Location: International
Website: cityminded.org
Meeting of the Minds is a global knowledge sharing platform based in San Francisco, CA.
Since it was founded, Meeting of the Minds has been dedicated to a singular proposition: bring together a carefully chosen set of key urban sustainability and technology stakeholders and gather them around a common platform in ways that help build lasting alliances. We believe that such a platform is a vital ingredient for smart, sustainable and equitable urban (re)development strategies.
Meeting of the Minds focuses on the innovators and initiatives at the bleeding edge of urban sustainability and connected technology. Through our blog, magazine, webinars, monthly meetups, workshops, roundtables, and an annual summit held each fall, we invite international leaders from the public, private, non-profit, academic and philanthropic sectors to identify innovations that can be scaled, replicated and transferred from city-to-city and across sectors.
Among the thousands of international leaders who participate in the Meeting of the Minds network are innovators scaling-up practical urban solutions in infrastructure, policy, design, equity, technology, energy, mobility, water, finance, and more.
Now in its 10th year, our annual summit brings together 400+ opinion-shapers, policy-makers, leading thinkers and innovators from all over the world for 2+ days of intensive immersion in thought leadership and cross-sector development.
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Friday, June 26, 2015
Living Mobs
Location: Mexico City (DF)
Website: livingmobs.com
La Ciudad de México necesita tu ayuda en el Audi Urban Future Award 2014, una iniciativa global para pensar el siguiente salto en movilidad urbana. Con tu participación, arquitectura 911sc, IIMAS-UNAM y Laboratorio para la Ciudad, área experimental del GDF, buscan entender y mejorar como nos movemos.
El Sistema Operativo de la Ciudad es un nuevo contrato social por medio del cual un grupo de socios, plataformas tecnológicas y procesos generaran oportunidades para re-imaginar la movilidad de la Ciudad de Mexico.
Living Mobs es una encuesta interactiva que obtiene datos anónimos sobre movilidad de la ciudadanía. Donando datos, contribuirás a mejorar las políticas públicas, la movilidad y la calidad de vida de nuestra ciudad.
Mexico City (DF) needs your help in the Audi Urban Future Award 2014, a global initiative to take the next leap in urban mobility. With your participation, architecture 911sc, IIMAS-UNAM and laboratory for the city, experimental area of the GDF, seek to understand and improve as we grow.
The operating system of the city is a new social contract by means of which a group of partners, technology platforms and processes generate opportunities to re-imagine the mobility of Mexico City.
Living Mobs is an interactive survey that gets anonymous data on mobility of citizens. Donating data, contribute to improve policies, mobility and quality of life in our city.
Website: livingmobs.com
La Ciudad de México necesita tu ayuda en el Audi Urban Future Award 2014, una iniciativa global para pensar el siguiente salto en movilidad urbana. Con tu participación, arquitectura 911sc, IIMAS-UNAM y Laboratorio para la Ciudad, área experimental del GDF, buscan entender y mejorar como nos movemos.
El Sistema Operativo de la Ciudad es un nuevo contrato social por medio del cual un grupo de socios, plataformas tecnológicas y procesos generaran oportunidades para re-imaginar la movilidad de la Ciudad de Mexico.
Living Mobs es una encuesta interactiva que obtiene datos anónimos sobre movilidad de la ciudadanía. Donando datos, contribuirás a mejorar las políticas públicas, la movilidad y la calidad de vida de nuestra ciudad.
Mexico City (DF) needs your help in the Audi Urban Future Award 2014, a global initiative to take the next leap in urban mobility. With your participation, architecture 911sc, IIMAS-UNAM and laboratory for the city, experimental area of the GDF, seek to understand and improve as we grow.
The operating system of the city is a new social contract by means of which a group of partners, technology platforms and processes generate opportunities to re-imagine the mobility of Mexico City.
Living Mobs is an interactive survey that gets anonymous data on mobility of citizens. Donating data, contribute to improve policies, mobility and quality of life in our city.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Mi Ciudad Ideal
Location: Bogota, Columbia
Website: www.miciudadideal.com/en
Winka Dubbeldam (Archi-Tectonics) and Rodrigo Nino (Prodigy Network) have developed Downtown Bogotá // My Ideal City, an online platform for the citizens of Bogotá to influence their local city-planning proposals.
Recognizing that middle-class population growth across Latin America often outpaces the speed of urban development, My Ideal City responds to the demand for bottom-up planning measures. If successful, the online-platform could be implemented across the globe.
Website: www.miciudadideal.com/en
Winka Dubbeldam (Archi-Tectonics) and Rodrigo Nino (Prodigy Network) have developed Downtown Bogotá // My Ideal City, an online platform for the citizens of Bogotá to influence their local city-planning proposals.
Recognizing that middle-class population growth across Latin America often outpaces the speed of urban development, My Ideal City responds to the demand for bottom-up planning measures. If successful, the online-platform could be implemented across the globe.
CyArk
Location: International
Website: www.urbanretailinstitute.com
On October 20-22 at the Tower of London, CyArk will formally launch the CyArk 500 Challenge to digitally preserve 500 cultural heritage sites within the next five years. We are on a mission to save these cultural heritage sites digitally before more are ravaged by war, terrorism, arson, urban sprawl, climate change, earthquakes, floods, and other threats. There isn’t enough money or enough time to physically save every site, but we do have the 3D technology to digitally save these sites to make them available for generations to come.
