New Century Cities (NCC)

New Century Cities (NCC) is a joint research project among the Center for Real Estate, City Design and Development in Urban Studies and Planning, and the Smart Cities Group/Media Lab which focuses on a new generation of development projects.

These very large-scale projects are deliberately located at the intersection of technology, urban design, and real estate development. They can be found in New York City, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Belfast, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Seoul, and Singapore. In addition, projects are on the drawing boards in places such as Florianopolis, Brazil, and Zaragoza, Spain. These projects vary in size and in how their development is organized and led.

NCC projects are some of the largest developments undertaken since the "New Cities" projects of post-World War II Europe. As mixed use projects, they are home to technology enterprises, including enterprises that leverage information technology, and to creative workers who both live and work in the development zones.

What New Century Cities have in common are:

They promote innovation to achieve significant social and economic value for their host cities (and, in some cases, countries). These projects lead to development of highly creative, cutting edge, value-added production in the global high technology fields, thereby building substantial social and economic capital for the geographic regions in which they are located.

Information and media technologies are woven into the design of the cities. These developments are pioneering integration of advanced communication and media technologies into the physical form and fabric of New Century Cities, and into the enterprises, institutions, retail and entertainment establishments, and residences that make them up.

They are eminently "livable". These developments are designed for a high degree of "livability," adding a hugely important new dimension to the previous generation of science park developments. The result is the creation of spaces and places that attract the younger generation of creative workers to these live/work/play environments that melt the old boundaries in space and time between residential, office, and retail/entertainment real estate.

The public and private sectors are intertwined. These developments are characterized by partnerships among governments, real estate developers, educational or research institutions, and technology companies. The latter, which rarely have had much to do with real estate in the past, have suddenly recognized the market for technology in the public space, and are now playing a central role in these developments.