One of the most important and underrated aspects of material flow.

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

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The conservation and (re)utilization of embodied energy - from the scale of the product to the built environment.

Yes, materials have been extracted and refined, and the products have been made, and transported for intended use, with all its embodied energy, the product that went through energy-intensive processes, leaving environmental externalities. What next?

It will be unreasonable and illogical to keep producing, while not knowing what to do with the product or refined material after the end of its first functional or fashionable life.  The thing we know and focus on today is to grind and smelt products back to their granular, sometimes molecular constituents, or ship them to grey markets and landfills of less well-off places, after sometimes their deliberately short, designed, perceived, and valued life. Maybe it’s the only choice for some in their given context, maybe it’s a problem of not knowing whose Lifecycle responsibility it is after the product leaves the factory.

In any case, the post-perceived functional life of products, it becomes a problem of “compound” embodied energy associated with refined materials and products at a global supply chain level.

Once a product or refined material enters into local geography through a global supply chain, with all its embodied energy associated with processing, transportation, etc., it is the responsibility of the local economy, regional industry, and governing institutions to create enabling grounds for maximizing the use, reuse, and repurpose of refined materials/components and products at varying scale, be it extension of life, second, third and fourth life or reinvented multi-functionality of such products. Just because we have figured out how to make new products or refined material from scratch, doesn’t make it necessary to discard old and create new at the pace at which it is being done, just because you can.

Be it paper, plastic, cardboard, and glass products, packaging and residues (which hold high circular potential due to their numeric strength), or of course concrete (that holds circular potential due to sheer scale), or discarded EV batteries, chemicals, PV modules, wind turbine components (that holds less explored circular potential in the need of hour).

A product or refined material of any scale, at any historic or contemporary timeline, once produced, with or without thought of the future or post-functional life, becomes immensely valuable due to all the efforts, time, and embodied energy associated with it, and its never too late to reassess the real value of such product, to explore how these can be put to best use tomorrow and in times to come, especially within the local geography.

Author: Anoop Jha

Image: Author

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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 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 

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#circulareconomy #urbanplanning #resourceeffeciency #materailflowanalysis #LCA #climatechange #systemthinking #designthinking #Amsterdam #Rotterdam #Utrecht #Netherlands #EU #Europe

The dilemma of oversized urban houses.

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

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Yes, they live in oversized houses, as they gradually reached there, as they wanted to, as they needed it, and as they could afford it at one point in time. They still continue to live in oversized houses even if they don’t want to as it becomes unmanageable with age and weakening abilities, even if they don’t need it as they become empty nesters, and even if they can’t afford it at another point in time, with drying wherewithal and acclivitous expenses.

Yes, it’s not that easy to reconfigure something made of brick and mortar, at the unit scale and at the neighborhood scale. It’s difficult with architectural rigidity that doesn’t consider modularity in its inception.  It’s harder still with binding urban design regulations that don’t consider such future reconfiguration requirements and possibilities in the first place. Even more difficult with land use restrictions, that don’t consider real-time land-usage convertibility, and are nearly impossible amidst stringent building bylaws that are dictated by the idea of dimensions.

Having a choice is fundamental. We are discussing reconfiguration, from a house to a neighborhood scale, not with the conventional idea of accommodating more people per unit or per acre, not with the sole idea of co-location or sharing; but to offer inhabitants a choice that they deserve, the choice to sequester their operations in the humble Sqft of area, carved out of their own house, that is still respectable for a home, that is manageable, and affordable with growing age. If we end up gaining room for more inhabitants per acre through the reconfiguration of houses and neighborhoods that is a byproduct.

In any part of the world, it’s counterintuitive even from a policy perspective, surrounding this phenomenon of living in oversized houses at a growing age, with household size considerably reduced, when many of them may not require it or want it but still live there in the absence of choices. Counterintuitive, as administrations may choose to offer money as a social welfare gesture only to take some of it back unintentionally in the form of higher energy bills generated and associated higher property taxes due to those additional sqft of area which many residents might not require.

While the discussion around retrofitting and circular built environments is gaining traction, we should further move beyond the idea of material trade-offs, and, design, plan, and strategies to consider the matter of mutating requirements and choices and focus on this much-ignored immutable fact that human spatial needs drastically change with time. Technologically, reconfiguration and retraction of the buildings and larger built environment is not impossible, possibly focus has to be on statutory reconfiguration and policy reengineering.

