Atlantis is Polis’ magazine which explores the field of urbanism. This issue features an interesting combination of contributors regarding Urban Economy from amongst other John Kasarda, Geoffrey West, Ronald Wall and Eric Luiten. Also Atlantis continued where the Urbanism Week 2011 left off and talked more in depth with some key figures as Henk Ovink, Alfredo Brillembourg and Markus Appenzeller. Chief-editor of volume 22 (2011)

1. ATLANTIS
#22.3 December 2011
Ronald Wall 04
Mike Yin 07
Maurits Schaafsma 09
MAGAZINE BY POLIS | PLATFORM FOR URBANISM John Kasarda 12
Atelier Olschinsky 16
Urbanismweek 2011
Urbanismweek 2011
Intro by Jorick Beijer 18
Henk Ovink 21
Alfredo Brillembourg 26
Jaap Modder 29
Markus Appenzeller 30
Tess Broekmans 33
Chris Zevenbergen 36
Hubert Habib 39
MSc Urbanism projects 40
VURB 45
Vincent Schipper 49
Osong Bio Valley 52
Geoffrey West 54
Alex Lehnerer 57
Tim Peeters 58
Eric Luiten 60
URBAN ECONOMY 1

2. Editorial
In the previous Atlantis issue we discussed However, urbanism seems to constantly seek The outline for Atlantis volume 22. If you
the tangible subject of urban form. In this for a relevant position. The profession strug- have ideas and would like to contribute, please
issue of Atlantis, we will explore the seem- gles with numerous aspects at once: its role do not hesitate to contact us at
ingly invisible economic forces that shape in the process, its position towards involved atlantis@polistudelft.nl.
our cities. The impact of these economic parties, the status of its products, and per-
forces on cities is enormous which can haps also a societal recognition as a knowl-
ATLANTIS
#22.1 April 2011
clearly be seen by the effects of the finan- edge-intensive profession. To exchange ideas MAGAZINE BY POLIS | PLATFORM FOR UBANISM
cial crisis on cities all over the world. The about this, the Urbanism Week brought
rise and fall of Detroit and Dubai is an together a number of very interesting speak-
extreme example of this. Therefore, space ers from all over the world to give their
and economy cannot be considered sepa- view. When the heat of the debates vanished, URBAN SOCIETY 1
rate from one another and in this light, the Atlantis spoke more in-depth with these
position of the urbanist is questioned again: speakers to elaborate on their propositions #22.1 Urban Society
“What can urban designers and planners and personal motives. Henk Ovink starts Keywords: society, regeneration, politics, housing,
contribute to the urban environment, while with a plea for new alliances in a decentral- neighborhood.
this urban environment is increasingly ized government when it comes to design
subject to unpredictable and complex eco- content. Alfredo Brillembourg passionately
ATLANTIS
#22.1 April 2011
nomic forces?” Issue #22.3 Urban Economy speaks about engaging the public in devel- MAGAZINE BY POLIS | PLATFORM FOR UBANISM
explores this question from various perspec- opments, whereas Jaap Modder pleas for a
tives, by exchanging ideas with students, different role of the government. Markus
scholars, designers, politicians, developers Appenzeller argues that there are similari-
and engineers. ties in approach despite working in different URBAN SOCIETY 1
cultures, while Hubert Habib, Tess Broek-
Ronald Wall will open this issue, by reveal- mans and Chris Zevenbergen discuss the #22.2 Urban Form
ing the complexity of investments and their future challenges of sustainable living and Keywords: form, density, typologies,
effect on cities. Wall pleas for a new set of development in cities. Along these lines, the design, public space, urban techniques.
methods and techniques to incorporate the work of TU Delft urbanism students will be
knowledge of economic logics into urban exhibited and several visitors and professors
strategies and designs. According to Wall will reflect on the Urbanism Week. ATLANTIS
#22.1 April 2011
MAGAZINE BY POLIS | PLATFORM FOR UBANISM
the power of world cities is essentially rela-
tional: cities form nodes of attraction within After contemplating on the role of the
a global network of investments, and thus urbanist, VURB discusses techno-social
need to act accordingly. Not only the tradi- means on vacancy and Vincent Schipper URBAN SOCIETY 1
tional cities will form these nodes, but also continues the discussion by looking at the
new urban typologies are attractive to invest city through the metaphor of dance. Geof- #22.3 Urban Economy
in. Mike Yin will introduce the airport as frey West, one of the world’s leading physi- Keywords: globalization, urban economy, competi-
a new urban centre while Maurits Schaaf- cists of the last decade, recently began study- tiveness, branding, market, role of urbanism, foreign
sma further elaborates on the specific case ing the science of urban life and came up direct investment.
