Electrical Gems #169 June - July 2022 | Page 12

FUTURE LIVING ISSUE

CITIES OF THE FUTURE

remotely , there are a significant number that can ’ t – think retail , cleaning , hospitality ( and trades !) – and that is going to lead to an influx of more compact housing solutions and increasing population density , says Brett Wiskar , global keynote speaker and Chief Future Officer at Wiley .
“ There ’ s a whole group of people who have shifted their expectations about what living will look like in a city environment .
“ Australians are used to growing up on a quarter-acre block , but for generations , people in Chicago , Shanghai and Tokyo have grown up in apartments . There ’ s nothing wrong with that – it ’ s just different .”
Sattler agrees : “ The younger generation coming through are minimalists , they ' re not looking for the large block with a place where they can run the dog and have chickens . That ' s gone . They ' re very socially conscious and they ' re driven in their purpose in life as well .
“ They don ’ t necessarily want all the usual layers of social fabric – the car , the double garage . These are things that just aren ' t on the radar of the next generation , and we ' ll see cities change to adopt that mindset as well .”
Sattler predicts cities of the future will be full of people rather than full of cars , and that brings with it transport implications , too – after all , people still need to move around .
“ Will people in 10 years ’ time think it ’ s a priority to own a car ? Probably not . We ’ ve seen this happening in Singapore and it ’ s playing out in a lot of quite dense cities across the globe . Is Australia any different ?
“ Those shared models of transport will encourage people to come back into cities and
OUR CITIES ARE SET TO BECOME BUSTLING , HEAVILY POPULATED HUBS – AND WILL NEED THE INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT INCREASINGLY DENSE POPULATIONS .

T he past two-and-a-half years have dictated that cities have to change . With pandemic-enforced remote working fasttracking decades of professional evolution – and the resultant impact on the businesses reliant on vast numbers of people working in cities during the week – we ’ re already seeing change in our urban centres .

But will that change be lasting , and what else will impact our cities over the coming decades ?
“ The nine to five , Monday to Friday way of working is gone ,” says Joshua Sattler , CEO of Dantia , the economic development company for Lake Macquarie City , NSW .
“ That ’ s been a beautiful outcome of Covid – it ’ s allowed flexibility for people to say ‘ I don ’ t need to work in an office ’. And , as a consequence , it ’ s going to increasingly impact how our cities are used and the space businesses need .
“ You ’ ve got co-working spaces , for example . That ’ s where a lot of businesses are going , and that desire for flexibility will only get greater for the next generation .”
Of course , while many jobs can be done to actually treat cities as places for people rather than heavy infrastructure and transport modes .”
What those transport layers are remains to be seen , but Sattler says micro mobility – scooters and ebikes – will be key , while he ponders , “ What happens when we start talking about that in-between layer of what ’ s above a road , and what ’ s then in the next airspace under 5000 ft ?
12 GEMCELL . COM . AU JUN – JUL 2022