How slums can inspire the micro-cities of the future
Soon,
one third of humanity will live in a slum. Our cities are at breaking
point. Over 90% of urbanisation this century will be due to the growth
of slums. By the end of this century, the top megacities will no longer
be London and Tokyo; they will almost all be in Asia and Africa, and
they will be far bigger than the metropolises of today.
Lagos is projected to have a population of 88 million. Dhaka: 76
million. Kinshasa: 63 million. The world is fundamentally restructuring
itself.
What
if there were a new type of city that is a better fit for this century?
One that is more lightweight, light touch and adaptive than we’ve seen
before. What if the future of our cities could come from the rethinking
of slums?
Sustainable.
Walkable. Livable. These terms are often used to paint visions of our
preferred urban future. Yet the formal notion of a city is quite
calcified; it’s heavy and clunky and inflexible. Cities today lack the
flexibility to absorb emerging radical possibilities. What good are new
solutions if the system can’t absorb them?
City
leaders across Asia and Africa are looking for solutions for their
cities. What if they found them in the most unlikely of places: their
slums? The informality of slums creates a white space from which a new
vision for urban living could emerge — and that’s where the concept of
microcities can begin to take root.
Slums
don’t have to be a glitch, or a problem. They can be an asset. By
considering urban living at the human scale, and from a bird’s eye view,
we can redesign slums as more liveable, lightweight and adaptive
places. Places that are a better fit for the modern world; places in
which a diverse group of citizens can not just survive, but thrive.
What is a microcity?
A microcity is a framework for urban reform. It has three core elements:
1) A microcity is a conversion of an existing slum.
2) It is a semi-autonomous, privately owned and operated Special Demonstration Zone (SDZ) for up to 100,000 inhabitants.
3)
Each microcity is designed using integrated solutions. They are urban
laboratories in emerging cities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America that
will become testbeds for more agile approaches to healthcare,
governance, education, energy provision and every other aspect of city
life.
City
governments will have three main roles to play. First, they can help
identify the slum area to be converted. Secondly, they have to lay down
the main arteries — the main roads into the area, along with the
necessary infrastructure. Third, they pass a resolution establishing the
microcity as an SDZ — a semi-autonomous area, similar to a Special
Economic Zone, which becomes an innovation lab to test new forms of
technology and governance.
Have you read?
- Megacities: slums or saviours of tomorrow?
- Why public space planning is vital to improve slums
- 3 ways to stop the housing crisis killing our cities
Designing
microcities involves several core principles. First, we’re using
emergence theory — which looks at how simple rules and concepts give
rise to complexity — to understand how slums and cities evolve, and we
are developing algorithms to both analyse and design the microcity.
We’re
placing humans at the centre of the design. Behavioural science can
teach us a lot about how people best experience their cities. We start
with the human’s experience in the microcity and then wrap the design of
everything else around this.
Next,
we are using modular, plugin solutions to the challenges of city living
that can scale easily. What happens when energy production is
integrated and can be exchanged between 100,000 people? What happens
when private car ownership is banned and everyone shares podcars (small,
automated vehicles)? What happens when creativity is unleashed through
experiential education?
In
designing microcities, we are also looking at how to reduce the
friction generated by city living. One way is to automate; another way
is to cluster. Imagine a single mother who needs to navigate work,
parenthood and a social life each day. How can we make her life easier?
Imagine if all her essentials were clustered in one area. And the design
of every aspect of the microcity — its form and function, governance,
energy and waste management, for example — will adhere to the circular
economy model.
So
what will a microcity look like — and what would it be like to live in
one? A microcity will be a semi-autonomous area within its city, using a
blockchain-based governance system that decentralises and automates
much of its administration. It would feature a blockchain-based
membership system, for example, that offers access to all key functions
through member service hubs that become its inhabitants’ key point of
contact for almost everything.
As well as connecting citizens, the microcity’s software would also work seamlessly together.
Imagine
a healthcare system that takes care of 85% of people’s health needs
through micro health clinics. Or a school system designed for the modern
era, which focuses on project-based education. Or a food system that
prioritises lab-grown food and industrial community kitchens, with a
financial system that provides branchless banking. And, of course, free
and fast wifi that connects everything and everyone.
The
physical infrastructure would be designed with the same
principle — connectedness — in mind. Energy systems that can run on
their own solar microgrids, and which are integrated throughout the
microcity. A transportation system that prioritises shared minibuses and
podcars. A built environment that is largely prefabricated. Skinny
streets that limit and slow traffic, giving the streets back to the
people and enhancing a sense of community. The microcity will be
strengthened by turning those who participate in it over time into
shareholders. This will align inhabitants’ incentives to contribute to
and improve their microcity.
Decentralising
governance is another major building block. To help create a more
light-touch city for this century, we’re exploring blockchain and
artificial intelligence as tools to enable three things: (1) streamlined
access to services (2) partially automated backend governance and (3) liquid democracy
on many matters. Every microcity in the world will share the same
systems, and will be able to interact with each other smoothly.
How will this benefit microcities’ inhabitants?
We
see a pattern globally of slumdwellers being left out. Though they are
contributing to their cities as the lifeblood of the services industry,
they are seen as illegitimate, disconnected citizens. The microcity
model is an attempt to change that. Where those living in slums were
once undervalued non-citizens of their cities, they can now participate
in creating the cities of the future.
So what’s next? We’re launching the first microcity in partnership with the city of Ulaanbaatar,
the capital of Mongolia, and many of its leaders. We hope this joint
venture will demonstrate to mayors around the world what they might do
to repurpose their slums and, while doing so, create the future of urban
living.
This
will be the first in a global network of microcities. Our vision is to
help establish 100 microcities that will be connected — through their
economies, governance systems and identity — in emerging cities across
Asia, Africa and Latin America.