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SMART CITIES FOR 21ST CENTURY AUSTRALIA - HOW
URBAN DESIGN INNOVATION CAN CHANGE OUR CITIES
HYATT, CANBERRA • 7–9 NOVEMBER 2016
WWW.URBANDESIGNAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
International Urban Design
Conference 2016
Canberra
Conference Proceedings
Non Peer Reviewed
Publisher Details Publisher Association for Sustainability in Business Inc. Contact Katherine Ortiz Address PO Box 29, Nerang QLD 4211 Telephone +61 7 5502 2068 Fax +61 7 5527 3298 Email: [email protected]
Table of Contents
Bannon, L Urban Design in the here and now 4
Bannon, L Urban Design in the hereafter: Building for a billion 9
Christensen, P et al The Recycling Machine: Promoting Habit Formation for Sustainable Citizens through an Urban Intervention
20
Fildes, B et al The Future of Private Transport in Australia 31
Harrison, A Sustainable Drainage Systems in Urban Design 49
Valentine, L How can Branding Make a City Smart? 60
Williamson, C The Future of Architects- involvement in City Shaping 69
2016 canberra – PAPER 1
Urban design
in the here and now
Humanity has experienced the Agricultural, the Industrial and now the
Information Technology revolution which has spawned our Global Information
Society housed in Computational Architecture.
A Society which, however, is in crisis, a Global Warming Crisis, which can be
diagnosed as a chronic viral infection.
The treatment for this virus is a new generation of urban design utilizing
renewable energy and sustainability, this treatment coinciding with an
emerging metamorphosis of society as a Global Mind pioneering a framework
of SMEs, and technology development clusters using computational design
and industrial production methods centered on applied biology with
heterogeneous and individuated attributes, rather than current urban
standardization, to echo the words of Tom Verebes.
This proposal is based on projects currently underway in China and will
consider the application of this work in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast.
1) Maroochydore, The Sunshine Coast, Australia.
Maroochydore, is in a world unique position of having a large center city green
field site, a recently vacated golf course, which will be the location for the
construction of a new CBD. It is an excellent opportunity to write the book on
customized Smart Sustainable Urban Design in an individuated mode relevant
to our Here and Now.
In the 1950s Teilhard de Chardin envisaged the planetization of consciousness
within a technologically enhanced network of human thoughts that he termed
the Noosphere, “The Global Mind”
Elaborating on this notion of metamorphosis Al Gore, in his book “The Future”
suggests that the supercomputers and software in use have all been designed
by humans, and consequently, as Marshall McLuan said “We shape our tools,
and thereafter, our tools shape us”, thus creating The Global Mind.
This Global Mind, de Chardin‘s thoughts made flesh in the global internet and
the billions of intelligent devices now attached to it is shaping the way we think,
creating the age of IBM Watson, Uber, SME incubators and so on..
Geoffrey Vickers was, amongst many other things, a pioneering appreciation
systems scientist studying value systems and social process. He said that
society, like a parachutist, had long enjoyed a time of free fall. But that time
has finished and now we need pull the rip chord and guide ourselves for a
landing.
The challenge for architects, in this post-freefall time, is to envisage and
implement a built environment as suitable host to this Global Mind and our
nascent era.
Not just with a radical building envelope using digital fabrication and intelligent
materials. This design approach provides a host to a social organization
enhanced for physical and civic sustainability by augmented intelligence, with
treatment of our global virus as an embedded condition.
A synthesis, in other words, producing a metamorphosis of human mind,
device and built environment.
This is not to suggest that, apart from Global Warming, we face an optimistic
future. The IT age, which could also be known as the Intensive Turbulence
age, involves significant disruption to the collective progress of society.
Currently nearly 25% of Europe’s workforce, for example, is not salaried. The
Internet threatens social cohesiveness and countless jobs. On-line shopping
and the trend towards teleworking is replacing centralized workplaces with
diffused satellite or home offices. Finance industries, banks and insurance
companies are reducing their workforce by 20 to 30 percent, whilst
crowdfunding is making its presence felt. Virtual corporate structures need
less office space, fewer parking spaces and fewer facilities for the public.
Consider also the consequences for the rise of robotics. Andrew McAfee,
co-author of “The Second Machine Age” reckons that half of today’s jobs will in
time be automated out of existence.
Also consider the advent of 3d printing. But, as Tim Maly observes, it is not
the products of 3D printing that are its most exciting aspect, it is the systems
and effects it is setting in motion and the consequences for urban design.
At the urban scale the environmental goal is to by synthesis tocreate “Artificial
Ecosystems”, cities that can achieve the same interdependent efficiencies as
natural ecosystems as an attempt to help the Global Mind reach critical mass
by harnessing the currently autonomous strands in society...
The Eco-system approach involves multi-layered, coordinated analysis
and actions, rather than separate approaches such as architectural
design on its own, in order to achieve a sustainable solution.
As befits our global concern the eco-system approach requires governance
commencing with a triumvirate of WTO, WHO and WEO. But, such top-down
directives, whilst essential, are snail-paced where fast-tracked action is what is
required. So, local government, consultants, crowdfunders and developers of
an eco-educated frame of mind are crucial to success.
As the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. The Global Mind cannot be fed
on a diet of bean counters and highway engineers. The Global Mind needs a
humanist base for its deliberations on Quality of Life.
The urban environment of the 7 billion plus global population will, as the
architect Lawrence W. Speck noted, focus on urban design which while
global in nature also responds to regional context based on local
physical, climatic, cultural and social characteristics.
Intertwined with this sense of place is spirit of place, Newman’s genius
loci, where content, context and cultural image will aspire to iconic urban
stature for the 21st century.
Tom Verebes covers these issues very capably in his book “Mass-Customized
Cities”, where he makes the case for replacing today’s standardized urban
blocks with custom designed urbanization given the possibilities capable with
computer-aided 3d fabrication and robotic techniques. .
But, of course, the future, whilst indeterminate, will be exponentially different
from the past, to quote the architect Thom Faulder. This is reflected in the
application of biology and 3D printing to building technology as well as social
shaping of the functions served by these buildings.
Writing in “INTELLIGENT SPACES – ARCHITECTURE FOR THE
INFORMATION AGE” Otto Riewold says that according to Toyo Ito,
architecture can and must assert itself….. current building types are moribund.
They no longer have the strength to keep up with the realities of society.
The contents of our urban conglomerations are therefore articulated and
organized, socially shaped as:
MULTI-MEDIA CENTERS
ADVANCED OFFICE ENVIRONMENTS
HYBRID CONSTRUCTIONS
CULTURAL AND ENTERTAINMENT CENTERS
KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGES
SHOPPING CENTERS AS 7/24 CENTERS
SOHO ACCOMMODATION
URBAN AGRICULTURE
RENEWABLE ENERGY
CH/C/P PROVISIONS
MULTI-PHASIC TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS
IT FORUMS AS TRADE MATCH-MAKERS WITH SUPPORT SERVICES
FOR SMEs
With:
Participant Human Resources enhanced by Augmented Intelligence
provided by Smart City Programs by companies such as Siemens or a
future version of the newly released IBM Watson cognitive software.
The eco-system approach can be envisaged as illustrating
“The living, breathing, thinking responsive buildings of the future”
to quote the title of a book by Rodolphe el-Khoury and many others.
“buildings that can sense, think, act and communicate with the help of
embedded technology opens up the potential for a sentient
architecture.”,
MAROOCHYDORE
The Maroochydore, proposal has a gross floor area of 1.2million sq. m.
The construction costs and developments indicated have been reviewed and
considered feasible by a consortium of regional-based development interests
who have also an interest in crowdfunding applications..
The images indicate::
a historic, cultural influence,
an interpretation of this cultural influence in contemporary form,
a section detail of the building form showing height, width, disposition,
interior content/arrangements,
a masterplan which proposes thinking outside the box
a bird’s eye view of a futurist concept
consideration of the consequences from rising sea levels.
The layout generated by the cultural concept is arranged over the intended
street grid for the proposed Central Business District. This will ensure that
services and utilities planning provisions are retained.
BUILDING FEATURES:
Synthetic Sentience applications
Filtration walls for indoor air renewal
Algae external facades for heat/CO2 exchange
Nano-technology sprayed zinc skin for UV & IR control
Synthetic landscapes with cybernetic mechanisms
3d printing technology construction
Functions zones suited to a Metamorphosis Society
Roof mounted solar radiation collectors as power generators
CANBERRA CONFERENCE 2016
– PAPER 2
Urban design in the hereafteR
Building
for a billion draft 12/05/16
A proposal
For An eperopolis
On a hyperloop
-a mega-metropolis
with a population of 1 billion
located in
the gulf of Carpentaria
australia
introduction
Peter Hall, the English town planner and urbanist is regarded as the father of
the industrial enterprise zone concept adopted by countries worldwide to
develop industry in disadvantaged areas.
He expanded this concept with his vision of existing towns and new garden
cities to form new dynamic city regions in the north-west, the midlands and the
south-east of England.
Simon Winchester’s recent book on the Pacific has been reviewed under the
title of “How the Pacific is the Portal to the Future” and this title gives the
inspiration for the location of the next level of urban development appropriate
to our age and requirements.
This proposal, based in the Pacific Region, goes to the next stage in urban
development, an escalation of Peter Hall’s English conglomerations. Urban
Design in the Hereafter will be a synthesis of the evolution of Augmented
Design, 3d printing, mass-customized cities and new financial endeavours
such as crowdfunding, all motivated by those who will follow in the footsteps of
the likes of Elon Musk. It also presents an urban dseign conceptwhich is
viewed as a response to the pacific Pivot Proposals by Clinton, Kagan and
Campbell.
So this paper proposes:
the design of an Eperopolis for an eventual population of 1 billion
immigrants over a 50 year time span to be located in the Gulf of
Carpentaria.
The sustainable design buildings will be zero carbon emitters with green
facades designed for removal of CO2 from the atmosphere.
The Eperopolis will be located on a National Hyperloop Energy and
Transport Services facility (NETS) which will link all major Australian
Urban Centres, with a spur to Hobart.
NETS will feature a Super Solar Farm located along the North-West
section of the hyperloop.
Carbon removal towers will be located along the hyperloop.
NETS will also link to Woomera which will be the location for a
Supersonic Intercontinental Air Terminal
and a Spaceport for eventual travel to the Moon, Mars and the asteroid
belt in due course.
Writing in Sustainable Urbanism and Beyond Tigran Haas said
“(The future) will involve a new techno-economic paradigm, a total
revolution in the way the world does business. We are at the start of
this era, we cannot yet see clearly the outlines of the new
techno-economic paradigm, which, like the golden years of the post-war
era will require the creation of new physical and social infrastructure.”
Commenting on Alec Ross’s book “The Future of Industry” Reid Hoffman,
Founder and Chairman of LinkedIn stated that “ The next 20 years are going to
be even faster-moving and more transformative than the 20 we just lived thru.
Predicting exactly what is going to happen is impossible. But thinking
systematically and strategically about Robotics, Genomics, and the
codification of everything is absolutely critical.”
And at the same time we have to deal with the immense albatross of global
warming which is hanging around our necks.
Drawing on our contemporary culture our urban future will be a
synthesis producing a metamorphosis of human mind, device and built
environment.
We already have IBM Watson deployed in society. Boston, Chicago and
New York are leading a growing trend in Smart Cities. To speed up the
process the White House recently launched a new “smart city” initiative.
However, to quote Alec Ross: “The choices we make about how we
manage and use data will be as important as the decisions about
managing land during the agricultural age and managing industry during
the industrial age.
Data are neither good nor bad for democracy. It all depends on how
people use them.
The enormity of the proposed undertaking requires, in contrast, a very brief
preliminary summary of the issues which are the constituent elements in this
synthesis, this metamorphosis.
1 sustainable urbanism
2 urban design
3 immigration
4 demographics
5 project finance
6 project design
7 urban transportation
1 sustainable urbanism
The following comments on sustainability are drawn from “WHOLE LIFE
SUSTAINABILTY” by Ellingham & Fawcett.
The concept of sustainability is generally traced to the 1987 report by the
United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development usually
referred to as the Brundtland Report.
To quote from the report:
“The environment does not exist as a sphere separate from human
actions, ambitions and needs, and attempts to defend it in isolation from
human concerns have given the very word “environment” a connotation
of naivete in some political circles.”
The Brundtland approach is that human development and environmental
concerns should be complementary and compatible.
2 urban design
At a cultural level, response to place remains an end in itself. We recognize
that built places, especially great cities remain essentially repositories of value,
whether fiscal, cultural, or personal. Places are not just passive containers,
but indeed the very expression of cultures.
According to Yi-Fu Tuan, “Places and culture are interchangeable ways of
looking at the same issues.”
Add ref to mass-customized cities
The urban environment of the 7 billion plus global population will, as the
architect Lawrence W. Speck noted, focus on urban design which while
global in nature also responds to regional context based on local
physical, climatic, cultural and social characteristics.
