Urban development in times of the internet

The world wide web has already changed our everyday life seriously and has left its marks on our routines. Shopping, sending applications, booking trips and hotels, finding an apartment which has a good online rating – without the internet, we’re almost lost. But has this development towards a more virtual life any influences on urban development plans? Yes, it has – virtual life does not only mean a revaluation of working, living, and room, it also changes our consciousness and learning process. Property and capital lose their importance, shopping malls are replaced by plain think tanks and logistic facilities. The shopping mall dilemma is well-known - just take a look at Karstadt and Hertie (two of Germany’s biggest store chains once flagships of their market): their kind have been the most important landmarks so far when urban development planners designed a first draft of shopping districts.

Today, most people prefer the unique kick you get when you have hunted down that special something at Ebay. Almost all merchandise is delivered to your door, you can order whenever you want, be it on Sundays or at Christmas – that’s against all traditional rules of shopping and also totally unique. And this paradigm shift includes no way back to the old-fashioned method.

Free lance businesses welcome the global village

In the future, you will find companies and corporations in the city centres operating in the outskirts so far, thus banning them from city life. Especially the green field strategy has generated a kind of intransparent ‘parallel society’ which needs to be integrated. Cities should cope with these new kind of clusters, they should be involved in ‘urban life’. In the Technologiezentrum, a commercial and service area for technology businesses located in Dortmund, companies and their staff were surveyed regarding their desire for a better infrastructure more than ten years ago. Even then, small shops, a dry cleaner, child care, a bus line and the small corner pub were missed. The survey somehow disappeared in a drawer somewhere – and the area hasn’t changed until now. Isolated similar commercial parks were also realised in Duisburg and Bochum – and they, too, haven’t changed until now. No wonder there’s an increasing antipathy to working in the outskirts.
Free lancers, developers, graphic artists, creative professions – most of these already have a home office, and they change the appearance of the city, even if just subtly. These businesses can operate all around the world, yet still be available for their clients and customers 24/7. These networks are self-organised – globally. So, on the long run traditional terms such as city, home or identity become obsolete. Now, they search for the nicest places or the appropriate community, comparable to the artist colonies of the past, or they try to find the most vital, creative surrounding.

The new city skyline consists of people

The life concepts in modern knowledge society cross the border line between private and public existence: work, hobby, living and friendships intertwine – the individual is not dependent on his environment, and way of life and identity are the guiding lights when it comes to the search for the right surroundings. This attitude is a challenge for any commune and calls for a high degree of flexibility.

Also, this new way of life in the knowledge society includes an explosive problem: those who are not part of it due to economical or other reasons. There will be huge ghettos – against the background of a high unemployment rate of the underprivileged population, this bears a risk.

All this is not simply a task for urban development planners – but it concerns them, too, because the new circumstances will cause planning and constructing parameters to change. The new city skyline consists of people and their options, chances, and decisions. Village, city, and commune merge – they grow by integrating the unusual and the development of new rules and lifestyles.