The event will include an announcement of the site selection criteria, unveiling of the first sites to be included in the 500, and a call to action from CyArk Founder Ben Kacyra.
The launch will be followed by a two-day conference attended by cultural heritage, technology, and philanthropy leaders from around the world. The launch and conference will bring together some of the world’s best minds and organizations to share experiences and best methods for capturing, disseminating and archiving information about these sites. The aim is to increase awareness of the need for heritage documentation and preservation, create best practices within the field, embrace new technologies, and find creative ways to increase funding for these initiatives.
Website: www.urbanretailinstitute.com
On October 20-22 at the Tower of London, CyArk will formally launch the CyArk 500 Challenge to digitally preserve 500 cultural heritage sites within the next five years. We are on a mission to save these cultural heritage sites digitally before more are ravaged by war, terrorism, arson, urban sprawl, climate change, earthquakes, floods, and other threats. There isn’t enough money or enough time to physically save every site, but we do have the 3D technology to digitally save these sites to make them available for generations to come.
The event will include an announcement of the site selection criteria, unveiling of the first sites to be included in the 500, and a call to action from CyArk Founder Ben Kacyra.
The launch will be followed by a two-day conference attended by cultural heritage, technology, and philanthropy leaders from around the world. The launch and conference will bring together some of the world’s best minds and organizations to share experiences and best methods for capturing, disseminating and archiving information about these sites. The aim is to increase awareness of the need for heritage documentation and preservation, create best practices within the field, embrace new technologies, and find creative ways to increase funding for these initiatives.
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Eckocenter
Location: International
Website: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/a-pilot-the-first-ekocenter-in-action#TCCC
Today, more than 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and approximately 2.5 billion don’t have adequate sanitation, making billions of people around the world vulnerable to disease and other development challenges.
To help provide communities in need with access to safe drinking water and other basic necessities, The Coca-Cola Company, together with DEKA, and other critical partners including development banks, NGOs and companies, launched EKOCENTER™ - a downtown in a box - with the Slingshot™ water purification system housed within the community center. The EKOCENTER project aims to improve the holistic well-being of developing communities around the world, focusing on those within the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP), the largest, poorest socio-economic group. Globally, this represents nearly 4 billion people who live on less than US$2 per day.
Coca-Cola Company has been committed to making a positive, lasting difference in the local communities in which we operate. Through EKOCENTER, we are striving to continue this commitment. The project, which began as a pilot in South Africa in August 2013, will not only help deliver safe water and other necessities to some of the most remote and distressed areas of the world but also empower community members, especially women, through entrepreneurship and employment opportunities.
EKOCENTER is a modularly designed kiosk with Slingshot at its core, transformed from a 20-foot shipping container into a hub of community activity, offering clean, safe drinking water, alongside other services, such as access to wireless communication, electricity, vaccination storage, and more tailored to address community needs. EKOCENTER strives to help communities thrive— each and every community member—from the people using EKOCENTER to the local entrepreneur operating it.
By 2015, we will place between 1,500 and 2,000 units in the form of EKOCENTERs, “downtowns in a box,” or Slingshot water purification systems to deliver further services beyond clean water, in Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. Through this commitment, we aim to deliver 500 million liters of safe drinking water, while promoting greater local development in communities that need it most.
What is Slingshot technology? Each EKOCENTER is equipped with Slingshot technology. The Slingshot water purification system—developed in partnership with DEKA R&D—uses vapor compression distillation (VCD) technology to turn any source of dirty water—river water, ocean water and even raw sewage—into safe, clean drinking water. The technology, invented by inventor and DEKA R&D President Dean Kamen, delivers approximately 800 liters of clean water daily at the hourly electricity cost of less than a standard handheld hair dryer (1kWh).
In 2012, our Company announced a partnership with DEKA at the Clinton Global Initiative to deliver stand-alone Slingshot water purification systems to schools, community centers and health clinics in rural communities in countries throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America, and as an expansion of this partnership, Slingshot will be a key component of the EKOCENTER project.
In 2013, we are deploying units in Africa and Latin America. Building on current pilot work initiated in Paraguay, Mexico and South Africa by The Coca-Cola Company and DEKA, the project will expand in early 2014 to additional markets.
Community participation and support are essential to the success of EKOCENTER, which is why we envision EKOCENTER being operated by local female entrepreneurs, complementing our initiative, and with support from technology, development, and financial partners.
We recognize that partnership with other companies, NGOs and government partners is key to leverage collective thinking, experience, innovation, products and financial support to execute EKOCENTER in a thoughtful manner with long-term viability in mind. Working with business, government and civil society – what we call the “Golden Triangle” – is key to making a positive difference on global challenges.
With help from DEKA, we have developed a partnership to support the EKOCENTER project. Their expertise enables us to do far more than we could alone.
EKOCENTER represents an investment in the future prosperity and progress of some of the most fragile and at-risk communities we serve,” said Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company. “Through EKOCENTER we have the ability to change lives by offering access to safe drinking water and other needed resources, all while empowering local entrepreneurs. What started as an aspiration is now becoming a reality as we welcome our partners across the golden triangle of business, government and civil society to scale and improve this innovation.
