Sustainability and collective intelligence
Manifesto diagram illustrating the participatory processes of the city inhabitants, created by the group
Each section of this manifesto can be perceived independently. Choose the reading order and create your own narrative. The personalized narratives reflect the methodology to address the complexity of collaborative urban design processes at a macro level.
City as a collaborative platform
Imagine a city where all inhabitants are actively participating for the betterment of their environment – inhabitants that have equal rights, regardless of the species, the age, the sex or the fact that they have no voice. The local river and mountain embody century old knowledge that is available for those who can hear. All inhabitants form a collective. All work together for a common goal. Their key to success: collaboration, the most extraordinary ability of humans and a few other species on this planet.
Collaborative processes require advanced communication techniques. Populations thrived, gained territory, and created wonders because of their ability to connect with other cultures, creating a solid foundation for continuous evolution. Today, with the help of computers, it is possible to access centuries old or brand-new knowledge, stored and ready to use. Data servers around the world host the “wisdom of humanity” giving shape to a collective intelligence. The question is:
How to optimize urban development through collaborative design?
Challenges of urban development
Climate change, rising population growth, gentrification, shortage of traditional energy resources, global conflicts, economic crisis are just a few of the challenges that urban development is facing. At the same time, sustainability is in the center of current urban design research. Technological advancements give the possibility to tackle those challenges in an unprecedented way. Firstly, with the help of big data and artificial intelligence it is possible to visualize the problems. As a next step, the visualization promotes an immediate way of communication celebrating an open-source knowledge pool. Everyone interested in urban development can be informed of the challenges of our cities, through filtering information provided by the media, internet. Given the fact that “knowledge is power”, all city-inhabitants are empowered to take part for the betterment of their urban living.
Collective intelligence diagram illustrating the function and application of collaborative design processes
Crowd intelligence
Crowdsourcing is a new way of problem solving, where solutions are given by larger groups of people. The Internet allows open-access information to citizens, humans, and all life inhabiting cities to be aware of the challenges their immediate environment faces. By expressing opinions, solutions and supporting each other’s ideas, city dwellers can be an active part of the city’s development. Traditionally, the power of decision-making is a privilege and responsibility of a few, who are often biassed or serve a plan that is not approved by the majority of city inhabitants. Furthermore, decision making at the city planning level can be extremely time consuming, not always even resulting in a tangible solution. As a contrast to the traditional practices, practices of collaborative design can be introduced, to add complexity, accuracy and diversity to decision making processes. All city inhabitants are empowered to be part of the solving crowd.
Collective feedback loop
Understanding community collective intelligence in urban design involves leveraging the collective knowledge, experiences, and insights of community members to shape the design and development of urban spaces. It emphasizes inclusive and participatory approaches where residents, developers, and legislators alike actively contribute to decision-making processes.
Through a continuous and seamless feedback loop, harmony and synergy within urban development are ensured. From programmatic development that would benefit the community to the balance between profits and sustainable growth, a shared platform that connects all. The collective design process stretching from pre-design to construction and post occupancy enables local communities to obtain valuable contextual understanding, fostering a more sustainable and responsive urban development that aligns with the needs and preferences of those who inhabit the space. By collecting various continuous data streams from sources such as social media platforms, traffic patterns, weather conditions and others the “city as a collective platform” ensures personalization and responsiveness, becoming a digital overlay of the city’s personal narrative and perception.
Towards an optimization of collective needs
Optimization is key to maximizing functionality and sustainability in the city scape while accounting for resources to create the most suitable, efficient, and self-representing environment for the city inhabitants. Optimization can be applied in all phases of development such as data collection analysis, decision-making, implementation, feedback loops. A wide palette of AI generated tools enable integrated planning, stakeholder engagement, feedback-loops, public-private partnership, and data-driven decision-making.
Particularly relevant is the optimization of collaborative decision-making, to ensure diversity, inclusiveness, representation of needs, innovation, trust, transparency, and the sense of belonging. For a non-biased outcome, the process must overcome political differences, complexity in stakeholders’ dynamics, resource constraints, speed, and balancing power dynamics. Through smart and passive approaches such as continuous evaluation and monitoring, pilot projects, modern tools to overcome speed and clarity issues, engagement and continuity can be ensured through the system’s structure.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JsDJccJ_jS8LIa5eqVn4ayWqB5wx7ShF/view?usp=drive_link
Machine intelligence as part of the collective
Creating sustainable cities requires a holistic approach that fosters a symbiotic relationship between humans, machines, other species and entities. Cities can integrate natural elements, looking for a sense of connection to nature for both residents and wildlife. Collaborative urban planning involving diverse stakeholders ensures that decisions prioritize green spaces, wildlife corridors and sustainable infrastructure.
Harnessing the power of smart city technologies, driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning, plays a crucial role in optimizing resource use and improving overall quality of life while minimizing environmental impact. These technologies enable real-time data analysis, informing decisions on ecological conservation efforts and resource management. For example, the design of interconnected green corridors and the implementation of sustainable transportation options, guided by AI-based insights, not only reduce pollution, but also support biodiversity in urban environments.
Community education and engagement, facilitated by machine-based communication strategies, are essential to cultivate shared responsibility among citizens. In addition, regenerative practices, and circular economy principles, guided by machine learning algorithms, contribute to the active restoration of ecosystems. This integrated approach envisions sustainable cities as dynamic ecosystems in which humans, machines and other species coexist in harmony, with cutting-edge technologies that enhance resilience and optimize the overall urban experience.
The intelligent city
A future vision of the intelligent city could mean the establishment of a civic intelligence. Highlight of this type of operation is that the community and citizens are still in control of the used technology. Civic intelligence is in stark contrast with another type of possible scenario where algorithms tracking city inhabitants behaviour can predict outcomes more accurately than ever before and ultimately have the power to decide for themselves. Needs of the urban ecosystem’s inhabitants are diverse, contradicted or even suppressed. Freedom to analyse and make decisions would always include city dwellers, but not necessarily machines, to avoid surveillance capitalism. At the same time, technology is the answer to the collaborative development of the city. From an architect’s perspective, freedom can mean a hands-on contribution to the shape of the system of city development, continuously being informed by city inhabitants.
Video describing the research in 3 min, created by the blog-post authors
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ANI66LsXiBwX3-Mjwt5b8L_8O5vIsZTY/view?usp=drive_link
Reference literature
Haraway Donna, 2016, “Staying with the trouble”, Duke University Press.
Philip F. Yuan, Mike Xie, Neil Leach, Jiawei Yao, Xiang Wang, CDRF 2019, “Architectural Intelligence”, Springer.
Philip F. Yuan, Hua Chai, Chao Yan, Keke Li, Tongyue Sun, CDFR 2022, “Hybrid intelligence”, Springer.
Christopher Hight, Chris Perry, 2006, “Collective intelligence in Design”, Architectural Design.
Rolf K. Baltzersen, 2022, “Cultural-Historical Perspectives on Collective Intelligence”, Duke University Press
Despret Vinciane, 2016, “What would animals say if we asked the right questions?”, University of Minnesota Press.
