Redesigning Cities For Change

"Naturally when people, communities, lifestyles, economics and cultures change designs need to change. If we put no effort into design, the city systems simply design themselves over time- then the design specs may not be the ones we desire...

Did the designers of our current urban transport systems worry about security as a design parameter?...What designs are required to provide mobility to over 19 million residents of Mumbai and an almost an equal number of people pass through it every day...

Managing Mumbai, or any modern community for that matter, will have to focus on redesigning the urban processes for mobility, water, food, energy delivery, waste removal, and information sharing and processing. It will have to focus on redesigning governance to give decision making back to the lowest level where it can happen. The design will have to be similar to the autonomous nervous system we have: one that allows us to react to dangers without needing the brain to signal us every time...

Patchwork redesign is often more dangerous than no design; it simply shifts the problem and sometimes magnifies disaster when it happens. Redesign requires a complete recognition of the output we desire and designing mechanisms to create that output."