A response to Archinect's request for architecture and urbanism predictions for 2009:

To support more of an optimistic hope than a prediction, a short montage, whereby a current vision for George Street, Sydney in 2030 is contrasted with footage of George Street from 1906. Not an exercise in nostalgia, honest, but more a plea for iterative, responsive 'urban acupunctures' rather than grand infrastructure plans which are hardwired into the urban fabric for subsequent generations, unable to flex to their unforeseen needs.

Ironically, the vision for 2030 covets much of the reality of 1906, yet can't actually approach its utterly fluid and human-centred urban space. The film for 2030 asks 'what if George Street was a great street for walking and cycling, and with new transport connections?". The 1906 film, lifted from the excellent Sydney Sidetracks project, indicates all this and more. While if doesn't show the squalor and danger of that city, it does illustrate free, easy movement of pedestrians and cyclists across a shared space Moderman would've loved, a near-constant flow of trams, pavements covered with smart canopies, street vendors under parasols on Martin Place ... A far cry from today's George Street of four clogged lanes of vehicular traffic and timed pedestrian crossings.

The subtitle to the montage alludes to Nassim Taleb's book 'The Black Swan' which indicates the folly of much planning and prediction, and suggests instead the idea of living in quotidian data in order to discern urban patterns, acting and reacting with a series of quicker, smaller, manageable interventions, akin to Barcelona's 'projects versus planning' perhaps.

Visions for 2030 seem to move further away rather than closer. It's my sincere hope for 2009 - hope rather than predication, but I remain optimistic - that cities find better ways to explore urban futures, partly by reflecting on the past and partly by focusing on the soft infrastructure of everyday urbanism.

Clips:
Sustainable Sydney 2030 from cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/2030/
George Street 1906 from abc.net.au/innovation/sidetracks/
Music by Fennesz/Dafeldecker/Brandlmeyer ('Till the old world's blown up and a new one is created') and Skyphone ('One Step Closer to the Ground').