Research Background
The MIT Senseable City Lab is the preeminent lab within MIT that conducts cutting-edge urban planning research, integrating the latest technologies and design-thinking.
I had the privilege of being a part of a research team within the Lab in Spring 2019 that partnered with the Zhengdong New District Government in China to solve urban planning challenges in this new government-planned innovation hub.
After a 3-day on-site trip to Zhengdong where we learned about the problems first-hand and met with local government representatives, I synthesized my research in the following and posed an urban mobility social mixing solution.
Research context
Zhengdong New District, is the Henan provincial government’s latest target for building the exemplar technology and innovation hub of Central China. Ambitiously coined “Intelligence Island” and promoted as “China’s big data comprehensive pilot zone”, the site has accumulated immense direct funding, electricity subsidies, tax cuts, and a University Town that consists of 15 newly-built institutions over the span of the past decade, in hopes of attracting firms and talent.
Problem statement
However, Zhengdong New District experiences a void of culture and the pressing issue of social drain. The district conveys a sense of lifelessness and sterility to its visitors, evidently devoid of the type of urban energy, vigor, and culture characteristic of thriving innovation hubs around the world.
The lack of interaction between the tech employees and university students presents a pressingly problematic urban phenomenon as it prevents the fledgling district’s organic growth of local culture and opportunities for knowledge spillover between the two key groups.
Solution proposal
Serendicity is a digital ice-breaker that sparks socialization among co-riders on Zhengdong New District’s new AV bus.
Why tackle social drain? Zhengdong New District government ought to invest in building “social infrastructure” -- a term coined by sociologist Eric Klinenberg that describes “physical places and organizations that shape the way people interact”. Klinenberg posits that an urban community’s well-being strongly correlates with the strength of its social infrastructure.