There are significant global challenges to address for which there are no simple solutions, no straightforward answers.

At the same time, both ArchTam EMEA Chief Executive Lara Poloni and I found plenty of reasons to be optimistic, collecting insights and sharing many experiences at this annual gathering of business leaders and policymakers from which to draw inspiration.

For example, there’s incredible passion and resolve among young, emerging leaders advancing new ideas, technology breakthroughs addressing everything from early detection of breast cancer to reducing e-waste, global initiatives aimed at upskilling millions of workers and  partnerships designed to unlock private investment and encourage entrepreneurship.

Underpinning many of the responses to boost economic growth, protect the environment and improve mobility, connectivity and quality of life was infrastructure. In fact, there weren’t many topics that were covered in Davos that our company isn’t part of or thinking about.

As Lara and I engaged on panels and side-bar conversations with clients and leaders from countries around the world, we were able to draw upon the experiences of more than 87,000 colleagues focused every day on delivering transformational outcomes – the kind of outcomes necessary to avert many of the gloomy predictions we heard.

We also had the opportunity to release our 2nd annual research report: The Future of Infrastructure, Voice of the People.

I left Davos feeling proud and energized, with new appreciation for the critical role businesses like ArchTam must play – both in the work we do and through our leadership.

We’ve long understood the value that infrastructure creates. A new Business Roundtable economic study, in fact, finds that in the United States, every $1 invested in roads, bridges, airports, waterways, ports and more can generate nearly $4 in economic growth.

This return on investment isn’t lost on government leaders. Because even with a global undercurrent of uncertainty, there remains an incredible need for modern infrastructure – a need measured into the trillions of dollars.

Government leaders are looking for ideas and partnerships with the private sector to increase the pipeline of bankable projects globally, build capacity and integrate technology to reduce cost and shorten timelines.

This is where I see tremendous opportunities for companies like ours. Not just to design, protect and build – or in the case of cities or regions devastated by natural disasters, build back better– but to demonstrate greater leadership through innovation and advocacy.

New digital tools and pioneering technologies give us the ability to deliver projects faster, better and safer. They allow us to help our clients adapt for what’s next – like electrifying highways to charge connected vehicles, building modular, helping make business and governments more secure and cities smarter.

We can champion resilient infrastructure solutions that address stresses posed by climate change, while also incorporating technologies that can reduce contributing factors, such as carbon emissions. We can also advocate for policies that break down barriers, promote alternative financing, balance risk and advance long-term infrastructure planning that extends beyond administrations and political change.

Our Davos experience this year reaffirms my view that our company, our industry and the business community at large must take on greater responsibilities to work with elected leaders, media, academics and others to find meaningful solutions. We have to think more globally, more creatively – especially at a time when some governments are narrowing their focus.

Walking away from Davos discouraged is the easy way out.

Staying true to our purpose, adhering to the values that define our company and delivering the transformational projects and services for which ArchTam is known will always be the better path for us and the communities and people we impact through our work.

The post Finding Hope and Opportunity Amid the Gloomy Talk in Davos appeared first on Blog.

Brilliant exudes character and confidence. Brilliant works across boundaries in support of a greater vision. Brilliant finds the common ground between private and public to close funding gaps. Brilliant performs technically while achieving broader social and economic benefits. Brilliant overcomes obstacles to get essential projects delivered.

Cities can explore eight steps to capitalize on their strengths, address their weaknesses, and achieve brilliance:

Start at the end

Secure a legacy with strategic planning

What will your city be like in 50 years? Understanding where your city is headed—and how you want to shape its future—should guide how projects and infrastructure are prioritized today. Smart long-term planning anticipates social, economic and environmental changes and builds the strategic direction to secure a positive legacy, for cities and leaders.

Draw a crowd

Energize the center through compact urban design

People come to cities to be near other people. Cities need places where people can come together, places that resonate, inspire and excite; a waterfront promenade or central park, a distinctive district or event center, a signature tower or downtown area. A well-planned project can turn the tide and change a city’s fortune. Cities that work to boost business and celebrate life are positioned to compete and succeed.

Renovations at LAX will help Angelinos and world travelers ‘get there together.’

Get there together

Upgrade transportation to move people and business faster

A city’s economy moves at the pace of its transportation network. Efficient transportation speeds the flow of people, ideas and commerce. Airports and seaports are global gateways. Roads and rail establish regional connections. Bike and walking routes make mobility healthy, inexpensive, and fun. In a great city, access is built into the fabric.

Change the flow

Get more from innovative energy and water infrastructure

We depend upon civil infrastructure to meet our daily needs, but the investments we make for these essential functions can yield wider value when we take new approaches. Stormwater managed naturally can improve the urban landscape, increase property values and protect our waterways. Recycled wastewater can green our parks and neighborhoods. Solid waste treated organically can reduce landfill and produce energy for homes.

The restoration of Echo Park Lake is helping LA ‘change the flow.’

Make green pay

Take environmental action that provides an economic boost Investments in the environment can yield financial and social dividends. As cities take measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change, remediate contamination, and protect and restore natural environments, they are finding a wealth of benefits, from energy savings and cleaner air to rising real estate values and healthier people. It creates a better climate for business and community.

Ignore borders

Collaborate across agencies and boundaries for bigger results

Challenges do not follow the boundaries of departments and municipalities. Neither should solutions. To compete at a global level, cities need to advance in step with their supporting regions. This means collaborating across disciplines and jurisdictions, and cooperating and planning at the regional level, to see the bigger picture, connect better ideas and find smarter solutions.

Act now

Identify and address physical and cyber vulnerability

Buildings and bridges are joining the internet of things. This increases the need for cyber security, along with security against physical attacks, violent weather, earthquakes, and decay over time. Proactive solutions begin with a comprehensive vulnerability assessment. Anticipating the most likely points of attack or failure lets a city know where to invest to prevent or mitigate disaster before it strikes.

A public-private partnership for the Gov. George Deukmejian Courthouse helped Long Beach ‘finish ahead.’

Finish ahead

Get projects funded, built and operating sooner

Public budgets are stretched. Roads, bridges, water systems, hospitals, schools and courthouses need maintenance or new structures, but there are new ways around old obstacles. Partnering the public and private sectors and linking the phases of a project’s life cycle can speed construction, reduce cost, increase performance and manage risk. It’s time to take advantage of the alternatives.

Stephen Engblom (Stephen.engblom@archtam.com) is an urban planner and designer, and global director of ArchTam Cities.

The post Eight steps to a brilliant city appeared first on Blog.

In Germany, we had 10 international ULI advisors, drawn from a wide range of professionals in real-estate development, government, academia, and consulting. Over the course of six days, we visited some of the emerging and challenged areas in both Frankfurt and Offenbach. We interviewed over 80 officials and representatives of local businesses and community organizations. And of course we had a lot of late nights comparing notes, deliberating, and preparing our conclusions.

We ultimately presented our findings to the city mayors, stakeholders, and media at a scheduled conference in the Offenbach City Hall.

We noted that Frankfurt’s strength as a global city was not assured, and that it was increasingly challenged in a number of performance rankings, not only due to international competition but also underperformance in workforce diversity. We drew parallels to similar conditions in other metropolitan areas (e.g. Philadelphia and Camden, NJ, Central London and its eastern boroughs, Shanghai and the industrial areas along Suzhou Creek.) We argued that despite their past economic and cultural differences, the identities of both Frankfurt and Offenbach were complementary. In particular, we noted that Offenbach represented a promising opportunity to attract new workforce talent by developing hubs for creative industries and business incubators, and leveraging an extraordinary amount of existing ethnic diversity (over 147 nationalities) and entrepreneurship.

We integrated our proposals into a broad, long-term spatial vision for ‘Mainhohe’ (‘Water Height’) a consolidated, high-density, mixed-use area at the interlocking junction of Frankfurt and Offenbach along the Main River. We also proposed a series of four major catalytic projects. The principal catalytic strategy was the re-purposing of an existing metropolitan rail alignment into S-Bahn service between the Frankfurt International Airport and Offenbach, which not only stitched the two urban areas together more effectively, but also connected the aggregated metropolitan population more effectively to the broader German hinterland via high-speed rail. We also outlined a series of 10 ‘quick wins’, ranging from the production of touristic maps that integrated information of both cities, to the upgrading of public realm in key areas.

The mayors of Frankfurt and Offenbach praised the recommendations, and we received many positive comments from other civic organizations. The ULI will publish the report in Fall 2015.

Chris Choa (chris.choa@archtam.com) is an urban design principal in ArchTam’s London office.

The post Frankfurt and Offenbach: how two cities can grow together appeared first on Blog.

“The most important issue that faces all landscape architects, environmental planners and designers in the 21st century will be precisely the integration, perhaps by shotgun, of current economic and political thinking with ecological reality.” -Garret Eckbo, 1960

“The efforts to make the Heavenly City may be compared to fish eggs, spawned by the million, lost and devoured by other organisms, but occasionally producing a new model which could not have been predicted or designed but may have virtues of its own.” -Scott Greer, Metropolitics, 1963

Introduction

After World War II, American cities were formed without significant evaluation of design, environment, economics, and therefore failed to factor in environmental and social costs. Focusing on Los Angeles and four main themes: connecting the mountains to the bay, a new coast line, smart corridors, eco-grid, and architecture and environmental engineering technology, we will discuss radical shifts in population distribution and demographics, demands for water and energy, circulation options and shifts in social and cultural values.

