While traditional master planning prescriptively assumes buildings are the solution to every problem, virtual and other options are now available to transform fixed assets into flexible platforms.

Planning is broken. Predominantly concerned with the shape, size, location and aesthetics of buildings, it fails to recognize that communities are complex aggregations of places, infrastructure, services and, most importantly, the people who imbue them with life.

People, not things, should be planning’s central concern.

Current planning approaches generate solutions seemingly uninterested in how individuals and groups actually live. Intransigent in the face of rapid transformation, they have proven ineffectual in responding to evolving demographics and the changing nature of work. Plans like Urban Renewal caused unforeseen outcomes that were costly and destructive to the communities they were designed to help.

Planning dogmas fail to consider how people today increasingly split their time between the material and virtual worlds. The rapid evolution of technology and society has created a world unimaginable even five years ago. To predict how things will actually be a decade hence, let alone over the lifespan of cities, seems foolhardy.

Public policy continues to promote specialized buildings as the solution to every problem. Yet many capabilities can, and should, be provided via technology which is faster, has greater adaptability and consumes fewer resources. Buildings remain slow while technology accelerates, generating vast sources of data and powerful analytics that could be used to improve master planning.

Starting from observations rather than assumptions and modeling real-time the impacts of decisions before investing limited resources is how other fields advance. Planning must catch up.