Foundations 19 – Infrastructure Space

«

»

There are areas of infrastructure where we are running out of time for finding good solutions.

estimated monetary value of all the infrastructure on the planet amounts to 50 trillion dollars, and the investments needed in global infrastructure by 2030 are estimated at around 90 trillion dollars. With these staggering numbers Rolf Soiron directed the discussion to the economic opportunities and risks that the next 15 years could hold – “the years in which all of you will be in charge!” Rahul Mehrotra stated that infrastructure is probably the most powerful tool the global community uses for interaction. “We have to fundamentally acknowledge this before we can think about making economically reasonable decisions about it,” said the ar- chitect. Time is an important factor in dealing with infrastructure. “The challenge for us as professionals is to bring in the dimension of time in productive ways into the deployment of infrastructure.” In this way one can handle the economics of infrastructure very productively. Presently, we are investing too often in redundant systems that lag far behind reality. One question that was rightly posed in one of the workshops documents this dilemma: “Why are the designers and professionals deploying infrastructure so ob- sessed with permanence as a condition, and why are we only look- ing at permanent solutions for problems that are not permanent?”

Rahul Mehrotra is Principal of the architecture firm Rahul Mehrotra Associates in Mumbai, India, and Professor of Urban Design & Planning and Chair of the Department of Urban Planning & Design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) in Cambridge, MA.

Why are we only looking at permanent solutions for problems that are not permanent?

«

»

57