Reimagining future cities
OFTEN when people are asked to envision the future, many imagine cities in doomsday scenario — rife with conflict, congested, polluted, overpopulated and the list goes on. This scenario could very well happen at the rate of unchecked urbanisation taking place.
But what if this scenario could be reversed and in its place, well-managed and well-planned cities that house thriving communities are built.
Universities and students in Malaysia are being given the opportunity to come up with ideas and solutions that could contribute towards the creation of ideal future cities.
A six-month programme called Malaysia 100 Year Cities (100YC), recently launched by Urbanice Malaysia, a centre of excellence under the Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Ministry, seeks to encourage local universities to reimagine Malaysian future cities and share their ideas, solutions and concepts to address the challenges of future urban living.
“United Nations’ projections indicate that Malaysia will have an urbanisation rate of 85 per cent by 2040, by which Malaysia’s population is expected to hit 41.5 million people.
“The Malaysia 100YC programme is in line with Malaysia’s aspiration to advocate, promote and implement projects in support of the UN New Urban Agenda (NUA) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG),” said Urbanice Malaysia chief executive officer Norliza Hashim.
Inspired and adapted from the Malaysia Biennial 100YC programme, Malaysia 100YC is a collaboration between Urbanice Malaysia, community-based urban rejuvenation organisation Think City and the Nextdor Property Communications Sdn Bhd, which helms the Malaysia Biennial 100YC programme.
While the former is more international in outlook, involving leading architecture schools from around the world, the Malaysia 100YC is more local in flavour.
“We are also keen to increase the momentum generated amongst Malaysians from our successful hosting of the World Urban Forum 9 earlier this year. We thought we should look at our home ground as there are issues here. We want to create a vision of what tomorrow would be like, and the best place to start is at universities,” said Norliza.
Students are still fresh and their minds are free to think of possibilities, Norliza noted. What is important is that students understand SDGs and what NUA is all about, enabling it to be implemented locally.
NUA is a framework that guides efforts around urbanisation and development, such as local fiscal systems, urban planning and basic services and infrastructure to ensure sustainable development.
SDGs focus on making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
“We are not limiting this to the urban environment schools at universities. We would like to open it up to those studying finance, law... anyone. Cities are huge, complex and very dynamic. That’s why we have started to engage universities to attract ideas.
“The programme is expected to include best practices and case studies from professional bodies and industry leaders in the areas of technology, architecture and town planning,” Norliza said.
In terms of university participation, she said public universities have agreed to join the programme, while invitations have been issued to private universities. Participating universities are eligible to get a RM10,000 grant under the Malaysia 100YC programme.
Six topics have been identified under the Malaysia 100YC programme, which are innovative technologies, green open spaces, urban mobility, affordable living, community governance and smart infrastructure.
Participants are to identify the key issues and challenges of the city they choose for the programme. More than one of the six focus areas can be addressed to showcase new concepts or solutions in the cities chosen. A specific area of the chosen city may be selected to demonstrate the idea, solution or concept.
The Malaysia 100YC programme will start with a series of workshops to be held end of August up to early September to encourage university students interact with industry players and international universities.
There will be a special studio session with renown practising designers and urbanists locally and internationally to help universities to “think out of the box”. Submissions of work is scheduled in January next year before the programme culminates in an exhibition February.
“There is no rule and regulation in what form the ideas and solutions should be submitted as we don’t want participants to be bogged down with such constraints.
“We leave it to the creativity of the university whether the submission is a model, a report or in any other forms. We are expecting a lot,” Norliza said.
“We are excited to see the outcome where we hope to see as many participation from local universities. Our target is to have a 100 ideas,” she added.
After the exhibition, Norliza said the programme organisers will publish the materials submitted.
“We will publish the submissions either in a report or a book. As the submission come in, we will see the inclination of each solution and we will push them to the appropriate organisations. We do the ground work and help the ideas to fit in the ministry’s plans,” she said.
UN Habitat executive director Datuk Maimunah Mohd Sharif, who officiated the launch of the Malaysia 100YC programme, said urban development comes from policy, programme and action, and that the academia plays an important role in the process.
“The academia can do a lot of research, but they cannot do research alone. The research must be connected to the real world to find urban solutions to urban challenges. That’s why we have to be holistic and integrated in planning urban development.
“Even UN Habitat is forming links to universities to tackle issues like climate change and urban crisis. Urbanisation is increasing and the role of education and research is important,” she said.
Maimunah said the academia must also be alert of talent demands related to urban development in today’s world.
“Changes in the curriculum and syllabus at universities need to be made. When you graduate, you are timely to tackle the challenges. Universities must produce the right talent at the right time,” she said.
Present at the event was Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Ministry deputy secretary-general Dr Mary Wong Lai Lin.
The research must be connected to the real world to find urban solutions to urban challenges. That’s why we have to be holistic and integrated in planning urban development.