Future city starts with a question – how can we make the world a better place? To answer it, we imagine, design, research and built cities of the future that showcase their solution to a citywide sustainability issue. It include storm water management, urban agriculture, public spaces, and green energy. Designing a resilient power grid for their future city that can withstand and quickly recover from the impacts of a natural disaster. Create a smarter city with open data and a connected infrastructure. Run a clean, safe, and competitive smart city by using cutting edge technologies to improve citizen services, transportation, and economic prosperity.
Governance
- Public sector financials
- Program planning and management
- Accounting and financial crore
- Treasure and financial risk mitigation
- Governance, Risk and compliance
- Sourcing and contract management
- Operational procurement
- City analytics
The Concept of Future City
The future city concept is one of the major policies in the Government’s new growth strategy, which was adopted by the cabinet in June 2010. We spoke with building research institute chief executive Dr. Shuzo Murakami, who heads up an expert review panel on the future city concept, about the purpose and aims of the concept.
Concept :The future city concept is a concept to introduce broad legislation, including special measures, based on the new growth strategy adopted by the government last year, and to try to build cities that generate new value for the environment. The economy and society ultimately, the aim is to realize a “Prosperous and sustainable economic society in which people can live comfortably”.
The future city concept plan comes with three premises. (1) The first is to have the growth strategy take shape through efforts such as the ongoing creation of international collaborative ventures centered on superior environmental technologies. (2) The second is the advancement of green innovation that aims to establish a low-carbon society, and (3) lastly is progress on regional revitalization aimed at a super-graying society.
The goals behind the concept include realizing a low carbon society and rich biodiversity [Creation of environmental value], making it so that people can maintain their health in an increasingly aging society and the achievement of regional self sufficiency [creation of social value], and advancing the accumulation of knowledge [creation of economic value].
The future city concept plan is being developed to bring about concrete action to achieve the goals of the concept based on these premises.
Let’s look now at how the future cities concept can be realized by enhancing the 3 values, namely – (i) environmental, (ii) social value, (iii) economic value.
As I mentioned at the beginning, since the starting point is the new growth strategy, it is important to envisage a city able to create economic value. The promotion of this concept of this concept will be crucially important to the path Japan as a whole takes in the future in terms of new economic development, not to mention the global environment and solutions to social problems.
What kind of things were behind the development of this concept?
At the movement, from a global perspective, cities acts as a the hub in the accumulation and generate a significant proportion of GDP. The same goes for Japan, where the Tokyo metropolitan area produces more than 30% of the country’s GDP. The question of what aspects will further increase the value of cities in the future is attracting global attention. It is against this backdrop that the future city concept came up for discussion.
Elements that will ensure the success of future city:
The key elements would be the government being involved and putting energy into driving the initiative in its own way, and project management. The implementation framework is largely divided among three parties; namely, the government, which formulates the programs and allocates budgetary funds, promotional organization such as advisory boards, which the government establishes either inside or outside organizations, and the agents of management and implementation who operate under consortiums made up of the government, business and academia. Government subsidies are finite. Future cities need to develop systems where they can promote the concept independently. For instance, some cities which have been successful as eco-model cities have leaders who excel in project management. We need to learn from them and speed up the process of developing human resources.
Another important thing is having a global perspective. In smart grid demonstration experiments being conducted by the ministry of economy, trade and industry, the cities of Yokohama and Kitakyushu are operating together with foreign companies. I think we have to approach the realization of future cities with an “open country” mindset in which we collaborate with interested parties from overseas from the initial planning stages. Globalisation from early on would provide a significant stimulus for that sense of stagnation in Japanese society, or for the things that need to be enhanced, like high cost structures and the slowness of decision-making. This is an aspect that would revitalize for Japan as a whole, as well as lead to opportunities for Japan to make international contributions to solutions to the environmental problems the world’s cities face.
We have to approach the realization of future cities with an “open country” mindset in which we collaborate with interested parties from overseas from the initial planning stages.
Salient Features of Future City
By 2030, about three out of every five people in the world will be bonafide urbanities. With cities offering copious perks in terms of amenities, transportation, culture and community, this trend is all well and good… until you consider that many cities simply aren’t suited for that kind of population boom – yet. How will cities repurpose and transform their resources to accommodate this upcoming influx of urban individuals? Here’s a sneak peek at what could be coming to a city near you.
(1) Sci-Fi-Esque City Concepts :
With the notion of the future comes futuristic looking design. And boyhowdy, are there imaginative ideas out there.
For starters, there’s the Paris Smart city 2050 project, which envisions what the picturesque locale will look like in a forward thinking fashion. Belgain architect Vincent callbaut dream up the future city concept, which imagines anti-smog towers with depolluting properties photosynthesis towers covered in algae, and vertical farming oriented “farm-scrapers”.
Other glimpses ahead include water-centric structures, a tree lined bridge in London, and OAS1S, which sees homes actually functioning as tree. As the future comes closes into view, expect to see own more of these visionary, eco-friendly projects rendered and men realized.
- Underground Spaces and Places :
As cool as futuristic rendering look, some of them won’t even be visible – at least at first glance. We’re talking about mind bending, underground works – unobtrusive from street level, but game changing below the surface.
A proposed science research center would function entirely below the surface, while the sprawling Jurong Rock caverns are now being used as a commercial facility to score liquid hydrocarbons.
- Affordable Housing for Middle income Earners :
Most of these visions are for the cities of the far future. But before even drinking about eco-centric skyscrapers, for urban dwellers to live in cities, they need to be able to afford to live there. And it’s not easy especially when the rent in many new developments, intended to boost the availability of housing, is simply unattainable for the majority of residents. Fortunately, cities are taking notice and action.
- Allowing builders to launch more densely populated developments (provide that more affordable units are included)
- Collaborating with architects, developers, and contractor for ideas on how to affordably built compact living apartments.
- Launching a home buying portal website, where first time homebuyers can connect with the neighbourhoods, houses, and loan programs that suit them.
- Forward thinking Minds in Action :
Just as urbanities needs and preferences are varied, so are the approaches to city evolution. That’s why we have also turned to some particularly inspiring thought leaders on this very subject, via the almighty TED talks, to keep the discussions going.
Pondering the big questions – How do we move around smarter, get food to everyone, and keep our cities the rich, remarkable, amazing places they are, is what there bracing folks time for.
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