Today, more than 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and approximately 2.5 billion don’t have adequate sanitation, making billions of people around the world vulnerable to disease and other development challenges.
To help provide communities in need with access to safe drinking water and other basic necessities, The Coca-Cola Company, together with DEKA, and other critical partners including development banks, NGOs and companies, launched EKOCENTER™ - a downtown in a box - with the Slingshot™ water purification system housed within the community center. The EKOCENTER project aims to improve the holistic well-being of developing communities around the world, focusing on those within the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP), the largest, poorest socio-economic group. Globally, this represents nearly 4 billion people who live on less than US$2 per day.
Coca-Cola Company has been committed to making a positive, lasting difference in the local communities in which we operate. Through EKOCENTER, we are striving to continue this commitment. The project, which began as a pilot in South Africa in August 2013, will not only help deliver safe water and other necessities to some of the most remote and distressed areas of the world but also empower community members, especially women, through entrepreneurship and employment opportunities.
EKOCENTER is a modularly designed kiosk with Slingshot at its core, transformed from a 20-foot shipping container into a hub of community activity, offering clean, safe drinking water, alongside other services, such as access to wireless communication, electricity, vaccination storage, and more tailored to address community needs. EKOCENTER strives to help communities thrive— each and every community member—from the people using EKOCENTER to the local entrepreneur operating it.
By 2015, we will place between 1,500 and 2,000 units in the form of EKOCENTERs, “downtowns in a box,” or Slingshot water purification systems to deliver further services beyond clean water, in Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. Through this commitment, we aim to deliver 500 million liters of safe drinking water, while promoting greater local development in communities that need it most.
What is Slingshot technology? Each EKOCENTER is equipped with Slingshot technology. The Slingshot water purification system—developed in partnership with DEKA R&D—uses vapor compression distillation (VCD) technology to turn any source of dirty water—river water, ocean water and even raw sewage—into safe, clean drinking water. The technology, invented by inventor and DEKA R&D President Dean Kamen, delivers approximately 800 liters of clean water daily at the hourly electricity cost of less than a standard handheld hair dryer (1kWh).
In 2012, our Company announced a partnership with DEKA at the Clinton Global Initiative to deliver stand-alone Slingshot water purification systems to schools, community centers and health clinics in rural communities in countries throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America, and as an expansion of this partnership, Slingshot will be a key component of the EKOCENTER project.
In 2013, we are deploying units in Africa and Latin America. Building on current pilot work initiated in Paraguay, Mexico and South Africa by The Coca-Cola Company and DEKA, the project will expand in early 2014 to additional markets.
Community participation and support are essential to the success of EKOCENTER, which is why we envision EKOCENTER being operated by local female entrepreneurs, complementing our initiative, and with support from technology, development, and financial partners.
We recognize that partnership with other companies, NGOs and government partners is key to leverage collective thinking, experience, innovation, products and financial support to execute EKOCENTER in a thoughtful manner with long-term viability in mind. Working with business, government and civil society – what we call the “Golden Triangle” – is key to making a positive difference on global challenges.
With help from DEKA, we have developed a partnership to support the EKOCENTER project. Their expertise enables us to do far more than we could alone.
EKOCENTER represents an investment in the future prosperity and progress of some of the most fragile and at-risk communities we serve,” said Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company. “Through EKOCENTER we have the ability to change lives by offering access to safe drinking water and other needed resources, all while empowering local entrepreneurs. What started as an aspiration is now becoming a reality as we welcome our partners across the golden triangle of business, government and civil society to scale and improve this innovation.
Located on the ground of Coca-Cola ’s Valpre natural spring water bottling plant, the EKOCENTER pilot elevates our Slingshot initiative by introducing a training facility for bottling partners, women and young entrepreneurs as we test this program for future expansion. The project supports our global commitment to replenish the water used in our beverages and their production, and to empower people and communities through employment.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Urban Institute
Location: Nationwide
Website: www.urban.org
The Urban Institute gathers data, conducts research, evaluates programs, offers technical assistance overseas, and educates Americans on social and economic issues — to foster sound public policy and effective government.
The Urban Institute builds knowledge about the nation’s social and fiscal challenges, practicing open-minded, evidence-based research to diagnose problems and figure out which policies and programs work best, for whom, and how.
- Explore the work of our ten targeted policy centers and discover the breadth of the Institute's impact.
- Review our research publications, most freely available to all,
In the mid-1960s, President Johnson saw the need for independent nonpartisan analysis of the problems facing America's cities and their residents. The President created a blue-ribbon commission of civic leaders who recommended chartering a center to do that work. In 1968, the Urban Institute became that center.
Our Commitments:
- Use rigorous, state-of-the-art methods to analyze public policies and programs,
- Bring sound objective evidence to public policy decisions.
- Deepen public understanding of policy issues,
- Save government and communities time and money through research on effective and efficient programs,
- Work to make our Washington, D.C., metropolitan area a stronger community.
Website: www.urban.org
The Urban Institute gathers data, conducts research, evaluates programs, offers technical assistance overseas, and educates Americans on social and economic issues — to foster sound public policy and effective government.
