From technopoles to science cities: Characteristics of a new phase of science cities

The science city may be seen as a distinct form of, or as a sub-class of, the technopole and is not a new idea: a particular group of science cities were discussed in the original Castells and Hall (1994) book. However, the concept of the science city has broadened over the last twenty years, and hence a reassessment is overdue. Technopoles of the World identified the science city as a planned city, built for the purpose of concentrating science investment. These rarefied developments did not receive a very positive evaluation at that time (see also Lambert, 2000), but somehow aspects of this concept managed to find a favourable hearing elsewhere. A related idea was the Japanese tech - nopolis programme (Tatsuno, 1986; Higashi, 1995) – science and technology developments integrated within existing cities – and this also has perhaps played a role in the evolution of the science city idea. Finally, some of the larger science parks have started to acquire something of an urban character and are stimulating a new round of very large-scale developments (Lin, 1997).