Morgenstadt – Urban Production in the City of the Future

Abstract

Already today cities are the biggest entities of industrial and economic activity and the growth of urban populations is steadily increasing. By 2030 the number of people living in cities will rise to five billion, facing great challenges to infra- structure, economic development and life-quality induced by scarce resources, climate change and the mere number of people. Addressing the city of tomorrow and its markets therefore requires a new way of thinking for almost every industry sector. Conventional single-consumer-related products have to be replaced by integrated approaches forming whole urban systems: A new relationship of information, resources, products and users will lie at the heart of the innovation loop that cities will have to master within the next decades. Within the convergence of urban systems representing the Morgenstadt, also the production sector plays an important role and will be a crucial factor to reach a sustainable living and working environment in urban systems. This paper discusses the main challenges for our cities in the next decades and introduces five hypotheses for urban production in the Morgenstadt.