A new vision for Los Angeles’ future is to reclaim its heritage–an oasis between the desert and the sea–by reversing the impacts of the 20^th century and realigning the configuration of the metropolis with the ecology of the Los Angeles Basin. The plan calls for radical shifts in thinking, bold leadership and passionate citizenry and illustrates necessary steps in 10-year increments.

By embracing this plan, Los Angeles will continue the California dream for the next 100 years.

Vision: Los Angeles, the ecological metropolis, capital of the Pacific age

Imagine what the Los Angeles of 2106 will look like. The enormity of this challenge is best addressed by using metrics that help us understand what happens to a city in 100 years. Like looking at the rings of a tree to see how much growth has occurred over a certain span of time; so it is with a city. The best metric we have is what has happened in Los Angeles in the past 100 years – what decisions influenced the shape of the city and by extension what decisions must we start making now in order to set our vision of a bright future in place.

Looking at the LA of today it’s easy to get paralyzed by any one of its many mega-opportunities or crisis points. The cities we live with today were made by groups of men and women who came before us evaluating and weighing in on design, environment, economics, and planning shaped how we live today – often using economic metrics that failed to factor in environmental and social costs.

Whose version of the future are we living now? In 1939, GM sponsored a pavilion at the New York World’s Fair showcasing new patterns of suburban development, clover leaf highway, and single family houses full of disposable house-wares; nuclear families set the vision of the American Dream. Millions of visitors from across our young country visited this pavilion and saw this vision of the future. Shortly after WWII, they demanded it. Although New York is where this vision began, Los Angeles is where this idealized version of this vision of the future has been most literally realized. Today, this model of the future is being replicated at a quickening pace across Asia.

LA set policies, authored business plans, engineered infrastructure and styled a new way of living to realize this vision. Huge population growth, technology advances and engineering marvels all rose to the occasion propelling the US to unsurpassed economic supremacy – to the point where if California were ranked against national world economies it would be 8th. Yet, as amazing as this economic rise seems, the environmental costs of this dream have yet to be tallied. Socio-economic isolation, environmental degradation, economic and environmental dependence from outside sources typifies the threats to Los Angeles.

Today we are setting a new course toward the future. The world cannot afford to build 1939’s vision of the future; the world now looks at Los Angeles to change the course of History.

Today, using Los Angeles as our test model, we will show you how the city of the future will look in 2106, as well as show you what a time line of planned and unplanned events and decisions might look in order to get there.

Today’s global stage offers some clues as to what may be in store for the metropolises of the world. We see the center of global economic activity shifting to the Pacific Rim and by extension; Los Angeles will become center stage. We believe that Los Angeles will be the metropolitan capital of this era. Advantages in climate, geography, economy, and cultural diversity put Los Angeles way ahead of the strong Asian Cities. However, Los Angeles is hindered by antiquated infrastructure and dependence on imported resources – areas in which Asia is making investments and advancements on a grand scale.

Climate change and natural disasters are also shaping the events of our world – biodiversity implosion, according to NASA, may eliminate ½ of the species on earth in the next century. Mainly due to habitat loss, land fragmentation, climate change, and elevated CO2, largely caused by how we built our cities in the past 100 years, this is particularly tragic: the Los Angeles Plain ecosystem, once one of the world’s richest, is now decimated.

Radical shifts in population distribution and demographics, demands for water and energy, circulation options and shifts in social/cultural values will all take place.

Our vision for the city’s future is to reclaim this heritage and make Los Angeles the place it was meant to be: an oasis of life in an arid land. The City of the Future rejects the city making principles of the industrial age, and calls for realigning the metropolitan configuration with the land instead of against it. This seemingly simple idea will require radical shifts in thinking, bold leadership and passionate citizenry. Like all great ages before us, the City of the ecological age will require great advances in design, environmental understanding, economic strategy, technology and engineering – all of which we believe are already in our midst.

“Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Be bold and mighty forces shall come to your aid.” -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Four bold moves

1. Repair the watershed – restore the Los Angeles River and the entire watershed, re-charge aquifers and envision a water self sufficient region.
2. Envision a new coastline – plan for and embrace the new coastline due to sea-level rise.
3. Eco-grid: establish and preserve open spaces from the mountains to the bay.
4. Smart corridors: re-invent the transportation infrastructure to support the city’s continued growth

Restoring the Los Angeles Basin watershed

Los Angeles occupies one of the most majestic locations in the world, poetically situated between the mountains and the sea. Few cities in the world have residents who can say they can surf in the morning and ski at night. We believe this statement is critical to the future of Los Angeles and the magic of this lifestyle is why we need to restore the connections between the Los Angeles Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Los Angeles’ overdependence on imported water is an antiquated idea whose time is gone. Restoring the watersheds means an opportunity to recharge underground resources, provide a local source of fresh water, reestablish part of a once extraordinary desert wetland oasis, and heal our environmentally devastated harbors. Advances in today’s technology can amplify this benefit through fog and cloud farming as well as tidal technology.

