Mar 12, 2023

Possible means to expedite circular practices in building construction industry

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Following may be the possible means to expedite circular practices in building construction industry

On job training:

Urgency of transitioning to circular economy practices is such that, construction industry can’t really wait for handful of new circular experts to graduate in coming decades in the business-as-usual case. For 100X or more increase in skilled manpower in next five years, civil and structural engineers, architects and draftsman are expected to go through on-job training and have a hands-on learning experience through trial and error on real circular building and construction cases, in an experimentative environment, permitted by client.

Removing bidding barrier:

For 10X to 100X participation, both public and private clients are expected to reduce the barrier for new entrants in circular construction business, by allowing firms having no prior demonstrated case of circular building, showing trust in professional competency of architectural firms while keeping some extra time cushion for learning curve. This is possible if client and firm both aspire to adopt and transition to circular economy practices in their vision. Means to delivering circular projects can always be worked out by professionals without compromising on integrity of building structure and aesthetics.

Software patch:

For exponential diffusion and 100X to 1000X adoption of circular architectural practices the most popular and widespread architectural, structural and simulation software like AutoCAD, Revit, Sketch Up, Bentley, 3DMax, Lumion etc. may require to give a huge circular patch upgrade to their software (including software commands and effects, circular element template and 3D library/ warehouse) and training material/ programme, allowing for on-job-learning and training. Construction industry can’t simply rely on new workforce trained (only) on new/ yet to emerge circular architecture/ structure software for its circular transition.

From junk to vintage:

There is a fine line between what is discarded as junk and what is embraced as vintage, creative industry, academia and mass media can always help wider diffusion and faster adoption of harvested material in new building.

Biomass and bio-based industry working together:

As they compete for same biomass-rich feed/ raw material; construction industry must work hand in hand with biomass energy players, to divert biomass for their first usage in construction industry before getting converted into energy.

Author: Anoop Jha

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[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationallyDrop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

My LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha/

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#circulareconomy #circulartransition #construction #architecture #BIM #Netherlands #DenHaag #Hague #Amsterdam #Rotterdam #Leiden #Delft #Eindhoven #dcarbonise #climatechange #urbanplanning #builtenvironment

Mar 5, 2023

Meaning and benefits of public transport goes beyond what is usually understood or quantified.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Public transportation system is versatile and agile, not only as a mode of communication, but it also presents an opportunity-scape that resembles city itself. Public transport can also be seen as a public space in motion, having several traits like a public square or public plaza. Transport system or rolling stocks also serves complementary urban landuse functions. For instance sometimes like "office", as so many business calls are made and emails are send from within the fleet system of public transport, on a daily basis, across the world. "Institutional", like Library, considering all the book chapters completed by scores of commuters while travelling in metro, tram and buses. "Commercial" considering all the money spent on online shopping and e-commerce while completing journey in public transport. Also "dining" for example, scrolling through menu and placing food order online while travelling in metro and tram, timing order and tracking delivery perfectly, so that your hot meal also gets delivered by the time you reach home. Or “theatre” considering all the movies streamed during travel in public transport, not to mention in a rather very different ambient setting than typical original landuse.

Public transport sometimes also challenges the notion of "what should be" when it comes to design of architectural spaces, for instance "library” is always designed with an idea of maintaining 'pindrop silence' within the space, considered conducive for study, then what about millions of books being read by people on the go world over, while commuting in the public transport, reading  digital or hard cover book, few para or a few pages a day to slowly complete the book, be it fiction or science, that too right within the bustling chaos and white-noise of public transport. 

Public transport can be considered a microcosm and miniature reflection of city in which it is situated. Taking clues and inspiration from multi-functionality and multidimensionality of public transport system, it would be worth revisiting traditional design and planning role and values around public transportation system.

Author: Anoop Jha

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[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationallyDrop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

My LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha/

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#publictransport #urbanplanning #urbandevelopment #urbanmanagement #urbandesign #architecture #smartcity #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #Delft #Denbosch  #Alkmaar #Leiden #Noordholland #Northholland #Tilburg  #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands

Effective use of vacant real estate inventory and land use interoperability as an innovative shared economy model.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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The ~2.5% to ~25% of vacancy rate witnessed across world in range of real estate inventories including residential, to offices, to commercial, to hospitality, suggests to have a new business and governance model and calls for emergence of a niche "integrator sector", that is as impactful as real estate and as efficient as shared mobility sector. We see algorithm at work when cab services, rideshare or MaaS make use of technology to match demand and supply to maximise the use of inventory, there is no reason why same logic can’t be applied in the real estate inventory case, except for the self imposed, static and limiting regulations of land use. Making effective use of this last quarter vacant inventory may prove to be the one missing piece of puzzle towards sustainable use of resources and circular economy. Need of this new integrator sector or functionality, either private or public, emerges as traditionally fragmented sectors of real estate and hospitality has been unable to fill this last mile vacancy gap.