Of course, it will be a melting pot given the global immigrants who will
populate the eperopolis. One thinks of the immigrant populations of the
early New York City.
,
This Eperopolis of Carpentaria will have neither the advantage of a knowledge
economy of existing tertiary and research centers nor the encumbrance of
obsolete industries which have bankrupted , for example, notable cities in
America
In addition to its self-serving industries and businesses the eperopolis will
emulate Silicone Valley in leveraging the network effects of a comprehensive
platform ratherthan attending to individual products, this concept was laid out
in the Washington Post of 31 mar 2016.
3 IMMIGRATION logistics
The Eperopolis will be populated by immigrants from around the globe pro rata
to the population numbers in those parts of the globe.
Consider first the brief history of immigration:
IMMIGRATION FIGURES EUROPE – AMERICA
1600-1799
1,000,000
1836-1914
3,000,0000
1960-69 3,200,000
1970-70 4,200,000
1980-89 6,200,000
1990-99 9,700,000
2000-09 10,020,000
2010-13 4,000,000
This suggests a figure of:
41,300,000 in 60 years
At that rate the immigrant figure for this proposal involves:
1,000,000,000 in 1,453 years
It is assumed that the eperopolis would in fact achieve its total
In 50 years at 20,000,000 per annum
This means
57,000 per day over 350 days,
163 jumbo arrivals per day (350 seats),
14 per hour over 12 hours.
In December 2015 the daily arrival rate at Dublin Airport, for the
Christmas holiday, of visitors into Ireland was 80,000 per day.
So, say 50 years program
With provision of office, residential, education and healthcare for
Immigration and Security, Construction and Immigrant population
accommodation of 2 years inflow before project commencement
4 Demographics
POPULATION
% AGE
40 25
20 10
20 50
10 05
10 01
Immigration over 50 years means 20,000,000 arrivals per year.
BASED ON % OF WORLD POPULATION:
CONTINENT % OF WORLD POP ALLOCATION 000s
ASIA 60.5 605,000
AFRICA 14.8 148,000
NORTH AMERICA 7.9 79,000
SOUTH AMERICA 5.7 57,000
EUROPE 10.7 107,000
OCEANIA 0.4 4,000
100 1,000,000
5 Project finance
ISSUES: reference ASIA 2050: Realizing the Asian Century
Edited by Kohli, Sharma and Sood
The Crowdfunding Revolution, Lawton and Marom
The project will involve immense finance and cash flows over a significant time
span with many participations in many different technologies, legal
configurations, funding bases and many other substantial considerations.
For finance to complement and support real sector activities, the entire Asian
financial infrastructure to 2050 must focus on ways to mobilize large amounts
of capital in the region for productive investment. Current consumer finance
needs are easily developed by private initiatives. However the four areas of
immediate priority are:
inclusive finance
finance for SMEs
Large-scale infrastructure financing
Long-term pension, insurance, and social security reforms.
Traditionally, banks have relied more on collateral-based lending, but new
trading platforms such as Alibaba and eBay use trading and cash-flow
information to manage credit risks. Crowdfunding is another alternative form
of finance which has also emerged outside of the traditional financial system.
Crowdfunding involves creating an eco-system platform with:
Project initiators who propose the project
Individuals and groups who support the concept
Moderating organizations, regulators and policy makers that bring
the parties together to launch the project or projects
Research by Ethan Mallick of the University of Pennsylvania shows that 75%
of venture capital investments failed to return investors capital whilst 9% of
crowdfunded projects failed to deliver on what they promised.
In the same way that social networking changed how we allocate time,
crowdfunding will change how we allocate capital, with significant
consequences, given our changing social structure, for urban design.
6 PROJECT design
INCLUDING ROADS, SERVICES, UTILITIES
GROSS AREA 200M2/PERSON
1,000,000,000 X 100M2 = 100,000,000,000 M2
Development consists of:
1) linear tube:6,540k x 300m width x 10 flrs ht
2) tower : 1,400 towers x 49,106,25m2 x 200 flrs
3) node: perimeter ring 48 units x 500m x100m x 200 flrs,
4) towers 500 flrs x 741,222 m2 around 250m central void,
total 140 towers
linear: 300m x 6,540k x 10 flrs = 19,620,000,000m2
towers: 1,400 x 49,106.25 x 200 flrs = 17,187,187,500m2
node perimeter ring:
24 nodes x 48 x 500 x 100 x 200 flrs = 11,520,000,000m2
140 towers:
20 x 6 x 71,222m2 x 500 flrs = 44,473,320,000m2
4 x 5 x 741,222m2 x 500 flrs = 7,412,220,000m2
Total: 100,212,727,500m2
SAY 1,000,000,000M2
7 transportation
Proposals for multi-phased sustainable urban transportation are now
well advanced and chronicled. Rather than echo what is already well
tabulated by Siemens, Hofsted, Hitachi and other capable consultants a
study such as this will simply skim the surface of the relevant issues,
looking to what is new and emerging to further the contribution of
transportation to urban development.
The frontiers of 2016 concern companies like Tesla, with their battery
innovations and also start-ups like Sweden’s Uniti short-range city EV
which has successfully navigated the crowdfunding route, another
innovation in project financing..
Most transportation is single grade, generally, buses, cars, bikes usually
move on one level. The Eperopolis will challenge the boundaries of
transportation. Thyssen-Krupp are responding to this need for more
sophisticated urban transportation with the MULTI vertical transportation
system which allows cabs to move right and left as well as up and down.
The menu of urban transportation includes elevators, escalators,
travelators, stairs and ramps, as well as hyperloops chair tube
mono-rails, cable cars and helicopters... in addition to self-drive cars,
bikes and jet packs. All have a role in an Eperopolis.
The Recycling Machine:
Promoting Habit Formation for Sustainable Citizens through an Urban Intervention
Peter Knøsgaard Christensen, Jonathan Elvø Hansen,
Martin Lykke Bech Jeppesen, Christoffer Øland Skovgaard
Master Students, IT Product Development
Department of Computer Science
Aarhus University
Paper Presented at the
9th International Urban Design Conference
Canberra, 7-9 November 2016
The Recycling Machine:
Promoting Habit Formation for Sustainable Citizens through an Urban Intervention
ABSTRACT: The paper describes the process of designing and staging an intervention at a
public square in Aarhus, Denmark. Several municipalities of Denmark have already launched
initiatives to rectify the sorting of recyclable and sustainable materials, but the municipality of
Aarhus is yet to initiate serious actions towards household recycling. This presents a design
challenge to increase awareness of sustainability.
Inspired by Borasi’s definition of the Urban City and its citizens as the human motors
of change, the intention was to create an interactive installation, as an urban intervention. In
line with Borasi's definition, which warrants that “urban interventions contribute to an erosion
of some established notions of urban comfort; they undermine conventional wisdom but don't
necessarily confront it head on”, we aim to trigger a minor disturbance in the otherwise
predefined system that can make people re-think or re-apply their knowledge in terms of
recycling their garbage in the everyday household.
The intervention is further inspired by Volkswagen's “The Fun Theory”, which
proposes that adding a fun factor to daily activities is the easiest way to change people’s
behaviour for the better, be it recycling or maintaining the speed limit of urban living areas.
The intervention, named “The Recycling Machine”, consists of a wooden booth with
garbage cans collecting traditional recycling materials. Once the garbage is correctly sorted,
the booth will reward participants with gifts seemingly forged by the recycled garbage.
Findings from the intervention indicate that participants had a joyful experience, with a
potential for long-term influence and habit formation facilitated through the recycled gifts and
photos taken.
We believe that the impact of the urban environment can cascade to people's’ daily
lives in which Smart Cities can create Sustainable Citizens.
Keywords: Urban intervention; habit formation, recycling
Introduction
While several municipalities of Denmark have launched initiatives to rectify the sorting of
recyclable materials, the municipality of Aarhus is yet to initiate serious actions towards
household recycling. We see this is an incentive to raise awareness of the importance of
recycling materials of the citizens of Aarhus.
Plenty initiatives have already been launched to create awareness on the topic,
including Pepsi’s Dream Machine (Labarre, 2016) that rewards recycled containers with
discounts at Greenopolis.com for various products. Similarly, an installation resembling a
recycling machine in Sweden explored making recycling more enjoyable, through aspects of
gamification. The participants would do the recycling of their old aluminium cans through
playing a small arcade game (Volkswagen, 2016). This would offer participants with a more
fun and interesting interaction, compared to the rather uninspiring activity of recycling
materials. The creators behind the installation was a part of Volkswagen’s campaign "The Fun
Theory".
We want to take a similar approach, by creating awareness of the importance of
recycling materials through a fun experience. With inspiration from Delman and Nielsen’s
CO2030-game (Delman & Nielsen, 2009), we want to let participants perform the activities of
recycling, and immediately confront them with the resulting effect of their actions. We aim to
realise our design intention through an interactive installation, as an urban intervention. Our
approach for this, is in line with Borasi’s definition, as we aim to trigger disturbance or
discomfort in the otherwise predefined system: "They [urban interventions] contribute to an
erosion of some established notions of urban comfort; they undermine conventional wisdom but
don’t necessarily confront it head on" (Borasi & Zardini, 2008). Hence, our urban intervention
has the intention of triggering disturbance, by confronting citizens with the decision of recycling
their garbage, while raising awareness for this everyday choice.
This paper, unfolding our project, is structured as follows: Firstly, we describe the
highlights of our design process. Secondly, we present our intervention with the focus of raising
awareness on recycling through offering a novel experience and evaluate the results of our
intervention. Finally, we discuss and reflect on our intervention and the evaluation, before
concluding our project work.
Related work
As urban interventions differ from traditional ICT projects, specifically in terms of 1) physical
scale, 2) time span and 3) diversity of users, Delman and Nielsen proposes the need for different
strategies and tools in such projects. They present the AELIA-model, as a strategic process and
communication model that takes the key issues of strategic urban development processes into
3
account (Delman & Nielsen, 2009). In their work with the AARHUSCO2030-project, they
emphasize the first three steps, namely: Attention, Experience and Learning, as they found it
hard to evaluate the Influence and intended future Action in small scale projects. Similarly, our
project will emphasize the Attention, Experience and Learning of the installation, but not
neglecting the potential for long-term effect, in terms of habit formation through Influence and
intended future Action.
There are several approaches to supporting habit formation, and with our work we
explore two approaches, namely 1) positive punishment and 2) positive reinforcement. Domjan
et al. defines positive punishment as “an attempt to decrease the likelihood of a behaviour
recurrence by presenting an aversive stimulus after the behaviour occurs” (Domjan, 2009).
Thus, this approach aims to decrease the likelihood of citizens throwing out garbage unsorted
again. Further, they define positive reinforcement as “an attempt to increase the likelihood of a
behaviour recurrence by presenting an appetitive stimulus after the behaviour occurs”.
Thereby, rather than punishing unsorted garbage, this approach would encourage sorting the
garbage or afterwards reward the action.
Design Process
There have been several initiatives to encourage recycling, through sorting of garbage,
alongside numerous campaigns to encourage people doing this. However, what these initiatives
lack, is the direct coupling of actions and effect. Thus, it can be difficult for households to know
the direct effect of sorting their garbage. With this in mind, we wanted to confront the citizens
of Aarhus with the choice of recycling materials and immediately present them the resulting
effect of their actions.
In the preliminary iterations of our design process we utilized positive punishment as
an approach for habit formation. The early concepts would have the participants performing an
environmentally damaging action and subsequently informing them on the negative impact
thereof. Through an iterative process of playing out scenarios and further developing our
concepts using this approach, we found that this had the liability of potentially punishing
participants, who would not normally do environmentally damaging actions, until we
encouraged this.
Based on this insight, our following iteration would emphasize giving citizens a
positive experience through positive reinforcement, to raise awareness. Through this approach
we would have participants carry out environmentally positive actions and encourage the
recurrence of that action, by providing a rewarding stimulus.
Using positive reinforcement to make participants aware of the impact of their actions,
we wanted to use the AELIA model as a communicative tool for planning our intervention. We
aim to catch the Attention of the participants using sound and lights, as they walk around on a
normal shopping day. The design offers a novel Experience different from normal recycling
bins, as The Recycling Machine seemingly transforms the garbage to a new product, that is
returned to them as a gift. Learning is supported through the interaction, as the participants get
an understanding of the positive effect of sorting garbage. The notion of Influence and Action
as a consequence of our intervention will be discussed later (Delman & Nielsen, 2009).
The Intervention: The Recycling Machine
The following section focuses on our intervention. It covers our design intent, a description of
how the intervention was staged and a description of the execution and evaluation of our
intervention.
Design Intent
The intent of the design is to make participants think how their actions can impact the future as
recycled materials can be reused for new products.