Catching the wave

Perhaps the most significant change facing the cities of the future is the rise in sea level– the majority of our cities are near or at the coastline. How this rise in sea level affects Los Angeles will be significant. We embrace this change and believe that there are huge environmental and economic gains in doing so. We must look beyond the short-sighted fear of the unknown affects of this sea-rise and plan how to take advantage of this dramatic new change. Predictions range from one to more than 90 feet of rise, for the sake of our plan we assume a rise of 25’.

In LA, this will result in a harbor to rival New York or Sydney. With bold leadership, radical shifts in environmental priorities and economic strategies, we can transform the inundated industrial areas, made obsolete with new technologies, and many of the adjacent residential neighborhoods that make up the majority of the areas that would be inundated in time to meet the sea rise with a glorious new sea front metropolis.

The new and necessary coastline protection system affords LA the luxury of being able to generate a good proportion of its power need from tide and wave energy. The wave, which long ago was only looked upon as a source of entertainment for the beach culture of the late 20th century, will now be the symbol and pulse of the City.

Adaptive re-use of the freeways

Few people had ever seen a clover leaf exchange before the World’s Fair in 1939, yet today a mere 67 years later, these clover leafs are a symbol of Los Angeles. Advances in technology are already heralding the obsolescence of the combustion engine. Freeway corridors and cars as we know them will be relics within the next few decades. During these same decades, the population of Los Angeles is predicted to double. We believe the need to house 12 million new people within the LA region along with the need to adaptively re-use the freeways of Los Angeles represents one of the greatest economic opportunities of the next 100 years.

We propose that by 2106 25 % of the city’s existing urban sprawl should be reconfigured into smart corridors of urban village developments of high density within and adjacent to the existing freeway right-of-ways transforming development rights in these areas to “smart corridors.” With incentives to encourage public private partnerships in realizing this vision, by 2106 these corridors will be the urban villages: living, working and playing within new urban villages interconnected to each other by new magnetically propelled circulation systems.

Re-inserting the primacy of nature in the city fabric

The development of smart corridors and the restoration of the watershed present the city with an opportunity to create a comprehensive system of interconnected open space. Two of the most successful urban open spaces in the world today, New York’s Central Park and Boston’s “Emerald Necklace,” were both the work of Frederick Law Olmsted. In the 1930s, his sons produced a plan for Los Angeles, prophetically foreshadowing the dire need for a comprehensive open space strategy. In their report they outlined the important decision the city faced: either to commit to the investment in a comprehensive open space system that would become an environmental backbone and development framework – or to choose short-sighted commercial speculation and drive for land as the land pattern of choice. Again in the 1960s Garrett Eckbo made similar suggestions for regional development in and around LA. Unfortunately for the landscape of today’s Los Angeles, the city chose to capitalize on low value development across the urban fabric, resulting in the grid of urban sprawl that stands as the symbol of LA today. Luckily this sprawl is near the end of its useful shelf life and is of such low intensity that it can be relatively easily reconfigured. So we have a second chance to take the advice of the Olmsteds. We believe it is now time to make a decision to implement a framework of open space that we call the eco-grid so that a new generation of economic value can be derived from urban regeneration of the city. Additionally, the eco-grid provides the green infrastructure that the city so desperately needs to rehabilitate its once extraordinary natural ecology.

These regional strategies are specific to Los Angeles but their logic and responses to shifts in economy, the environment and technology are global in their application.

Architecture and environmental engineering technology

Cutting edge technologies in architecture and engineering will usher in a new era of structures that will be smarter, taller, sustainable and more efficient than ever before. An example is presented here today in the form of the Strato-scraper. We believe this building is evocative of many advances being made in materials and systems and will actually provide usable space for many aspects of living but even more importantly it will provide power and water, and regional, global, and inter-galactic travel.

Rising as much as 4,000 feet in the air (4x the tallest buildings of today) its reach will be 62 miles high where it will connect into the (strato) atmosphere with a magnetic catapult/chute facilitating personal space travel, making Los Angeles the gateway to the solar system.

This “skin-smart” building will collect solar energy and will harvest water vapor from the coastal fog, to help quench the city’s water needs. In locations where open space views are desired, this smart skin will provide people with the illusion of seeing through buildings to open space features such as the mountains or the Hollywood sign beyond.

On land, these structures will directly tap the aquifer for water and reach into the earth’s core for cooling and heating; while at sea, as shown here, they will produce massive amounts of energy using tidal mill technology while opening windows to the sea that will lead to enhancements of our marine ecologies. The new off-shore port (POLAX) will also serve as a security screening portal for all ocean traffic.

The skin of these buildings will be made of photosynthetic materials that will harness the sun and produce oxygen and process carbon dioxide. It will literally act as a giant carbon negative organism for the city.

