Pioneering the post-pandemic city

PROFESSOR Greg Clark, chair of the Connected Places Catapult, envisages the possible post-pandemic future for cities in an interview with the Centre for Liveable Cities.

You have spoken of "blended cities" that are likely to emerge within the next two decades, where, as a result of digitalisation, they become both a place and a service. Please tell us more.

Greg Clark (GC): There is no zero-sum between digital platforms and the physical city.

Whenever new technologies have emerged over the past century, people have predicted the death of cities. But on each occasion, cities have grown stronger, utilising such technologies to reinforce the value of proximity, physical interactions, and shared systems, services and spaces. Technologies reinforce the power and efficiency of cities, but they also oblige cities to adjust. We need to recognise that while technology enables us to optimise physical space, it does not replace it.

The "blended city" describes how the hybrid "physical-digital" world can change our lives. Cities will become more digitalised in terms of space, mobility, amenities and utilities, and more hybrid in consumption, services, entertainment, education and gatherings. This "blended city" is a combination of the "city as a service" and the "city as a place".

Eventually, I think this will mean that many more cities can become "cities by subscription or membership". These are cities where you don't have to be permanently based, but (in which you) can serve your clients, own a property, start a business, or make investments.

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Fast-growing cities in countries with smaller populations, such as those in the Gulf, the Caribbean and the Baltics, may adopt these models rapidly.

What could this mean for the future of top-tier "global cities" such as London, New York, Paris, Tokyo and Singapore?

GC: The pandemic is starting to play a "sorting" role, separating the things that still need to be physically done in cities from those that do not. There are exciting new opportunities over the next few years for these cities, in:

• Innovation: Cities will continue to host innovation if they make the required changes. For example, by shifting towards innovation-economy sectors such as the life sciences, regenerative medicine and creative media production, where face-to-face proximity is often needed, and by developing innovation districts in places where demand from corporate jobs may be reduced, such as central business districts.

• Habitat: Growing the resident population of cities is an opportunity to underpin urban amenities and retain vitality while also making efficient use of space and services. One option for many people is not just to work from home, but also to live nearer to where they work. Where buildings are convertible, we will see more of this. At the same time, there are opportunities for smaller urban centres to develop co-working spaces and mixed-use districts that support work and leisure near home. With many people having been in lockdown during the pandemic, these new patterns have yet to emerge. But they will.

• Talent attraction: Cities will increasingly compete to attract top talents and skilled workers, drawing them with special visas, incentives and flexible live-and-work models available in a "blended city".

• Digital platforms in physical space: A new logistics economy driven by digital commerce is emerging in cities. The growth of home delivery and its related mobility systems, the rise of data centres, fulfilment centres, dark kitchens and collection hubs, and their links to infrastructure webs, present new opportunities for cities to re-engineer space. One key issue is how to both enable these digitalised services, and also protect public goods such as safe pavements, clean air and mobility flows.

How can cities in developing nations, which are growing rapidly and struggling to find the resources to adapt to the pandemic and other major disruptions such as climate change, cope in the long term?

GC: The pandemic has different implications for people living in cities in developing nations. Covid-19 has made the link between human health and housing conditions more visible, as people in the worst-quality or most crowded housing have been the most impacted. This is not a function of density per se, but about housing quality.

Hence, in Latin America, Africa, India and Asean, I expect to see new initiatives emerge to tackle housing quality and inequality, as well as other urban systems like healthcare and water. These investments require fiscal power, not only from national governments, but through cities generating their resources and partnering with the private sector.

Post-pandemic, many developing nations will try to manage an overall system of cities, rather than focus narrowly on individual cities.

In Indonesia, for example, we may see policies that simultaneously seek to regenerate Jakarta, create a new capital in East Kalimantan, increase the role and size of Bandung and Surabaya, and support the growth of another six to 10 cities. This "systems of cities" approach will be essential to embrace sustainability and manage population movements.

One permanent challenge, which the pandemic has starkly revealed, is weak urban governance. Covid-19 has highlighted the need for well-run cities that are able to manage extreme situations effectively.

In light of Covid-19, how can Singapore further its role as a successful world city?

GC: Singapore occupies a unique and important role in the global network of cities. It is not just a successful city-state; it is a global laboratory on how 21st century urbanism can work.

Singapore has established a reputation for innovation in water, education, housing, transport and city planning, and for world-class standards in business policies, urban governance and R&D investment. Like other leading cities, Singapore will now need to make a further shift towards innovation, habitat and experience, underpinned by a rapid net-zero carbon transition.

What I hope to see is that Singapore uses its acquired advantages to demonstrate a "fast track" towards circularity, as it has done with water, and towards innovation districts such as in Jurong and Punggol.

• Professor Greg Clark is the group advisor of future cities and new industries at HSBC, and chair of the Connected Places Catapult, the UK's innovation accelerator for cities, transport and places. He is also moderator of the World Cities Summit (WCS) Mayors Forum. This is an abridged version of an article to be published in the June 2021 issue of Urban Solutions magazine, that will be launched at the World Cities Summit 2021 (www.worldcitiessummit.com.sg). Urban Solutions is a publication by the Centre for Liveable Cities (www.clc.gov.sg) under the Ministry of National Development, Singapore.