of Schiphol. John Kasarda, author of the with some remarkable insights. West dis-
best-seller Aerotropolis, proposes to bring covered that the reason we all live in cities
ATLANTIS
#22.1 April 2011
together airport planning, urban planning, all have to do with the number 1.15. Alex MAGAZINE BY POLIS | PLATFORM FOR UBANISM
and business site planning to eventually Lehnerer presents some provocative globes
form true airport cities. The Vienna-based that deal with major themes of the contem-
Atelier Olschinsky provides a look into the porary city. To round it off, Eric Luiten,
URBAN SOCIETY
fictional machine rooms of today’s cities, professor of Cultural Heritage will reflect
1
showing their beauty as well as their com- on some of the themes apparent throughout
plexity. Their works provide a triggering this issue. #22.4 Urban Landscape
starting point to further explore the specific Keywords: landscape, metropolitan, urban-rural, bio-
role of the urbanist in these machine rooms. Jasper Nijveldt diversity, border conditions.
2

3. From the board
Committees 2011
‘So, you are an urbanist?!’ The Urbanism Week 2011 was an We could not be as visible as we are without
unforgettable event for everyone with a fascination for the (un)built the great effort of a lot of active students. In
environment. Polis Platform for Urbanism is proud to build the the last 10 months Polis was able to organize a
platform for knowledge exchange and offers you the chance to look big trip to Vienna, excursions to Antwerp and
back and ahead. Urbanism Week 2011 has made its statement in the Amsterdam North, a double lecture on digital
faculty and outside. 'So, you are an urbanist?!' was the discussion urbanism, the Roadshow on sustainable
that sounded in the corridors in the last months. During the last planning, a case study on Spoorzone Delft and
week of September Polis built the physical platform for international of course Urbanism Week 2011. The Polis
discussion about the (un)built environment. What does it mean to be board wants to thank all the people involved
an urbanist? The keynote speakers brought us a sharp and inspiring for their great efforts and positive input!
view of the world of urbanism.
We are always looking for enthusiastic
What is your discipline? What does the ‘urban’ do for you? What is people to join. Interested in one of the Polis
the profession really about? But what made the Urbanism Week really committees or becoming the new board of
special were the audiences whom actively took part in the debate during 2012? Don’t hesitate to contact us at our
the whole week. It resulted in a sharp and inspiring discussion about the Polis office (01west350) or by mail: contact@
essence of urbanism and the role of the urbanist. The critical discussion polistudelft.nl
has reached not only the students and the academic field but also the
professionals in practice. Urbanism Week has shown what Polis stands Urbanism Week. Arie Stobbe, Jorick Beijer,
for as an active platform for urbanism: yes, i am an urbanist!! Karien Hofhuis, Vera Konings, Tim Ruijs &
Noor Scheltema.
For those who unfortunately missed the Urbanism Week 2011 or
those who would like to re-experience the whole week again Polis has Lectures. This committee is looking for new
good news. The videos of all the lectures as well as photos of the whole enthusiasts! Let us know if you want to join
week are available online at the Urbanism Week website. Visit the them and organise more interesting lectures!
website to revisit the Urbanism Week 2011: www.urbanismweek.nl
Excursions. After the great success of the big
Polis is proud to present to you two special editions of Atlantis trip to Vienna this committee will organise
magazine this year. Both issues 22.3 and 22.4 will flashback on two great events for the coming months. At
the Urbanism Week and will continue where Urbanism week the end of this year we will visit Maastricht
left off. The Urbanism Week keynote speakers and debaters will & Luik and in the 2012 we will go to Berlin!
look back and ahead in the interviews and essays you can find in Hannah Cremers, Gijs Briet, Andre Kroese,
this magazine. For us this is rather important, because Polis highly Verena Roell & Wieke Villerius, Feddy
values its members and wants to keep in touch after the Urbanism Garofalo.