The Urban Institute builds knowledge about the nation’s social and fiscal challenges, practicing open-minded, evidence-based research to diagnose problems and figure out which policies and programs work best, for whom, and how.
- Explore the work of our ten targeted policy centers and discover the breadth of the Institute's impact.
- Review our research publications, most freely available to all,
In the mid-1960s, President Johnson saw the need for independent nonpartisan analysis of the problems facing America's cities and their residents. The President created a blue-ribbon commission of civic leaders who recommended chartering a center to do that work. In 1968, the Urban Institute became that center.
Our Commitments:
- Use rigorous, state-of-the-art methods to analyze public policies and programs,
- Deepen public understanding of policy issues,
- Save government and communities time and money through research on effective and efficient programs,
- Work to make our Washington, D.C., metropolitan area a stronger community.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
National Day of Civic Hacking
Location: Nationwide
Website: www.urbanretailinstitute.com
National Day of Civic Hacking is a national event that will take place June 1-2, 2013, in cities across the nation. The event will bring together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs from all over the nation to collaboratively create, build, and invent new solutions using publicly-released data, code and technology to solve challenges relevant to our neighborhoods, our cities, our states and our country. National Day of Civic Hacking will provide citizens an opportunity to do what is most quintessentially American: roll up our sleeves, get involved and work together to improve our society.
The event will leverage the expertise and entrepreneurial spirit of those outside federal, state and local government to drive meaningful, technology-based solutions for federal, state and local government. It demonstrates what's possible when we all work together to strengthen our society and our lives. YOU can make a difference no matter where you live.
You should participate in National Day of Civic Hacking because the toughest challenges are not one community’s alone to solve. This is a unique opportunity to:
- get involved, connect with others like yourself,
- develop technology that will make the world a better place,
- demonstrate a commitment to the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration.
- exercise a government’s interest in using open data and technology, in partnership with others, to address your local community’s felt needs,
- liberate open data that can inform better problem solving in every community,
- continue to collectively map a national innovation ecosystem and create new access points to that system,
- engage citizens in cities with little technology infrastructure to contribute to changing their community through open source, open data, entrepreneurship and code development,
- promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education by encouraging students to utilize open technology for solutions to real challenges, and
- encourage large scale partnership and mutual understanding.
National Day of Civic Hacking will not be the same type of event in each city. Depending on the local needs of your community, it might be a block party brigade meetup - or something else entirely.
Our vision is for the National Day of Civic Hacking to take place in at least one city in all 50 states and territories. If you do not see your city on the list and are interested in planning or supporting an event, get involved today!
There are many ways you can get involved in National Day of Civic Hacking. Our success will lie in government agencies, companies, organizations, universities and citizens working together to make a difference.
Plan an event today and bring the National Day of Civic Hacking to your town!
Your first decision will be to determine which type of event you want to host.
Are you interested in helping to host, fund or support an event in your community? This is truly a community effort and we need your help! Contact us for more information on how to get involved. Contribute data, code, or a challenge idea.
Do you have data, APIs, code, or other resources that could help inform solutions? Do you have an idea for a challenge to be addressed?
There are many ways in which you or your organization can support National Day of Civic Hacking. If you are interested in supporting National Day of Civic Hacking at a National Level, contact us. If you are interested in sponsoring exclusively at your local event, check the events page and reach out to an organizer near you.
Website: www.urbanretailinstitute.com
National Day of Civic Hacking is a national event that will take place June 1-2, 2013, in cities across the nation. The event will bring together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs from all over the nation to collaboratively create, build, and invent new solutions using publicly-released data, code and technology to solve challenges relevant to our neighborhoods, our cities, our states and our country. National Day of Civic Hacking will provide citizens an opportunity to do what is most quintessentially American: roll up our sleeves, get involved and work together to improve our society.
The event will leverage the expertise and entrepreneurial spirit of those outside federal, state and local government to drive meaningful, technology-based solutions for federal, state and local government. It demonstrates what's possible when we all work together to strengthen our society and our lives. YOU can make a difference no matter where you live.
You should participate in National Day of Civic Hacking because the toughest challenges are not one community’s alone to solve. This is a unique opportunity to:
- get involved, connect with others like yourself,
- develop technology that will make the world a better place,
- demonstrate a commitment to the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration.
- exercise a government’s interest in using open data and technology, in partnership with others, to address your local community’s felt needs,
- liberate open data that can inform better problem solving in every community,
- continue to collectively map a national innovation ecosystem and create new access points to that system,
- engage citizens in cities with little technology infrastructure to contribute to changing their community through open source, open data, entrepreneurship and code development,
- promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education by encouraging students to utilize open technology for solutions to real challenges, and
- encourage large scale partnership and mutual understanding.
National Day of Civic Hacking will not be the same type of event in each city. Depending on the local needs of your community, it might be a block party brigade meetup - or something else entirely.
Our vision is for the National Day of Civic Hacking to take place in at least one city in all 50 states and territories. If you do not see your city on the list and are interested in planning or supporting an event, get involved today!
There are many ways you can get involved in National Day of Civic Hacking. Our success will lie in government agencies, companies, organizations, universities and citizens working together to make a difference.
