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In the first part of this text, we put into the timeframe of smart city design and the best time frame for investors in the building. In the following, we will explain the goals in the short, medium and long term.
The first part can be read here: Part I
Road map of Smart City Design
BACpress: In developing solutions for smart cities, there needs to be more than just one timeframe. Technology, climate change, political cycles and many other factors are subject to rapid change, and predicting the future is extremely difficult. A better option is to develop a roadmap that focuses on short, medium and long-term strategies for sustainable, smart development.
Short term
Short-term considerations should be relatively stable and cover a period of 2-3 years. This provides a relative degree of certainty assuming that the political climate is stable. Key focuses should be on future-proofing infrastructure, the approach to procurement strategies and the ability of the client to ensure that it has the flexibility and understanding to adopt and react to change.
Medium term
The medium term can look forward 5 to 10 years. Solutions proposed, business plans and drivers may change but the future-proofed infrastructure and procurement strategies adoptedin the short-term plan should be able to accommodate them.
Long term
Beyond the 10 year timescale, projects are best set within the perspective of a vision:
♦What is the city aiming to be?
♦What are its goals and objectives?
♦What is its overall strategy for achieving this?
The client has to be able to subscribe to long-term asset development and optimisation of value; simply focussing on the short-term and medium will not maximise the whole life-cycle ROI (return on investment) potential or the opportunity to ensure the city remains sustainablefor its inhabitants. The overall framework and underpinning strategies then need to be revisited on a periodic basis to ensure they remain relevant and fit-for-purpose and are adapting appropriately to external drivers and indicators.
An example of smart city design
New Technologies and Future Cities
Smart Cities is an arena of topicality and no little importance. With the demographic shifts taking place globally, the impact of climate change and the volatility of resource demand and production, the need for a focus on the planning, design and delivery of ‘sustainable’ urban development has never been so great. The appropriate application of emerging technologies offers some hope of achieving greater efficiencies in the way cities operate and citizens live their lives. But too often the focus of the debate is lost.
Technology and ‘smartness’ needs to be taken in context – they are another layer to help improve the ‘sustainability’ of projects, not the answer in themselves. Buro Happold takes the position that first and foremost, urban development needs skilled and experienced teams to promote an effective ‘business case’ allied to first class planning and design as a prerequisite to creating successful urban space. We call this approach ‘The Living City’.
This article was created by —Buro Happold
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