About the METRO LAB INITIATIVE

Gabriel Lanfranchi, Metro Lab Initiative Founder

David Gómez Álvarez, Metro Lab Initiative Co-organizer

We are living in a metropolitan world. In 2016, there were 512 cities with at least 1 million inhabitants globally and by 2030, a projected 662 cities will have at least 1 million residents (UN Habitat, 2016). According to UN Habitat, 85% of urban agglomerations constitute metropolitan areas. The MetroLab Initiative seeks to address gaps in metropolitan theory and practice, helping new metropolitan practitioners be prepared to face pressing challenges, such as rapid urban expansion, climate change adaptation and uneven growth, in their future career path.

The METRO LAB INITIATIVE was founded by Gabriel Lanfranchi in 2015, under the MIT SPURS program -Special Program on Urban and Regional Studies-, when Gabriel was participating as a SPURS fellows himself. With the mission of generating applied knowledge to raise awareness on the metropolitan challenges, he ultimately seeked to bridge the gap between theory and practice for a better understanding of the metropolitan phenomenon. The first activities of the Metro Lab in 2015 were carried out with SPURS/Humphrey Fellows and DUSP students. David Gómez Álvarez joined Gabriel as co-organizer in mid 2016, when he started his Fellowship at the SPURS program.

In 2016 and 2017, the Metro Lab Initiative has been offered as a two-week IAP (Independent Activities Period) session at MIT. The Metro Lab Initiative consists in lectures and workshops that use peer learning methodology. The course allows participants to exchange experiences with outstanding academics, consultants and practitioners from different parts of the world. It has already brought together as participants more than 75 mid-term career practitioners from over 30 countries around the world (mainly from developing countries). These participants have been guided by 37 international experts acting as instructors and guest speakers who gracefully shared their time and knowledge throughout the courses.

The first two courses, in 2016 and 2017, were carried out in the context of the SPURS program with funds provided through MIT SUTD collaboration program. Gabriel Lanfranchi and David Gómez Álvarez wish to express their gratitude towards MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) for the support in hosting this kind of learning opportunities, as well as to other institutions that have shown support and interest in the initiative, such as CIPPEC, AySA, UN-Habitat, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.

In 2017, the course sessions consisted in two modules: ‘Bridging the metro gaps” and “Shaping the new metropolitan discipline”. The first module’s objective was to identify solutions that bridge metropolitan gaps, in order to address metropolitan challenges with different sectoral perspectives, while learning from comparative case analysis. The second module’s objective was to discuss the specificities of the metropolitan phenomenon and its structure, focusing on how a new curricula could be shaped in order to contribute to the development of a metropolitan community of practice worldwide. This document has been created by participants, and it summarizes the content of lectures and discussions. It also makes an effort to organize metropolitan theory and practice into “dimensions” that explore issues of environment, society, wealth, governance and culture at a metropolitan scale. As such, the document does not express the opinions of MIT or any other partner institution, nor it constitutes a reflection of the experts themselves, but rather the result of collaborative interpretation of the participants. One of the challenges of the course is that most participants were not native English speakers. Even if language proficiency might have been a barrier for some, we want to acknowledge the willingness to participate of each and everyone, and we hope the reader of this document takes this element into account.

Contemporary urban planning and city managers face challenges that require much more than technical problem-solving skills. In academia, we can learn the best practices to improve transportation, to reduce CO2 emissions, and to design more resilient and even smarter cities. Nevertheless, we don’t know much about how to adjust and implement those practices in the wide variety of legal-institutional contexts those large-scale cities present.

Issues related to equity in access to public goods and services, efficiency of infrastructure, adaptation to climate change, active involvement of the citizenry, and unequal power of social actors are jeopardizing the government of metropolitan areas. How are we going to face these challenges? Is it feasible to replicate the lessons learned from others? Which methods are best to make use of what we have learned in different metropolitan contexts?

Universities can play a vital role in new processes of metropolitan planning—not as entities that bring answers to stakeholders, but as facilitators of joint inquiry. This departs from the traditional role of universities as expert consultants. Metro Lab Initiative envisions the university as an equal partner with a community (or a group of communities), sharing ideas, asking questions, and jointly coming to conclusions. Those who work at Metro Lab Initiative know that there is much work to be done and, at the same time, we are proud of these courses and knowledge-exchange opportunities we are committed to sustaining. A third MetroLab Initiative session will take place in 2018 at the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, and we expect results to continue enriching metropolitan theory and practice. As always, we welcome interested experts and new practitioners to contact us and join us.