THE ACCELERATED SMART(-IFICATION) OF CITIES POST-COVID-19

Abstract

Governments, developers and big-tech companies have become enamoured with the possibility of the smart city: an efficient, convenient (and profitable) “smart” metropolis to help accommodate and optimize rapid urban growth. While it is tempting to wash renders of future cities with the typical smart city visions of drones, segways, and shiny reflective glass towers—the reality is that good (smart) cities incorporate a bottom-up messiness and urban vitality which is fundamental to the overall thriving of the city.

In Hassell’s competition winning scheme for the Xinqiao District in Shenzhen—the design team explored the ideas that a smart and innovative city that first and foremost uphold—a place which fosters inclusivity, diversity, collaboration, and resilience. Now through times of ongoing uncertainty in the COVID-19 era, Hassell’s design team expects an even greater adoption of smart cities rhetoric as a form of necessary urban surveillance and to manage and support communities and the containment of the COVID-19—building urban resilience against big disaster events, enabling adaptive environments that can re-calibrate, reorganize, and evolve in real-time as needed. Can urban designers go beyond resilience to imagine cities which thrive and grow out of disaster events?

Keywords

Smart City / Decentralization / Adaptability / Resilience / Inclusivity / Diversity

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2020 Higher Education Press