Andrew Davies and Lars Frederiksen
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Group
AOM 2010 Cross-divisional PDWManagement at the public-private interface: insights from the world of
infrastructure
LEARNING TO DELIVER ECOCITIES: RENEWAL, REUSE AND REINFORCEMENT CAPABILITIES
Overview
• Research context• Theory and methods• Findings and analysis: renew, reuse and reinforce
© Imperial College Business School
Overview
• Research context• Theory and methods• Findings and analysis: renew, reuse and reinforce
© Imperial College Business School
Challenge: Climate Change and Chinese cities
• “China is searching for novel ways to expand urban areas while conserving natural resources”, Science, 2008
• “China’s current development is ecologically unsustainable, and the damage will not be reversible once higher GDP has been achieved”, Zhenhua Xie, Minister of State Environmental Protection Agency
Rapid Chinese urbanisation
2050
China’s urban population is expected to reach 1.12bn people
600m people are expected move from rural to urban areas
One response to these challenges: Ecocities
• Ecocity - radically new form of urban design• New build and new build/retrofit projects• Promote sustainable living and low carbon society• Less use of non-renewable resources• Adapt to climate change
• Pioneering examples: • Dongtan in China• Masdar in Abu Dhabi • Thames Gateway and ecotowns in the UK
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Dongtan ecocity – key objectives and features
• Client: Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation (SIIC)
• Consultant masterplanner: Arup (UK design consultancy)
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• Sustainable ‘demonstrator city’ – cutting carbon emissions shapes urban design
• 40 min travel time to central Shanghai• Population 500,000 in 2050• Site: 84 square km• 3 distinct towns amid parkland and canals• Population density similar to London
Outcome of Arup’s design project
• Project delivered three months early
• Met client’s request’s for “close” to 100% zero carbon solution
• Uses proven technology to reduce risks
• Innovation lies in the integration of technology and environment, cultural and social components
• ‘Dongtan is not a rigid blueprint for a city for the future’…other projects must be guided by unique local environment (Peter Head, Arup)
© Imperial College Business School
Overview
• Research context• Theory and methods• Findings and analysis: renew, reuse and reinforce
© Imperial College Business School
Research motivation: managing innovation
• New performance requirements for cities: zero-carbon and sustainability objectives
• Initiated by breakthrough projects in design, build or operations
• How is knowledge created and combined in a breakthrough (or vanguard) project in a new market?
• How is knowledge transferred from a breakthrough project to the next project?
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Market basenew
new
existing
Technology base
New projects
New pro
jects
New projects
• Business as usual
• Traditional capabilities
existing
Theory: Capability development as innovation
• A capability is the appropriate knowledge, skills and experience to perform a set of specialized industrial activities• “…the discovery and estimation of future wants, to research, development
and design, to the execution and co-ordination of processes of physical transformation, the marketing of goods and so on. (Richardson 1972)”
• These activities create a competitive advantage• Capabilities are developed through knowledge integration and transfer
(Grant 1996)
• Yet, we know little relative about:• The process through with this is done, especially: • The role of key individuals in the process• How does activities of institutional transition play a role?
Research design and methods
• Case study - real time (January 2007- June 2010)• Identified as prestigious world-first project – opportunity to study a ‘talking
pig’ extreme case (Siggelkow 2007)
• Process study (Langley 1999)
• > 60 interviews (snowballed sample: cross functional , cross-hierarchy but mainly managerial level involved in Dongtan: Arup, SIIC, Chongming Island local authorities, SDCL (Sustainable Capital investor), HSBC bank)
• 3 visits to Dongtan site, Shanghai project office and client• Primary source documents (internal presentations, reports, diagrams and material for
project bid and external public documents)• 2 workshops for validation and further specification of findings – in China and UK• Non-participant observation in Arup office - London and Shanghai; Dongtan Project
office in Shanghai
• Data processing: • Open coding (manually) then axial and selective coding in Nvivo
Capabilities: 3Rs
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RenewIncremental/radical
Reuse
Tacit/Explicit
ReinforceInternal/external
Overview
• Research context• Theory and methods• Findings and analysis: renew, reuse and reinforce
© Imperial College Business School
Renewal: innovation in urban design
• Dongtan project started as a ‘skunkworks’ organisation within Arup
• New concept of multi-functional project team called ‘total serial innovation’ (Peter Head, Arup)
• Led by architects• 30 specialists each with a team of 3-4 members• New positions occurred: Cultural planner• Developed new tools on the project to support integrated
urban design• Integrated Resource Model (IRM)
• SPEAR© Imperial College Business School
Arup’s new approach: ‘Integrated Urbanism’
Source: ‘Making Places in the Ecological Age’, Arup Urban Design
Tools for integrated urban design
Traditional approach to masterplanning
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Traditional linear process
Client BC REC MP ENG
Business Consultant
Real Estate Consultant
Master Planner Engineer
‘We couldn’t do it in a simple linear way. It would take four years to achieve an outcome. We had to develop a new approach’ (Guiterrez, Interview, 2008)
Arup created a new approach: non-linear design
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‘We did what normally takes four years in one year’ (Guiterrez, Interview, 2008)
BCBusiness
Consultant
Real Estate Consultant
Master Planner
Engineer
Arup
ENG
MP
REC
Renewal: the Dongtan project team
• The project was risky for Arup • Foreign architects can lose control of their Chinese
projects when clients seek to cut costs and redesign using cheaper options
• Was the client really committed?
• Origins LSE connection• Core team of 5 builds (six months) up to 150 specialists in
less than one year (mainly inhouse)
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Reuse: codification, routines and tools
• From outset: transfer knowledge and develop replicable capabilities on subsequent (ecocity) projects
• Partnership with SIIC on 4 ecocity projects in China – client wants to take one systems integrator role
• Partnership with HSBC• Creation of new unit in Arup: Integrated Urbanism (Spring 2009 =75
employees)• Group ‘born out of Dongtan’ (Guiterrez, 2008, interview)
• Transfer of core Dongtan project members
• Mentoring on new projects
• Refinement of project tools – IRM and SPEAR
• Create new tool: Integrated Methodology – sequence of design processes
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Reinforcement: Market position and internal positioning• Development of a nascent market
• Shaped and promoted by charismatic project members: Peter Head, Alejandro Guiterrez and Malcolm Smith• Advance the concept of ecocity at international conferences: Clinton C40• Collaboration with universities – e.g. EPSRC - Ecocit networks www.ecocit.org• Creation of Institutes for Sustainability – China and UK
• Develop internal support for the Dongtan project and the strategic potential in sustainable integrated urban development
• Data: Dongtan and iconic project members: focus of more than 300 articles in major Chinese, UK and US newspapers
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Theory into practice
© Imperial College Business School
© Imperial College Business School
Thank you for listening
We welcome your comments