Assignment 1. Using divergent thinking, list as many constraints behind the trade-off as you can (no criticism; both pragmatic and wild ideas are welcome). Optional: to help expand the scope of your search, apply either the Three Magicians or the STM operator (Scalable Innovation, Part II, Chapters 6, 9-10).
Assignment 2. In his book "Triumph of the City", Edward Glaeser, professor of economics at Harvard University, writes,
One of the bedrock principles of economics is that free lunches are rare and markets require trade-offs. [...] suburbanites can get a bigger lot at the cost of a longer commute. In comparing metropolitan areas, there is a three-way trade-off among wages, prices, and quality of life.Question: Can you come up with an example of an existing or future solution that breaks at least one of these trade-offs?
3 comments:
Three-way trade-off; wages, prices, quality of life. Traditionally proximity to the workplace and wages was a major factor in neighborhood pricing. At-distance workforces can break this three way trade-off, allowing quality of life to be defined more broadly. As such, supply and demand will more greatly influence housing prices.
Trade Offs in real estate
Quality v/s Price
Location v/s Price
Facilities v/s Price
Value Appreciation (due to other upcoming projects like MNC offices etc) v/s Price
Locality v/s Price
I am taking Quality v/s Price trade off to break.
With latest technologies in construction, we have pre-fabricated structures, where different structures of the house like roof, wall, etc are manufactured off-site, transported to the site and assembled. This reduces the construction time considerably and brings down the cost. These structures are manufactured in bulk with high quality. Hence we are able to break the trade off between Quality and Price.
Another upcoming technology in construction is the 3D printing. The "ink" of this 3D printer is concrete mix .
The video in the link shows how its done.
http://mashable.com/2014/04/28/3d-printing-houses-china/
In addition to decreased construction time, this process also means that construction workers are less likely to be exposed to hazardous materials or work environments. Plus, it's eco-friendly.
This technology completely defies the trade off between Quality and Price when it comes to housing and real estate.
With large amount of chemicals used in agriculture, safe and healthy food is becoming a rarity. Also price of the essential groceries have gone up considerably. And if we go for organic groceries and food, they are even more expensive. The hazardous chemicals in food is causing various disease and hence the quality of life suffers.
To break this cycle and trade off between quality food and pricing, a new movement is catching on in cities like Bangalore. Its called Organic Terrace Gardening, that is every house grows their own veggies in a chemical free and organic way in their terraces & balconies.
This article gives more details: http://www.theyoungfarmer.com/terraceGardening.php?id=6
In fact this has become so successful that there are various business creating products and services for OTG farmers.
OTG related businesses include water dripping systems, Pots and Containers to grow veggies, etc.
There is a facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/OrganicTerraceGardening/) where all the "OTGians" interact with each other, share knowledge, seeds, saplings, veggies, etc.
So more and more home are becoming self sufficient when it comes to daily needs of veggies. Also they are extremely cost effective and completely safe and fresh.
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