The Materialization of the Metro
Thoughts and perspectives on the changing shapes of urban ecologies and cooperative efforts for balancing the tone of the city
Cities are organisms in which we live — the crossing streets like hairs on our skin, water flowing underneath as veins of a living, always-functioning being. A sharp metaphor, cities have largely been developed over time to fit the changing needs of us. Humans have been the focal point of the planning, improvement, and subsequent technological layers on top of all aspects of cities. If there is one thing that I have learned during this tumultuous year, it is that this way of thinking does not have to be the only way of thinking when it comes to the future of urban environments.
This is the second part of a series covering environmental advancements, the challenges we face in urban economies with a growing global population, and opportunities currently looking to be addressed.
Our acceptance of the dysfunctions and disrespect of modern cities has reached a peak, with many actors to blame for the present conditions. We must change our thinking for the sake of justice, well-being, and our world’s climate. Built environment professionals such as planners, architects, landscape architects, and urban designers have a central role to play in the persistence of urban biodiversity because of their direct influence on the evolving form and fabric of the urban environment. Additionally, cities are shaped by governments, but often built and financed by the private sector. This is nothing new. It is understood that ambitious and accelerated action in cities will require collaboration among different public and private organizations. The alignment of ideas and ensuing actions behind a shared vision can clear the path to more compact, connected, and coordinated cities.
Following a similar framework in my last post, there are a few main areas I am noticing more attention being drawn towards from public and private perspectives as it relates to our cities-to-be. Seeing as “the city” is not a traditional business sector, per se, I have gathered topics under the theme of “biologizing technology and mindsets”.
- Well-managed densification of urban landscapes (developing for reduced proximity in urban cores, less “sprawling”)
- Adaptive and nature-positive materials for new and existing built environments
- Circular economic models with emphasis on urban economies
“The symbiosis essential to life on this planet is now evident. Nature is the foundation of our society and economies, and our greatest ally in fighting climate change.” — Dr. David Nabarro
The concept of urban densification incorporates seemingly countless areas of study, business sectors, and organizations and does not have a one-size-fits-all solution. To start, every city is different. From where it exists, to who lives there, to the different neighborhoods that embody its culture. With this logic, we can posit that business-nature relationships in each city are also unique to their location and require a custom approach. This culminates as to why the idea of urban densification is rightfully abstract, as well as at times difficult to grasp and understand where innovation should occur to yield outsized impact.
Urban densification has been perceived this way due to validation from studies such as the UN’s 2018 World Urbanization Prospects, though I think this can change. I am thinking the abstractness of this concept will shift towards becoming more tangible, though perhaps more through frameworks rather than direct products and solutions at first. As urban sub-sectors such as building efficiency platforms, smart traffic management systems, connected infrastructure through the adoption of IoT technology throughout the urban environment, and environmental imaging continue to innovate, cities that embrace these sub-sectors will be extremely informed of areas of improvement — much like other industries deploying similar technology today, such as agriculture.
When considering these and other sectors, I think both repurposing existing infrastructure and applying green infrastructure will accelerate urban densification the most at the onset. As the introduction of the sharing economy expanded the use of underutilized assets, we now have SMBs and larger corporates alike who are embracing remote work as COVID-19 remains a deterrent to working in an office and commuting via mass transit. This upheaval has prompted a surge in flexible and remote working and education models in many countries; I do not necessarily think it is too premature to think that greater applications of sharing models will further optimize the use of built infrastructure, overall reduce the perceived need for net-new expansion, as well as reduce the barrier to change as it relates to municipal ordinances/zoning regulations.
Separately but similarly, the fragility of global supply chains highlighted during the pandemic will accelerate the growth of the urban farming movement, as advances in hydroponic and aeroponic farming techniques are making it easier to grow vegetables in confined spaces. Scaling these solutions has yet to be realized, though are well on their way with increasing investment in the sector. Some relevant examples of this investment include Plenty’s $140M round, BrightFarm’s $100M raise, and Bowery Farming’s announcement of partnerships signed with Whole Foods/Walmart (signing these retailers requires a strong level of conviction that producers will not only be able to reliably supply your product, but also sell it in their stores). I think an intriguing solution to call out in this sector is NexLoop’s AquaWeb™ — it captures, stores, and distributes water into local food production by emulating epiphytes (mosses, lichens, and ferns). The modular and biomimetic product integrates into the facade of food production structures, such as vertical farms and greenhouses, and allows farmers to passively capture and transport water for crop irrigation. By implementing a solution like the AquaWeb, farmers and aspiring farmers will save on water and energy costs, mainly by not having to rely on municipal systems for treated water which will be especially integral as urban farming accelerates. Along with biomimetic products like the AquaWeb™ and biomimicry methodologies, elements of a nature-positive built environment will systematically drive the design of infrastructure in ways that are energy-efficient, resource-efficient, and perhaps even expose ecosystem services not previously realized — all further cultivating urban densification possibilities.