Author: Anoop Jha

Image: Author

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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 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 

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#urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #urbandesign #smartcities #circulareconomy #Rotterdam #Amsterdam #Utrecht #Netherlands #EU #Europe

 What makes a great city?
 

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

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Luck, inheritance, coincidence, distinct leadership, resourcefulness, and experimentation

LUCK

·      Geographic positioning – less susceptible to seasonal and weather extremities, and diurnal variations

·      Environmentally guarded geography – less vulnerability to climate change catastrophe

·      Regional positioning (sea coast, river bank, hills, valley) - economic and ecological potential

·      Natural resources (minerals, ecological assets)

COINCIDENCE

·      On a trade route – economic edge

·      Twin city or polycentric regional setting – symbiotic advantage

INHERITANCE

·      Heritage – something to nurture and to build on

·      Legacy institutions (industries/ businesses/ hub of public and private institutions)

DISTINCTIVE LEADERSHIP

·      Transformative vision (planned spatial growth and development blueprint, policy formulation, sectoral roadmap, city branding)

·      Creating economic and knowledge ecosystems (anchor industries and MSME, commerce, startups, universities)

·      Tackling socio-economic challenges (poverty, inequality, crime)

·      Controlling demographic indicators (education, gender ratio, vocation, etc)

·      Mitigating environmental impact

·      Preparing for climate resilience

RESOURCEFULNESS

·      Finding means of revenue generation

·      Attracting investments

·      Assuring funding

·      Attracting human capital

·      Attracting footfall

·      Creating a network of global and regional partnerships and a support system

EXPERIMENTATION

·      Living labs

·      Districts of experimentation

The above factors and possibly a few others, dictate the present and future of metropolitans, cities, towns, and “would-be cities”; these are interdependent factors. While luck, inheritance, and coincidence have their own place, and sometimes cities have no choice; going beyond, theoretically and technically any city can be a great city if it decides to be one, if it focuses on leveraging what is coincidental, building on what has been inherited, finding right leadership, being resourceful and experimentative!

Author: Anoop Jha

Image: Author

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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 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 

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#urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #smartcities #urbandesign #landscape #ecology #economy #heritage #tourism #municipality #Amsterdam #Utrecht #Rotterdam #Netherlands #EU #Europe

 Revisiting the impact of mega infrastructure development.

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

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The nature of mega infrastructure projects is such that their impact goes beyond its physical dimensions and boundaries. The impact goes even beyond its defined catchment, described objective, perceived externalities, and statutory confine.

When a mega infrastructure of any kind is introduced in a geographic system, the morphology of the immediate and distant built environment is either going to be evolved, shaped or redefined, ecological and bio-diversity reconfigurations may just get triggered, microclimate are going to undergo changes, socio-economic and demographic equilibriums are bound to change, power dynamics are bound to shift, a period of destabilisation and adjustments are sure to be witnessed, the upheaval of opinions, emotions and aspirations are mostly assured, the opportunity-scape are obviously to be developed and redefined, and vested interests are bound to surface, and of course, few consequences beyond human grasp may also surface.

Build a ring road, make an airport, build a dam, or channelize a river, and all or most of the above phenomenon gets activated and rarely gets acknowledged or addressed in their impact assessment in the totality, complexity, and subtlety of it.

There are certainly positive externalities, but currently, any (negative) impact of mega infrastructure that comes as a surprise, we tend to label them as unintended or link them to external factors or define them as non-linear and characteristics of wicked problems.

The possible reason for the shortsightedness of impacts and events followed by the advent of mega infrastructure are the practical limitations of prescriptive statutory compliance. That is understood, as one has to stop somewhere and define the boundary of impact, contours of liability, and exactness of liability. But it is still wise to consider and assess the impacts beyond the statutory confine and unresolved interests, for the common larger good.

Thankfully, today or anytime soon, most of the impacts of mega infrastructure can be defined and visualised based on historical observations and near-infinite scenario modelling, can be predicted, forecasted and modelled accurately with modern tools, and can be empirically constructed, or imagined beforehand by logic, wisdom and diverse consultation.

Author: Anoop Kumar Jha

Image: Author

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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 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 

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#megastructure #infrastructure #urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #smartcities #urbandesign #landscape #ecology #economy #heritage #tourism #municipality #Amsterdam #Utrecht #Rotterdam #Netherlands #EU #Europe #Asia

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/

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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

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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 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 

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

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

Still finding relevant?

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

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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 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 

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

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

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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 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 

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