With the help of the AELIA model as a communicative tool for urban intervention
planning, we argue that our intervention can catch attention of the participants using sound and
lights, as they walk around on a normal shopping day. The design offers a novel experience
different from normal recycling bins, as The Recycling Machine seemingly transforms the
garbage to a new product, that is returned to them as a gift. Learning is supported through the
interaction, as the participants get an understanding of the positive effect of sorting garbage.
Lastly, we hope to influence and call participants to action as a consequence of this intervention
(Delman & Nielsen, 2009).
Staging the Intervention
The intervention was staged at a local public square in Aarhus, Denmark, which is part of the
pedestrian street. The pedestrian street and space contains multiple shops, cafes and a nearby
cinema, and it leads directly to the Central Station of Aarhus, causing high traffic in either
direction.
The installation consists of a 125x80x170cm white painted booth sharing similarities
to a fairground stall (see figure 1). The top of the installation has a sign with the text "Genbrugs
Maskinen" (The Recycling Machine), whereas three different coloured bins for sorting garbage
are placed just below. These bins are marked with labels indicating which type of garbage fits
into the container. Our reasoning for the different colours for each bin, is to further emphasize
the difference in materials going into them. The instructions on the booth asks the participants
to sort their garbage in the correct bin and see how old materials can be reused for new materials
and objects. In front of the installation a bucket of free-to-take garbage is provided, as we did
not want to limit the participants who did not bring garbage themselves. Based on their actions,
the participants are rewarded with a new usable object seemingly being produced and delivered
by the "machine". The Recycling Machine uses both audio and visual cues to indicate that the
machine is working on transforming the reused material into a new object of the same material.
Classical mechanical sounds are used during the transformation of materials. Once the material
is processed and the gift is ready to be presented, a band of LED’s turns green and iterates
through a circular movement. Underneath the luminous LED’s, a sliding door reveals the gift
which then rises from within the machine while a fanfare is played as the gift is presented to
the participants. This entire process of producing and delivering the gift, was intended to appear
completely automated, but was executed by having a person inside the box handling the entire
process, with the outside activities being streamed through a camera. As gifts, we used a
drinking glass for the glass material, a plastic mug for plastic and a mini game of cards for
cardboard. All presents were wrapped in cellophane with a red bow to make it clear for the
participants that it was gifts for them to take. If participants were to put materials into the wrong
bins, the band of LEDs would flash red, and a "wrong buzzer" sound effect would be played.
Figure 1: The setup of The Recycling Machine.
Execution and Evaluation
A video highlighting our intervention, can be seen at the following link:
https://youtu.be/f7lI6VBFogo
Figure 2: People expressing joy or amazement when interacting with The Recycling Machine.
The intervention took place over a two-and-a-half-hour session on a Thursday
afternoon. During this session, we experienced a high amount of traffic, with citizens passing
through the public square more or less in a constant stream, possibly due to the time of day, as
people were getting off work and school. The placement of our installation, allowed it to catch
the attention of passer-by, as it was different from the usual setting, without being too obtrusive
as would have been the case if placed in the middle of the pedestrian street. During the two-
and-a-half-hour session, a total of 55 gifts in the three materials were given to participants in
return for their garbage.
As a follow-up after each interaction, we conducted short semi-structured interviews.
The main purpose of the interviews was to see if the participants could identify the main purpose
of the intervention, but also to gain insight on their thoughts of the intervention in general.
While the overall reception of our installation was positive and caused happiness, it was
particularly important for us that our intended message was apparent for the participants. We
found this to be the case, as the participants both understood that the received gift was of the
same material and the underlying message of this recycling material transformation. To
structure our findings, we have divided the participants into the following groups: 1) Teenagers
in a group, 2) Families with children and 3) Groups needing to manifest the experience.
The first identified group was teenagers interacting in groups. We found them to be
much engaged in the experience of The Recycling Machine itself as well as finding the
interaction fun. We identified that this group did not internally discuss the overall purpose of
the intervention as much as they talked about their enjoyment of the experience in its whole.
However, from the follow-up interviews this would seem as an indication that they treat this
implicitly, as every interviewee had fully understood the underlying purpose of our
intervention. Thereby, we found that while teenagers understood the purpose, the most
important for them to express was regarding the interaction with The Recycling Machine, which
to them was the most exciting part of the intervention.
The second identified group was categorized as families with children, frequently
consisting of 2 parents and 1 or 2 children. In this group the children often found the most
exciting part of the experience to be the gifts themselves. However, what was an interesting
takeaway from this, was that the parents then felt the need to teach their children on the
importance of recycling, if the children did not make the connection themselves. The message
of the intervention was therefore well received, which also shows from a quote from a follow-
up interview: "You definitely want to do something... [about the environment]".
The third and final group consisted of participants with a particular need to manifest
their experience. While this group overlaps with the previous, we find that this is of importance.
In this group participants, did not just have a memorable experience, but found it special in such
a way that they wanted to document it through photographs or even video recordings. We find
distinct value in this, as while the physical gifts may break or otherwise disappear, a novelty
experience such as the one offered by The Recycling Machine may last, through pictures and
memories.
Discussion
In the following section, we will reflect on and discuss the use of gifts for positive reinforcement
to encourage the positive habit of sorting garbage, as well as reflect on the long-term influence
of our intervention.
Positive Reinforcement for Habit Formation
Our design process has encompassed, not only very different ideas, but also very different
possible outcomes for our intervention. Our earlier iterations utilised positive punishment, in
order to decrease the likelihood of participants wrongly sorting their garbage in the future. One
of the main issues we identified with this approach, was the potential of targeting an innocent
audience, and thus not necessarily having an impact in line with our design intention. Through
positive reinforcement, as utilised in The Recycling Machine, we found potential in not only
rewarding those already sorting garbage properly, but also to foster recycling habits for those
without. In terms of habit formation with this approach, Lally et al. argues that satisfaction can
reinforce the need to repeat an action in the future (Lally & Gardner, 2013), and through our
findings we argue that the participants showed signs of satisfaction in the interaction with our
installation. Our reflection on whether this satisfactory experience is enough for a long-term
influence will be discussed in the following section.
Long-term Influence of The Recycling Machine
In Delman and Nielsen’s work with the AARHUSCO2030 project, they found that evaluating
the overall effect of their work, in terms of the Influence of their design intention, as well as the
intended future Action for participants was difficult to establish (Delman & Nielsen, 2009).
Similarly, while our intervention was in the field of long-term change for recycling behaviour,
the intervention was for a short time-period, thus making it difficult to establish the long-term
effect of our work. In the previous section, we argued that our intervention caused satisfactory
experiences, with potential of reinforcing recurring actions, however, we suggest that the
experience itself is not the only indicator for potential of long-term influence. Tuthill and
Stevenson initiates their study on understanding scientific image data, by presenting cognitive
research on image processing in the brain. They present that the statement "Every picture is
worth a thousand words" has been disproved and that every picture literally tells a story of
approximately one million words (Tuthill & Stevenson, 1998). During our intervention, we
found that several participants took pictures and even recorded the experience, and while the
pictures might show a family member receiving a gift, the story behind the picture goes beyond
just the gift itself. In the short follow-up interview with the participants, we found that everyone
had a good understanding of what they had experienced, as well as our intended message. With
this is mind, we argue that pictures, and possibly even the gifts themselves, can help in not only
recalling the experience with The Recycling Machine, but also the underlying message of the
intervention, potentially resulting in a long-term habit formation.
Conclusion and Future Work
In this paper, we have presented The Recycling Machine, an urban intervention, with the
intention of disturbing an urban area in downtown Aarhus, a city in Denmark. Our intervention
targeted bypassing citizens on recycling habits, by handing out recycled gifts seemingly
produced by the provided garbage, to induce reflection on the positive effect of correctly sorting
garbage. The results of our intervention indicate that not only did the participants have a positive
experience, but that the gifts and photos taken have the capability of manifesting the entire
experience and underlying message with potential of long-term influence.
While the presented findings provide a theoretical reasoning for the potential of habit
formation, future work should emphasize empirically evaluating findings of short-term
interventions. This could include having a hashtag for e.g. Instagram for people to upload their
pictures, thereby allowing researchers to evaluate on the project traction following the
intervention itself. Another approach could be partnering up with the participants, through
scheduling follow-up interviews for insights on a long-term basis.
Our initial findings provide early insights in this area, but much is yet to be explored.
We highly encourage the community of researchers within urban design to further explore the
potential for habit formation as the long-term result of short-term actions.
References
Borasi, G. & Zardini, M., 2008. Actions: What You Can Do With The City. s.l.:Canadian Centre for
Architecture.
Delman, T. F. & Nielsen, R., 2009. The AELIA-model - involving users in urban development, Ålborg:
U-Drive:IT.
Domjan, M., 2009. The Principles of Learning and Behavior: Active Learning Edition. s.l.:Cengage
Learning.
Labarre, S., 2016. Pepsi's "Dream Machine" Gives Rewards for Recycling, Giant Check Comes Later.
[Online]
Available at: http://www.fastcompany.com/1633791/pepsis-dream-machine-gives-rewards-
recycling-giant-check-comes-later
Lally, P. & Gardner, B., 2013. Promoting habit formation. Health Psychology Review, Volume 7, pp.
137-158.
Tuthill, G. & Stevenson, S., 1998. Every Picture Tells a Story: Learning to Look at Space Scientific
Data Images. In: Proceedings of the 1998 ACM/IEEE Conference on Supercomputing. San
Jose(CA): IEEE Computer Society, pp. 1-4.
Volkswagen, 2016. Bottle Bank Arcade Machine. [Online]
Available at: http://www.thefuntheory.com/bottle-bank-arcade-machine
THE FUTURE OF PRIVATE TRANSPORT IN AUSTRALIA Brian Fildes, PhD., Geoff Rose, PhD, Selby Coxon, PhD, Scott Ferraro, Graeme Hodge, PhD, David B. Logan, PhD, and Tim Horberry, PhD. Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
ABSTRACT There have been predictions of likely societal changes in private transportation in the coming years. Tony Seba, entrepreneur, visionary, and educator, recently claimed that various disruptive technologies in energy and transportation will have substantial impacts on future private transportation. He predicts that by 2030, all vehicles will be electrically driven, will become autonomous (not human driven), and vehicle ownership will shift to car sharing, with considerable community benefits. Even if these bold predictions only partially eventuate, they are likely to have a profound effect on today’s societies (up to a 20% reduction in the number of vehicles on our roads is predicted) with fewer crashes, reduced congestion, less need for parking facilities, environment improvements, greater use of public transport, potential changes in urban living, type of housing, vehicle ownership, and so on. They will also come with considerable implications for governments and society in personal mobility, licensing needs and government legal and regulatory regimes. Overall, successful innovation may lead to reductions in road trauma and a cleaner and more liveable society as well as enhanced mobility. The paper addresses the likely areas affected and the need for greater knowledge to address the potential challenges.
INTRODUCTION In his address to young graduates, Dr. Thomas K. Hearn, Jr., President, Wake Forest University said
that “Nothing is so certain as change”. In our rapidly expanding technological era, this is not surprising. The doubling of computer processing speed every 18 months, known as Moore’s Law (Moore 1995), is just one manifestation of the trend that all technological change occurs at an exponential rate. Jean Paul Rodrigue (2013) claimed that in 200 years since the introduction of mechanised transportation, “the capacity, speed and efficiency and geographical coverage of transportation systems has improved dramatically. The goal to move passengers and freight faster in greater quantities, safety and efficiently [he argues] remains the core motivation to improve transport technology”. Other authors have also predicted likely societal changes and benefits in private means of transportation (e.g., Litman, 2015; Muoio, 2015; Seba, 2014).
Dr. Ian Parsons, for example, (as quoted by Danielle Muoio in “Tech Insider”, Nov. 17, 2015) claimed there would be big changes in private transport by 2025 where driverless transportation (self-driving or driverless vehicles) will be everywhere. The Canadian, Todd Litman from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute (Litman 2015) further claimed that autonomous vehicles will bring substantial potential benefits and cost savings, will have a substantial effect on future travel demands and transportation planning as soon as the 2020s. He noted that these vehicles will affect planning decisions such as optimising road layouts, provision of parking, adjustment for reduced traffic and parking congestion, and public transit use and supply. This paper sets out to examine what are the likely changes in private transport in the years ahead and the associated societal impact.
A rendering of how Melbourne might look in future
(Kingsley Morgenson – Monash University 2015)
SEBA’S DISRUPTION PREDICTIONS In his book on “Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation”, entrepreneur Tony Seba makes
several predictions of what the future private motor vehicle fleet will comprise, based on a series of likely disruptors1 or technological developments over the next 15 years. He argues that with advancing technology developments and business model developments in energy, autonomous and service vehicles, current vehicle fleet and car use will become obsolete by 2030 (Seba, 2014, 2016). He claims that four technical disruptors will have a major impact on the future of private transportation, namely abundant clean energy (solar), electric cars, self-driving vehicles, and increasing use in service vehicles. These are discussed further below.
