Smart[er] Living | Environment | Infrastructure: Low-Tech or No-Tech Solutions

Victor NegreteGSD Smart CitiesOctober 8, 2012

Smart Low-Tech or No-Tech Solutions [?]

• Smart Cities and Smart City solutions are not a new phenomenon

• Smart Cities and Smart City solutions are not necessarily high-tech

• Smart Cities and Smart City solutions empower individual citizens to participate in shaping the urban environment – a kind of DIY Urbanism

Subthemes and Case Studies

[1]

[1] Bus Rapid TransitBogota, Colombia

• BRT began in Curitiba, Brazil in 1974

• Bogota, Colombia opened its system (Transmilenio) in 2000

• The Transmilenio is considered to be among the best/most complete examples of BRT in the world

• [Smart Design] – a low tech solution

[Smart] is Not New

[Smart] is Not New

Buses travel on dedicated lanes.

[Smart] is Not New

Bus Platform is level with bus.

[Smart] is Not New

Riders pay before entering the station.

[Smart] is Not New

BRT is referred to as “surface subway.”

But it costs a fraction of traditional subway infrastructure.

[2]

[2] Grassroots MappingPublic Laboratory

• Grassroots Mapping utilizes digital cameras and open-source technology to stitch together aerial imagery

• A balloon map has 100 times higher resolution than those produced by Google

• Grassroots Mapping empowers communities

• [Accessible technology] – a smart solution

[Smart] is Not Always High-Tech

[Smart] is Not Always High-Tech

A DIY Mapping Kit

[Smart] is Not Always High-Tech

MapKnitter allows you to “stitch” images into a web-viewable map.

[Smart] is Not Always High-Tech

Balloon mapping has been used to document the Gulf oil spill.

[Smart] is Not Always High-Tech

Balloon mapping was also used to document Occupy protests.

[Smart] is Not Always High-Tech

Is it smart to rely on Apple and Google to map our cities?

[3]

[3] PARK(ing)Rebar

[Smart] is DIY

[Tactical Urbanism] –

“The goal is not to simply do a cool project that will get cleaned up by the city or thrown away, but to make something – even something temporary – that will change how a place works and is perceived. And once that change has been made, to figure out how it can be made again or made permanent.” - Nate Berg Writer, The Atlantic Cities

• The original Park(ing) installation occurred on November 16, 2005 in San Francisco, CA

• Each year on Park(ing) Day, people all over the reclaim metered parking spaces as places for people

• In 2010, the City of San Francisco made Park(ing) an official place-making strategy when it introduced its Pavement to Parks program

[Smart] is DIY

[Smart] is DIY

The first Park(ing) installation.