New Century Cities: Real Estate Value in a Digital World

Center for Real Estate, City Design & Development, and MIT Media Lab

MIT Stata Center - Frank Gehry

Overview Agenda•New Century Cities Research Initiative

•Overarching Research Questions

•New Century Cities January 2005 Symposium

Programmable Glass - MIT Media Lab

Contactless Payment - DoCoMo Japan

New Century City Research Initiative

New Century Cities is a joint research initiative among:•Center for Real Estate•City Design and Development in Urban Studies and Planning•MIT Media Lab Smart Cities Group

http://web.mit.edu/cre/research/ncc/http://cities.media.mit.edu/

Study of new generation of very large-scale projects, deliberately located at the intersection of technology, urban design, and real estate development.

Examination how ubiquitous computing impacts social interaction, transactions, work habits, livability, and use of public and private spaces.

Project Locations

Mission Bay MIT

Florianopolis

Zaragoza

one-north, Singapore

DMC, Seoul

Arabianranta, Helsinki

Crossroads Copenhagen

Questions investigating the fundamental changes taking place as a result of pervasive digital technology:

• Will our use of the city change as media and communication technologies permeate everyday life? Will new patterns of living and working emerge?

• What form of places and projects will be demanded to serve these new activities?

• Which technologies are most relevant to the design of new real estate products and urban spaces?

• Are the physical boundaries of public and private shifting in these cutting-edge developments? What questions of accessibility does this raise within the projects and in city spaces on a broader scale?

• Who will benefit and who will lose in this process of transformation?

Questions for developers and the real estate industry:

• What is the “value proposition” of cutting-edge projects that incorporate advanced technology and sensitive design? What are the models from real estate practice, which can be applied to these projects?

• In building the New Century City, what is the role of the private sector and the public? Where are their realms?

• What new partnerships are being formed among media and advanced technology companies, developers and government entities?

• What kinds of developers are attracted to experimenting with these cutting-edge projects?

• What changes must take place in the real estate development industry to accommodate cutting-edge projects? Where in the development process are the most changes needed?

Digital Media City, Prototype Street Furniture

New Century City Symposium•January 18th and 19th, 2005

•Over 150 participants from 4 continents

•“Traditional” city-builders - developers, construction firms, architects, planners,and city officials

•“Newer” partners - information technology, communications, and media firms

•Four panels

•Vision

•The New Fabric of Development

•SENSEable City Technology

•Value Proposition

Gail Farris, Peter Smyth, and Diannah Neff

New Century City Symposium Findings

•Concept of Living Laboratory required patience and emerging partnerships

•Many of the projects are very custom. No one size fits all.

•Disconnect between technology capability and real world technology acceptance. Technology in itself is not valuable. Importance of usability.

•Still, certain technologies catch on very quickly and have fundamentally changed the way we live, work, and play (mobile phone, PC, digital TV)

•Need time for “digital” generation to enter workforce and join adult population

http://web.mit.edu/cre/research/ncc/symposium-agenda.html

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