Rebuilding Christchurch – without a CBD

The government’s $1.35 billion ultrafast broadband project offers a chance to recast our cities, doing away with a CBD, one Telecom executive reckons - and workarounds in Christchurch point to the future.

At the Tuanz Telecommunications Day conference in Wellington, Gen-i Australasia chief executive Chris Quin said all major urban centres could become, well, less centred. Instead of being the centre of all business, civil and social activity, the current CBD could become one of the larger hubs surrounded by other smaller ones.

We hear endless bumf about urban planning, of course, a movement that usually delivers great ideas that get lost in a drawer somewhere, or less-than-great ideas (Canberra, Milton Keynes) that should have been lost in a drawer somewhere.

Single point of failure
Mr Quin said change has already come to Christchurch. The city’s CBD was a “single point of failure” during the two earthquakes.

Many organisations have developed into temporary distributed business hubs in lesser affected areas on the outskirts of the central business district, like Addington and Fendalton.

“These temporary centres could develop into fully-fledged and integrated business hubs.  Instead of having a single CBD, Christchurch could have several, smaller business centres, or hubs, within the suburbs surrounding the current CBD,” Mr Quin said.

Another trend: more and more white collar workers working from home. In Christchurch, some Gen-i staff  had to chase looters off their lawns and literally did not want to leave their homes.

More fibre, and better mobile broadband, will make it more practical for people to work in hubs outside the CBD, or from home.

Fibre lets you spread out
The Christchurch rebuild offers a genuine chance to adopt a more broadband-centred vision of urban planning years ahead of the rest of the country (however things turn out, it seems likely Telecom will play a part; Christchurch was the only major centre that the company lost in the Crown fibre tender but it is already in talks with the winner, council-owned Enable Networks, over a 50/50 joint venture).

A series of suburban hubs connected by fast fibre optic broadband would also unclog Christchurch – and by extension any city.  Instead of having all major routes converging into the centre, transport could focus more on serving local areas around smaller centres, with main routes between hubs carrying less traffic.

Mr Quin also saw a rise in companies sharing workspaces and adopting new tools to monitor a distributed workforce. “This includes systems that will enable them to monitor output vs inputs. Knowing how many hours your people have been ‘present’ at their desks is not en effective measurement of their performance.”

Porta-presence
The Gen-i boss also sees fibre helping to grow high definition “Telepresence” big screen video conferencing, which will mean less travel to the office, and less pressure on infrastructure.

Again, in the aftermath of the quake, this became more than just another PowerPoint, with cheap-and-cheerful, two-person porta-cabins being used to house high-tech Cisco Telepresence gear (which will bring a smirk to the face of anyone who knows how protective the US company usually is about matching the décor on either side of a videoconference). The cabins were used by members of Telecom’s 1500 staff in the city, and Gen-i clients.

Safer communities together
Mr Quin’s vision also strayed a little into Big Brother territory (he sees a smarter, faster broadband network allowing “CCTV monitoring of more remote parts of community such as rural areas”). But technology can also be used to help the city get back on its feet faster, and to offer immediate help in feeling safer. 

“We have already implemented a system in a local school in Christchurch that enables the school send a broadcast txt to all parents to let them know that their children are OK in the event of a shake or shock. This technology could be applied more widely to help keep communities together and help people feel part of the larger community,” Mr Quin said.