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Report n°1: The new constraints of urban development

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The spread of technological innovation in urban areas

The Industrial Revolution gave way to a golden age in the technological revolution. Urban problems were considerable and industry was called on to provide solutions to improve housing conditions, transport, water and sanitation. Again with Le Corbusier, we witnessed a new technological urban landscape that incorporated the fruits of technological progress, such as reinforced concrete.

Retrospectively, we can observe that the spread of these innovations in society and in the city environment has followed a logistical pattern of growth. For innovations such as the supply of drinking water, sanitation, public transport, gas, electricity, cars, telephones and television, there was an initially difficult breakthrough, then very rapid growth, followed by a fall-off in the distribution, all the curves thus taking the same shape and converging towards an asymptote. The very definition of a city today implies a fully equipped city where all the residents enjoy access to all necessary services. However, this retrospective vision does not take precise account of the many failures and technological bifurcations (for example, electricity was initially distributed using direct current). These are important when looking to the future, however: we often reason in a linear fashion, with a tendency to extend what is current right now, while history shows that predicting the future is much more than mere extrapolation.

This technological innovation has been enabled by a tremendous engine of scientific and technological research, which has been around since the end of the 19th century, and is widely internationalised today. The Internet, for example, which made its commercial appearance in 1995, now has global reach. This engine for the production of scientific knowledge can only play a concrete role in specific conditions where there are needs, and therefore demand, and a market. As the needs do not manifest in the same way in big cities and small towns, in developed and developing countries, this engine for technological production will not be mobilised in the same way.

Technological innovation can be of two types, incremental or radical. It is radical when the basic premise of the problem is changed by the solution, that is to say, it changes the initial economic and social data. Before sewers were fully introduced, the landowner was responsible for getting rid of wastewater. It was his task to find adequate individual solutions. With the advent of full-scale sewerage systems, the authorities became responsible for wastewater treatment services. This technological innovation has had major consequences: in particular, it enabled increased construction density within cities. However, unlike the small revolution brought about by a radical innovation, only minor changes are facilitated by incremental technological innovations. These do not entail major changes in the way we live, but promote the social and spatial distribution of a product or service and its adaptation to changes in a particular situation.

There are very few radical innovations and they require specific conditions. In particular, they have to respond to economic criteria and a utopian expectation on the part of society. Today, one strong ideal that could lead to a radical innovation is that of health and the preservation of the individual.

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