Smart City

The smart citys computers will calculate where offices and shops can be laid out most efficiently， where people should sleep， and how all the parts of urban life should be fitted together. Science fiction？ Smart cities are being built in the Middle East and in Korea； they have become a model for developers in China， and for redevelopment in Europe.

Imagine that you are a master planner facing a blank computer screen and that you can design a city from scratch， free to incorporate every bit of high technology into your design. You might come up with Masdar， in the United Arab Emirates， or Songdo， in South Korea. These are two versions of the stupefying smart city.

Masdar is a half-built city rising out of the desert， whose planning—overseen by the master architect Norman Foster—comprehensively lays out the activities of the city， the technology monitoring and regulating the function from a central command centre. The city is conceived in “Fordist” terms—that is， each activity has an appropriate place and time. Urbanites become consumers of choices laid out for them by prior calculations of where to shop， or to get a doctor， most efficiently.

Songdo represents the stupefying smart city in its architectural aspect—massive， clean， efficient housing blocks rising up in the shadow of South Koreas western mountains， like an inflated 1960s British housing estate—but now heat， security， parking and deliveries are all controlled by a central Songdo “brain”. The massive units of housing are not conceived as structures with any individuality in themselves， nor is the ensemble of these faceless buildings meant to create a sense of place.

在智能城市里，計(jì)算機(jī)能夠規(guī)劃辦公室和商店如何分布最有效率，人們?cè)谑裁吹胤剿X(jué)最合適，以及城市生活的各個(gè)方面如何有機(jī)地結(jié)合在一起。聽(tīng)上去像科幻小說(shuō)嗎？實(shí)際上在中東和韓國(guó)，人們已經(jīng)開(kāi)始建造智能城市了。在中國(guó)，智能城市也成為開(kāi)發(fā)者的模板，對(duì)歐洲的重新開(kāi)發(fā)也是這樣。

想象你自己是一個(gè)總規(guī)劃師，面對(duì)一個(gè)空白計(jì)算機(jī)屏幕，從零開(kāi)始設(shè)計(jì)一座城市，可以在規(guī)劃中包含各種高新技術(shù)。你可能會(huì)設(shè)計(jì)出阿聯(lián)酋的馬斯達(dá)爾，或者韓國(guó)的松島。它們是兩個(gè)令人瞠目的智能城市版本。

馬斯達(dá)爾是在沙漠上建起的半完工城市，由總設(shè)計(jì)師諾曼·福斯特主持規(guī)劃，包羅萬(wàn)象地涵蓋了城市的功能。有一個(gè)中央控制中心來(lái)監(jiān)控和規(guī)范整個(gè)城市。整個(gè)城市是按“福特主義者”來(lái)構(gòu)思的——每一種活動(dòng)都有個(gè)適當(dāng)?shù)牡胤胶蜁r(shí)段。市民按照先前計(jì)算的最佳結(jié)果來(lái)選擇去什么地方購(gòu)物，去什么地方看醫(yī)生。

松島代表智能城市建筑驚人的一面——巨大、干凈，高效能的房屋在韓國(guó)西部山區(qū)中拔地而起，就像20世紀(jì)60年代英國(guó)住宅區(qū)的膨脹版，但是現(xiàn)在供暖、安防、停車和送貨都受到松島“神經(jīng)中樞”控制。巨大的房屋單元不是以任何個(gè)人喜好來(lái)設(shè)計(jì)，也不是那些毫無(wú)個(gè)性的只是為了建個(gè)房子而已的建筑群。