Plan an event today and bring the National Day of Civic Hacking to your town!
Your first decision will be to determine which type of event you want to host.
Are you interested in helping to host, fund or support an event in your community? This is truly a community effort and we need your help! Contact us for more information on how to get involved. Contribute data, code, or a challenge idea.
Do you have data, APIs, code, or other resources that could help inform solutions? Do you have an idea for a challenge to be addressed?
There are many ways in which you or your organization can support National Day of Civic Hacking. If you are interested in supporting National Day of Civic Hacking at a National Level, contact us. If you are interested in sponsoring exclusively at your local event, check the events page and reach out to an organizer near you.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Urban Age Institute
Location:Nationwide
Website: www.urbanretailinstitute.com
Since it was founded in 1999, Urban Age Institute (UAI) has been dedicated to a singular proposition: bring together a carefully chosen set of key urban sustainability and technology stakeholders and gather them around a common platform in ways that help build lasting alliances.
UAI believes that such a platform is a vital ingredient for smart, sustainable and equitable urban (re)development strategies.
Urban Age Magazine was founded inside the World Bank in 1991, and spun off in 1999 as an independent non-profit organization. UAI’s glossy print magazine, published in five languages, was focused on the many dimensions of city-scale innovation: economics, politics, governance, and culture.
It’s notable that all of this was being published well before ‘smart cities’ and ‘sustainable development’ became part of the metropolitan lexicon.
UAI launched Meeting of the Minds in 2007 to extend the Institute’s mission, to connect disparate leaders from different worlds, to spotlight innovators working in near-isolation.
In 2012, Meeting of the Minds took it to the next level by launching its blog at CityMinded.org. A new communications strategy quickly took shape, with monthly webinars; the Meeting of the Minds Magazine; monthly meet-ups; and other direct outreach activities.
Each activity aims to leverage the thought leadership that crystallizes during each Meeting — and that open conversation continues during the months that follow.
Website: www.urbanretailinstitute.com
Since it was founded in 1999, Urban Age Institute (UAI) has been dedicated to a singular proposition: bring together a carefully chosen set of key urban sustainability and technology stakeholders and gather them around a common platform in ways that help build lasting alliances.
UAI believes that such a platform is a vital ingredient for smart, sustainable and equitable urban (re)development strategies.
Urban Age Magazine was founded inside the World Bank in 1991, and spun off in 1999 as an independent non-profit organization. UAI’s glossy print magazine, published in five languages, was focused on the many dimensions of city-scale innovation: economics, politics, governance, and culture.
It’s notable that all of this was being published well before ‘smart cities’ and ‘sustainable development’ became part of the metropolitan lexicon.
UAI launched Meeting of the Minds in 2007 to extend the Institute’s mission, to connect disparate leaders from different worlds, to spotlight innovators working in near-isolation.
In 2012, Meeting of the Minds took it to the next level by launching its blog at CityMinded.org. A new communications strategy quickly took shape, with monthly webinars; the Meeting of the Minds Magazine; monthly meet-ups; and other direct outreach activities.
Each activity aims to leverage the thought leadership that crystallizes during each Meeting — and that open conversation continues during the months that follow.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Living Lab Global Awards
Location: International
Website: www.llga.org
LLGA was created in 2009 as an annual program that in past editions has brought together 42 global cities and 1,519 providers leading to more than 30 pilots, reaching 285 million citizens world wide through better investment decisions.
In the past three years, 38 global cities have awarded the technologies, services and products that best meet their strategic challenges through the Living Labs Global Award (LLGA2013). In this process, 1,117 solutions were evaluated by 248 jurors supporting the partner cities in shortlisting and selecting the winners. Our selection process involves dialogues with 350 global cities to identify the most committed cities to partner with LLGA2013.
Only solutions that already exist (including prototypes, pilots, pre-commercial solutions—i.e. those that are ready for pilot deployment within 6 months) are accepted.
Who can participate? Companies (large and small), entrepreneurs, innovators, groups, consortia, research centres, non-profit organizations.
Applications can only be submitted by completing a Showcase on Citymart.com. Submission deadline is 6 February 2013.
Submitted Citymart.com Showcases will be made public immediately unless you choose to wait and not go public until the submissions deadline on 6 February 2013 (23:59 UTC). Your Showcase should not include any confidential information.
If you are nominated to participate in Round 2 and you accept, you will be asked to submit a Questionnaire and Video for further evaluation of your solution. The Questionnaire will remain confidential permanently and the Video will be kept confidential among the Jury members until the winning solutions are announced at the Cities Dialogue Ceremony in San Francisco. During Round 2, members of the Jury team may contact you via a Citymart.com Conversation if they have any further questions.
Nominated solutions commit to implementing a pilot of limited scale and duration. Cities commit to provide full institutional support but are not bound to commit funding for pilots. You should not assume any financial support by the partner city for carrying out the pilot.
If you accept your nomination by a partner city, you are expected to attend the LLGA | Cities Summit on Service Innovation in Cities in May 2013.
There is no charge for solution providers to submit to LLGA2013 or to attend the LLGA | Cities Summit on Service Innovation in Cities; however, travel expenses must be covered by solution providers.