It’s not only what you see (referring to the model) but what you don’t see. Gone are the high voltage power lines that once brought the energy to the city. LA like all other major cities generates what it needs within itself. The only exception is the Hydrogen Lines which crisscross the country linking the cities to the major energy sources located in the desert heart land. The buildings and amenities are clustered to obtain the required diversity of use, and use the standard grid interlinks, to move power, waste and water between them. Waste is processed in local community facilities and LA, like all major cities has become a net exporter of organic fertilizer for the agro-production business. Blessed with a good quantity of sunshine, LA is able to produce much of its basic food stuff using new vertical farms. Our open spaces are both a source of food production as well as a civic amenity in the traditional sense.

Implementation timeline and demonstration

The City of the Future does not start in 2106 – it starts today. For that reason, we have taken the approach that we are not passive futurists observing what might be in 100 years; rather we are active participants mandating moves that can be and must be made in order to get us there.

We have chosen the Los Angeles River Corridor as our demonstration. We have chosen this corridor because it is where the city started, it exemplifies how we can connect the mountain habitat to the sea, it encompasses the low-lying areas that are inundated by the change in sea/ocean rise, and encompasses many of the areas of LA that are most criss-crossed by freeways and yet today remain economically challenged. Harbor City, Torrance, Carson, Compton, and North Long Beach will join San Pedro and Long Beach in becoming vibrant coastal towns and cities.

The scale of this demonstration area (from Downtown LA to San Pedro) is twice the length of Manhattan and equal in depth to metropolitan Chicago.

The river corridor itself is envisioned as a riparian greenway corridor that will provide 100 year flood protection when needed – and a signature green park for the entire city when dry. This park will become a green symbol of LA with the restoration of the native “Eden” that once crossed the LA basin. We see coastal wetlands, stands of live oaks, the re-introduction of swimming, walking and flying creatures of all types which will bring the ecosystem of the LA region back to life.

The terminus of this important watershed will be the new bay. Dramatic in size, the bay represents an amazing economic transformation opportunity for LA. Consider for a moment what LA has done without a natural bay – then for a moment think what is possible with the creation of a bay that will rival New York in size, Shanghai in technology, but trump them all with LA style.

Major swaths of regeneration potential make up this corridor. Industrial areas north of the existing port can be redeveloped into new ecologically innovative technology and research zones. This creates homes for LA’s core industries— shipping, entertainment and technology—while providing much needed land for the new generation of economic development: bio, nano, and info technologies, the space industry, and organics, robotics and next generation animation and server farmers.

Residential neighborhoods of south, central and east LA are now given the unprecedented injection of value in the creation of the new smart corridors that will be delineated as special economic zones for investment. The eco-grid will bring inherent open space, propelling the property values and economic return to the city well beyond the initial investments, while ensuring that the next generations of Angelinos have a sustainable framework in place.

What does it all mean?

We have seen the future: Los Angeles in 2106 is a region in balance; it is the most culturally diverse and successful city-state on our planet, a premier example of social justice; it is carbon negative – imagine how clean and quiet. A place where the buzz of creativity and the laughter of children no longer compete with the frenetic white noise of today. Imagine 20 million Angelinos living the California dream.

Timeline milestones

2010: Los Angeles effectively bans the combustion engine, with legislation stating that if by an act of nature the freeways are ever destroyed, they may never be re-built.

2020: automated magnetic transit systems are installed beneath freeway corridors, a real estate boom along freeway corridors takes place.

2030: LA commits to ZERO or negative carbon emissions. Energy needs for the city are met 100 percent by renewable resources: solar, geothermal, tidal, and wind.

2040: sea level has risen by three feet, causing critical damage during storms and is predicted to rise an additional 22 feet by 2100. The city enacts a comprehensive pull back strategy to the 25 foot elevation above sea-level line by 2106.

2050: low-lying industrial areas are relocated and integrated in higher density industrial areas. New space efficient and ecologically designed industrial districts are constructed.

2060: the new off-shore POLAX will open providing operational areas for the Los Angeles Sea and Space Port.

2070: climate change of three degrees and habitat loss has resulted in one million species being endangered or going extinct on earth. Species native ranges are shifting drastically. LA commits to restoring a fully connected and biologically diverse habitat network across the Los Angeles plain providing contiguous habitat from north to south, and from the mountains to the sea.

2080: all residential areas are aggregated along former freeway corridors or within open space network as clustered villages; habitat areas replace much of today’s low density residential; LA’s native stream and wetland network is 80 percent restored.

2090: sea level has risen to 15 feet with the calving off of a major ice sheet from Antarctica. New port cities are planned and begin to take shape

2100: Los Angeles is heralded as the leader in sustainable design hosting the first ever fully-recyclable Olympic Games, with floating venues in the ocean, inflatable land venues, and new sports introduced to celebrate a new era of environmental balance

2106: the Los Angeles Bay is the new symbol of the City State, a harbor for 20 million Angelinos living the California Dream.

