Nov 2, 2023

Individual tax reform - empowering citizens to help build community they want to live in.

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

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

We increasingly see people getting more and more aware, vocal and affiliated with one and many causes they care about. Many have accordingly started to make their choices, adapt their behavior and shape their lifestyle. It would have been great if they had actual say, tangible control, and power to influence level of impact, for the causes they care about.

In different parts of the world, you see homeless people on street and want to bring them out of that situation, you see poor uncared or abandoned animals on street and want to do something about it, you care about safety in your neighbourhood and want to do something about broken or absent street lights; you see mound of waste on street and want to see your city clean, you see your city getting flooded every year and want to do something about it.

The tax money one pays goes into solving these issues anyways, but the priorities and fund allocation against each issue is decided by someone's else, i.e., by government. By paying the tax money you acknowledge your contribution to making a livable city and a reasonable society, but you dont feel the satisfaction of actually, in tangible ways, contributing to the specific cause you cared about, through your tax contribution.

There is a possible way that you may have actual control on directly contributing to cause you care about, if we do a creative reform in the individual taxation. If you as an individual are given the choice, power, and means to assign and distribute part of, say 50% of your applicable tax amount to one or many causes you care about, from a long list of possible issues, where you want your part tax money to go. Also having the choice of whether your part tax money goes to national or regional or local tax reserve, depending on the scale of issue and nature of cause you care about.

This way you assure that you made the direct financial contribution to the cause you care about, get the sense of satisfaction that you helped ameliorate the specific situation within your community, neighbourhood and country, that bothered you for long. You can even measure the direct impact you made there through observation over time.

If central, regional and local government, and tax authorities, in any part of the world, in any country, in any city, jointly decide to do such tax reform, and if they do the math, the sum total of funds available for various investment priorities, should theoritically remain same as they projected upfront, despite citizens making random choices about their part tax money distribution. If not so, it only shows that citizen and community priorities are different than what government and city adminstration thought, which will in turn further prompt alignment of national/ regional/local priorities with citizen aspirations.

Author: Anoop Jha

Image: Author

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

[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 internationally. Drop 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

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

#Amsterdam #Utrecht #Rotterdam #Hague #Netherlands #EU #Europe #India

May 8, 2023

Key traits of Future Cities! (Reposted from archive 2014)

Still finding relevant?

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

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

Original blog post link

https://planningurbanoregional.blogspot.com/2014/02/key-traits-of-future-cities-futurecities.html

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

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional

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

May 5, 2023

For faster circular transition in consumer goods, appliances and the built environment.

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

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

Considering ambitious EU-wide circular transition targets of 2030 and 2050, the rise of shared economy and increasing awareness of circular economy (CE) principles worldwide; also amidst the mounting challenge of material consumption and associated material scarcity and emissions; efforts towards circular transition might have to start from most obvious like consumer goods, household appliances, interior design and architecture.

CONSUMER GOODS AND APPLIANCES –Circular practices in this sector include modular DIY replaceable components, industry-wide standardization, circular business model, shared economy (manufacturer/ supplier as product owner), new sharing platforms (including yet to be widely adopted by e-commerce giants), mainstreaming refurbished items, process heat recovery, community repair supported by diluted repair/ warranty contracts, creation of neighbourhood community repair centres and of course minimising packaging waste.

Additionally, what may be required in terms of achieving circularity in the appliance segment is to have a clear business plan and commitment from the manufacturing industry for the second and third life of the product; open learning platform for DIY community repairs, integrating basic DIY and vocational training in school and university curriculum, recognition of second, third and fourth life products as formal subcategories under each (applicable) product code in the national and EXIM industrial product code database among others.

ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIOR DESIGN – Here CE may include statutory mandate for circular procurement of material and finishes, compulsory fixed percentage use of bio-based material, harvested and localised materials in all building categories (budget to luxury), incentives (percentage slabs) to encourage refurbished/ upcycled finishing and furnishing, process heat capture mechanism, modularity in the built environment to minimize residual waste products and better end of life usage, new business models including new partnerships, emerging roles and new skill sets.

Additionally, what may be required in achieving circularity in architecture and interior design is to have a community material bank for storing harvested components from neighbourhood renovation projects with the provision of material passport, neighbourhood material donation/ exchange bank, also eventually eliminating construction and demolition waste altogether from the waste stream, the establishment of national/ regional material R&D and material innovation centres specifically focusing on second/ third/ fourth life composite construction, finish and furnishing materials and products among others.

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

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional

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

#circulareconomy #biobasedmaterial #sharedeconomy #architecture #Industry #industrialpolicy #infrastructure #interiordesign #circulartransition #hague #Rotterdam #Utrecht #Delft #leiden #Netherlands

Apr 24, 2023

Information, connectivity and networked life as understated but intrinsic qualities of smart cities.

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

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

The flow of information has evolved from farmers reading the sign of nature to estimate rainfall, to kingdoms relying on harbinger posted on hilltop communicating warning signs about approaching enemy convoys, to messages critical getting delivered through telegraph using Morse code, to modern-day ICT and mass media revolution.