Week. Polis aims to extend our platform online, so please visit us at
the Polis website (www.polistudelft.nl) and connect to our Linkedin Borrel. Nazanin Hemmati, Ani Skachokova
and Facebook group to keep updated and join the discussion! Let the & Laurens de Lange. Are you a Msc1 student
debate continue! and interested in organizing borrels? Please
contact us!
Urban greetings from the Polis board 2011,
Atlantis. Jasper Nijveldt, Jan Breukelman,
Jorick Beijer, Karien Hofhuis, Vera Konings, Tim Ruijs & Noor Edwin Hans, Jan Wilbers, Mike Yin, Sang
Scheltema Huyn Lee.
3

4. Urban geopolitics Dr. Ronald Wall
Architect and Economic Geographer
IHS/Erasmus University
Urban Competitiveness and the Global Economic Network wall@ihs.nl
In this article I argue that cities are increasingly affected by exter- cymakers persistently assume that cities are in equal competition
nal, seemingly invisible, political, economic, cultural, social, and with each other and consequently apply generic approaches to the
environmental forces, and that policymakers, urban planners and development of their cities e.g. ‘creative cities’, ‘green cities’ and
architects may need to explore new methods and techniques to ‘sustainable cities’. In this manner most cities increasingly imitate
incorporate this type of knowledge into their urban strategies and each other and become very similar, instead of identifying unique
designs. However, I will not elaborate on the theory behind this characteristics that would make them different and enable a com-
argument and instead will focus more on a practical example. For petitive advantage.
those interested in a theoretical explanation, this can be found in
‘We Need Archinomics’1. Despite the increasing mobility of capital, only a few cities can sat-
isfy the specific requirements of large firms to invest in particu-
In a world in which the mobility of capital steadily increases, cities lar projects abroad. Depending on a firm’s industrial sector, e.g.
compete more than ever in attracting capital flows, mostly in the chemicals, semiconductors, oil-extraction or advanced business
form of investments2. In this sense, the power of world cities is services, it will seek different urban qualities in a city. Indeed, vari-
essentially relational: cities do not have power in isolation, but have ous studies show that it is best for cities to attract investments that
power to the extent that they form points of attraction and com- complement their existing or potential economic functions. In this
mand within the global network of investments3. To improve their way, cities with the same type of economic functions can to some
position within this network, cities need to improve their ability to degree be considered to be true competitors as they have similar
successfully compete with each other, i.e. create competitive advan- endowments to attract the same kind of investors. Cities with dis-
tage over others. To do this today, policymakers use incentive based similar economic functions are not competitors and can therefore
policies e.g. subsidies and taxes, but also capacity-building policies, be considered complimentary to the extent that they exploit dif-
such as physical infrastructure, public transportation, and human ferent sources of investment, and hereby fulfill different economic
resource development to improve a city’s ability to attract invest- roles within the urban system. Furthermore, empirical research
ments. Furthermore, marketing and branding strategies have has indeed revealed that cities are not all in competition with each
become a ‘booming business’, with the endeavor to boost a city’s other, and instead each city has only a handful of true competitors4.