Vaughan Davies (vaughan.davies@archtam.com) and Stephen Engblom (stephen.engblom@archtam.com) are urban designers and vice presidents, Buildings & Places, ArchTam, based in Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively.

The post LA 2106: realizing the ecological metropolis appeared first on Blog.

For those not familiar with the city, Townsville is a well-established and distinctive regional centre half way up the eastern coast of Queensland. As the ‘capital’ of North Queensland, it is located in the dry tropics, with an exceptional setting to the west of Cleveland Bay on the edge of the Coral Sea. The city is framed by the distinctive topography of the iconic Castle Hill, Magnetic Island and surrounding ranges.

Photo by Megan MacKinnon.

The current population is c.189,000. The growth trajectory even to the first million is therefore a leap of some 520 percent. This is huge by any standards, so questions therefore focus upon ‘how?’ and ‘when?’  How would the growth be supported? In light of that, when could that population threshold be achieved? What would Townsville’s growth over that period mean for the region generally, and what would national growth over the same period offer Townsville?

Here was a challenge that blended thinking far into the future with our established understanding of Townsville today. In response to the challenge we established a loose think tank to capture a potent blend of local knowledge, innovative ideas and international experience.

The current population of Townsville is spread like warm butter. City density is low. Despite the exceptional setting and climate, the city suffers from what could be described as cultural dilution. Beginning with the CBD, a more concentrated focus therefore has real potential to quickly establish energetic centres for growth, with the ability to create more diverse opportunities and significantly increased amenity for the existing community.

The format of the city reveals the framework for growth. The regional airport is close to the CBD. The CBD is very compact and currently straddles the neglected Ross Creek setting with a wonky gait. Established commerce, research, administration and industry – combined with a policy shift towards regional decentralisation from the south east – provide the platform for economic growth. The hospital and James Cook University sit on the southern edge of the city, but within range of a better-connected urban environment.

Our focus became Townsville in 2100. This kind of timescale meant big issues had to be addressed. After all, this is tropical cyclone country; the flood risk from a coastal storm surge is already significant. Townsville is a strategic location for defence, for transportation, agriculture and for cyclone recovery. The projected re-shaping of the coast due to incremental sea level rise means that ‘no change’ for the city is not a viable option.

At this scale it is possible to embrace challenges as opportunities because integrated large-scale infrastructure can be anticipated as multi-functional layers within the enhanced growth framework. This is a game-changing viewpoint for the exercise. With an integrated strategic view of the future, many things that are normally too hard to imagine become tangible and transformational. Large elements can be defined as the setting for finer-grained development. Of equal importance, we can consider the cost and value of big changes for a growing city over a much longer timeframe.

A key objective was enhancing Townsville’s existing assets. With an ambitious view of Townville’s future we defined a canal system as part of a network of waterways for flood mitigation. Tidal flows were harnessed for flushing, energy production and for aquaculture. This all taps into the local setting, climate and an established research focus to establish a sustainable approach – harnessing existing potential. The canals then became distinctive and valuable aqua-boulevards, carrying people, connecting places and cooling the environment. Solar farming and research-based living systems created symbiotic links for urban food production, water security and economic diversity within mid-density growth. As a development of the existing place, Townsville in 2100 becomes the water capital of the dry tropics. The risk has become the opportunity.

It’s easy to forget that we know a great deal about making sustainable urban environments to promote and enhance future health and well-being. Whilst this is a glimpse of a possible future, there is something compelling about an integrated multi-disciplinary approach to big-picture thinking. The opportunities and advantages of future growth were simply aligned as layers over the strategic framework.

It’s intriguing that councils are keen to know more about how the future may look. This need not be crystal ball gazing. We should have the confidence to assert the potential of this approach and to engage with others to explain and explore real solutions that can unlock latent potential. We should also recognise  the process starts with innovative and imaginative strategic thinking, today.

The primary test: could I see myself embracing this vision and joining the growing population of Townsville? Yes, I could. The most important thing now is ensuring that an ambitious and strategic framework is embraced to create a series of distinctive and concentrated Townsville flavours to claim the future we have glimpsed.

Alastair Leighton (alastair leighton) is an associate director with ArchTam’s Design + Planning practice in Queensland.

The post Townsville 2100: turning risk into resilience appeared first on Blog.

