Recent once-in-a-lifetime events transformed bustling city centres into spaces deserted of people. Just what will our cities look like in 20 years’ time?
What will our cities look like?
STRATEGY: BIG IDEAS
“You’ll never come up with the perfect city because the needs of the people living there are always changing.”
– Sara Rollason, Arup
Someone walking through the centre of Sydney, Wellington or any other large city in two decades’ time will probably see a very different city from the one that’s there now.
Christopher Niesche is a business journalist and content writer with over two decades experience reporting on topics such as finance, trade, fintech, management, accounting, small business and human resources.
Story Christopher Niesche
Christopher Niesche is a business journalist and content writer with over two decades experience reporting on topics such as finance, trade, fintech, management, accounting, small business and human resources.
STORY CHRISTOPHER NIESCHE
The first thing they’ll notice is there’ll be far fewer cars, says Sara Rollason, cities leader for NSW and ACT at engineering firm Arup.
A lot of car parks will have been converted to parcel distribution centres, where couriers on bikes or in small vehicles will pick up packages and deliver them to people’s homes or offices around the cities. Other people will come to special parcel pick-up points on their way home to grab their packages. They might even pick-up their supermarket shopping that has been delivered to special refrigerated lockers to wait for them.
With fewer vehicles on the road, footpaths will be wider and there will be more trees and green space. In particular, there’ll be more playgrounds as families with young children move into the city centre.
Rollason says cities are always changing and always evolving. “You’ll never come up with the perfect city because the needs of the people living there are always changing,” she says.
Urban designers are turning their minds to adapt city centres as more people move there and spend recreation time there as well as work there.
“You're not just designing for Monday to Friday, nine until five, for people who use public transport or their private vehicle to exit the city,” she says. “You've got to think about how the space will be used in the evening and safely for women and for children if they're walking around the city at night.”
The narrow alleyway that office workers walk through to get their lunchtime sandwich won’t be suitable for night time, so cities will need more lighting and more surveillance.
A city which is safer for women is also a city which is safer for all, says Rollason.
Cities will also be greener, thanks to what Rollason calls “rewilding”.
“Having infrastructure and green trees that can provide shade is really, really important,” she says.
Rollason expects the trend of encouraging the use of public transport over private vehicles will continue. (She recalls when she moved to Sydney from the UK in 2007 she was surprised to see so many car parks offering ‘early bird’ parking discounts to workers who drove into the city.)
Booking of public transport and journeys across several modes of transport will be a lot more seamless, for instance with journeys from electric scooter to train to Uber booked and paid for on a single app. And traffic flow around the city will be better coordinated to make way for pedestrians.
“You're not just designing for Monday to Friday, nine until five, for people who use public transport or their private vehicle to exit the city...”
– Sara Rollason, Arup
Some of these trends are already playing out in cities.
New Zealand has been pedestrianising its city streets, embracing the idea to transform roadways into safe walking and speed appropriate cycling zones. In Australia, the main thoroughfare through the centre of Sydney, is already free of cars, with only pedestrians and light rail allowed along much of its route. The state government is now considering extending the no-car zone to create an extra 500-square metres of pedestrian space.
Cities could also have their own microgrids, where buildings generate power and share it with one another depending on what their needs are at the time instead of drawing all their energy from the power grid.
In all of this, says Rollason, it’s important that existing infrastructure is retained and adapted rather than knocked down and rebuilt.
“How can we use that building so that we're reusing the space, not demolishing all the concrete and steel, which is full of embodied carbon, to build another building which is equally full of embodied carbon,” she says.
For the last quarter of a century there’s been a view held by some economists and many politicians that inflation is dead.
Someone walking through the centre of Sydney, Wellington or any other large city in two decades’ time will probably see a very different city from the one that’s there now.
The first thing they’ll notice is there’ll be far fewer cars, says Sara Rollason, cities leader for NSW and ACT at engineering firm Arup.
A lot of car parks will have been converted to parcel distribution centres, where couriers on bikes or in small vehicles will pick up packages and deliver them to people’s homes or offices around the cities. Other people will come to special parcel pick-up points on their way home to grab their packages. They might even pick-up their supermarket shopping that has been delivered to special refrigerated lockers to wait for them.
With fewer vehicles on the road, footpaths will be wider and there will be more trees and green space. In particular, there’ll be more playgrounds as families with young children move into the city centre.
Rollason says cities are always changing and always evolving. “You’ll never come up with the perfect city because the needs of the people living there are always changing,” she says.
Urban designers are turning their minds to adapt city centres as more people move there and spend recreation time there as well as work there.
“You're not just designing for Monday to Friday, nine until five, for people who use public transport or their private vehicle to exit the city,” she says. “You've got to think about how the space will be used in the evening and safely for women and for children if they're walking around the city at night.”
The narrow alleyway that office workers walk through to get their lunchtime sandwich won’t be suitable for night time, so cities will need more lighting and more surveillance.
A city which is safer for women is also a city which is safer for all, says Rollason.
Cities will also be greener, thanks to what Rollason calls “rewilding”.
“Having infrastructure and green trees that can provide shade is really, really important,” she says.
“Having infrastructure and green trees that can provide shade is really, really important,” she says.
Booking of public transport and journeys across several modes of transport will be a lot more seamless, for instance with journeys from electric scooter to train to Uber booked and paid for on a single app. And traffic flow around the city will be better coordinated to make way for pedestrians.
Some of these trends are already playing out in cities.
New Zealand has been pedestrianising its city streets, embracing the idea to transform roadways into safe walking and speed appropriate cycling zones. In Australia, the main thoroughfare through the centre of Sydney, is already free of cars, with only pedestrians and light rail allowed along much of its route. The state government is now considering extending the no-car zone to create an extra 500-square metres of pedestrian space.
Cities could also have their own microgrids, where buildings generate power and share it with one another depending on what their needs are at the time instead of drawing all their energy from the power grid.
In all of this, says Rollason, it’s important that existing infrastructure is retained and adapted rather than knocked down and rebuilt.
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Big Ideas
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Big Ideas