Website: www.llga.org
LLGA was created in 2009 as an annual program that in past editions has brought together 42 global cities and 1,519 providers leading to more than 30 pilots, reaching 285 million citizens world wide through better investment decisions.
In the past three years, 38 global cities have awarded the technologies, services and products that best meet their strategic challenges through the Living Labs Global Award (LLGA2013). In this process, 1,117 solutions were evaluated by 248 jurors supporting the partner cities in shortlisting and selecting the winners. Our selection process involves dialogues with 350 global cities to identify the most committed cities to partner with LLGA2013.
Only solutions that already exist (including prototypes, pilots, pre-commercial solutions—i.e. those that are ready for pilot deployment within 6 months) are accepted.
Who can participate? Companies (large and small), entrepreneurs, innovators, groups, consortia, research centres, non-profit organizations.
Applications can only be submitted by completing a Showcase on Citymart.com. Submission deadline is 6 February 2013.
Submitted Citymart.com Showcases will be made public immediately unless you choose to wait and not go public until the submissions deadline on 6 February 2013 (23:59 UTC). Your Showcase should not include any confidential information.
If you are nominated to participate in Round 2 and you accept, you will be asked to submit a Questionnaire and Video for further evaluation of your solution. The Questionnaire will remain confidential permanently and the Video will be kept confidential among the Jury members until the winning solutions are announced at the Cities Dialogue Ceremony in San Francisco. During Round 2, members of the Jury team may contact you via a Citymart.com Conversation if they have any further questions.
Nominated solutions commit to implementing a pilot of limited scale and duration. Cities commit to provide full institutional support but are not bound to commit funding for pilots. You should not assume any financial support by the partner city for carrying out the pilot.
If you accept your nomination by a partner city, you are expected to attend the LLGA | Cities Summit on Service Innovation in Cities in May 2013.
There is no charge for solution providers to submit to LLGA2013 or to attend the LLGA | Cities Summit on Service Innovation in Cities; however, travel expenses must be covered by solution providers.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Festival of Ideas for the New City
Location: New York, NY
Website: www.urbanomnibus.net/2011/03/save-the-dates-festival-of-ideas-for-the-new-city/
What makes the city worth living in? How can we encourage and preserve the positive qualities of the city? How can technology be used to improve city life? Are there places or elements of the city that can be repurposed and re-imagined to serve new needs and populations?
When we talk about sustainability, what do we mean? And, what can each of us do to contribute to a healthy, diverse, equitable, tolerant, innovative and fun place to live? Above all, how are the creative arts crucial to the above and how can they move conversation forward?
These questions are at the heart of the Festival of Ideas for the New City, a brand new initiative focusing on culture, community, education, and participation. The festival will transform downtown Manhattan into a dynamic laboratory for creative thinking and action, bringing together scores of participants and public events, working together to affect change.
The Festival will harness the power of the creative community to imagine the future and explore the ideas destined to shape it. It will take place from May 4-8, 2011, in locations around Downtown Manhattan in an area spanning East to West including the Lower East Side, the East Village, Soho, Nolita, and Chinatown — and will serve as a platform for artists, writers, architects, engineers, designers, urban farmers, planners, and thought leaders in various disciplines to exchange ideas, propose solutions, and invite the public to participate.
The Festival of Ideas for the New City is organized around three central programs:
A three-day slate of symposia, lectures, and workshops with visionaries and leaders — including exemplary mayors from a variety of countries, forecasters, architects, artists, economists, and technology experts — who will address the four broad Festival themes: The Heterogeneous City; The Networked City; The Reconfigured City; and The Sustainable City. Wednesday-Saturday, May 4-7 at The Cooper Union, New York University, and the New Museum.
An innovative, minimal-waste, outdoor StreetFest will take place along the Bowery. More than seventy-five local grassroots organizations, small businesses, and non-profits will present model products and practices in a unique outdoor environment.
The Festival will premiere a new environmentally inspired tent module commissioned for the Festival, as well as outdoor living rooms and inflatable structures. Visitors can expect cooking demonstrations with urban farmers, rooftop gardening classes, oral history projects, bike tours and valets, and a variety of affordable and healthy, locally grown, sustainable food options. Saturday, May 7, 11 a.m-7 p.m.
Over eighty independent projects, exhibitions, and performances, which expand on the Festival’s themes, will open at multiple Festival Partner venues Downtown, activating a broad geographic area, and includes a solar powered mobile art studio; artist-commissioned roll-down, metal storefront gates; projections of poems in endangered languages on Lower East Side buildings; a prototype of an urban campground; a marathon event where architects will present their ideas about reconfiguring public space in a rapid fire format; an exhibit exploring the political, economic and social relevance of preservation and its role in architectural thinking; and a wide range of other activities exploring ideas for the future. Saturday evening, May 7, and Sunday, May 8.
The Festival was initially conceived by the New Museum over three years ago as an outgrowth of its ongoing commitment to public education and civic outreach. The eleven Organizing Partners include The Architectural League; Bowery Poetry Club; C-Lab/Columbia University; Center for Architecture; The Cooper Union; The Drawing Center; New Museum (Founding Partner); New York University/Wagner School Public Policy; PARC Foundation; Storefront for Art and Architecture; and Swiss Institute. Together, we reached out to hundreds of other groups and organizations to participate in the Festival. The Organizing Partners of the Festival are unified in their belief in the power of collaboration to make a difference and influence public awareness; together they advocate the central importance of creative capital to the quality of life in New York and any future city.