Connectivity has not just emerged in terms of shortening the physical distance but assumed a new role and meaning that simply didn’t exist centuries back i.e., virtual connectivity.

Networked life, though has existed from the very beginning of societal structural formation, the emergence of trade activities, and evolution of economic ecosystem; it was never as organised, resilient, and transitory as today.

The way social and technological evolution occur, like an almost unstoppable but invisible force; it remained almost unnoticeable, until recently. While we assume that getting timely information, availing universal connectivity, and living a networked way of life is fundamental and intrinsic to society, almost like the presumed service rights; only until we encounter paucity of information, obstruction in connectivity or experience friction or blockage in network.

What it takes for cities to offer a seamless flow of information, ubiquitous connectivity, and resilient modern networked life? Almost all of the above values and conveniences of modern life can be encapsulated under the ambit of the smart city concept; with the concerted efforts of multiple stakeholders.

The city administrations, city managers, and urban planners have to leverage all of these in a holistic, inclusionary, and cautionary manner while creating a fail-safe provision for system redundancy. The discourse around amorphous and shape-shifting “smart city concepts”, yet seemingly an unstoppable force, is increasingly required to be directional and formulative (instead of divisive) to be constructive.

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

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional

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

#smartcity #urbanmanagement #urbandevelopment #ICT #Digitalisation #governance #egovernance #publicpolicy #ml #machinelearning #iot #Rotterdam #Amsterdam #DenHaag #Delft #Alkmaar #DenBosch #Eindhoven #Utretch #Hague #Netherlands

Idea of time-space in city making: the two realities.

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

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

Those in project management understand single concept of time, i.e. time by clock and calendar. Project executed as per work schedule, days, month etc., there is no other reality. There is also single reality of space here i.e., per unit distance or area, at different spatial scale, meter, km, sqft, sqkm etc.

Those in urban planning affair, do understand above concept of time, as every urban development project is some kind of project/ programme management only, applied in a spatial context; but they also encounter another idea of time and space, different from clock, calendar and spatial unit, which is sometimes difficult to measure or interpret or even acknowledge. Here meaning of time and distance may differ for different individuals/ groups, depending on age, ability, gender, purpose, intention, aspirations, resources, geography, culture, familiarity, temporal reference, psychological conditions etc. This multifaceted idea of time and space is a reality different than minutes and meters; distinctly observable in urban planning affair. For instance, the centuries of idea of walkable distance or distance to be covered by bicycle or cart and time consumed in travelling such distance may logically and technically be measured in meters and minutes; but these distances and associated travel time may mean different thing to a child, old person, person with physical disability, people with special needs, person carrying weight or child, a jogger, fitness enthusiast, a pro native, a lost tourist, a person travelling to cinema and a person being taken to hospital while battling for life. This idea and perception of time and space is further different depending or use of powered vehicle, bike, wheelchair, horse cart or without these. Also different in context of metropolis, city, small town, or suburb. A 500 meter distance might be an easy distance for some and may feel like 10 miles to other.

Its important to acknowledge that the "unit time" by the clock or calendar which we are conditioned to use as a benchmark as an urban planner, city managers or project/ programme managers, is somehow a weighted average or a median of all aspects mentioned above, which are rarely widely discussed. Simply put 500 meter walking distance for example to be understood as average of what an athlete and an old age person can comfortably walk.

Irony is that there are possibly no scientific project management tool, method or explanation that acknowledge this "other" kind of spatiotemporal reality. Its just that urban planners, urban designers and landscape architects, instinctively acknowledge and factor in a different kind of time and space definition as well i.e. time beyond clock and distance beyond mile-stone; and they make provisions for same and alike, to make city a better place.

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

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional

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

#urbanplanning #Utrecht #hague #Denhaag #Amsterdam #Delft #Leiden #architecture #Alkmaar #Netherlands

Revisiting landuse

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

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

If any part of city, neighborhood, plot or real estate inventory is not performing optimally, or partially vacant or deserted; then possibly assigned land use is not appropriate, which is required to be heterogeneous and able to be readjusted in near real time. The definition of land use as well need to be re-examined.

Land use regulation in any part of world usually has inbuilt provisions of land use conversion, sometimes by complex and lengthy statutory provisions; while land use remains binding for five to ten years or longer. Also, today’s land use plan, might be based on 5 to 10 year or older idea of what growth is or what growth should be or what growth may look like in future.

The actual current growth, desired land use composition and today’s socio-commercial dynamics may or may not match the historically envisaged growth pattern, land use classification; or land use spatial distribution; which usually leads to mismatch in current land use demand, supply, and mix. Hence the nobel intention of development control regulation, though may serve its intended purpose of stopping haphazard development, may also prove to be insufficient or counter-productive due to its rigidity. Further the definition of land use in terms of its current broad categories, and manner of current application in three dimentional space may remain a barrier for quick adaptation to market demand and supply, in absence of further granularity.