Another missing piece of puzzle is the short to medium term interoperability of land use. That basically means, residential demand (rental, student housing etc.) is not necessarily to be fulfilled only by residential land use but may possibly be served by vacant office or commercial spaces as well and visa versa, that further implies revisiting and reinventing the structure, definition and statutory construct of land use, which may choose to allow room for swift, smooth and temporary interoperability i.e. near real time to quick on demand land use changes, which theoretically seems plausible. Land use here may mean a unit, to floor, to facility to altogether a neighbourhood. The only actual time lag that is there, is the time required for remodeling one land use space to another purpose, contractual and operational arrangements. There are great examples across the world where horizontal or vertical or mosaic mixed use spaces coexist in harmony.

What is required, is to have a centralised real-time stock of vacant inventories, stock of upcoming availability based on contract tenure and predicted vacancy modelling, and need of one integrator or consortia of integrators managing same.

City administration individually or collectively at a city, metropolitan or regional level are technically most equipped to bridge this demand supply gap and to do the associated regulatory adjustments as required.

Hoping the next phase of urban digitalisation may be able to solve the puzzle, and reap the benefit of shared economy at urban built environment scale.

Presented as a universally applicable conceptual model.

Author: Anoop Jha

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[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationallyDrop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

My LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha/

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#urbanplanning #realestate #smartcity #infrastructure #architecture #smartcity #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #Delft #Lieden #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands #circulareconomy

Cities in search of identity - why its a good idea and where to start from!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Cities as a dynamic entity are not regenerative or replenishing on its own, and the pressure on its infrastructure and resources tend to grow with time due to natural growth reasons. Which also means that left on continued business as usual track city may only last for couple of years until it may require a drastic overhaul to keep pace with new demands and new realities, hence the need of sustainability. Not just that, cities also require to prepare for future and unforeseen challenges like shocks, hence the need of agility and resilience.
Part of cities development is usually already guided by policy mandates form proactive regional and national authorities. Also fuelled by grants, funds and private investments and regular annual budget based on immediate priorities. This is not much different than business as usual case and even considering this scenario, cities may still struggle in long term.

What is noteworthy here is that if cities simply follow the blueprint of someone else, especially just follow top down policy mandates or statutory mandates, it may still do well technically, in terms of economy and operations, but may be at the risk of being an average or mediocre city.

That means cities and city administrations may require to think beyond mandates, to unlock its true potential and taking control of its own fate. This approach i.e. "having its own development plan and own identity" is driven from within, may be result of community based bottom up initiatives, political ambition, regional competitiveness, community ethos etc.

This self driven initiatives of city, in alignment with regional and national directives may be essential for a city to be resilient and distinctive, building on its distinct potential, unique strengths, characteristic resources, peculiar demographic compositions, unique historic and ecological context etc.
Such cities which may act on its own will and motivation, beyond the statutory mandates, are not just able to provide a better quality of life to its inhabitants, but also gain much deserved visibility, harness previously unimagined support, unexpected external aids and attract investments and skillsets like a magnet, while enjoying this new position.
All its takes is either a reinvented leadership or a sufficient build up of bottom-up initiatives or a score card or sometimes a setback.

This process of search for a new identity, for cities, may start with as basic catalyst as creation of a dedicated web portal or social media initiative by city administration, or inviting community members to town hall, or creation of a think tank, for community, professionals from different walks of life, businesses, industry and academia, to share their ideas.

Author: Anoop Jha 

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[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationallyDrop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

My LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha/

************************************************

#smartcity #infrastructure #architecture #smartcity #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #Delft #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands

How to deal with possible confirmation bias and visual bias in professional, social and print media.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Confirmation bias is basically gathering selective evidence or interpreting facts in a manner to support ones idea/ ideology/ argument, in a sense that reinforces ones belief and sometimes propagate certain agenda. On the contrary, unbiased research primarily investigates both side of literary argument, before they continue to investigate/ build on one side of argument for specific disclosed reasons.

What about bias related to choice of visuals or selection of imagery specifically when linked with a piece or page of article/ text/ book/ news/ magazine/ post etc?

Visual that is doubtful or emotionally loaded or showing amplified version of apparent ideological affiliation, sometimes being used to support a text, may qualify for bias, but may not always be a case of deliberate manipulative attempt or confirmation bias. It may also be due to one of the following reasons or more, i.e., ignorance of writer, their misjudgment, hasty accidental choice of image, lack of access of good and wide choices of visual content due to reasons of copyrights or financial constraints etc. 

Whether accidental or due to obvious limitations or by deliberate choice or conscious or unconscious confirmation bias, still we encounter obvious countless text and visual bias everyday in the sensory overdose of profession, social, and print media. 

Challenge is multifaceted. There are also many urgent issues in life and world which require attention of as many as possible to solve it, which somehow also influences accentuated and loaded visual media choices made by many individuals and agencies, on a day to day basis, specifically choosing the image that has potential to garner urgent or due attention. Such cases are obvious especially in area of popular media and some grey literature. Though most manipulations are obvious to even most casual readers, still fact remains that the flow of information is rapid hence the impact of selected image may also be huge in many senses.