1. Clean and Abundant Solar Energy
Seba notes that unlike oil and gas, electricity is a technology, not an earthly resource. While the supplies of oil and gas are somewhat limited, electricity as an energy source is only limited by technological development. With predicted substantial technological improvements in future, it is only a matter of time before available energy will be cheaper and more available (with substantial environment benefits) to make traditional transportation energy sources redundant.
Moreover, as the use of electricity as an energy source accelerates exponentially, he argues it has the capability of overcoming our reliance on the electricity grid, thus offering the potential of making homes and businesses totally self-sufficient. This would be expected to reduce electricity costs, offering consumers cheaper energy and other home and commercial benefits, with savings in pollution and greenhouse gases to societies. Of course, electricity suppliers and researchers question such a claim given recent research suggesting that consumers are unlikely to leave the grid, even in these low-cost scenarios, due to the convenience and security it provides (Crooks 2015; CSIRO 2015).
2. Electric Vehicles
Seba (2014) also noted that current battery technology is advancing at a rapid pace. He claimed that batteries suitable for use in powering motor cars will be able to provide up to 350km or more usage in future to provide compatible performance to compete with oil or gas driven vehicles. Green cars (electric vehicles EV) such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Kia, Nissan, and General Motors, currently can provide up to 100 -150 mile range per charge. The full-size five-door 2016 Tesla Model S with 100 kWh 360 MJ battery can officially cover 300 miles (485 km), EPA measured and has a 5-Star safety rating by NHTSA. Using a version of Moores Law, Seba claimed that all EV cars will meet this target within 1-2 years. Moreover, he argues that conventional oil-driven motors contain around 2000 moving parts, compared with only 18 moving parts in an electric motor. Also, because of the greater efficiency and torque of electric motors, EVs, they are many times more powerful than conventional motors. So much so that Tesla offers infinite mileage warrantees for the first 8 years of their Model S vehicle. He concludes that by 2025, EVs will be much cheaper to buy and 10-20 times cheaper to maintain, thus he claims that conventional cars as we know them today will become obsolete, globally.
1 A disruptor, from the work of Christensen (1997), creates a new market and value network eventually disrupting existing markets and value networks. It displaces established market leading firms and destroys existing products or industries (e.g., digital photography).
On the 4th September 2014, Tesla Motors announced their intention to build the world’s largest and most advanced lithium ion battery factory in Nevada to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy (Loveday, 2014). He reported that Tesla Acquired the 431,000 Square Foot Facility in Lathrop California and began manufacturing modifications to the site. He noted that to achieve that goal, they needed to produce electric vehicles in sufficient volume to force change in the automobile industry. Tesla Motors has a planned production rate of 500,000 cars per year in the latter half of this decade. By comparison, BMW’s i3 electric car model has a battery range of 163km. The lead-in time for a range of available EVs with the targeted rate of 350km, could be achieved within a few years, based on Seba and Tesla’s evidence.
3. Autonomous Self-Driving Vehicles
Seba (2016) reported that automakers such as Tesla and Nissan claim that fully autonomous vehicles will be available by 2020. Most OEMs are working on developing autonomous or self-driving cars by this date (Tech Insider, 2016). According to Seba (2016), Tesla already claim their vehicles can be used 90% of the time now and be fully autonomously by the end of this decade. Thompson (2016) further claimed that GM’s introduction to the market of their Chevrolet Bolt will be electric and fully autonomous, and available as a Lyft service vehicle by 2018. Technical disruptors and market competition is very likely to drive the introduction of these vehicles on the road, Seba noted. There is considerable research and development effort being spent on autonomous (self-driving) vehicles around the world by both researchers, governments and vehicle and parts manufacturers.
Google, for example, has been conducting on-road tests of driverless vehicles in the USA for several years and have accumulated over 1.5 million miles in four states in the USA. They have sensors designed to detect objects as far as “two football fields away” in all directions, and are supposedly capable of detecting pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles and other objects. Interestingly, the latest specifically designed Google car, shown in the photo opposite, is a purpose-designed vehicle with technologies including lasers, radars and cameras to detect objects in all directions. It is electric-powered and designed specifically for self-driving. Back-up systems are included for steering, braking, computing etc. The company founder, Sergey Brin, claimed that in June 2015, Google self-drive vehicles had only been involved in 12 collisions including mainly rear-end side-swiped and intersection collisions. Another one involved a Google employee who was manually driving the car.
4. Ownership Vs Service Vehicles
The fourth and final disruptor identified by Seba (2014) as a likely impact on future transportation is the development of car-sharing vehicle fleets. He noted that in the USA, a similar car-share service
Tesla’s Giga factory schematic (Tesla, 2016)
Google Self-Driving Car (Google 2016)
(Zipcar) started out early last century providing a range of vehicles for hire to members that can be used for short or long trips. By 2012, the company reported having 760,000 members and $270 million revenue. He argued that each vehicle effectively replaces 15 cars on the road.
Car sharing has become increasingly popular in Australia and around the world, mainly for inner-city dwellers who are often faced with limited and expensive parking, and high insurance costs. Various companies operate car-share systems
that aim to provide convenient, cost-effective, and environmentally sustainable access to a car without needing to personally own one. In Australia, car-share companies include Go Get, Flexicar (owned by Hertz) and Green Share Car and have been operating in Australia since 2003. These facilities have been well received here, with more than 50,000 members to date and growing.
Interestingly, Uber recently published their intention to conduct a trial of 50-100 self-driving service (Hybrid) vehicles in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, next year. The cars will have a driver and as Alex Davis, Senior Associate Editor of Wired.com pointed out, there is a requirement that the driver interacts with the steering wheel occasionally during the drive (Davis, 2016). The Mayor of Pittsburg, Bill Peduto, noted that there will ultimately be a need for regulation of some kind but that technical innovation should precede regulation. While there are a number of questions and doubts that one could raise about this trial, nevertheless, it will be an interesting test of an innovation closely following Seba’s disruptor predictions and useful to show if the predictions of an electric, autonomous car share future model for private transport are realistic.
Seba’s Conclusion
Tony Seba (2016) concludes that transportation in the coming years will inevitably change with the rapid developments in electronic technology, driven by the convergence of technologies and business model innovation with substantial cost savings. With the expected future technology disruptions, he claimed that “we will go from all ICE (internal combustion engines) to all EV (electric vehicles), from human to computer driven, (and) from ownership to car sharing” (Seba 2016). Even if only partial correct, we face a potential major revolution in private transportation in Australia in the years ahead with substantial implications for urban design and living.
THE IMPLICATIONS FOR CHANGE IN AUSTRALIA If we assume that the technologies associated with these disruptors are available by the year 2030,
there is clearly several associated and important issues related to their uptake, benefits and costs by society that need to be considered when examining the likely rate of disruption in Australia. These and associated issues are discussed further below.
Brand Members Cars Countries
Go Get, Flexicar, GreenShareCar 50,000 Unk Australian States
Zipcar 800,000 10,000 USA, Canada, UK, Spain, Austria DriveNow 215,000 2,350 5-German cities and San Francisco Autolib 100,000 Unk France Car2Go (Daimler) 700,000 10,000 (Smart) Europe and America
International car-share companies (source: Ottley, 2016)
Uber autonomous service vehicle (source: Uberact.com/car)
Autonomous Vehicles
As noted by many futurists and car developers, autonomous vehicles of some shape or form will almost certainly find their way to Australia in the coming years. This will have a rather large impact on driving style, comfort and safety, especially in the early years of their development.
In 2014, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) outlined an international Standard J3016, “Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related to On-Road Motor Vehicle Automated Driving Systems” shown below. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA 2013) also outlined a similar system in defining the degree of autonomy ranging from Level 0 – no autonomy, then by varying degrees of autonomous functions to Level 4 – full self-driving automation. While the number scales are slightly different, the scales roughly align with those specified in the SAE Table.
The SAE harmonized classification system identified six levels of driving automation from “no automation” to “full automation” with base definitions and levels on functional aspects of the technology and categories to allow a step-wise progression through the levels. In essence, the zero to Level 5 assumes degrees of human driver involvement from full driver involvement at Level zero (current situation) to full automation at Level five. Current vehicle automation on the road in Australia generally ranges from zero with some level of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) support, involving performance by the human driver in controlling. On the SAE classification scale, this covers Levels 0 to 2 generally. This includes partial automation in the driving task with minor technology assistance with steering, acceleration and deceleration from technologies on-board the vehicle. Levels 3 to 5 cover a range of Driver Assist Systems (DAS) from conditional to full automation, not currently available in most on-road vehicles in Australia. Given Australia’s current average fleet life of 10.1 years with a relatively stable growth rate (ABS 2016), it is likely to take upwards of 15 to 20 years’ minimum until full fleet penetration of Level 5 vehicles.
This will be a challenging period for the fleet to cope with a full range of Level 0 to Level 5 vehicles. Technically, it should be possible for drivers to cope with a vehicle mix or autonomy but there is little evidence that this will be smooth and without trauma (see Hars 2016, for a summary of the most common misconceptions of autonomous self-driving vehicles). Even under partial automation, (Levels 3 and 4) the vehicle expects the human driver will respond appropriately to a request to intervene on occasions. At Level 5 though, the vehicle is expected to cope by itself and the driver is theoretically not required as the vehicle is fully automated in all aspects of the driving task under all road and environmental conditions.
Consumer Uptake
The success of autonomous vehicles will clearly depend on consumer’s willingness to accept them. A 2012 study by Cisco Systems (Fitchard 2013) shows that consumers around the world seem to be reasonably amenable to the autonomous vehicle. In a survey of 1,514 consumers 18 years or older,
Copyright © 2014 SAE International. The summary table may be freely copied and distributed provided
SAE International and J3016 are acknowledged as the source and must be reproduced AS-IS
Cisco Systems found that 57 percent would be willing to accept a driverless vehicle. The answers varied depending on the country surveyed. Brazilians had the highest acceptance rate of (95%) followed by India (86%) and China (70%). Together, these three countries make up 2.9 billion or roughly 40% of the world’s population. The Japanese were less trustworthy with only 28 percent willing to give up direct control of their cars. Carter (2013), too found that half of those they interviewed also trusted autonomous vehicle safety.
In the U.S., where many of these autonomous vehicle technologies are being tested, acceptance was above the overall average at 60 percent. Fitchard (2013) noted that 48 percent of the Americans surveyed said they would trust a driverless car to ferry around their children. In general, Europe was less accepting of automated vehicle than North America, while India and China were more enthusiastic.
However, these results need to be taken with some caution as these respondents were relatively naïve to
these vehicles, using their own knowledge (with some help supposedly by the interviewers) as to what an autonomous vehicle is like to drive. As noted by the surveyors, the respondents had a high level of “trust” in these vehicles. Whether this trust will be maintained after having first-hand experience of travelling with them is still an open question.
Safety Benefits
It is commonly assumed that the introduction of driverless cars will deliver considerable Safety benefits. In 2014, the RAND Corporation published the results of a study which claimed that the social benefits of autonomous vehicles included fewer crashes, increased mobility and increased fuel economy (Anderson et al 2016). While they noted some potential disadvantages (increased exposure through possibly encouraging greater travel and more congestion, they noted that the benefits will outweigh the likely disadvantages. They also pointed to the risk of hacking by the malicious (to be discussed later).
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (2008) reported that current crash avoidance features could prevent or mitigate about 1 of every 3 fatal crashes and 1 of every 5 serious or moderate injury crashes involving passenger vehicles. Traffic modellers too have focussed on the potential for autonomous vehicles to also improve traffic flow and collisions by fewer stoppages and improvements in fewer give way and other collisions (Dresner and Stone 2005, 2007; and Wang et al, 2016), yet this could be problematic during the early stages when there is a mix of Level 0 to 5 vehicles.
Taranto, Young and Logan (2011) investigated the potential benefits of a range of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technologies including intersection collision warning, cross traffic turn assist, co-operative forward collision warning and pre-crash sensing. In addition, some medium impact applications were also included in the assessment. The results indicated that with full uptake by the passenger vehicle fleet, between 7000 and 10,000 serious casualties (25-35% approx.) would be prevented of the 29,000 annual fatalities and seriously injured persons recorded annually Australia-wide.
Trust in driverless vehicles (Source: Fitchard, 2013)
There are those who also argue that it is not a foregone conclusion that a self-driving vehicle would ever perform more safely than experienced, middle-aged drivers (Sivak and Schoettle, 2015). They note that during the transition period when conventional and self-driving vehicles would share the road, safety might actually get worse. This view was criticised by Hars (2016) who claim that their analysis is pessimistic and in need of more research. Litman (2015) further notes that autonomous vehicles are likely to introduce new risks including system failures, cyberterrorism (Bilger 2013), risk homeostasis (when road users take additional risks as they feel safer) and increased vehicle travel resulting from faster or cheaper travel.