The traditional land use regulation is usually top-down, many a times fails to respond to emerging unforeseen bottom-up requirements over years; especially short-term requirements and rarely corresponds to real time requirements. City scale development control regulations or meso scale land use regulations and urban design guideline in all its legitimacy and validity, still by its very nature, may also create a rigid abstract three-dimensional regulated space which may act as a self-limiting criterion, failing to respond to present and real time land use demand pressure and socio-commercial aspirations.

While land use remains, an indispensable city planning tool, it a) may require to reinvent itself to be agile, allowing land usage conversion in near real time; b) may require to factor in dynamic property pricing and associated economic cost-benefit so that not a single acreage of potential urban space or single square feet of precious real estate remain underutilised in a city; c) may require to be implemented at a more granular level i.e., looking at a mixed-use zone or mixed-use building for instance not just as a spatial land use demarcation or a vertically stacked land use, but to be seen as mosaic (pixels) of variety of land usage both horizontally and vertically; compatibility of which can always be worked out.

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

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional

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

Involving designers and engineers in urban policy-making for assuring policy success and sustainable built environment.

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

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

Policy by its very nature mostly remains abstract and sometimes open to interpretation. Urban policy aspirations related to built environment, have to eventually trickle down from vision to some form of project i.e., to brick-and-mortar level. Such policies also effectively have to reflect in improved quality of life and sustainability parameters like resource optimisation and energy saving, as an outcome. The successful outcome of policy hence depends on whether the policy is closer to ground reality or not.

In the long value chain of city-making affair, usually “urban policymakers” and those who are actually responsible for execution of project i.e., “designers and engineers”, represent two opposite ends of the spectrum. These designers and engineers usually have little say in urban policy formulation related to built environment. This is because the process and information flow in public institutional hierarchy follows similar linear project management model. i.e., top-down; characterised by similar hierarchy and dyadic extremities. Urban policy making though try to represent and incorporate insights from several stakeholders, still essentially remains a top-down process.

First, analysing design project management itself, wondering why design projects for instance tend to overshoot project budget and timeline? Possibly for two main reasons, one in the top down project management process, budget, client negotiation processes, etc. are usually dictated by management higher up or departments/ experts different than planning and engineering (i.e. procurement, financial, legal etc.), who sometimes may or may not be having complete exposure to dynamic day to day design and execution challenges involved in range of built environment projects or may be having limited comprehension of how design and engineering project may get affected in different possible scenarios and in different site context. Hence missing out on critical insights of other bottom extreme of project management value chain, i.e., designers and engineers; while formulating project budget and time frame. The second aspect which may not be directly related to above policy discussion but still noteworthy related to budget and time overshoot is that project management processes like standard operating procedures (SOPs) and tools including many software don’t explicitly factor in real-life challenges and don’t allow to test scenario building, out of scores of possible scenarios which may directly or indirectly impact project. Apparent from the fact that how design projects and project management processes/ software struggled to respond in real time at the onset of the pandemic, despite knowing that the force majeure or Acts-of-God may become a reality at any time; despite having robust industry accepted project management SOPs.

Designers and engineers here imply material experts, product designers, furniture designers, interior designers, architects, building engineering experts (MEP - HVAC/ Electrical/ Plumbing experts), ICT/ intelligent building management experts (IBMS), green building experts, infrastructure experts (Dry/wet utilities), and now emerging circularity experts, who actually design and execute the very constituents or building block or unit of built environment or a city i.e., neighborhood, building/ housing unit or its components, with all its material composition, furnishing, and appliances.

Designers and engineers including project managers, for instance, are those who are usually most close to the reality of execution, having the first-hand understanding of implementation and execution challenges and palpable ground realities. But, urban policy formulation and sometimes strategic report and action plans, related to built environment are traditionally formulated at a level, and with the kind of resources or skilled manpower involved, which may or may not be having the exact or hands-on understanding of sometimes bitter realities of project execution and context. Hence the insight and understanding of designers and engineers are vital for policy making and may simply dictate the success or failure of policy. These critical insights coming from designers and engineers are fundamental to policy formulation as they control the unitary elements of built environment. Any error or innovation at the unitary level has a multiplier effect. If we consider the household or individual house as a constituent unit of the entire population or city, for instance if we save or waste 1 kWh of energy per household, then at a city scale it may result in unimaginable energy saving or energy wastage. Designers and engineers are capable of offering such critical insights, information, modalities, and tools (to save material and energy for instance), which can be directly embedded into the urban policies related to built environment, leading to assured measurable benefits.

Hence, if we incorporate the insights of designers and engineers in the policy formulation, the outcome of the policy will most likely be tangible, realistic and measurable. The abstractness of policy though is acceptable, but it should not stop policymakers to factor in empirical expertise and insights gathers from the other extreme end of city making value chain, i.e., that which comes from designers and engineers.

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

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional

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

#urbanplanning #townplaning #cityplanning #circulareconomy #projectmanagement #infrastructureplanning #engineering #construction #biobasedmaterial #policy #publicpolicy #governance #Rotterdam #utrecht #Amsterdam #Hague #Netherlands