Smart City

The smart citys computers will calculate where offices and shops can be laid out most efficiently， where people should sleep， and how all the parts of urban life should be fitted together. Science fiction？ Smart cities are being built in the Middle East and in Korea； they have become a model for developers in China， and for redevelopment in Europe.

Imagine that you are a master planner facing a blank computer screen and that you can design a city from scratch， free to incorporate every bit of high technology into your design. You might come up with Masdar， in the United Arab Emirates， or Songdo， in South Korea. These are two versions of the stupefying smart city.

Masdar is a half-built city rising out of the desert， whose planning—overseen by the master architect Norman Foster—comprehensively lays out the activities of the city， the technology monitoring and regulating the function from a central command centre. The city is conceived in “Fordist” terms—that is， each activity has an appropriate place and time. Urbanites become consumers of choices laid out for them by prior calculations of where to shop， or to get a doctor， most efficiently.

Songdo represents the stupefying smart city in its architectural aspect—massive， clean， efficient housing blocks rising up in the shadow of South Koreas western mountains， like an inflated 1960s British housing estate—but now heat， security， parking and deliveries are all controlled by a central Songdo “brain”. The massive units of housing are not conceived as structures with any individuality in themselves， nor is the ensemble of these faceless buildings meant to create a sense of place.

在智能城市里，計算机能够规划办公室和商店如何分布最有效率，人们在什么地方睡觉最合适，以及城市生活的各个方面如何有机地结合在一起。听上去像科幻小说吗？实际上在中东和韩国，人们已经开始建造智能城市了。在中国，智能城市也成为开发者的模板，对欧洲的重新开发也是这样。

想象你自己是一个总规划师，面对一个空白计算机屏幕，从零开始设计一座城市，可以在规划中包含各种高新技术。你可能会设计出阿联酋的马斯达尔，或者韩国的松岛。它们是两个令人瞠目的智能城市版本。

马斯达尔是在沙漠上建起的半完工城市，由总设计师诺曼·福斯特主持规划，包罗万象地涵盖了城市的功能。有一个中央控制中心来监控和规范整个城市。整个城市是按“福特主义者”来构思的——每一种活动都有个适当的地方和时段。市民按照先前计算的最佳结果来选择去什么地方购物，去什么地方看医生。

松岛代表智能城市建筑惊人的一面——巨大、干净，高效能的房屋在韩国西部山区中拔地而起，就像20世纪60年代英国住宅区的膨胀版，但是现在供暖、安防、停车和送货都受到松岛“神经中枢”控制。巨大的房屋单元不是以任何个人喜好来设计，也不是那些毫无个性的只是为了建个房子而已的建筑群。