Challenges and Opportunities for Innovation in the Public Works ...

PERFORMANCE CHALLENGES TO INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGN
Enhancing the Role of Innovation in Public Works
John P. Eberhard
Head, Department of Architecture
Carnegie Mellon University
To make significant advancement in the urban networks
of movement, information, metabolism, and shelter required
by new challenges and opportunities calls for a new
perspective on the nature of infrastructure problems and new
goals for the performance of such systems.
Functional Performance:
Every populated area requires four basic infrastructure
systems:
1. A means of movement for persons and goods between
locations within the area, and a method of connecting
to movement systems outside the area. In most
situations there is a requirement for both horizontal
and vertical movement.
2. A means of communicating between persons and between
organizations, and for providing information for
governance and management. This includes both written
and aural modes, as well as instances of tactile
requirements.
3. A "metabolic" process providing energy for work to
be done, materials for building and repairs, and
methods for disposing of resulting wastes.
4. The "skin and skeleton" of the city which shelter
the functions of individuals and organizations. These
places provide protection from the elements and
enemies; create visual, acoustical and tactile spaces
for living and working; and should adapt to changing
functions over time.
Over thousands of years the infrastructure of cities
changed slowly. Ways of harnessing animals for transport
gradually were supplemented by steam and water-borne modes
of movement within cities. Communications methods moved
from town-criers and messengers to written documents as more
and more people learned to read. The energy of coal, whale
oil, and steam was harnessed to do work. Waste was
transported further and further from city centers for
disposal or dumped into rivers, lakes and streams which
flowed through the city. Buildings became designed and
crafted objects of large size (compared to primitive
shelters) and often of some elegance.
However, towards the end of the 19th century the growth
of large urban centers (beginning to approach one million
inhabitants), spurred on by the Industrial Revolution, made
this slow evolution unsatisfactory. Especially in the
congested city centers, the prevalence of epidemics, the
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