding our future. That really would give Tiberius something to think about. He had to contend with close and distant family members plotting against him. But we all have the capacity to be the architect of our own downfall. I was 13 when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon and have always had great optimism for our ability to perform incredible feats and solve any problem. And I believe we will. “Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.” Marcus Aurelius
15, WW+P’s proposal for the planned Riga high speed station to knit together the historic core with the city through the provision of new infrastructure and public spaces.
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16 + 17. WW+P’s proposal for new stations on the Sydney Metro at Martin Place and Waterloo. Our emphasis at both sites is on the integration of the station with the development opportunities and the public realm.
Picture Credits: 1. © Detail aus, Pianta di Roma (1748) commons.wikimedia.org 2. © Shutterstock_69619240 3. © Shutterstock_151488392 4. © WestonWilliamson+Partners 5. © WestonWilliamson+Partners 6. © WestonWilliamson+Partners 7. © LeePellingPhotography 8. © WestonWilliamson+Partners 9. © WestonWilliamson+Partners 10. © WestonWilliamson+Partners 11. © WestonWilliamson+Partners 12. © WestonWilliamson+Partners 13. © WestonWilliamson+Partners 14. © WestonWilliamson+Partners 15. © WestonWilliamson+Partners 16. © WestonWilliamson+Partners 17. © WestonWilliamson+Partners