attractiveness for business. However, a major problem of these Hence, by using econometric techniques for example, the competi-
policies and strategies, is that they are over-generalized, hereby tors of a city can be identified within the entire global network of
not specifying a city’s true competitors, nor the type of investments investments. Based on this specific knowledge, detailed case stud-
that are being contested amongst cities. In other words, urban poli- ies can be carried out on its competitors to find out (i) exactly which
Figure 1. The geographic location of regional and global investments in Rotterdam, Hamburg and Frankfurt (Wall and Pajevic, 2011)
4

5. New Delhi Stockholm
Eindhoven
Epsom Marseille Beverly Hills
Purchase
firms are investing in them, (ii) what type of economic, infrastruc- Redmond Austin
New Orleans Basking Ridge
Voorburg Houston
Wellington Regina Newburyport
Amsterdam Raleigh
Westlake Village
Roskilde Schindellegi Seattle
Nova Prata
Vienna
Vaduz D Wilmington
Turin Ozorkow
tural, social and environmental functions in these cities are attract-
Nantes Hamilton Pune
Zeist Massy
Tallinn Vaasa Rochester Fairfield Rockville
York Zurich
Windsor Vevey Washington Westborough Yokohama
Piscataway
Waltham Brussels Xiamen Utrecht Northbrook
San Diego Den Haag Toronto Scottsdale
ing the investments, and (iii) which functions need to be developed
Parsippany Copenhagen
Cambridge Rotkreuz Milan
Dublin
Stockholm Muttenz Slough
New Delhi Saint Petersburg White Plains Pino Torinese
Gouda St Louis RigaEindhoven
Epsom Marseille Beverly Hills Valencia
Purchase Pittsburgh
Austin
New Orleans Redmond Basking Ridge Montreal Shenzhen Malagna
Hull Voorburg Sydney
Houston Hartford
Naperville
Regina Osaka Newburyport
Sunnyvale
so as to attract new investments. Based on this knowledge, a city
TaipeiWellington Amsterdam Raleigh
Leamington Spa
Hwaseong Westlake Village Sundsvall
Athens
Nishio
Roskilde Schindellegi Seattle
Nantes
Nova Prata Minneapolis
Vienna
Chicago
Vaduz
Indianapolis
Hamilton
D Zeist
SpringfieldOzorkow
Wilmington
Turin
Pune Massy
Mumbai
Niederwangen Amstelveen
Kiryu
Ipswich Clichy
Tallinn Vaasa Fairfield
York Rochester Rockville Nieuwegein
Zurich
can develop targeted urban programs, policies, plans and mar-
Hsinchu Windsor Westborough Rome
Hamburg Vevey Washington
Moscow Piscataway Yokohama
Johannesburg Brussels Xiamen Utrecht Nijmegen
Northbrook
A
Waltham Aalborg London
Itasca San Diego Den Haag Toronto Scottsdale
Southfield Jersey City
Parsippany Memphis
Copenhagen Santa Clara Minato-ku
Cambridge Rotkreuz Milan
Humlebaek Cardiff Beijing
Dublin Muttenz
Frankfurt Slough Luxembourg
Boston
Saint Petersburg White Plains
keting strategies that will give it a future competitive advantage
Gouda St Louis Riga
Hilversum Valencia Pino Torinese
Lawrenceville
Leuven Addison New York
Pittsburgh Siena
Blagnac San Mateo Montreal Shenzhen
Milwaukee Malagna
Hull Sydney Hartford Mansbach
Lund
Cerritos Naperville Tokyo Sunnyvale
Mountain View Taipei Osaka Bath Baden Marlborough
Leamington Spa Bloomfield Hills Paris
Minneapolis Mumbai
Nishio Springfield Madrid Southborough
Niederwangen Amstelveen
Sundsvall Town
Cape Chicago Le Plessis-Robinson
over its competitors. Therefore, a good understanding of competi-
Chippenham
Hwaseong
Indianapolis
Atlanta
Basel
Athens Oslo Hong Kong Tel Aviv Kiryu Menlo Park
Ipswich Clichy Aimargues Dallas Greenwood Village
Barcelona Dubai Los Angeles Kinnarp
Nieuwegein
Hsinchu
Decatur Rome
B
Al-Kuwait San Francisco
Hamburg Seoul
Moscow Belgrade
Johannesburg Miami Zug Minsk Espoo
Nijmegen
A
London
tion within the global investment network will clear the path to
Malmo Aalborg Shanghai Broomfield Southfield Jersey City
C
Itasca Philadelphia El Segundo
Memphis
Baltimore Deerfield Clara Cleveland
Santa Minato-ku
Humlebaek Cardiff Beijing Frankfurt Fukuoka Luxembourg
Boston Linz Lawrenceville
Leuven Addison Hilversum Chiyoda-Ku
New York Siena Bangalore Manama
Rockford
Blagnac Rotterdam San Mateo Milwaukee Brighton Mansbach
smarter, more goal-directed and effective urban planning, urban
Cerritos Lund
Tokyo Newark Baden Abingdon Marlborough
Mountain View Ichikawa BathFoster City
Bloomfield Hills Paris Baku
AberdeenSouthborough
Cincinnati Madrid
Chippenham Cape Town Le Plessis-Robinson
Jakarta Atlanta Auckland Boca Raton
Basel Oslo Hong Kong Tel Aviv Menlo Park
Dallas
Gwacheon Greenwood Village
design and policy-making5. In this sense, ‘form follows function
Aimargues Barcelona Dubai Los Angeles Kinnarp
Decatur
B
Al-Kuwait San Francisco Seoul Belgrade
Southampton Miami Zug Espoo
Minsk
Malmo Shanghai Broomfield
C
Philadelphia El Segundo
Kolkata Baltimore Deerfield Cleveland
Duisburg
follows flows’.