This is an area in which further research is clearly warranted, especially with a view to estimating what the real costs and safety benefits are of the new autonomous technology.
Driver Centred Issues
The increasing level of automation in the road transport vehicle fleet is likely to produce issues very like those encountered in other industries where automation has previously been deployed, such as mining, defence and medical (Lynas and Horberry, 2011). These driver-centred issues include:
Poor driver acceptance of new technologies/automation.
Problems with integration of multiple warnings/alarms. This issue may occur in different ways for different automation levels: for lower level assistance systems it might be possible driver overload from having another warning system introduced in a vehicle’s cab, whereas for more automated systems in might involve designing the interface optimally before deployment.
Lack of technology standardization: especially where the technology is not Original Equipment Manufacturer installed.
Inadequate driver training and support/organisational issues - introducing new technology can change the nature of the driving task, so a careful analysis of new tasks is a vital early step.
Over-reliance on the technology by drivers (especially for safety critical systems such as forward collision detection systems).
Deskilling or wrong skills (eg driving skills in manual operation but not in automated operation).
Being outside of the system control loop (this is particularly an issue for full automation, or where the technology temporarily removes aspects of vehicle control and the operator then needs to resume full control).
Behavioural adaptation / risk homeostasis - the introduction of automation and new technologies may result in drivers engaging in more risky behaviours. In technologies such as advanced braking systems or forward collision warnings a driver might modify their behaviour based on ‘knowing’ where the other vehicles are located.
Overall, the authors claimed that unless the technology design and deployment considers the human element (i.e. driver, rider, other road users) then it is bound to fail or not work optimally. The degree to which these items are likely to impact on the uptake of these technologies however is relatively unknown at this stage and is also an important area that warrants further research.
Design and Convenience Issues
Another aspect of the extent of uptake of these vehicles is the willingness and acceptance of the vehicles providing these services. Car users perceive a huge difference between their personal privately owned vehicle and public transport (Bunting 2004). Automotive design creates a milieu of
functional, aesthetic and haptic experiences that contribute to the pleasure of driving or travelling by car. For a passenger on public transport much of these pleasures of interaction are lost.
The inclusion of sophisticated interior finishes, electronic gadgetry as well as safety features such as airbags, seat belts and structural design radically increased the perceived overall performance of the private car verses vehicles of the public domain. Manufacturers go to great lengths to develop brand image and loyalty. Each model is expressive of its owners’ choices in appearance, performance, functionality and price. In car ownership, there is a sense of acceptance within a mobile society.
The design of artefacts beyond their intrinsic engineered functionality to embrace human needs lie at the centre of the complex discipline of Industrial Design. Around the needs of people are the key influencers of design namely; materiality, manufacture, interface and aesthetic sensitivity. A product with perhaps the highest profile of all designed objects in which appearance contributes to purchase choice would be that of the automobile.
A study by Kent (2014) set out to survey vehicle owners on their reason to own a car. She surveyed a group of people who could travel in roughly the same time by car or by public transport. She noted that while they were aware of cheaper public transport alternatives, they just liked driving. Reasons included practically of using a car, comfort, privacy, and various emotional motives. The author concluded that “if we are to get more people out of their cars, we need to balance rational motives such as time with more emotional concerns”.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The transport sector is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions within Australia, increasing by 47.5% since 1990 (DIICCSRTE, 2013), however it also represents the most financially attractive emission reduction opportunities across the Australian economy (ClimateWorks Australia, 2010). The transport sector accounts for 17% or 92 MtCO2e of Australia’s emissions in 2013-14, with Passenger and Light Commercial vehicles contributing 62% of the sector’s total emissions (DIICCSRTE, 2013). The sector’s emissions have been projected to rise by a further 6% to 2020, to reach 97 MtCO2e, driven primarily by population and income growth for passenger travel and economic growth for freight transport (DCCEE, 2010).
Research by ClimateWorks (2015) for the UNFCCC Taskforce investigating Australia’s post 2020 emission reduction target identified that uptake of electric vehicles (close to 90% penetration for passenger vehicles by 2050), in tandem with decarbonisation of the electricity grid (50% renewable energy by 2030, full decarbonisation by 2050) or sourcing electricity from low carbon sources, could provide emission reductions of 9Mt CO2e by 2030, and 27 MtCO2e by 2050. For the critical Passenger and Light Commercial vehicle segments, this represents reductions of 16% and 47% compared to 2013-14.
Legal and Regulatory Issues
There is little doubt that the regulatory and legal apparatus built up over past centuries profoundly influences our future. Wide ranging rules now detail the various rights and responsibilities which we each share as well as those we expect from others - whether individuals or businesses. These legal and regulatory regimes have gradually evolved and this governance infrastructure provides the agreed framework upon which we live together. It also shapes our path ahead for transport systems. Public institutions area also a major determinant in how future urban systems will continue to be planned and governed. Markets may well be “disrupted”, but planning, operating and governing transport systems will continue to be path dependent.
A forward vision including the promises of abundant solar energy and electric autonomous vehicles is both huge and exciting. Critics such as Huesemann (2011) claim that technological
innovation may lead to the ‘end of the world as we know it’, or unmanageable ‘unintended’ consequences. Policy bureaucrats, lawyers and regulatory scholars have learned to respond to broad idealistic promises of benefits and social welfare improvements with similarly broad positive promises of political support, while responding to specific disruptive issues with specific solutions. So, where to from here with AVs? There are immediate, medium term and long term matters deserving our regulatory attention. Most pressing are matters pertaining to enabling continued learning and technological development through on-road demonstration projects and field trials. In other words, how do automated vehicles fit into the existing regulatory space in any single jurisdiction? Are AVs even allowed to operate legally in a jurisdiction?
The National Transport Commission noted there is little doubt that “Australia’s laws are not ready for driverless vehicles” (NTC 2016). They suggested that there are many regulatory impediments to the ultimate operation of AVs in Australia – hardly a glowing endorsement supporting trials of this new technology! However, there are aspects of limited automation which can assist drivers when lane changing, if falling asleep, or when parking, that are already developed and implemented without legal revolution. And states such as South Australia have already changed their laws to allow for the on-road trials of driverless cars (Tucker 2016). NTC (2016) implicitly acknowledges that much of our current approach works well when it suggests that Australian governments might best support on-road trials through exemptions granted on a case by case basis for such demonstration work. Issues of what is meant by ‘control’ and ‘proper control’ of a vehicle still require attention nevertheless.
Past such immediate matters, though, our laws and regulatory regimes will ultimately need to change as AVs advance. Australian law assumes that a ‘driver’ ‘controls’ the vehicle. The driver can in a strict legal sense be either a person or a corporation, but through the Australian Road Rules, our law also assumes that the driver can give a hand signal, wear a seat belt and stop and swap addresses with other drivers in the event of a crash (Utz 2016). It may well be that, as NTC suggests, the next phase of regulatory reinvention deals with how our regulatory regimes cope with AVs when a human being is still is the driver by law, and then how to deal with AVs when there is no requirement for a human to be in the vehicle at all (Level 5 automation).
The simple practical matter of identifying who is responsible for a vehicle at any time on the road, is clearly not so simple under AV operation. What do the police do if there is an incident? As well, all vehicles will need to be subject to our vehicle design rules. Yet others worry about the costs of self-driving cars in terms of loss of freedom and privacy; Boegin (2015). Much legal work is ahead in reconsidering our legal regimes, standards, testing procedures and insurance arrangements. As Hodge et al (2007) noted in the context of other scientific innovations, “Governments will need to work hard to encourage innovation whilst ensuring that existing protections and risk allocation mechanisms are not eroded”.
Cyber Security
Tesla were recently forced to update their software after researchers associated with the Chinese Tencent Holdings Limited company reported hacking into the software system of Telsa S model cars (Finkle, 2016). Hackers apparently could gain remote control of the vehicle’s braking, windscreen wipers and boot systems from a remote distance approximately 12 miles away. Reuters also noted another case of hackers gaining control externally of Fiat Chrysler vehicle software that resulted in 1.4 million vehicles in the US being recalled for software modifications. It will be important to ensure that these vehicle’s software packages are well protected from hacking as one experience of widespread disruption to vehicle software has the potential to impact substantially on users’ perceptions of trust, as well as having a potentially disastrous safety disbenefits. Hopefully, this is something that should
and will be more strictly controlled in future generations of these vehicles despite hackers’ current abilities to find ways of interfering with these technologies.
IMPLICATION FOR URBAN DESIGN IN AUSTRALIA The Smart Cities Plan recently released by the Federal Government sets out the “Australian
Government’s vision for our cities - metropolitan and regional - and its commitment to smart investment, smart policy and smart technology” (Commonwealth of Australia, 2016). Assuming that these technological disruptors do become real by the year 2030 (a major assumption based on the discussion above), what impacts will these disruptors likely have on urban design and urban living?
Australian cities are already struggling to cope with increased population growth. At present Melbourne for example is growing by about 100,000 persons per year and will overtake Sydney as this country most populous city in future. Autonomous vehicles could impact how individuals view their time in the car encouraging longer commutes and accelerating urban sprawl. Lowering the cost of car travel, either through lower energy costs or eliminating the driver cost in the equivalent of a taxi, will increase car trips unless other policy setting change.
Much of the emphasis of contemporary urban planning is on attempting to balance the extent to which increased population is accommodated through urban consolidation versus urban sprawl (Adams and Loader, 2008). Increasing private vehicle use runs counter to the trend in many cities to improve liveability by strategically managing transport and land use to increase density and maximise travel on public transport, walking and cycling (Schiller et al, 2010).
City of the Future
In 2015, the National League of Cities’ Centre for City Solutions and Applied Research in Washington DC, the Nation’s leading advocacy organisation, serves more than 19,000 cities and towns and more than 218 million Americans (DuPuis, Martin and Rainwater, 2015). They recently published a review of current mobility options in the face of rapid technological advances and shifting demographics. They note the growth in multi-modal transportation systems and the need for a more dynamic focus on future transportation plans.
From the analysis of popular 50 cities planning documents, they found that only 6% of the plans considered the potential effects of driverless technology while the majority (50%) were still focussed on new highway constructions. Of special interest, only 3% considered car service vehicles even though most cities investigated had capability for these vehicles. They concluded that the mobility environment is rapidly changing and that while it might be difficult to be too prescriptive, advances in mobility technology will have a large impact on cities of the future.
But things are moving fast in this sector. The city of Singapore recently announced the first ever trial of self-driving taxis (service vehicles) within a 4km bounds of the city (Illmer 2016). NuTonomy, a new-comer to the service vehicle field, have set up an initial trial of six Renault and Mitsubishi electric vehicles that can be called upon for members of the scheme. The cars essentially drive themselves and come with a driver who is there to monitor
the performance and take control in case something goes wrong. The Singapore Government allowed
NuTonomy electric autonomous service vehicle (Illmer 2016)
the trial after pre-testing and have now given nuTonomy permission to test self-driving cars in a small area of the town with passengers.
Housing in an Autonomous Environment
Australia is one of the most urbanised countries in the world, with over two-thirds (69%) of the population living in major cities. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS 2010), Australia is becoming increasingly urbanised with populations in our major cities growing faster than in regional or remote areas. The recently released “Australian Smart Cities Plan” (Commonwealth of Australia 2016) acknowledges the potential to revolutionise how cities are planned, function, and how our economy grows. It notes that disruptive transport technologies are becoming a reality and need to embrace smart technology, to improve the sustainability of our cities and drive innovation. They see these technologies will provide new economic opportunities for investment, collaboration and growth.
Kellman (2016) predicts than within a person’s lifetime, the self-driving car could change the shape of the American city profoundly. Unlike the cars of today, which are parked 96% of the time, self-driving cars will mean far fewer cars overall, and those that remain will leave town at night. He acknowledges that the speed of take-up and behavioural change in driving patterns and usage is not likely to be a “game changer” in most of our lives, but in terms of housing, it’s impact will ultimate depend on how it interacts with other trends life changes.
Town and Traffic Planning
Planning literature overall suggests that urban planners fail to recognise the need for driverless cars in new designs for their regions (Jaffe 2015). Many of them were aware that future transportation was likely to involve vehicles that operate on sustainable fuel and/or are driverless and there was a general awareness that for better or worse, driverless vehicles will be upon us quickly but claimed that they didn’t know what to do about them. It was not for lack of awareness however as most seemed to be “cautiously optimistic.
Guerra (2016) examined the attitudes by planners from 25 of the US largest metropolitan areas in 2015 to see what they were planning for self-driving vehicles. He noted 5-reasons for their apparent reluctance to this new form of urban transportation ranging from unawareness, to scepticism and uncertainty with some claiming to be too far removed from their planning decisions. He noted big differences between cities from having advanced models predicting autonomous vehicle behaviour within their cities to some activity involving focus groups or meetings with experts. He noted the need for planners to play a stronger role in shaping how driverless cars will impact regional transportation investments.