While it may be difficult to come to immediate conclusion, one can only remain conscious of the fact of possible bias in collective impact of text/ post/ article/ print media and supporting images; hence picking up the information which may be relevant, contextual and possibly legit, while discarding rest and even better to cross verify if time and motivation permits. One may also apply a certain level of intelligence to decipher if meaning of text is skewed, information presented is asymmetric, whether the image seems representative and factual, or if there is another side of story not represented in the given image, or consciously hidden, or image deliberately distorted/ cropped. There may be merit in taking the digitally morphed, or having unearthly attributes or psychologically intense, or agenda driven text and images of different kinds, with a dash of caution.

Author: Anoop Jha

************************************************

[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationallyDrop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

My LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha/

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Feb 23, 2023

Possible pathway for resilient public transportation system:

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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A resilient transportation system is one–

a) that is made of entire low capacity to high capacity public transportation system, and has such system under single apex governing entity, for better control, cross-subsidisation, and better access to fund due to critical mass (applicable in both mono and multi-stakeholder arrangement)

b) that includes even last mile connectivity in its project scope, offering matching service experience (often excluded and usually only limited to feasibility studies or sometime complemented with poor last mile fleet services)

c) which still plans for future growth and expansion even when battling with low ridership at any moment

d) mobilises sound instruments beyond transit infrastructure, rolling stock and fleet, like TOD, value capture, rail and metro station real estate lease, advertisement space lease, monetising experience etc.

e) which forms partnership with other forms of complimentary transportation service providers and competitions like app based cab service, rideshare, micromobility services, bicycle rental; especially for seamless connectivity, healthy mutually rewarding competition, and making use of anonymised data for passenger flow modelling, network analysis and empirical predictions

f) which has opted for digitalisation of governance and operations from customer centric services, to network management, to unified cashless ticketing system, to fleet management and tracking, to predictive maintenance, to fleet automation, to on-demand services

g) which focuses on customer service, customer acquisition and customer retention in all separate target age, gender and ability groups and creates channels to actively seek passenger and anonymous feedback

h) which has excellent online and offline information dissemination and audio-visual display system and hence can devise flexible network configuration and flexible coach configuration without disappointing customers, required to respond to fluctuating demand, many a times experienced due to seasonal and diurnal variation, route characteristics and force majeure event; required to stay financially afloat (system that not just focuses on expansion, but one that is able to sequester as well)

i) finally, public transportation system, which may consider to experiment with real time flexible ticket pricing based of fleet occupancy level using gamut of technological aids like sensors and analytical cameras.

Additional thoughts on real time pricing for public transport system can be found in my other Linkedin article here [https://lnkd.in/eaa28zat]

Author: Anoop Jha

************************************************

[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationallyDrop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

My LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha/

************************************************

#publictransport #metro #tram #bus #transitionpathways #transportplanning #automation #technology #micromobility #bicycle #rideshare #fleetmanagement #networkanalysis #ret #ns #urbanplanning #smartcity #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #Delft #Denbosch #Alkmaar #Tilburg #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands

How to deal with possible confirmation bias and visual bias in professional, social and print media.

Confirmation bias is basically gathering selective evidence or interpreting facts in a manner to support ones idea/ ideology/ argument, in a sense that reinforces ones belief and sometimes propagate certain agenda. On the contrary, unbiased research primarily investigates both side of literary argument, before they continue to investigate/ build on one side of argument for specific disclosed reasons.

What about bias related to choice of visuals or selection of imagery specifically when linked with a piece or page of article/ text/ book/ news/ magazine/ post etc?

Visual that is doubtful or emotionally loaded or showing amplified version of apparent ideological affiliation, sometimes being used to support a text, may qualify for bias, but may not always be a case of deliberate manipulative attempt or confirmation bias. It may also be due to one of the following reasons or more, i.e., ignorance of writer, their misjudgment, hasty accidental choice of image, lack of access of good and wide choices of visual content due to reasons of copyrights or financial constraints etc.

Whether accidental or due to obvious limitations or by deliberate choice or conscious or unconscious confirmation bias, still we encounter obvious countless text and visual bias everyday in the sensory overdose of profession, social, and print media.

Challenge is multifaceted. There are also many urgent issues in life and world which require attention of as many as possible to solve it, which somehow also influences accentuated and loaded visual media choices made by many individuals and agencies, on a day to day basis, specifically choosing the image that has potential to garner urgent or due attention. Such cases are obvious especially in area of popular media and some grey literature. Though most manipulations are obvious to even most casual readers, still fact remains that the flow of information is rapid hence the impact of selected image may also be huge in many senses.

While it may be difficult to come to immediate conclusion, one can only remain conscious of the fact of possible bias in collective impact of text/ post/ article/ print media and supporting images; hence picking up the information which may be relevant, contextual and possibly legit, while discarding rest and even better to cross verify if time and motivation permits. One may also apply a certain level of intelligence to decipher if meaning of text is skewed, information presented is asymmetric, whether the image seems representative and factual, or if there is another side of story not represented in the given image, or consciously hidden, or image deliberately distorted/ cropped. There may be merit in taking the digitally morphed, or having unearthly attributes or psychologically intense, or agenda driven text and images of different kinds, with a dash of caution.

Author: Anoop Jha