Antwerp Fukuoka
Linz
Seville Chiyoda-Ku
Bangalore Manama Brighton
Rockford
Dusseldorf Rio de Janeiro Rotterdam
Birmingham
Lysaker
Ichikawa Newark Foster City Abingdon
Johor Bahru Aberdeen Baku
Reykjavik Cincinnati
Jakarta Gent
Salvador Fischamend Auckland Boca Raton
Irving Arhus Gwacheon
Koln Bucharest
Southampton
Combining insights from international economics, business man- Kolkata
Figure 3: investments from various cities to Rotterdam and its competitors Hamburg and Frankfurt
Duisburg Antwerp
(Source: Wall and Pajevic, 2011) Seville
agement, urban development and urban network literature, an Figure 3. Investments from various cities to Rotterdam and its competitors Ham-
Dusseldorf Rio de Janeiro Metals
Birmingham
Lysaker Johor Bahru
Rotterdam
Reykjavik
Gent
Salvador Fischamend
indicator has been developed to measure competition between burg and Frankfurt (Wall and Pajevic, 2011)
Irving Arhus
Koln Bucharest
cities for investments6. Unlike previous competitive advantage Figure 3:Wall and Pajevic, 2011) cities to Rotterdam and its competitors Hamburg and Frankfurt
(Source:
investments from various
Metals
Coal, Oil and Natural Gas
approaches that only compare cities by the strengths of their urban G Warehousing & Storage
Rotterdam Financial Services
Software & IT services
Textiles
indicators, the new model measures a city’s competitive impor- Non-Automotive Transport OEM
Chemicals
Hotels & Tourism
tance relative to other cities in the global network. This results in E Semiconductors Coal, Oil and Natural Gas
Industrial Machinery, Equipment & Tools
Alternative/Renewable energy
Wood Products Transportation Services
Financial Plastics
G
a network measure which in its simplest form is explained by the
Business Services
Rubber Software & IT services Automotive Components
Warehousing & Storage Communications
Textiles
Chemicals
Food & Tobacco Automotive OEM
diagram below (figure 1). The seven cities (A-G) are hypotheti- Beverages Non-Automotive Transport OEM
Hamburg Real Estate
Hotels & Tourism
E Semiconductors
Leisure & Entertainment Frankfurt
Industrial Machinery, Equipment & Tools
Alternative/Renewable energy
Space & Defence
cally connected by investments made by firms in these cities. Cities Wood Products
Medical Devices
Rubber
Transportation
Business Services
Plastics
Paper, Printing & Packaging
Automotive Components
Pharmaceuticals
Communications
A and G have different cities investing Electronic Components
Aerospace
Food & Tobacco Consumer Electronics Automotive OEM
F Beverages
Biotechnology Hamburg Healthcare
Real Estate
in them and therefore have a 0% market
Space & Defence
Leisure & Entertainment Engines & Turbines Frankfurt Consumer Products
Business Machines & Equipment Paper, Printing & Packaging
overlap. In other words, they are not com-
Medical Devices
Pharmaceuticals
Electronic Components
Aerospace Consumer Electronics
Figure 4: investments from various industrial sectors to Rotterdam and its competitors Hamburg and Frankfurt
petitors at all. Cities B and C have the same (Source: Wall and Pajevic, 2011) F Biotechnology
Healthcare
Engines & Turbines Consumer Products
cities investing in them and hereby have a Business Machines & Equipment
100% market overlap. In this sense, they Figure investments from various from various industrialcompetitors Hamburg and Frankfurt and its competi-
Figure 4: 4. Investments industrial sectors to Rotterdam and its sectors to Rotterdam
(Source: Wall and Pajevic, 2011)
are perfect competitors. Cities A and D are tors Hamburg and Frankfurt (Wall and Pajevic, 2011)
partly linked to the same cities and there-
fore have a partial overlap which can range (figure 1). The darker the region and the higher its red node is
between 0 and 100%. In previous studies, positioned, the stronger it is in attracting investments. The link-
it is shown that cities tend to only have a ages (in red) represent the total investments taking place between
Figure 2. Diagram to handful of true competitors. For instance, regions and it is clear from the map that Europe’s core investment
explain network compe- Rotterdam’s competitors are not Dutch axis runs between London and Milan, incorporating areas like the
tition (Burger, Wall and cities, as is often assumed, but cities like Randstad, Ruhr area, Flemish Diamond, and Paris. A video of this
v.d. Knaap 2010 7) Frankfurt, Hamburg and Prague. can be seen at http://www.tinyurl.com/3jggslo.
