Living PlanIT is a lab in the development and design phase with lots of interesting ideas. The concept that how we use buildings needs to be challenged is very upside down thinking. One North in Singapore really the only other example of a living lab I have seen at scale.
The FastCompany article (http://bit.ly/bdvElg) is a great exposition of the core issue and the technology that sits at the core of the solution. It’s interesting that PanIT have decided to publish the architecture of their solution – a lot of people would have kept this a secret. But it’s key to how the city can operate and how the model for a private sector city can be brought together at low cost and at speed.
The concept of a platform that supports a set of third party modules on top has been around for ages – I drew a similar diagram in 2007 and have since met at least ten other people with original version of the same diagram. I now also know of at least three companies who have built this platform with the applications on top – and I’m sure there are many others.
The business model is different though – we have a bunch of technology people saying they can build a better solution based on a different business model – that the business cannot articulate because its constrained by traditional thinking.
Exactly the problem I worked with at Nakheel in 2007/08. And the solution – to bring in a whole bunch of partners who can build solutions on top of the platform is the best approach in my view as no one company can do it all. I think this is where PlanIT is going but at the moment, most of the partners are firms who contribute to the construction phase – which is where the problems are right now for this project and is where a lot of the long term paradigms of a city and a building are set. I hope that the focus on construction and supply chain works but I still think it’s the end operating model you need to start with – not how to build it.
Like any good IT project – ask the end user what they want to achieve and be radically challenging in solutions that meet that need with a holistic view of the ecosystem the user fits into.
I don’t think PlanIT is proposing a huge change here across all aspects of how we live our lives – I think there a re a few fundamental changes to how many of us work that will drive a lot of the change that is needed.
Our expectations, our normal and our comfort zone are all about place and how different places support different activities – we describe places in terms of their use and function. But there is a grass roots change happening. The traditional corporate hierarchy is no longer driving much of business architecture and home is changing as technology enables social contact in a different context.
I for example have an office at home (on the edge of Dubai), an office in Abu Dhabi and an office in downtown Dubai. I work on client sites all over the Gulf region and I meet with business partners and friends in café’s around town. The team I am part of has a similar paradigm and we adopt a swarm approach to opportunities, projects and issues. I have no idea who will be in which of my offices each day until I get there so socializing and dealing with non urgent work communications happens in an unpredictable way so you can never be sure who is up to date on what. The office services a much less important function and the fabric of the city needs to support how I work, in particular how I interact with my colleagues and partners.
In a domestic environment, teenagers now not only have a phone but also have instant messaging, social media, virtual worlds and email. Twenty years ago when a teenager got home mum would be saying – you just left school, how come you jump straight on the phone and chat with your friends? Nothings changed but the size and level of immersion in that social scene has increased – and even when out and about they continue the immersion and spend less time with family. My home is also my favorite office – provided I can stay connected socially – it saves on the fuel bills and gives me less stress.
Education is changing but I don’t see the classroom disappearing any time soon. The same can be said I think for most other institutions such as hospitals and jails.
Retail has always been and will always be about place so that will evolve as cities change.
I think that the change we can make is in how commercial offices are used and how they fit into the fabric of the city. We need to challenge the way allot, but not all of us, use offices and this means how they work and are built. That’s why I’m working on a new project that I think will change how offices are viewed.
I also agree with the PlanIT team that the construction industry as a whole is so wasteful and ignorant of the impact they have on the planet. I still think that the idea behind Bangitup.com in Australia was one of the most successful game changes in the construction industry – it got to the grass roots of the trades industry and took the management function out of the contractors head and into a structured and well thought out business process engine. This ensured that only the stuff on the plan was ordered and it was delivered to site only when it was needed. It works really well in residential.
PlanIt have talked allot about different construction techniques and materials and thinking about how that affects the way buildings work – that’s all great stuff and they along with Masdar and a number of other developments with a research focus will go along way to improving how operations is considered in the design and build process. There is no doubt a need to redesign the construction process so that only what’s needed gets ordered and is delivered only when its needed. Then make sure that the waste removed from site is tracked and dealt with like all other waste should be. That’s taking the Bangitup idea for residential and making it work across the entire construction industry.
I think the real challenge for Steve Lewis and the team at PlanIT is to weld all this together in a business model that will make money. In my view, the only new part is building an integrated city operations business. This will only happen if they can finish what we started at Nakheel – to redesign the city operations function into an integrated revenue generating business that delivers on a dream that I first saw articulated by Walt Disney in 1965. The city is not just a place, it’s a brand and it’s a service that makes living in the city a different experience.
Tags: city operations, connected communities, PlanIT Valley, smart cities, technology