While there are predicted benefits in safety and vehicle movements, there may also be negative impacts of driverless vehicles including their potential to encourage urban sprawl.
Urban Congestion
In their document on “Trends Infrastructure and Transport to 2030” Commonwealth of Australia (DIRD 2014), they argue that over 70 per cent of all domestic passenger movements within Australia occur on roads and that driving is the preferred means of transport within cities and for trips. They claim that this results in suboptimal energy efficiency and congestion that costs up to $15 billion per year and based on current trends, congestion will increase.
If the concept of electric, autonomous service vehicles was to apply in the next decade or so, it could lead to fewer cars on the road (car use of 4% per vehicle rises to 60% or 80% as claimed by Seba, 2016), then the fleet would potentially be less (it would also depend on trip scheduling, especially at peak
times, and any modal shift away from private vehicles). As noted earlier by Dresner and Stone (2005, 2007) and Wang et al (2016), autonomous vehicles could also lead to improve traffic flow and fewer collisions.
Parking Requirements
Seba (2016) claimed that full use of electric autonomous service vehicles could reduce the number of vehicles by up to 20% on the road by an increase in usage per vehicle. Todd Litman of the Victorian Transport Policy Institute in British Columbia, Canada further argued that a substantial takeup in the use of autonomous service vehicles would also lead to optimal vehicle parking and public transport, through more efficient parking, fewer on- and off-road parking spaces and cost savings. (Litman 2016). He also noted that this could also lead to fewer public and private business opportunities.
Theoretically, fewer on-road parking could lead to less congestion (wider lane use), increases in existing building accommodation for private and commercial use, and reduced costs for new buildings. However, Litman (2016) noted that estimated congestion and parking cost reductions, energy savings and emission reductions are also uncertain due to interactive effects. For example, the ability to work and rest while traveling may induce some motorists to choose larger vehicles that can serve as mobile offices. Self-driving taxis and self-parking cars will require empty backhauls that might affect overall cost savings. Should these vehicles be limited to low speed environments, autonomous vehicles may actually increase congestion on these streets. The need for modelling various scenarios and collecting data as these vehicles become more popular is paramount to see the real costs and benefits.
Modal Shift and Public transport
There is an expectation that numbers of current and future motorists will either fully or partially shift their primary mode of travel to electric driverless vehicles (Seba 2016). Indeed, the evidence presented earlier by Fitchard (2013) suggested that many current motorists were attracted to use these vehicles, although this needs to be further tested when these vehicles become widely available to the general public.
So, what about a modal shift to public transport? The primary motoring service organisation in Victoria, the RACV, claimed that the benefits of public transport (over private motoring) includes improved health (through more walking), the environmental (PT consumes less energy), less congestion (trams and trains remove substantial number of cars from the road, the economy (jobs and other societal benefits) social inclusion, safety and person cost. Yet, despite this, many private journeys are still taken by the automobile. These reasons for this are obvious.
Research published by BITRE (2014) for instance shows that 88% of all passenger trips in Australia are undertaken by private motor vehicles and 9% by public transport. However, they note that this is expected to change dramatically in future years as petrol prices increase through fuel shortages and supply strategies, and vehicle prices will increase through added technologies and import charges, while public transport is expected to increase consequently. Of course, this assumes the current status quo which is highly unlikely. In the last 4 to 5 years, there has been a 12% reduction in private motor vehicle trips which is likely to continue given reduction trends in licensing rates, greater reliance on imported vehicles, and increased international
BITRE (2014) private travel trips Australia (1900-2012)
environment requirements in vehicle omissions. Some of this may lead to greater reliance on public transport as urban living continues to increase, but this requires further research, especially with the advent of the new distractor technology.
Electricity distribution infrastructure
Langton & Chrisostomo (2014) note that as Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) proliferate in California, it opens an opportunity for a wider use of these vehicles to be used as an added capacity to provide power resources to the state’s electricity grid. They refer to this as Vehicle-Grid Integration (VGI). Seba (2014) went further in arguing that with the technical development of more efficient electric energy sources and improved battery storage in electric vehicles, it opens the way for EVs to act as an on-demand energy provider at peak times, paid for by the Grid to the highest bidder. Thus, he further claims that electric cars have the potential to become an income-producing investment, as well as a means of transport. This is also suggested by Langton and Chrisostomo but they note the need for pilot demonstrations and costs and benefits of such a system. Current research underway by the Energy Networks Association and CSIRO is investigating the potential impact which electric vehicles can have on Australia’s electricity distribution infrastructure, and the flow on costs and savings to consumers.
Social Implications
The transition to the technological Utopia painted by Seba (2014, 2016) is likely to present as much a disruption for society as for the technological systems which support mobility. As driverless Ubers and buses take over, what jobs will be created to provide employment for the people who no longer have employment as taxi or bus drivers? As noted earlier, Seba suggests that EV will be 10 to 20 times cheaper to maintain. With EVs requiring much less maintenance that will mean many fewer jobs in vehicle maintenance.
Where will the job opportunities come for the car mechanics displaced by this technological change? Australia is currently transitioning away from a local vehicle manufacturing industry. The employment consequences of that transition are likely to be felt locally, there is a clear risk that pockets of social disadvantage will be created unless meaningful alternative employment opportunities can be created. Only time will tell whether the policy setting adopted by government in the wake of the auto industry exit have been adequate and what learnings might come from that about how we might better manage technology transitions in the future. Entrenched social disadvantage will not solely be created by the transitions on the horizon in transport technology. However, will those changes accelerate the trend in many cities around the world where wealthier households secure themselves in gates?
Changing technology has potentially profound implications for how we fund our transport system. Improvements in vehicle fuel economy and increased in the number of electric vehicles will see reductions in fuel excise receipts. At present, nearly 60 % of road related revenue comes from fuel excise (BITRE, 2015) but the CSIRO (2015) forecast that this could be reduced by nearly half by 2050 from more fuel-efficient conventional vehicles and greater adoption of electric vehicles (CSIRO, 2015). Is it fair that those who can’t afford to buy an electric car will continue to pay fuel excise while the drivers of the electric vehicles pay little towards the upkeep of the road network that they use?
A radical change is likely to be needed in how we fund our urban transport systems. Recent work by suggests there is an appetite in the community for fundamental changes in how we pay for roads (Transurban, 2016). However, there is a need for a more mature conversation with the community about the need for change than expecting that change to be accepted when it is presented as an additional new tax or charge.
CONCLUSION & FURTHER RESEARCH This paper set out to examine likely trends in future private transportation in Australia in the light
of predictions that there will be substantial changes in vehicle design, and ownership in the coming years through disruptive technology developments. The paper highlighted several areas likely to be impacted by these developments, including consumer uptake, safety benefits, driver-centred issues, design and convenience, greenhouse gas emissions, legal and regulatory issues, and cyber security.
Developments in vehicle design, and ownership are also likely to have marked impact on urban design in Australia where cities of the future need to address housing in an autonomous environment, town and traffic planning, urban congestion, parking requirements, modal shifts and public transport, electricity distribution infrastructure, and social implications.
While many of these changes will be forced upon society through disruption, we need to be prepared for these changes which requires considerable public discussions, planning and innovation. Science will play a major role in identifying appropriate improved knowledge through new research. Importantly, greater appreciation of the public’s willingness to accept and embrace these new technologies will be key.
There will also be industry opportunities for this “New Transportation model” that need to be identified and promoted. Government strategies and policies are required in terms of necessary legislation and licensing for these vehicles, as well as a more societal approach. Potentially, as is the case already, the technology is driving the new transportation innovations and governments need to keep up with this progress to ensure it is safe and beneficial for all Australians.
In terms of future research, a major research program is clearly warranted. Many of the issues discussed lack solid evidence and a ‘best practice’ approach. Further testing in community responses to these vehicles in real-world environments would be highly valuable in identifying potential issues needing to be addressed. As there are several on-road tests underway already in autonomous vehicles, an international collaborative program is recommended to optimise the benefits in Australia, in a much broader framework than just driverless cars.
In conclusion, as noted by one commentator, the move to electric autonomous service vehicles as the primary mode of private transport means “we have gone from DeLoreans to driverless cars in what seems like the blink of an eye. The transportation landscape of the past is not obsolete, but it has changed considerably and will continue to” (National League of Cities, 2015).
evolve. The impacts of a radically changed environment are, at times, hard to comprehend – but again, we can
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Sustainable Drainage Systems in Urban Design
Andrew Harrison
Golder Associates
Bldg 7 Botanicca Corporate Park
570-588 Swan Street, Richmond Victoria 3121
Paper Presented at the
9th International Urban Design Conference Canberra ACT, 7 –9 November 2016
1
Sustainable Drainage Systems in Urban Design
ABSTRACT: Incorporation of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) into urban
development has been recognised as one of the key elements in Urban Design in the UK and
Ireland for over a decade. Similar approaches have been adopted in mainland Europe and
North America. Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is rapidly becoming a requirement
of Urban Development in Australia.
Before SuDS were considered, drainage in urban areas typically relied on collecting rainwater
runoff from the “hard” finishes (i.e. roofs and pavements) and conveying the runoff to the
closest stream or river as quickly as possible through underground networks of tanks and
pipes. Unfortunately this approach has had a detrimental impact on the environment by
affecting the quantity and quality of water discharged to the receiving environment and
removing the opportunity for flora and fauna native to the predevelopment area to establish
itself within the urbanised area.
At the heart of the SuDS and WSUD philosophies is the integration of smart drainage features
within urban areas which “soften” the “hard” finishes by using natural materials (e.g.
vegetation, soils and gravels) and also provide runoff conveyance, attenuation and treatment.
In this way SuDS improve the quality and reduce the quantity water discharged to the
environment while also providing amenity areas which promote biodiversity.
Green roofs and raingardens are two examples of SuDS which address the water quantity and
quality issue and provide significant amenity and biodiversity benefits, such elements can
easily be integrated into the Architectural designs of buildings and commercial and residential
developments. Permeable paving, swales and runoff detention areas require strategic planning
in terms of their location within an urban precinct. Therefore the successful implementation
of a sustainable drainage design involves the consideration of SuDS at the earliest stages of
urban planning and architectural design.
Key Words: Sustainable Drainage Systems; SuDS; Urban Drainage; Water Management
2
Introduction
One of the most significant challenges of sustainable urban development is the management
of rainfall, the resultant stormwater runoff and its effective (and safe) integration into the
urban environment. By its nature urban development involves the replacement of “soft”
natural surfaces with “hard” man-made surfaces which have an impact on the natural
hydrological cycle. Traditional urban drainage approaches have sought to deal with rainfall
runoff by capturing it and transferring it through predominantly underground pipe networks to
the nearest receiving watercourse. Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) offer an alternative
to the traditional approach by attempting to mimic the predevelopment natural surfaces by
providing “soft” surfaces on or integrated with the “hard” urban surfaces. In this way the
SuDS approach aims to restore or replicate some of the natural elements and processes of the
hydrological cycle. A key element in the successful implementation of a SuDS approach and
therefore the achievement of a sustainable urban environment is the early consideration of
SuDS design. The onus for this early consideration lies with all the major stakeholder in
urban design, from Architects and Developers to Local Councils and Governments.
Impact of Urban Development on the Hydrological Cycle
The Hydrological Cycle as illustrated in Figure 1, describes the journey through which water
falling as rainfall or precipitation makes its way overland across a landscape into lakes and
rivers and into groundwater, via percolation through soils and rock strata, and ultimately to
seas and oceans. Evaporation from these water bodies and transpiration from the vegetation
that absorbs water, allows the migration of water fluxes to the atmosphere, where rainclouds
form and the cycle begins again.
3
Figure 1: Schematic of the Hydrological Cycle (Iowa State University)
In its most natural form the land based portion of the Hydrological Cycle provides a
series of simple treatment stages which assist in maintaining the natural quality of the water.
Examples of these treatment stages include: filtration by vegetation, soils and rock strata;
insect and microbial activities within the soils and water bodies; and UV radiation. Water
quantity management is also provided by the natural landscapes which provide water storage,
and thereby flood attenuation, within the soils, lakes and rivers.
The journey water takes through the Hydrological Cycle promotes the establishment
and evolution of a variety of ecosystems providing natural treatment processes (as outlined
above) which help maintain the water quality. This environmental and ecological biodiversity
and the natural water features themselves also have a significant direct and indirect amenity
value.
4
Land development introduces new components and processes into the Hydrological
Cycle and in particular urban development, which typically involves the replacement of the
“soft” and permeable natural surfaces with “hard” man-made surfaces which are significantly
less permeable and often impermeable. The introduction of such “hard” surfaces can lead to
water quality and quantity issues as the impermeable surfaces can remove or bypass many of
the natural treatment processes and water storage capabilities. The reduced water storage
capacity can be further exacerbated by the increased rate at which water travels across “hard”
surfaces which can result in a higher quantity of water reaching a stream or river sooner than
under natural drainage conditions, and this can often increase the risk of flooding and flood
impacts. Traditional urban drainage approaches have historically not adequately managed the
impact of these “hard” surfaces on the natural Hydrological Cycle.
