Abstract
The way in which people consider next-generation infrastructure needs to be rooted in the history of the planet and, in particular, its most troublesome inhabitant, Homo sapiens. This history has driven the development of infrastructure through the ages at an accelerating rate, from the incipient early cities of 10 000 years ago to the fast-growing metropolises of the twenty-first century. That history teaches people that human beings are essentially social animals and both require and crave social interactions. The need for this has been increasingly excluded from city design since the beginnings of the Industrial Revolutions and increasingly in the past 100 or so years, where the driver has been the development of infrastructure for its own sake rather than that of the everyday person. This paper proposes a refocus for urban engineering, on the concept of sociality, the propensity to interact freely with unknown others, so that infrastructure is directed to enhancing the ability of people to converse as a basic and initial form of the function of social interaction. The challenge is there, but is the infrastructure sector up to meet it? This paper proposes some initial lines of thought and ways forward to answer the challenge.
Highlights
The way in which people consider next-generation infrastructure needs to be rooted in the history of the planet and, in particular, its most troublesome inhabitant, Homo sapiens
That history teaches people that human beings are essentially social animals and both require and crave social interactions. The need for this has been increasingly excluded from city design since the beginnings of the Industrial Revolutions and increasingly in the past 100 or so years, where the driver has been the development of infrastructure for its own sake rather than that of the everyday person
This paper proposes a refocus for urban engineering, on the concept of sociality, the propensity to interact freely with unknown others, so that infrastructure is directed to enhancing the ability of people to converse as a basic and initial form of the function of social interaction
Summary
One of the most common misperceptions held in relation to cities and their infrastructure is that they are built environments. Factories required people to work in them, so residential accommodation was needed to house these people, the huge growth in population in such a short time Cities throughout their history required support for the people living in them, and this could often be the limit to their growth. The importance of having the infrastructure to deliver that water (and other services, such as energy) is so high that a whole infrastructure sector is built up to support the infrastructure It is all distancing the person from the consequences of their demand. It was clear that the housing conditions of poor people were a major contributor to the spread of disease The solution to this was a massive remodelling of housing, the development of housing out of the city – utilising the new railways to permit commuting and supply of goods to the far-flung suburbs. The end of the nineteenth century saw a series of big infrastructure developments that caused immense change, in the perception of civic responsibility, the use of funds, the destruction of living accommodation, often with scant attention paid to the sensibilities of the people living in them, and a change in how people had to live
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