The birthplace of Taiwan, Tainan has long been the island’s historic heart, bringing together together aboriginal Taiwanese, Chinese, Dutch and Japanese cultural influences, rich in the spiritual traditions of Chinese folk religion, Confucianism and Buddhism. Established as a trading port in the early 1600s with Chinese and Dutch colonial settlement and later an important centre in the Japanese era, Tainan today bears many of the marks of these centuries of influence. It is a centre of spirituality and scholarship with an urban core that is home to more than 50 temples, including the oldest continuously existing Confucian Temple in the world, making the city virtually unique in the Chinese-speaking world in terms of built heritage and religious architecture. Tainan is the seat of the elite National Cheng Kung University with a beautiful urban campus of colonial colonnades and striking playing fields under the protective shade of ancient banyan trees. Its handsome colonial-era city hall is now home to the Taiwanese National Museum of Literature. There is a rich food culture here and a tradition of artisanal agriculture that are intimately tied to the land in and around the city.

This is a place ready for people to come home to, but it is a relatively low-profile place despite being blessed with so many treasures; and as with many cities around the world, it is facing challenges of how to stay relevant and resilient. How can Tainan leverage Taiwan’s re-orientation towards a knowledge economy? How can it attract and retain the talent needed to start new businesses and create new industries? As a low-lying seaside city in a sub-tropical climate, how will Tainan adapt to climate change impacts and do its part to mitigate global warming? How can Tainan capitalise on the rich cultural texture that makes it so special, yet is largely unknown to the outside world, and do so without harming what makes it so beautiful in the first place? Tainan faces a critical window of time to get right the answers to these challenges, but we are seeing firsthand a myriad of opportunities for this hidden gem to shine. We believe a bright future is Tainan’s for the taking. We’ll be posting some more updates on the progress here on this blog and the results of our final study here.

Daniel Elsea (daniel.elsea@archtam.com) is creative director for ArchTam’s Buildings + Places group, is the co-author of the forthcoming book “Jigsaw City: ArchTam and the Asian New Town Now,” and is currently a post-graduate in sustainable urban development at the University of Oxford.

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Cities are rapidly becoming the front line for confronting the implications of climate change. With over half the world’s population, two-thirds of the world’s energy consumption, and 80 percent of the world’s GDP, cities not only have direct influence over greenhouse gas emissions, but also face the greatest concentration of physical, social and economic risks associated with climate change.

A new report examines data from more than 200 cities relating to their concerns about, as well as strategies and activities to address climate change. The report, “Protecting our Capital – how climate adaptation in cities creates a resilient place for business,” is from CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project), ArchTam and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, and will be released tomorrow, Thursday July 10.

The report launch in New York City will be broadcast live on the web, with a keynote presentation by Vice Admiral Lee Gunn, United States Navy (Ret.), an authority on the social and national security implications of climate change, and the report presentation by Claire Bonham-Carter, director of sustainable development for ArchTam.

To view the live webcast at 6:15 – 7:00 EDT, July 10, (or watch the recording), visit the CDP global cities report launch page.

The 2014 report (and previous reports) will be available on the ArchTam website following the launch.

Erik Miller (erik.miller@archtam.com) is a senior communications manager with ArchTam.

The post Cities creating a better climate for business appeared first on Blog.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics forecasts that the populations of Sydney and Melbourne will grow to 7.8 million each by 2052, a respective increase of 66 percent and 86 percent over a 40 year period.

Such rapid growth prompts some obvious questions, the answers to which are less obvious:

Where and how will all these people live?

Where will they work and what will their jobs be?

An increasing challenge for local government is how to balance policy objectives of a diverse employment market with increasing demand for residential development. As our cities become more connected through transport, planning, and urban renewal decisions and outcomes, it’s a balancing act that’s proving difficult.

The employment and residential nexus

Over the last decade, rising housing demand has seen a significant increase in high-rise apartment developments in Australian cities, resulting in debates regarding overshadowing and the visual impacts and merits of urban densification. In some Melbourne suburbs, for example, the proposed application of new planning regulations could limit higher residential densities in certain areas.

Meanwhile, there’s been a continued shift in employment focus across Australian cities. Melbourne’s manufacturing sector continues to decline, while the much-touted transition to a more “knowledge-based economy” – namely increased opportunities in the health and business services sectors – shows early promise but will take time to translate into major points on the economic scoreboard.

The challenge for inner-city local governments is how to support the growth of these emerging sectors while maintaining and supporting light industry, small business, and retail, all desirable and essential parts of healthy, functional and connected cities.

The problem is that increased demand for residential development has already substantially impacted these activities, forcing them farther out of the city.

The term ‘mixed-use’ is often promoted as a way to address these challenges, but the uncomfortable truth is that few developments successfully achieve their primary objective, resulting in a ‘mixed bag’ of outcomes. Further, the rental expectations for these premises can also be significantly higher when compared to the spaces they have replaced. What tends to be delivered is a residential development with retail or small office provision at the ground floor, an approach that often results in a disconnect with the actual local demand for such spaces. They often lack the physical features that allow them to be attractive work places, and prove difficult to adapt to other uses without creating conflict for the residential portion.

