The Hunger Games contrasted the excessive, indulgent wealth of monocentric The Capitol with the relative poverty of The Districts. Was this an allegory for the recent evolution of cities where wealth and privelege concentrates in urban cores which were only 100 years ago centres of industry and working class housing?
Have we now reached a point in the history of the evolution of cities where the forces of change are now far ahead of our thinking? Are we still mentally of the monocentric mindset of the post-industrial city – despite all evidence to the contrary – and doubling down on infrastructure and private capital investment on that basis? Are we reinforcing that obsolete mindset with planning and other regulatory instruments which perpetuate that model and that period in time?
Change and evolution is impossible to resist. The new era of cities – the fourth industrial revolution – is upon us. We had better get used to it: it is time to think and act differently. There is no turning back.
Advertisement
Suburban centres will continue to evolve, and be home to a growing services, health and education based economy. The monocentric city will become polycentric.
Discuss in our Forums
See what other readers are saying about this article!
Click here to read & post comments.
1 post so far.
About the Author
Ross Elliott is an industry consultant and business advisor,
currently working with property economists Macroplan and engineers
Calibre, among others.
reddit this
Del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
StumbleUpon