Traditional Urban Drainage
Urban development has traditionally managed rainfall runoff from the “hard” man-made
surfaces associated with buildings, courtyards, driveways, pavements and roads by directing
the runoff water into pipe networks, the majority of which are underground, and which have
typically been designed to convey the water away from the urban area to the nearest
waterbody as quickly as possible.
In capturing rainfall in a closed underground network of pipes, this traditional
approach makes no attempt to replicate the natural treatment processes that would have
occurred in the predevelopment setting. In addition by closing the water cycle in this way, the
opportunity to maintain or reestablish some of the predevelopment biodiversity is lost.
Traditional urban drainage has serious shortcomings in terms of its management of
water quality and quantity. Rainfall runoff from roads is directed towards grated or open pits
which connect to the underground pipe systems. As the clean rainfall runs across the roads
and pavements it is comingled with sediment which is often laden with pollutants e.g.
hydrocarbons from cars as well as litter. Rainfall from building roofs and courtyards which is
still relative clean is also connected to the same system as the road drainage. Examples of the
potential impacts and implications of sediment, litter and other pollutants on urban drainage
systems are presented in Figure 2.
5
Figure 2: Examples of how rainfall runoff becomes comingled with sediment, litter and other
pollutants
Piped drainage systems are, by definition, closed systems and therefore have limited
flexibility to manage stormwater flows in excess of the capacity they have been designed for.
The build-up of sediment, litter and other objects as well as tree root ingress can lead to a
significant reduction of the pipe’s design conveyance capacity over time. Often these issues
are not addressed as they only become evident when localised flooding occurs as depicted in
Figure 3. The nature of closed pipe drainage systems presents significant constraints to the
effective monitoring and maintenance of these systems over the life of the asset.
Figure 3: Examples of blocked or under capacity drainage systems
6
Over the past few decades the traditional urban drainage approach has been modified
to incorporate additional elements such as stormwater tanks and detention basins to attenuate
the flow of water, particularly during rainstorms and floods, and interceptors and other
treatment devices to improve water quality. While these additions have improved urban
drainage, they are usually added or retrofitted to the drainage network near of at the point of
discharge to the receiving waterbody and as a result do not address the root cause of many of
the water quantity and quality issues associated with the traditional urban drainage approach.
SuDS principles and approaches seek to address these issues by controlling and managing
them at their source.
Sustainable Drainage Systems Approach
SuDS presents a relatively simple alternative to the traditional urban drainage approach and
seeks to create urban developments which are more sympathetic to the natural Hydrological
Cycle by introducing “softer” and more natural surfaces onto the “harder” man-made surfaces
associated with urban development. The SuDS philosophy is to replicate some of the
elements in the natural land based portion of Hydrological Cycle and in doing so promote
sustainable management of water Quantity and Quality as well as providing social and
environmental value and benefits through Amenity and Habitat Biodiversity. These are the
main objectives of the SuDS philosophy.
SuDS features and their application can be catagorised simplistically as follows:
• Road Drainage – instead of the use of grated pits and underground pipes a
combination of permeable paving and swales can be used. The water flows from the
road to the permeable paving where it is allowed to infiltrate through small gaps
between the paving blocks into an unground layer of filter material e.g. crushed rock,
while the sediment, litter and other comingled substances remain on the surface. As
an alternative to permeable paving, the roads can drain directly into a swale which
provides a similar filtration effect as the grass in the swale slows down the flow of
water allowing suspended sediment and litter to settle and remain on the surface while
the water can percolate through the soil. In trapping sediment in this way, the vast
majority of pollutants e.g. hydrocarbons are also trapped as they adhere to the
sediment particles. Permeable paving and swales can also be used in combination.
7
• Building Drainage – the SuDS alternative to collecting runoff water from roofs and
driveways (or other hard standing areas) in pipes which are connected to underground
systems, is to use features such as green roofs and rain gardens. Both of these features
serve a similar purpose in reducing the speed and quantity of runoff from buildings by
guiding the rainfall through vegetated surfaces before entering the building drainage
pipes. These features also assist with the preservation of the natural water quality of
the rainfall by providing filtration. Bioretention systems and swales can also be
employed in combination with these features to collect the drainage from individual
buildings.
Figure 4 illustrates an example of how SuDS elements can be simply integrated into an
urban design and development. Please note while the Figure is purely illustrative it is based
on similar integrated designs undertaken by the author.
Figure 4: Illustrative example of SuDS integration into an Urban Development
8
The SuDS approach manages the quantity of water runoff in a number of ways which
including the following:
• SuDS are predominantly open systems which have the flexibility to cope with a
variety of rainstorms as well as being easy to maintain.
• SuDS features typically incorporate vegetation and soil layers which provide water
retention.
• SuDS features promote groundwater recharge by slowing down the water flow and
allowing percolation into the underground strata.
• SuDS features promote evaporation and evapotranspiration through the use of
conveyance features which are predominantly open to the atmosphere.
It should be noted that for significant flood management, the SuDS approach still
recognizes the need for stormwater detention and retentions basins in a similar way to that of
the traditional urban drainage approach, however in a SuDS design these basins would
typically be smaller and more widespread throughout the catchment rather than at a few
locations at the downstream end of the catchment near the point of discharge to the receiving
waterbody.
SuDS manage Water Quality through a treatment train approach which considers the
likelihood and extent to which rainfall runoff will come in contact with pollutants. In most
instances one or two treatment stages are required however in some cases where potential risk
and impacts of water quality and pollution effects on the water environment are particularly
high e.g. refueling stations, up to four levels of treatment trains may be required. Figure 5
illustrates a treatment train for a typical urban development.
9
Figure 5: Typical SuDS Treatment Train.
With regard to the other objectives of the SuDS approach – Habitat Biodiversity and
Amenity, these are inherent characteristics of almost all SuDS features by virtue of the
adoption and application of natural and vegetated surfaces employed. Green roofs are a great
example of a SuDS feature which promotes biodiversity and amenity as they can be designed
to provide habitats for a wide variety of plant, animal and insect life, can be a place for
recreation and also help regulate building temperature by insulating during the winter and
absorbing heat during the summer.
Implementation of SuDS
SuDS have been adopted by many local authorities and other governing bodies in the UK and
Ireland and similar approaches have become the standard approach in many European
Countries. In North America SuDS approaches are referred to as best management practice
(BMP) and low-impact development (LID). In Australia, Water Sensitive Urban Design
(WSUD) is being promoted by many of the Water Authorities and Local Councils as an
integral component of the urban planning, design and development process. Although not
covered in this paper, a clear and useful description of the development, evolution and
application of terminology surrounding urban drainage around the world and across
disciplines is provided in Fletcher et al (2015)
10
Successful implementation of SuDS is reliant on its consideration at the earliest stages
of planning and design and as such it is paramount for Developers and Architects and other
Stakeholder, including local, regional and national policymakers, to embrace it as the standard
approach. In considering SuDS at the earliest stages, SuDS features can be relatively easily
integrated into urban design of all types and scales without increasing construction costs or
reducing the allowable development density and or footprint. In fact the development
footprint could be extended by including elements such as green roofs, rain gardens, swales
and permeable paving, as significant portions of a development’s open space requirement for
amenity and flood storage would be contained within and spread throughout the development
footprint itself rather than transferred to the downstream environment. In this way SuDS
could present real financial benefits to Developers. On a macro scale, the implementation of
SuDS in developments across a catchment can provide significant social and financial benefits
to the Local Government by reducing costs associated with water treatment and potential
remediation of flood damage.
Management of water in general has become a key challenge in modern society,
particularly as the urban footprint expands further and the density of urban developments
increase, and SuDS presents a practical and viable means in which urban development can be
effectively integrated with sustainable water management.
References
Construction Industry Research and Information Association - CIRIA (2007) The SuDS Manual
(C753) – available from
http://www.ciria.org/Resources/Free_publications/SuDS_manual_C753.aspx
Dublin Drainage (2005) Greater Dublin Strategic Drainage Study – available from
http://www.greaterdublindrainage.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/GDSDS-Final-Strategy-
Report-April-051.pdf
Fletcher, T.D., Shuster, W., Hunt, W. F., Ashley, R., Butler, D., Arthur, S., Trowsdale, S., Barraud, S.,
Semadeni-Davies, A., Bertrand-Krajewski, J., Mikkelsen, P. S., Rivard, G., Uhl, M., Dagenais, D.,
and Viklander, M. (2015) ‘SUDS, LID, BMPs, WSUD and more – The evolution and application of terminology surrounding urban drainage’, Urban Water Journal, 12 (7), 525-542.
Iowa State University (?) The Hydrological Cycle – available from http://www.buffer.forestry.iastate.edu/Photogallery/illustrations/Images/Hydrologic-Cycle.jpg
How can Branding Make a City Smart?
Lee Valentine
Partner and General Manager, Hoyne
99 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, 2000
Paper Presented at the
9th International Urban Design Conference
Canberra, 7 – 9th November 2016
How can Branding Make a City Smart?
ABSTRACT: In order to create the smart cities of the future, industry members need to
work together to build a cohesive vision. By bringing together urban planners, architects,
developers, councils, landscape designers, politicians, researchers, economists and health
specialists, who all know what people want from their specific vantage point, we can build
smart cities for tomorrow and not just for today. This is all well and good but how do we
translate these utopian visions for the future into reality?
When it comes to smart placemaking, branding can create a sense of belonging and purpose
from very early on. Clear branding in the early stages will also substantially speed up the
process of securing investment, and creating social and economic benefits for decades to
come. This is vital for engaging the community, industry members and the entire project team
– as well as creating project momentum.
Branding, when done correctly, is a reflection of the sprit or personality of a community and
connects directly with existing residents, potential buyers, investors and businesses. It can
help instil a sense of community pride, increase community cohesion and improve economic
performance. Although we can often understand the benefits of a smart city on an intellectual
level, the real challenge is getting people to emotionally engage with a sometimes distant-
seeming concept. Brands can ignite pride, confidence and energy in communities that allow
groundbreaking smart urban innovation to take place.
The new city centre for Maroochydore by SunCentral, a corporation set up by the Sunshine
Coast Council, is a great example of a community that wants to evolve and become a
prosperous, smart ecosystem. The brand positions the new city as ‘smart’, with state of the
art technology providing digital solutions throughout. The brand is used to illustrate a vision,
setting forward a smart city blueprint to achieve long-lasting success.
Keywords: Branding, urban design, placemaking, communities.
Stop Thinking About Logos
Before I attempt to answer the question of how branding can make a city smart, let’s make
sure we are all on the same page about what I mean by branding. Branding is not a logo, it is
not the smiling face of the Colonel you see outside drive-through chicken shops or the
famous Nike swish on the shoes most of us have in our wardrobes. Logos and branding –
people often confuse the two.
When it comes to creating a brand for a community – whether that is for a city, an
emerging suburb, a greenfield site or a new development in an established but dreary location
– branding (or re-branding) is the thing that helps create a sense of belonging and purpose
from very early on.
Branding done correctly – combining research, strategy, creativity and long-term
investment – is actually a reflection of the spirit or personality of a community. It can connect
directly with existing residents and business owners, as well as potential residents and
business owners. It can help instil a sense of community pride, increase community cohesion,
attract business investment and improve economic performance.
For a lot of people, when they think about branding and new developments, both
residential and commercial, the first things that come to mind are the big hoardings you see
outside city towers, maybe the flags around display villages for house and land developments
(and the associated freeway billboards) plus things like ads in bus shelters and so forth.
That’s not what I’m talking about here.
Effective branding – as I mean it – is something that delivers long-lasting results and
economic benefits to a community. It must be meaningful, inspiring, protected, encouraged
and maintained.
When it comes to fledgling communities, branding can establish a personality and
point of view so people can jump on board and feel part of a very appealing story. The
optimism and ambition inherent to the brand can be picked up and acted on in their own lives
and actions.
With flagging communities, branding can reignite people’s pride in a place. It can
create or support new expressions of confidence and energy in the streets.
Start Thinking About Stories
Ever heard a psychologist say you have to change the tape you play in your head if
you want to change your life? Maybe you’ve heard them say you have to change the way you
tell your life story – or that trendy word ‘narrative’. In many ways these ideas also feed
directly into what good and effective branding is. It’s the story we tell about a community,
about our people.
Everyone wants to feel like we’re part of something bigger, special and unique. That’s
why we paint our faces and head to the football with mates or share family holiday snapshots
on Facebook. We want to belong and participate in our own special communities and be part
of that story.