Global lessons learnt

The Greater London Authority’s (GLA) policy objective to deliver mixed-use developments holds lessons for us here in Australia. Its inclusion of active frontages and employment spaces has resulted in ground floor retail space of predominantly residential buildings often being boarded up and unoccupied, creating an unwelcoming and unpleasant urban environment in many middle-ring suburbs.

We can’t allow such outcomes to eventuate here in Australia. Encouragingly, however, a number of approaches can be adopted to address this emerging employment and residential nexus.

Smarter design is a crucial factor at both the precinct and building level. There is often the tendency to deliver a standard product that limits diversity and fails to provide for multiple users. Good mixed-use developments can introduce a level of complexity that not only delivers visual interest, but provides additional market opportunities.

Cross-subsidies between uses and inclusionary zoning mechanisms meanwhile present an interesting layer into the process, but they need to be calibrated at detailed scale and applied to specific areas to be both commercially and socially successful. Such an approach has been used in the planning and development of Hackney Wick in London. While still in its early stages, Hackney Wick has had robust technical support and strong leadership from the GLA, and may present a way forward in providing homes and jobs for a growing population.

Local government must inform and test its structure planning process, and it should be supported in these efforts by an analysis of the market to understand not just existing and future demand, but to recognise the requirements for the job sectors it wishes to support.

This will ensure that local government is able to clearly articulate its ambition and guide development in a way that utilises market forces to deliver short and long-term benefits for our cities and their communities.

If tomorrow’s Sydney and Melbourne are to reach their potential – if “home is where the jobs are” – we need to get cracking; the people – millions of them – are coming, and they’re going to want somewhere to live and somewhere to work.

Adam Williams (adam.williams@archtam.com) leads ArchTam’s Design, Planning and Economics practice in Victoria.

The post Mixed use can be a mixed bag appeared first on Blog.

As a group, we tried to address a number of issues, e.g.:

• What can different places learn from successful clusters both in the UK and abroad?
• What role has national policy played in shaping that success?
• How can cities and LEPs work with universities in their regions to encourage high-growth business and industry specialists?
• How can policy, both local and national, ensure clusters across the country are supported to grow?

The whole concept of business clustering has become prominent in recent years, as cities seek comparative advantages. Essentially, clusters are supposed to do what it sounds like they do: attract a range of mutually beneficial industries. These specialized hubs in turn attract more talent and innovation, which in turn catalyzes the local urban economy and create long-term resilience. In the UK, 30 economically significant clusters contain 8% of the country’s businesses, but generate 20 percent of the economic output (GVA).

There are some globally noteworthy clusters in the UK.  London integrates some of the largest ones (specializing in creative and digital industries, property, tourism, business and financial services).  The “Golden Triangle” between London, Oxford, and Cambridge contains world-beating research centers. “Motorsports Valley” in the midlands builds on a legacy dating back to the industrial revolution from the 19^th century, and legacy metal and automotive production; it now concentrates premier research and engineering firms.

But we’ve also come to realize that clusters can rarely be created by design (all the efforts in the Middle East and China notwithstanding). Most of their origins are largely accidental. As Lord David Sainsbury (another participant on the panel) noted, clusters often evolve to fill market niches that are difficult for governments to anticipate. Ironically, governments’ increasing interest in the formation (and ultimately regulation) of clusters may well diminish what makes the clusters work in the first place.  It seems that in the last decade, every second-tier city has tried to create a nano-technologies cluster, and virtually all have disappeared.

I suspect that trying to pick apart what makes clusters successful may be like trying to gather together smoke. The most successful clusters will continue to form in cities which are themselves hubs – places that have strong identities to begin with, places that are large, dense, mixed use, and well supported by hard infrastructure. Urban size and agglomeration matters more in the globalizing and urbanizing 21^st century, and clusters are just another way of looking at cities.

Chris Choa (christopher.choa@archtam.com) is a Masterplanning + Urban Design principal in ArchTam’s London office.

The post The business cluster effect appeared first on Blog.

This central design feature is a response to the area’s climate and the city’s inclination to enjoy it. “Just like the popular French doors in local homes and restaurants, the Kings will slide open their patio doors pre-game, post-game, during concerts and maybe even halftime of the Kings’ games, [team president Chris] Granger says.”

Offering views of the city from inside the arena, views of the game from the outside, open space to the public, and an iconic sight for the city, the project is conceived as a revitalization catalyst for Sacramento’s downtown. The building and site will host activities year-round, not just on NBA game-days.

For those who look to design successful urban sports and entertainment venues, an experience and aesthetic that melds with the city is always the goal, but what that means is never the same.

See the latest design renderings here.

Jake Herson (jacob.herson@archtam.com) is managing editor of the Connected Cities blog.

The post Connection is King appeared first on Blog.