Website: www.urbanomnibus.net/2011/03/save-the-dates-festival-of-ideas-for-the-new-city/
What makes the city worth living in? How can we encourage and preserve the positive qualities of the city? How can technology be used to improve city life? Are there places or elements of the city that can be repurposed and re-imagined to serve new needs and populations?
When we talk about sustainability, what do we mean? And, what can each of us do to contribute to a healthy, diverse, equitable, tolerant, innovative and fun place to live? Above all, how are the creative arts crucial to the above and how can they move conversation forward?
These questions are at the heart of the Festival of Ideas for the New City, a brand new initiative focusing on culture, community, education, and participation. The festival will transform downtown Manhattan into a dynamic laboratory for creative thinking and action, bringing together scores of participants and public events, working together to affect change.
The Festival will harness the power of the creative community to imagine the future and explore the ideas destined to shape it. It will take place from May 4-8, 2011, in locations around Downtown Manhattan in an area spanning East to West including the Lower East Side, the East Village, Soho, Nolita, and Chinatown — and will serve as a platform for artists, writers, architects, engineers, designers, urban farmers, planners, and thought leaders in various disciplines to exchange ideas, propose solutions, and invite the public to participate.
The Festival of Ideas for the New City is organized around three central programs:
A three-day slate of symposia, lectures, and workshops with visionaries and leaders — including exemplary mayors from a variety of countries, forecasters, architects, artists, economists, and technology experts — who will address the four broad Festival themes: The Heterogeneous City; The Networked City; The Reconfigured City; and The Sustainable City. Wednesday-Saturday, May 4-7 at The Cooper Union, New York University, and the New Museum.
An innovative, minimal-waste, outdoor StreetFest will take place along the Bowery. More than seventy-five local grassroots organizations, small businesses, and non-profits will present model products and practices in a unique outdoor environment.
The Festival will premiere a new environmentally inspired tent module commissioned for the Festival, as well as outdoor living rooms and inflatable structures. Visitors can expect cooking demonstrations with urban farmers, rooftop gardening classes, oral history projects, bike tours and valets, and a variety of affordable and healthy, locally grown, sustainable food options. Saturday, May 7, 11 a.m-7 p.m.
Over eighty independent projects, exhibitions, and performances, which expand on the Festival’s themes, will open at multiple Festival Partner venues Downtown, activating a broad geographic area, and includes a solar powered mobile art studio; artist-commissioned roll-down, metal storefront gates; projections of poems in endangered languages on Lower East Side buildings; a prototype of an urban campground; a marathon event where architects will present their ideas about reconfiguring public space in a rapid fire format; an exhibit exploring the political, economic and social relevance of preservation and its role in architectural thinking; and a wide range of other activities exploring ideas for the future. Saturday evening, May 7, and Sunday, May 8.
The Festival was initially conceived by the New Museum over three years ago as an outgrowth of its ongoing commitment to public education and civic outreach. The eleven Organizing Partners include The Architectural League; Bowery Poetry Club; C-Lab/Columbia University; Center for Architecture; The Cooper Union; The Drawing Center; New Museum (Founding Partner); New York University/Wagner School Public Policy; PARC Foundation; Storefront for Art and Architecture; and Swiss Institute. Together, we reached out to hundreds of other groups and organizations to participate in the Festival. The Organizing Partners of the Festival are unified in their belief in the power of collaboration to make a difference and influence public awareness; together they advocate the central importance of creative capital to the quality of life in New York and any future city.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Intelligent Cities
Location: Nationwide
Website:
www.nbm.org/intelligentcities/
What makes a city Intelligent? You Do.
For as long as we have lived in cities we have reflected on their form, feel, and function. From the launch of the first hot air balloon to the creation of geospatial information software, we have developed technologies that enable us to assess what we have done, what we are doing, and what we wish to do.
Today, the scale and complexity of neighborhoods, towns, and cities are unprecedented, and so are our tools for understanding them. Intelligent Cities, an initiative of the National Building Museum, supported by its partners TIME and IBM and funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, explores the intersection of information technology and urban design to understand where we are, where we want to be, and how to get there.
With contributions from experts in research, design, and technology, the Intelligent Cities book offers an interdisciplinary look at the complex relationship between city form and technology. This wide-ranging and readable book summarizes the National Building Museum’s year-long Intelligent Cities initiative, which was an exploration of how data and information technology impact the way cities look, feel, and function.
Award-winning, original infographics commissioned by the museum and thought-provoking essays enrich the discussion of new—and not so new—issues of technology and urban form. Intelligent Cities looks at the most ubiquitous of today’s technologies, such as the telephone and the computer, and offers new insight into their impacts on human settlement and society.
Reach out and call someone!
Researchers at MIT Senseable City Lab, AT&T Labs-Research and IBM Research have analyzed billions of anonymous connections from AT&T cell phone networks across the country—where people were calling from.
