I S S ( THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) U E 03 THE POSSIBLE ISSUE 03 ( THE ART AND SCIENCE OF ) THE POSSIBLE 4 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE If work is a thing we do rather than a place we go, why do we still spend so much time at the office? In a world where computers and their algorithmic minds can far outstrip us in crunching data, humans are valued P54 more than ever for our idiosyncrasies, our creativity and the connections we make. And the magic really happens when we’re together. P18 So today’s offices have to be better: not just a functional backdrop, they must actively draw us in, and out of ourselves, nurture our wellbeing, inspire us, help us to flourish in environments that are ever more saturated with technology. P28 That technology doesn’t need to overwhelm us if we apply it intelligently and sensitively. Data is what we make of it. The funny thing is, the more we use our robot assistants, THE ART AND SCIENCE OF the more we can refocus on what makes us human. Tom Smith, WSP “Great design will always be about human creativity. The computer doesn’t take that away, it just augments it. It’s like having a very geeky designer on the team” Arjun Kaicker, Zaha Hadid Architects / page 52 Editor-in-chief Julie Guppy Editorial consultants Mark Bessoudo, Cover illustration by Noma Bar Published by Wordmule © WSP Editor Katie Puckett Fredrik Bergström, David Cooper, Bridget wordmule.co.uk 1600 René-Lévesque Blvd. W Production editor Nick Jones Kennerley, Helena Klintström, Linda Design by Supermassive 16th floor Creative director Sam Jenkins Lövgren, Frank McLeod Printed by Greenshires Montreal, Quebec the-possible.com H3H 1P9 Canada wsp.com 6 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE CONTENTS 03.2018 CONNECTED THINKING THE HUMAN FACTOR 42 6 42 Too smart for our own good? / Mark Bessoudo 7 INTERVIEW: Designing out loneliness / David Symons 8 JOHAN EDSTAV Envisioning the all-electric city / Barny Evans 11 Sound the cyber alert / Peter Richards 12 With Sweden in the grip of a housing crisis, Infrastructure, realpolitick and the age 15 a new wave of smart cities could provide the of the city / Tom Cargill 14 answer. The man behind them reveals how he Could our idealization of genius be causing the plans to avoid the mistakes of the past gender gap? / Andrei Cimpian 15 28 SPACES 48 HUMANS REBOOTED 18 18 AI researchers believe robots have a 50% chance of outperforming humans in all tasks THE PURSUIT OF WELLNESS in less than 50 years. We need to find new It’s become a trillion-dollar industry almost employment and new ways of living — and we overnight and it’s still growing. But will designing need to do it quickly for wellness really make us healthier? 26 TOOLS 26 48 THE SMARTEST PLACE I KNOW 54 HOK’s Kay Sargent picks a Stockholm office that balances high tech and human REALS WITHIN REALS 54 Advances in digital modelling and visualization are transforming everything from on-site training to city planning — changing not only the way we build, but the way we think about the world 28 THE FUTURE OF THE WORKPLACE More of us than ever are working from home 66 or third locations such as co-working spaces. 66 How can the office fight back? BLANK CANVAS Transport hubs play a central role in our towns and cities. But what’s the best way to develop the land around them? 7 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE #SMARTCITIES #AI #TECHNOFEAR THE DARK GREEN CITY Smart urban technology has the potential to transform our cities — but watch out for unintended consequences, warns Mark Bessoudo hat would cities look like if they the project would represent one of the constraints and starts freeing us from It’s not just physical jobs that AI is W were built from scratch, from most comprehensive models of how data those things that we should not want to poised to take over. It’s also begun to the internet up? This is the question related to just about everything — from be rid of? Questions about data privacy encroach on a wide range of activities being asked by Sidewalk Labs, the traffic congestion to noise to air quality and digital governance aside, Carr that demand intellectual judgment, urban innovation unit of Google’s parent to trash bins — can be used to not only argues that liabilities associated with from medicine to law. The rate of this company Alphabet Inc. What’s emerging guide a city’s ongoing operations, but also some technologies — in particular AI and intellectual outsourcing shows no signs from this thought experiment is a new teach it to improve itself, continuously automation — may become so advanced of slowing down. approach to city-building, one that sees and without human intervention. that they ultimately threaten to impair Historically, technology has delivered urban districts as platforms for testing “Technology,” Sidewalk Labs insists, “can the conditions required for us to