The Future of Our Cities Is All About Micro-Infrastructure.
The future of our cities is all about micro-infrastructure. It just so happens that the beginnings of cities was also about micro-infrastructure.
Single home/building water and power systems. Hyperlocal schools serving very few kids. Small manufacturing. Micro-food systems made up of a butcher/grocer/farmer serving their local community.
The thing that changed, for good in most cases and for the worse in some, was the efficiencies we could bring into aggregating the source + system that distributed the outputs of these micro-systems (infrastructure) to the distributed recipients of the outputs. We’ve done that for thousands of years with varying amounts of success.
But we are going back to the old micro-infrastructure/systems again. And it’s not because we want to. The money-machine chugs along nicely with the aggregated systems we have (large scale farming, centralized water systems, etc). We are going back to how it was because of 3 factors
Our leaders do not have the will (political or financial) to spend the amount of money required to keep our mega-infrastructure functioning. Yes, the federal govt allocated $1.2Tn over 5yrs to IIJA and $740Bn over 10yrs to the IRA. But that is not enough. The ASCE recommends a $5.9Tn spend by 2029 to bring our infrastructure up to date.
American’s are becoming more hyperlocal in their needs (and community perceptions). This is happening ever more so for good or for bad.
Unrelated but maybe related: Apple’s market cap is $3Tn and so is Microsoft’s. Private companies can afford some of the macro-infrastructure that is needed for the future; Coca Cola manages and effectively runs a bigger water system than most governments.
Technology itself is getting miniaturized into form factors that favor the more distributed and hyperlocal input-system-output function that provides us the water/energy/food we need.
The convergence of these three things (mainly) and a few other trends point to a future where the micro will dominate. You can also think about micro as distributed.
We’re going back to the basics. Even crazier? This is already the case in the global south where the mega-infrastructure projects never really kicked off. The West (and East) will just be able to do it better, bigger and faster because of the capital available here. The opportunity is right in front of us. We just need to decide to take it.