What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Co-creating real urbanisms for the next three billion

Jeb BrugmannThe World Bank Urban WeekMarch 9, 2009

photo from Karen Seto

Abu Dhabi

Ahmedabad

Kuala Lumpur

Western Cape

Nicaragua

Q: What’s Wrong?

A: The lack of an elaborated discipline of “urban strategy”to put best practice into scaled practice.

These three faculties form a stable ‘regime’

that transformsurban form,

regional markets, andlocal cultureto establish

A New Urbanism.

The Practice of Urbanism

The planning processes, technical solutions, 

designs, and business models that together 

shape the way the city is built, serviced, and used to 

achieve the strategicobjective.

The Strategic Alliance

A stable, highly committed group of 

political, economic and social interests that share a common strategic purpose.

Strategic InstitutionsA dedicated apparatus, 

responsive to the Alliance, for developing, testing and diffusing new practices of 

urbanism.

The essential faculties of the Strategic City

Barcelona Chicago

Spectrum of city-building approachesFo

rmal

Inform

al

Accessibility/affordabilityProductivity

Social cohesion/governabilityResource efficiency

Resilience

Best practice range

PlannedIndustrial

Mass productionCommodification

of the City

Ad hoc(formal/informal)

Planned(institutional)Urbanism

Community‐basedUrbanism

MasterPlannedCity

Spectrum of city-building approachesFo

rmal

Inform

al

PlannedIndustrial

Mass productionCommodification

of the City

Ad hoc(formal/informal)

Planned(institutional)Urbanism

Community‐basedUrbanism

CustomMasterPlannedCity

Community-based urbanismFo

rmal

Inform

al

Spectrum of city-building approachesFo

rmal

Inform

al

PlannedIndustrial

Mass productionCommodification

of the City

Ad hoc(formal/informal)

Planned(institutional)Urbanism

Community‐basedUrbanism

CustomMasterPlannedCity

Planned (institutional) urbanism

Formal Informal

What is an “urbanism?”

Urbanism (ər‐bə‐ni‐zəm), noun

1. The way of life of people who live in a city (Websters).

2.  The way that a city‐building community designs, builds, governs, and co‐locates activities to support specialized forms of production and living that give them shared advantage in the world.

The bazaar district (Middle East/West Asia)

Leslieville, Toronto

The central business district and university district

Spectrum of city-building approachesFo

rmal

Inform

al

PlannedIndustrial

Mass productionCommodification

of the City

Ad hoc(formal/informal)

Planned(institutional)Urbanism

Community‐basedUrbanism

CustomMasterPlannedCity

Transforming the Silicon Valley Workplace

Industrial batch productionFo

rmal

Pos

t‐Inform

al

Different approaches create different “economic compacts”

Industrial BatchProduction of City

DeveloperP&L (and

Balance Sheet)

ConsumerP&L (and

Balance Sheet)

OwnerP&L (and

Balance Sheet)

MunicipalP&L (and

Balance Sheet)

A standardized unitof fungible, basic

urban utility

SubprimeLender

Derivatives(CDO)Trader

Asset stripper

(Slumlord)

Spectrum of city-building approachesFo

rmal

Inform

al

PlannedIndustrial

Mass productionCommodification

of the City

Ad hocPlanned

(institutional)Urbanism

Community‐basedUrbanism

CustomMasterPlannedCity

COST EQUATIONLarger homes, more energy intensive,more facilitiesGreater distancesMore road, water & sewerage capacityLarger per capita automobile fleetHigher energy/fuel costsHigher mobility costsHigher infrastructure costsMore dispersed and flexible labor marketsMore frequent change of employmentHigher housing turnover/neighborhood churn

REVENUE EQUATIONLess government capital investmentLess government O&M subsidyReduced employment benefitsDeclining real incomes

NETnever calculated!

“The centre does not hold:” subprime lending was part of the iceberg

Different approaches create different “economic compacts”

An Urbanism

A co‐created system tailored to provide multiple forms of specialized utilitywith a shared P&L and Balance Sheet

BPursues urban

utility & economicadvantage

APursues urban

utility & economicadvantage

DPursues urban

utility & economicadvantage

BPursues urban

utility & economicadvantage

The industrial city neighborhood (N. America)

Strategy = Scaling Quality

PlannedIndustrial

CommodificationAd hoc

CommunityUrbanism

Past Today

Qua

lity of Tot

al City

PlannedUrbanism

Accessibility/affordabilityProductivity

Social cohesion/governabilityResource efficiency

Resilience

CustomMasterPlanned

Quantity of total city (formal)

Commodification

PlannedIndustrial

Ad hoc

PlannedUrbanism

CommunityUrbanism

Past Today

Qua

ntity of Tot

al City Quality & resilience

solutions

Quantity & speedsolutions

Can there be an industrial approach to urbanism?Qua

lity of Tot

al City

Quality of Total City

Industrial‐scaleUrbanism?

Reverse engineering the process of urbanism

PlannedIndustrial

Ad hoc

CommunityUrbanism

Past Today

Qua

lity of Tot

al City

PlannedUrbanism

Reverse engineering

The process of analyzing the construction and operation of a product in order to manufacture a similar one

“Co-creation” and “user-centered design”: the cutting-edge of corporate product strategy

The missing link: organized user communities are required

Solution: “new urbanism incubators” in every city

• study and document existing local urbanisms

• bring user communities together, or respond to their existing demand

•manage the innovation process between users, designers, and the industry

A new industrial urbanism?: Kronsberg (Hannover) Germany

Business process innovation and project cycle reform are key

Product innovation

• pre‐design new urbanism solutions through reverse engineering

• project‐specific co‐creation

Development control process reform

• manage risks associated with process change

• manage risks associated with product innovation

Business model innovation

• share risks associated with process and product innovation

Spectrum of city-building approachesFo

rmal

Inform

al

PlannedIndustrial

Mass productionCommodification

of the City

Ad hoc(formal/informal)

Planned(institutional)Urbanism

Community‐basedUrbanism

CustomMasterPlannedCity

Ad Hoc City Building (planned and unplanned)Fo

rmal

Inform

al

Spectrum of city-building approachesFo

rmal

Inform

al

PlannedIndustrial

Mass productionCommodification

of the City

Ad hoc(formal/informal)

Planned(institutional)Urbanism

Community‐basedUrbanism

CustomMasterPlannedCity

Custom master planned city