pursue us with exponential gains in quality of and refining technologies that improve help create complete communities that meaningful work and meaningful lives. life. The advent of something as novel quality of life. Sidewalk Labs’ mission, it are highly interactive and accessible to As AI improves, it makes work faster and powerful as AI has the potential to claims, is not to create a city of the future, all, freeing residents from the constraints and more efficient, and can lower deliver even more benefits. But it also has P48 but to create the future of cities. imposed by the heavy infrastructure and environmental impact. It is estimated the potential to disrupt cities, and entire This approach demonstrates how cities spatial hierarchies of the last century.” that a fully automated factory, without the societies, with unintended consequences. are on the cusp of a revolution in urban While this may turn out to be true, need for lighting, heating or cooling, could Technology has also always been a technology driven by sensors, ubiquitous it reflects a wider, commonly held operate using 35% less energy than a double-edged sword; only now, the blade connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI) assumption: that as technology improves conventional one. But the products of its has become that much sharper. and advances in digital fabrication and it will always be for the betterment of labour also require far fewer workers: that construction. Nowhere is this more humanity. Nicholas Carr, a US journalist same energy-efficient factory could cut Mark Bessoudo is research manager and apparent than in Toronto, where Sidewalk who writes about the intersection of labour costs by 80%. So while the factory sustainability consultant at WSP in Toronto. Labs recently partnered with Waterfront technology and culture, believes that this of the future may be green, it is also dark. He is also founder of platoforplumbers.com Toronto, a government agency, to create a narrative of inevitable progress clouds our new kind of neighbourhood. The 12-acre real relationship with technology. What mixed-use district along Lake Ontario we take as incremental improvements aims to be a global benchmark for how an in our everyday lives may in fact obscure “What happens when technology moves beyond lifting genuine advanced “smart city” can be built from more nuanced and ambiguous changes. Paddy Mills Paddy constraints and starts freeing us from those things that we scratch, quickly and effectively, using What happens, he asks, when Portraits data-driven technology. If successful, technology moves beyond lifting genuine should not want to be rid of?” 9 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE CONNECTED THINKING #URBANDENSITY #DIGITALHERMITS #BOWLINGALONE “Social issues are rarely 01 considered in the design of HOW OFTEN, IF AT ALL, DO YOU MEET SOCIALLY WITH FRIENDS, RELATIVES OR WORK COLLEAGUES? residential developments, and Age 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+ traditional approaches may exacerbate the problem” At least once a week research, asking 1,000 Londoners how At least once a month Less than once they felt about their lives, how regularly Every day a month they socialized, and how well they knew their neighbours (see opposite). We found that 75% didn’t know the 12% 23% 16% names of more than three neighbours, 47% and more than half didn’t know more than two. Looking only at those who live in apartments, three-quarters didn’t know the name of anyone in their block. This is a fascinating conundrum. Cities and regions see themselves as centres of community, and yet here we seem ALONE TOGETHER to have people bowling alone. It’s also an interesting one for us because it’s 02 uncharted territory. Few programmes HOW MANY OF YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS DO YOU SEE IN AN AVERAGE WEEK? More of us than ever are leading solitary lives, isolated by changing social to address loneliness consider design structures, digital networks and denser cities, writes David Symons. approaches, and engineers are very rarely Can we design stronger communities? asked what they can do to help. But we’ve None 25% found that when you do ask designers, there are a great many practical actions 1 18% rbanization, an ageing population, and more than one half in Sweden, the theoretically have much wider networks that we could take. We recently held a 2 17% U ever greater connectivity — three current capital of singleton life. than they did. But research in the social Future Ready innovation lab in-house to 3 13% megatrends already having a profound This is partly due to demographics — sciences has found that this type of brainstorm ideas, and in just one hour it 4 9% 5 7% influence on our lives, on society and as the babyboomer generation ages, connection does not address loneliness generated 250 suggestions for ways that on the built environment.