Notes from first ULI UK Tech Forum
1. We need to have a clear definition of technology. Physical as well as digital technology. Users and uses as well as creators and providers. Pre-construction, construction, post-construction.
2. Because we’ve always had technology:
a. Writing (wooden stylus & wax tablet) movement
b. Air conditioning – occupancy
c. Underfloor heating – occupancy
d. The shower – personal
e. Bicycle – movement
f. Revolving door – occupancy
g. The elevator – occupancy
h. The car – movement
i. Solar panels – occupancy
j. The Internet – movement & occupancy
k. Autonomous vehicles – movement
l. Drones – movement
m. Photofungal trees – place
We’ve always had technology. It’s always changed. Perhaps the pace is accelerating globally (but we shouldn’t forget the industrial revolution).
3. What hasn’t changed is the fundamental purpose of cities: social and economic trade.
4. In the future, autonomous vehicles will change the nature of movement. They will permit people to be far more productive while they drive.
5. Another key, and consequential, change will be in the nature of physical connections, transformed from highways to streets. Connectivity (as Chris Choa suggested) as an asset.
6. Therefore the street as an asset. The piazza as an asset. Not just the buildings that line them. The suburban business park will go the way of the dinosaurs.
7. The nature of online interaction is a further area of significant new change.
The power of the network 