Nonetheless, the competition model is more complex than this, In the network diagram (figure 3), we see two of the important
as it also requires other conditions to properly measure competi- competitors of Rotterdam, namely Hamburg and Frankfurt. They
tion between cities i.e. (1) sectoral similarity of investments e.g. are competitors because other cities like Moscow, London, Beijing,
transport, manufacturing, legal services or trade, (2) functional New York, Tokyo and Paris invest in all three of them (label A).
similarity e.g. headquarters, branch plant, sales or logistics, and Cities like Atlanta, Tel Aviv, Seoul and Shanghai only invest in
(3) geographical proximity e.g. Amsterdam, Cologne, Antwerp Rotterdam and Frankfurt (label B); while Philadelphia, Miami,
and Utrecht. In other words, the degree of network competition Dubai and Hong Kong invest only in Rotterdam and Hamburg
between cities A and D would be highest if both cities received (label C). The fact that 22 cities invest in Hamburg and Frankfurt,
equal sized investments, for the same industrial sectors and func- but not in Rotterdam, shows that Rotterdam is the weaker of the
tions, and from the same cities. Applying the above methodology competitors (label D). However, this cluster of investor cities serves
to the FDI Markets investment database, the true competitors of as a potential market for Rotterdam’s future development. This
any city can be identified. The database represents roughly 30 000 can be done by developing marketing strategies and incentives to
investments (for the period 2000 – 2010) between European cities try to persuade these cities to also invest in Rotterdam. The star-
and cities in the rest of the world. clouds indicate single investors of each of the three cities.
In this article, Rotterdam’s competitors will be discussed. Firstly a The other condition which makes cities competitors is the simi-
three dimensional GIS map has been made of the investments that larity of the industrial sectors investing in them. In the network
have taken place between European regions during this period diagram (figure 4) it is clear that industries like coal, oil and natu-
5

6. Figure 5. The geographic location of regional and global investments in Rotterdam, Hamburg and Frankfurt (Source: Wall and Pajevic, 2011)
Figure 5: the geographic location of regional and global investments in Rotterdam, Hamburg and F
ral gas; financial services; software and IT services; and real estate, more competitive.(Source: Wall andresult2011) smart urban programs that will
This can Pajevic, in
invest in Rotterdam, Hamburg and Frankfurt alike (label E). As give Rotterdam a competitive edge and which can consequently be
can be seen, Rotterdam has very strong investments in the coal, transformed into urban plans and urban designs.