Every area – in terms of a suburb or region – has its story but sometimes the heritage
or distinction once linked to it has been undervalued, belittled or forgotten. A lot of the
branding you see around today, whether that’s public realm, new precincts or property
developments, is very homogenous. It could be swapped over to a different office tower, a
different civic building or a different house and land estate and no one would blink twice.
To brand a place you actually need to determine how a community wants to see itself.
This involves all members of the community, including various age groups, socio-economic
categories, retail, local businesses and major employers. It’s about tapping into that distinct
persona and figuring out how to bring it to life.
Achieving this entails drawing from aspirational desires while breathing new life into
heritage or historical aspects. This is how you create a distinct identity, which is authentic,
not manufactured.
Never Forget Tomorrow
Branding should create an inspiring vision of a community, of how things will or should be,
based on the facilities and activities in place or in progress.
It has to inspire progressive businesses to set up shop, where they can meet the needs
of a community, but also grow and prosper as a commercial entity. This is equally true for a
city centre or a newly created suburb.
By setting up a community to have a strong, cohesive message, you make it attractive
and inspiring to existing residents and businesses as well as potential visitors, new residents
and new commercial opportunities. Everything becomes interconnected and by that I mean
employment, education, transport and other infrastructure.
Now Consider Maroochydore
So now that I’ve strayed into a branding essay, let me actually show you how it works and
what it can achieve using the Queensland city of Maroochydore as an example. We’ve been
doing a lot of work up there and it is without doubt one of the most exciting projects I’ve
worked on in my 30-year career.
This audience will have heard the term ‘smart city’ many times before – it’s most
commonly linked to the infrastructure that communities are building to continuously improve
the collection, aggregation and use of data to improve quality of life.
And there is so much data to draw on now - from schools, libraries, transport systems,
hospitals, power plants, water supply networks, waste management and law enforcement –
that we should be able to harness it and use it to improve the efficiency of city services now
and apply it to future plans.
But ‘smart’ also refers to being clever and agile, thinking ahead and being able to
change with the times. It’s about being able to care for your citizens and for their descendants
and give them a great way of life.
Smart cities of the future can only be created if industry members work together to
build a cohesive vision. And by this I mean everyone from urban planners and architects to
councils and developers, landscape architects, politicians, researchers, economists and health
specialists.
With all these factors considered, Maroochydore is well on its way to being the very
definition of a smart city. Up until now, this is not the reputation that Maroochydore has
enjoyed. It’s definitely the capital of the Sunshine Coast in terms of its size. And it has grown
organically over the years but it has developed a very unhelpful nickname of “God’s waiting
room” for a reason.
If you grow up in Maroochydore you tend to move out after school, in search of more
opportunities. You also move out to find bars and restaurants that stay open after 10pm! You
come back again in retirement, to take up fishing and well… wait. The economy of the area
has traditionally been seen as too reliant on tourism which, because of its variability or
fluctuations, fails as foundation for attracting other investment and industry. All that is about
to change.
Just a kilometre from the Pacific shore, positioned at the heart of the Sunshine Coast a
new city centre is being built from scratch, which will be the heart and soul of the Sunshine
Coast. The development will provide a business, entertainment and leisure precinct for a
community and entire region that – despite being Australia’s ninth-largest city region – has
never really had a defined commercial centre.
SunCentral Maroochydore Pty Ltd, a corporation set up by the Sunshine Coast
Council, was created in 2015 to oversee the delivery and design of the new city centre.
SunCentral’s Board is made up of exactly the kind of mix I referred to a minute ago. You’ve
got everyone from a former Under Treasurer at Queensland Treasury and Chief Executive of
the Queensland Investment Corporation to a leading Brisbane lawyer, a philanthropist and
investment consultant, a former head of Brisbane City Council’s urban planning department
and a former Brisbane City Council CEO. Their talents, experience and points of view draw
from a blend of national and international urban infrastructure and commercial development.
SunCentral’s job description was to build a Central Business District designed
specifically for the twenty-first century – a premier destination for business, residents and
visitors that could shape the region’s future for generations.
And because the city centre is being built on an unencumbered infill site – a golf
course which dominated the centre of town (kind of sets the retirement tone don’t you think?)
– they can embed a high-speed fibre-optic network in Maroochydore’s underground
infrastructure. This means the Central Business District can implement the very latest ‘smart
city’ technologies.
Other major infrastructure on its way, such as the new $2-billion Sunshine Coast
University Hospital and health precinct (opening April 2017), and a planned expansion of the
Sunshine Coast Airport – making the whole thing more promising, more necessary and more
exciting. In terms of a branding project for Hoyne, this is a dream job.
As we get more and more involved in placemaking in our day-to-day business (we’ve
just published a book that discusses the real world social and economic benefits of effective
placemaking called The Place Economy), we look for clients who agree and understand that
branding, when leveraged at the very beginning of the development phase, is essential. It
establishes a really strong message, engages the local community and attracts business from
interstate and overseas.
Then See How It’s Done
We encountered Maroochydore like most people do, as a lovely holiday destination with a
relaxed lifestyle. The people are warm and friendly but it’s fair to say the town lacks
diversity… and young people. Let’s just say there is not a huge Pokemon GO-chasing
problem!
The Board of SunCentral has a very sophisticated understanding of branding. They
agreed with us from the outset that the challenge would be to shift the perception of
Maroochydore away from being a sleepy seaside town and over to an energised, thriving,
future-focused city.
One sticking point that we came up against was the name of the new city centre. Talk
had already circulated that it would be called SunCentral. Not only did we feel the name
change was confusing and an unnecessary complication for everyone from posties to existing
businesses, we also felt it was an abandonment of everyone’s connection to the place.
Maroochydore will remain Maroochydore, but now it will be the swan of the region – not the
octogenarian ugly duckling.
Here is an overview to give you an idea of the scope of this project: Approximately
500,000 people are expected to call this region home by 2036. The new city centre is a 53-
hectare development that is Australia’s only central business district greenfield development
within an existing urban area. Estimates show the new central business district will provide a
$4.4 billion boost to the Sunshine Coast economy over the next 20 years, and we’re talking a
$5.9 billion boost for the entire Queensland economy. It will generate 15,000 jobs within the
next decade – and create an estimated 30,000 new jobs by 2040. Prime commercial zones
will sit alongside dining and entertainment precincts serviced with efficient public transport,
new city streets and a network of paths for cyclists and pedestrians. This will encourage the
city’s workers, residents and visitors to move seamlessly from work to play and day to night.
Approximately 2000 residential apartments will be a 5-minute walk from the central business
district’s professional and business services, as well as hotels, restaurants, shopping and
waterways. Built-in state-of-the-art technology will provide digital solutions for street
lighting, car parking, water, power and signage, and Maroochydore will be serviced by an
underground automated waste collection system. In a nutshell, Maroochydore rebooted
represents a chance to create a city of the future, where sustainable design and state-of-the-art
technology connects a flourishing subtropical coastal region to the rest of the country and the
world.
Before commencing our branding work, we always conduct exhaustive research. With
Maroochydore, we discovered an overriding attitude that the Sunshine Coast didn’t appear
business-focused enough to attract investors. Any campaign we came up with had to
communicate the amazing growth potential and demonstrate to developers and investors why
the city will be such a great place to do business – a region evolving to become a prosperous,
smart ecosystem.
To our way of thinking, Maroochydore could fulfil two roles. One: it can be
Australia’s Silicon Valley, a unique combination of entrepreneurial business-people, great
cultural appeal, a dynamic population, state-of-the-art infrastructure and sustainability
initiatives – all enhanced by climate and setting. Two: it can also be the back room in terms
of business, where major companies locate their headquarters and all the real work is done.
We compared it to a sunnier, sleeker version of Parramatta and the role it plays in Sydney –
except in this scenario, Brisbane is Queensland’s Sydney.
We decided to leverage Maroochydore’s name in its own right and position it as one
of the most advanced communities in Australia, with a bright future for residents, business
and investors alike.
Bright became the word that captured the new spirit, vision and reality of
Maroochydore. Maroochydore and ‘THE BRIGHT CITY’ was born. The brand positions the
new city as ‘smart’, with cutting edge technology providing digital solutions throughout. The
brand is used to illustrate a vision, setting forward a smart city blueprint to achieve long-
lasting success. Maroochydore is a breeding ground for success, a prosperous ecosystem
where people will be proud, and where business can thrive.
This is a great example of a community that wants to evolve. There is a collective
desire for a better future, and the brand is utilised to illustrate the vision. It also demonstrates
how clever thinking in the early stages will substantially speed up the process of securing
investment, and in turn creating social and economic benefits for decades to come.
In May, the Mayor of Maroochydore hit the road, travelling to the USA to showcase
‘THE BRIGHT CITY’, attract investors and attract funding. We’ve also launched a global
EOI campaign. Market response has been hugely positive, with some very significant
development and building construction currently under commercial negotiation. The varying
types of interest include commercial/office, retail, entertainment, education and mixed use
residential (apartments) – and the project has already enjoyed great support locally.
Maroochydore ‘THE BRIGHT CITY’ will work because it’s real. Successful
community branding – the kind that will positively affect personal outlooks and impact the
economic buoyancy of a place – is not about putting lipstick on a pig. It’s about galvanising
everything positive, exceptional and possible about a place and expressing that in a clear,
inspiring and trustworthy way. And, of course, it’s about delivering it!
The Future of Architects- involvement in City Shaping.
Chris Williamson
RIBA Ambassador for Business Skills
London, United Kingdom
Paper presented at the 9th International Urban Design Conference
Hyatt, Canberra 7-9 November 2016
The Future of Architects- involvement in City Shaping.
Abstract: Chris Williamson, RIBA Ambassador for Business Skills writes about city making
and how architects can become more involved as new technologies present new business
opportunities. Also visit architectureskills.com
Keywords: City shaping, urban society, transport, technology
Introduction:
I believe Architects need to be as interested in what makes cities work as the design of
individual buildings. That is certainly born out by the work of Weston Williamson which
celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. 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 which shape the city and effectively
make it work.
“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 was 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 Augustus’s Pantheon.
Computers, televisions, radio, mobile phones, cameras and other technological advances
would amaze him. Building materials and construction techniques unimaginable in ancient
Rome allowing much greater possibilities. But the biggest shock might be the way we move
between and around our cities. The cars, buses, trains, aeroplanes, 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 allow such
immense possibilities it is only possible to forecast change without the knowledge of what
that change will be. They 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.
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 generally with 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 the heat and cold
and 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 based on the teachings of a man who had few followers during Tiberius’s
reign. The divisions of race and religion would too come as little surprise to the Emperor
although 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 of 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 astounded by the instrumentation
and technology.
My point in this absurd imagining is that our minds and bodies are essentially the
same after 2000 years but the technological advances are immense. Even in the last 50 years
the way our cities are and can be shaped has developed rapidly but the focus is still on
satisfying the same essential needs in man. So how does this effect 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 2000 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. It is not just at the monumental scale where similarities should
be drawn. At a domestic scale the needs of shelter and also the forms and scale of
construction is 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 BIM 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. The economist Paul Buchanan explains that we have traditionally travelled around
1hour to work. This would be true in 16 AD as it is now. The workers of Rome might have
walked or rode to the fields or 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.
Weston Williamson have recently drawn up a scheme for a hyperloop ( a vacuum tube with a
maglev train travelling at 1000k 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 empowers also us. If we want to move people out of their cars we
have to make public transport much better. More reliable, more comfortable.
There are other exciting possibilities. London is being transformed by the
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. Weston Williamson’s
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 Thyssen 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 Thyssen, 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, 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 Crewe, or southern
Malaysia or northern California. The design would be site specific whilst adopting the design
principles which we suggest.
We 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 much needed
quality housing in the UK. At the moment 15,000 homes are proposed at Ebbsfleet when so
many more are possible and are necessary. 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.
Greener technologies will power new vehicles, and if Automated Vehicles can be
designed to move on a variety of terrains, we can dispense of roads altogether. They can
move through any landscape. This will totally redraw man’s imprint on the planet. There will
be land available currently used for car parking which will not be necessary. This alone will
transform the look and feel of our cities.
The UK Government’s passion for infrastructure is welcome. When Weston
Williamson designed the London Bridge Station for the Jubilee Line Extension in the 1990s it
was seen as a purely transport 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 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 has transformed those
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”
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 also at
Canary Wharf where the developer saw the advantage of investing in the Crossrail station
because of the increased numbers of people that can be moved. Companies will not relocate
the headquarters unless their workers can move around the city in a humane way. Crossrail
will be 30% funded from private finance through a combination of rates, taxes and levies.
Crossrail 2 will see this figure increase to closer to 50%.
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 at random
leaps rather than a smooth continuum. What we do know is that not only Architects but
society at large face great challenges. If the 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 think, 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 in some way 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 a great optimism in 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
Further thoughts are on www.transportorienteddevelopment.com
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