Noted by “The Seven Lamps of Planning for Biodiversity in the City”, the vision of a biodiverse city dovetails well with creative architectural and planning processes. Cities around the world are leveraging the attractiveness of their landscape and green spaces to increase tourism and retain talented people among high-value, knowledge-intensive industries. Singapore has marketed and reconfigured itself as “a city in a garden” to attract tourists and improve liveability. While this is ideal, most projects that have integrated biodiversity objectives into urban turnover have focused on large-scale, commercial initiatives whereas single-dwelling redevelopments have largely escaped the notice of urban planners and urban ecologists. With an increase in alterations to urban fixtures and infrastructure as suggested above, I think the inspiration for individual home renovations may also trigger adjacent-possible technologies to further accelerate climate-smart design in tandem with biodiversity initiatives.
Fixating further into design, innovation in the materials used for net-new and retrofitted built environments is arising. Currently, smart polymers are used in numerous promising applications, mainly in biomedical fields at this time, though increasingly in sectors like automotives and textiles. Essentially, a smart polymer is a stimuli-responsive material or a material that changes itself physically/chemically in response to fluctuations in its environment. For instance, one variation of this material is probably most commonly seen with eyeglasses that adjust to sunlight and tint when one goes outside. Companies like Solar Innovations, Inc. have tweaked and scaled this particular innovation to develop dynamically glazed glass along with a software component, enabling any glass surface with this technology to essentially become operable. With this approach, adaptive materials will be inclined to both adjust themselves and have optional supervision via connected applications. As further research and development occurs with these materials, new adaptive features will be discovered with the extensive data analysis possible across structures. I envision these smart materials being built as “sensors” for themselves as well as for the surrounding environment of structures. In other words, I think we can anticipate the combination of net-zero carbon materials with smart polymers resulting in structures that move with us. This illustration could too create adjacent-possible directions that can support urban densification suggestions.
While this anticipation builds, companies like Pavegen have already begun to harness the kinetic energy of adaptive infrastructure. Pavegen has developed kinetic tiles that seamlessly create off-grid, clean electricity when pedestrians walk or cycle down the road. This power can be used for various applications, such as nearby streetlights, IoT sensors, or charging stations. One installation in Hong Kong uses some of the energy generated to power screens next to the tiles, highlighting the amount of energy captured for citizens to view. I love this example because it is a direct connection to people without significantly altering their day at face-value. I think inadvertently increasing engagement with technology like this is another easy way for consumers to be conscious of their influence on their surrounding environment. There is bound to be some stimulation in capturing kinetic energy as materials become more advanced — imagine when we can efficiently capture the energy from rainfall as we do with wind today.
Tackling dispersed problems must be addressed by dispersed solutions. As discussed earlier, every city is different in its own right, creating unique challenges and, most likely, no singular solution for a sustainable and climate-smart path forward. While this may be true, there are principles when thinking at the macro level that can provide new, holistic perspectives to these challenges. An urban circular economy is one in which cities keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of their life. Considering more than half the world’s population lives in cities, most consumption takes place in them which results in the most waste as well. There is an urgent need to make resources in cities go further than they do today. The World Economic Forum estimates that material savings of over $1T can be achieved from reuse, recycling, and upcycling, all of which are core to circular models in the urban setting.
Circular economic frameworks are arguably some of the most fundamental ways to think about sustainability. In many ways, we can think of a city as a business when using this lens and consider that unless a business has some semblance of sustainability in its unit economics, it will eventually fail. Finances aside, most cities have plenty of work to do when it comes to moving away from the take-make-waste model and building for the long-term. To begin to shape these ideas into form, cities can collaborate closely with the companies that are a part of their local economy to organically lay circular foundations. The table below, developed by academics from the University of Utrecht, highlights value-adding activities in the delivery of a circular economy.
The current state of implementing these activities varies by city, though there are sectors of climate-applicable technology in a position to be utilized at-scale in relation to the highlighted activities. For example, understanding how to manage waste is an obvious issue in every city — IoT companies can address the middle-ground of the above (thinking activities like Reuse, Remanufacture, or Repurpose) and use data to identify broad impact areas. Numina is setting a great precedent of curb-level, anonymous data collection to learn everything we can about what happens on our city streets, every day. This data is used to approach cities with innovative business models and share best practices across communities, making things like more walkable or bikeable streets easy for cities to adopt. There is some inherent value-add with a solution like this as it relates to regulatory change in a city, in that Numina can provide quantifiable data to support proposals. I think it would be especially interesting if the team could experiment with applying this technology to monitor the movement of waste, providing a next natural layer of informed circular planning as cities evolve.
Natural systems have been overcome by urban environments for centuries and although there are inspirational examples intertwining the two, we have much progress to achieve. Charlotte Kaiser, Managing Director of Naturevest sensibly notes that to transform how nature is valued with opportunism, “Opportunism requires flexibility in sectors, geographies, deal structures, and capital stacks.” By thinking differently about urban ecologies and their relationships with people and business, we can obtain this flexibility in tandem with our opportunistic views. I hope that with these models and ideas further coming to fruition, the cities of tomorrow can be places where people enjoy healthy, active, and productive lives.
Thank you to my friends and colleagues for constructive feedback to make this piece a reality. Feedback is welcome as solutions in the mentioned sectors evolve, meaningful discussions are cultivated and I continue to maturate my thesis in these areas.
