What's New in City Design

Multi-Functional Infrastructure Guide: Future Value Now



Future Value Now is a guide assessing the value of common ciyy design methods across 12 benefit areas. The purpose is to highlight practices that deliver multiple benefits to deliver enhanced value to property owners and tax payers.


Benefits & Problems Addressed

Cost Savings: The main principle of multifunctionality is to get more value for lower costs.

Multiple community & social benefits: Using the Triple Bottom Line (People, Profit, Planet), write-ups describe how each practice delivers benefits.


Tips & Techniques

Background: The manual, created by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure & the Environment, lists 50 examples of multi-use design practices.  For example, a plaza that can be used for water storage or a roof that also generates energy are examples of new combinations.

Design/practice write-ups: Each write-up includes (1) background, (2) impact, (3) partners involved, (4) resources, (5) photograph, (6) icons showing which of the 12 benefit areas addressed, (7) and a graphic summarizing the social and economic benefits for people, profit and planet.

The role of designing circuits: Multifunctionality consists of creating circuits between different physical and social sectors. Circuits can be parallel (soil remediation and geothermal make use of same & groundwater abstraction pipes) or serial (Water plaza serves as plaza and, if necessary, as a pond to collect water).

Hot Buttons: Multi-functionality requires working cooperatively across Departments & budgets; some cities, architecture, engineering & planning firms are not set up to readily institute new forms of cooperative management.


Resource

Future Value Now: the power of multi-functionality (pdf), The Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment