Urban performance — by Ramon Gras
By | 2024
We all know that urban design, placemaking and infrastructures have all shaped the cities we know today, directly impacting how we live and our quality of life.
But what is urban form? How does it connect to urban performance, and what implications does this have for the future of cities? In an upcoming episode of our series on trends shaping today’s urban landscape, we dive into urban performance with Ramon Gras, co-founder of Aretian and researcher at Harvard University.
#ExpertVoices | 2024 x E06
Urban performance
— by Ramon Gras —
Cities are…
Cities are the most complex and sophisticated human creation ever. They are the result of the urban design, place making and infrastructure development efforts of mankind through the ages. And shape and nurture the spaces in which we inhabit, where we relate with one another.
What is the relationship between urban form and quality of life?
Urban form has a lasting, structural, deep and profound impact on the quality of life of citizens. The way in which the topological, bi-dimensional and the three-dimensional morphological features of the building form, building massing, building heights, the architectural shapes, the materials, the colors, the activity programming… The way all these systems are shaped deeply influences both our individual and collective psychology and the way in which we relate to one another.
📣 What is urban form? How does it connect to urban performance — and what implications does this have for the future of cities? #CitiesToBe by @Anteverti discusses this issue with @RamonGrasAloma, co-founder of @AretianUAD and researcher at @Harvard 👇🏽 Clic para tuitearHow can urban performance be measured?
Urban performance measures are a methodological attempt, by means of city science and urban design analysis, to measure indirectly the quality of life of citizens, based upon the way in which urban design, place making, and economic development have been shaping our cities. It can be measured in a variety of ways, but the methodology we developed at Harvard and Aretian consists in measuring urban performance KPIS (or key performance metrics) in terms of the urban development and architectural efficiency, the economic development and competency, and the network of talent of or human networks of social collaboration.
Can we enhance urban performance?
By means of city science we understand better the causal mechanisms between urban design, place making, zoning, and the impact that those policy makings and decision-making processes have on the quality of citizens.
However, it is easier to deploy those methodologies in an ex novo or new environment, and obviously, when we’re dealing with a pre-existing city, there’s a number of pre-existing conditions or rigidity in the system which is embedded, that makes it harder to change or modify the urban performance. But, if we can illuminate the complex problems facing society by means of these network theory based complex systems geospatial analysis, we can make very precise, tailored decisions for each and every city and context, to raise the quality of lives of citizens.
For example, some of them may be dealing with increasing the quality of the urban space in terms of compactness or density, others by means of designing or envisioning new architectural spaces, changing or modifying the zoning and the place making activities, or structurally inducing certain behavior by means of smart specialization or innovation pipeline strategies.
How would you like cities to be in 10 years?
In 10 years, I would like cities to be ever evolving complex systems, that structurally benefit from city science analysis. The reason being that, those types of network theory based and complex systems’ analysis help illuminate the challenges that we face as urban development leaders, and help inform much better urban design, architectural design, civil engineering, infrastructure, zoning, place making, and economic development strategies to the benefit of citizens worldwide.
Curious for more?
Subscribe to CitiesToBe here to receive more episodes and insights in your inbox, or check out our YouTube channel for more videos.
Interview and edition by Sergio García i Rodríguez,
Head of Communication at Anteverti & CitiesToBe Executive Editor, Martina Jané i Curtu, Comms specialist at Anteverti, and Marta Bugés.
Video by Eloy Calvo and Cristóbal Sarría Chitty
About the authors
Ramon Gras is a City Science Researcher, Urban Designer and Civil Engineer from Barcelona, working on the urban innovation space. At Harvard, Ramon graduated from the inaugural cohort of the Harvard MDE program, where he developed research around design criteria for innovation districts operating in synergy with logistics hubs. Prior to developing his thesis at Harvard, Ramon worked at Ferrovial’s Innovation office in London, where he led design and technology projects at the London Heathrow Airport and the London Underground. Ramon developed at MIT urban design projects for the Kendall Square expansion and Somerville Innovation Districts in the Boston Area. Ramon’s thesis at MIT addressed the consolidation problem in air freight transportation by designing an advanced Business Intelligence platform. He expanded his training at MIT after working as a designer in major infrastructure projects involving bridge design, maritime infrastructure, high speed rail, and architectural design (a Richard Rogers project). Ramon’s early research at BarcelonaTech focused on bridge design, high performance materials, and nanotechnology applications for structural engineering. Ramon is interested in enhancing innovation around Cities, Technology and Infrastructure, by designing creative and rigorous interdisciplinary solutions to address large, complex challenges facing the cities of the future.