oil and natural gas industry. It is evident that industries like phar-
maceuticals, aerospace, health care, engines and turbines invest in In this article the complexity of the world of investment has been
Hamburg and Frankfurt, but not in Rotterdam (label F). These discussed, but also the powerful influence of this on the develop-
can in future serve as potential new industries for Rotterdam’s ment of our cities. More importantly it has been argued that to
economic diversification. For instance, the fact that Rotterdam is develop cities we need to complement our understanding of what
already strong in the chemical industry should form a strong moti- goes on within a city’s municipal boundaries with knowledge of its
vation for attracting the related pharmaceutical industry. relative importance in regional and global arenas8. Methods and
Figure 5: the geographic location of regional and global investments in Rotterdam, Hamburg and Frankfurt
(Source: Wall and Pajevic, 2011) techniques have briefly been discussed that can gradually enable
In the GIS maps (figure 5), the geographic location of the invest- us to understand and manage this complexity. In this context, these
ments in Rotterdam, Hamburg and Frankfurt are seen. The color methods and techniques allow us to once again address the issue of
coding shows the type of industrial sectors of investments. For whether the city is makeable or not. Although I believe that the total
Figure 5: the geographic location of regional and global investments in Rotterdam, Hamburg and Frankfurt
instance Rotterdam and Hamburg have strong investments in control of a city’s operations and mechanisms is highly unlikely, the (Source: Wall and Pajevic, 2011)
opportunity of exploring novel techniques
from other disciplines and combining these
“... most cities increasingly imitate each other with mainstream architectural and plan-
ning approaches, can contribute to an evolu-
and become very similar, instead of identifying tion of these disciplines. The combination of
advanced scientific techniques, with creative
unique characteristics ...”
gure 5: the geographic location of regional and global investments in Rotterdam, Hamburg and Frankfurt
ource: Wall and Pajevic, 2011) vision, imaginative design, and visualization
methods, should help to improve the prob-
ability of a city achieving successful develop-
transportation (yellow) and in business services (green). This is also ment. In this way, understanding the causal relationships between
evident in the network diagram (figure 4). In the map, Frankfurt local geographic space (social, economic, environmental and politi-
is weaker on transportation, but much stronger in business ser- cal dimensions) and the relative importance of this within global
vices. If we now look deeper into the database, we can see that for networks will also necessitate powerful collaborations between
instance Rotterdam’s investors in business services are firms like seemingly unlikely professions, and the foreseeable combination of
BNP Paribas, Bank of China, and HLV Trading. This shows that unexpected technologies — the transition of contemporary urban
the data can also be used to get highly specific. development, into a more urban geopolitical approach.
So far only the investment side of the story has been discussed, and 1 Wall R. S. (2010), ‘We Need Archinomics’, special issue MVRDV Architects (ed), Journal
not the urban location factors that attract these investments. How- l’Architecture d’aujourd’hui, Paris
ever, these are essential, for it is the similarity of urban location fac- 2 Burger M.J., v.d. Knaap and Wall R.S (2011) Revealed Competition for Greenfield Invest-
tors in cities, which creates investment attraction and encourages ments between European Regions. Journal of Economic Geography (under review).
competition. Location factors can include e.g. market size, GDP 3 Wall. R.S. and. v.d. Knaap. G.A. (2011), Sectoral Differentiation and Network Structure
Within Contemporary Worldwide Corporate Networks. Economic Geography 87-3, 266-308.
per capita, wages, corporate taxes, accessibility by air road and rail,
4 Wall. R.S. (2011), The Position of the Dutch North-wing in worldwide M&A networks. Re-
language similarity, patents, education levels, export, imports, hous-
port for the Ministry of Economic Affairs of The Netherlands.
ing quality, environmental indicators, cultural indicators, ameni-
5 Wall. R.S. Burger M.J. and v.d. Knaap. (2011), The Geography of Global Corporate Networks:
ties and entertainment levels, quality of built environment, archi- The Poor, the Rich and the Happy Few Countries. Environment and Planning A, 43, 904-927.
tectural highlights etc. Using econometric techniques, these factors 6 Martijn J. Burger (2011) Structure and Cooptition in Urban Networks. Rotterdam: ERIM
can be tested to see how much each attracts investment. Once the and Haveka Publishers
essential factors have been derived, recommendations can be made 7 Wall. R.S. (2009), Netscape: cities and global corporate networks. ERIM and Haveka Publishers
to e.g. Rotterdam, as to which economic, social, infrastructural and 8 Wall R. S. (2010, ‘Gulfworld: corporate profiles and networks of Gulf cities’, in Al Manakh 2,
environmental programs it should develop in future, so as to make it OMA, Archis/Volume and Pink Tank (Columbia University).
6