How did you choose your home?
Information surrounds us. With satellite global positioning technology we can see hot roofs, storm water run-off and where traffic is crawling. But there’s more. There’s a relationship between the health of our waterways and how we travel to work. There’s a connection between the size of our homes and how much energy we use. Intelligent Cities aims to reveal these connections, to make them visible and actionable...because informed people make better decisions.
What do you like best about your neighborhood?
Walking and biking to elementary school used to be common. Now, they're rare. What happened? We started building fewer, bigger schools between neighborhoods. We built new wide roads to reduce congestion on the way to school. We thought schools would be safer away from Main Street, with its sidewalks of commerce and distractions. We can see the consequences now, making connections between those decisions and rising health problems. With better information, can we make our neighborhoods intelligent? We can.
What connects you to your community?
People love to be with people. Fifty years ago people met at the corner diner, local church, or at a neighborhood block party. We still create networks at social clubs, places of worship, and neighborhood potlucks but we have now added virtual communities to that list as over 500 million people are on Facebook.
Even as electronic forums gain popularity, real places to gather remain important. How can we begin to visualize and cultivate these networks to make better cities? Connections define community: our physical and virtual networks connect us to each other and the places where we live.
What makes a city a city?
According to AAA, Americans spend on average $8,485 each year on their cars. Seems like a lot of money, doesn't it? And most of that money leaves your local economy. What if you were able to get rid of a car and spend-or invest-that money in your community and city?
Where does your water go?
Where does all the water go when it rains? Simple question, complex answer. We spend billions of dollars to construct ever larger sewer systems. And in a time of increasing droughts across the U.S. we flush more of our stormwater straight out into the ocean instead of capturing it. It turns out that how and where we build plays a key role.
INTELLIGENT CITIES IS A NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM PROJECT
Website:
www.nbm.org/intelligentcities/
What makes a city Intelligent? You Do.
For as long as we have lived in cities we have reflected on their form, feel, and function. From the launch of the first hot air balloon to the creation of geospatial information software, we have developed technologies that enable us to assess what we have done, what we are doing, and what we wish to do.
Today, the scale and complexity of neighborhoods, towns, and cities are unprecedented, and so are our tools for understanding them. Intelligent Cities, an initiative of the National Building Museum, supported by its partners TIME and IBM and funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, explores the intersection of information technology and urban design to understand where we are, where we want to be, and how to get there.
With contributions from experts in research, design, and technology, the Intelligent Cities book offers an interdisciplinary look at the complex relationship between city form and technology. This wide-ranging and readable book summarizes the National Building Museum’s year-long Intelligent Cities initiative, which was an exploration of how data and information technology impact the way cities look, feel, and function.
Award-winning, original infographics commissioned by the museum and thought-provoking essays enrich the discussion of new—and not so new—issues of technology and urban form. Intelligent Cities looks at the most ubiquitous of today’s technologies, such as the telephone and the computer, and offers new insight into their impacts on human settlement and society.
Reach out and call someone!
Researchers at MIT Senseable City Lab, AT&T Labs-Research and IBM Research have analyzed billions of anonymous connections from AT&T cell phone networks across the country—where people were calling from.
How did you choose your home?
Information surrounds us. With satellite global positioning technology we can see hot roofs, storm water run-off and where traffic is crawling. But there’s more. There’s a relationship between the health of our waterways and how we travel to work. There’s a connection between the size of our homes and how much energy we use. Intelligent Cities aims to reveal these connections, to make them visible and actionable...because informed people make better decisions.
What do you like best about your neighborhood?
Walking and biking to elementary school used to be common. Now, they're rare. What happened? We started building fewer, bigger schools between neighborhoods. We built new wide roads to reduce congestion on the way to school. We thought schools would be safer away from Main Street, with its sidewalks of commerce and distractions. We can see the consequences now, making connections between those decisions and rising health problems. With better information, can we make our neighborhoods intelligent? We can.
What connects you to your community?
People love to be with people. Fifty years ago people met at the corner diner, local church, or at a neighborhood block party. We still create networks at social clubs, places of worship, and neighborhood potlucks but we have now added virtual communities to that list as over 500 million people are on Facebook.
Even as electronic forums gain popularity, real places to gather remain important. How can we begin to visualize and cultivate these networks to make better cities? Connections define community: our physical and virtual networks connect us to each other and the places where we live.
What makes a city a city?
According to AAA, Americans spend on average $8,485 each year on their cars. Seems like a lot of money, doesn't it? And most of that money leaves your local economy. What if you were able to get rid of a car and spend-or invest-that money in your community and city?
Where does your water go?
Where does all the water go when it rains? Simple question, complex answer. We spend billions of dollars to construct ever larger sewer systems. And in a time of increasing droughts across the U.S. we flush more of our stormwater straight out into the ocean instead of capturing it. It turns out that how and where we build plays a key role.
INTELLIGENT CITIES IS A NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM PROJECT
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Sunlight Foundation
Location: Washington, DC
Website:href="http:/www.sunlightfoundation.com">www.sunlightfoundation.com
The Sunlight Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that uses the power of the Internet to catalyze greater government openness and transparency, and provides new tools and resources for media and citizens, alike.
We are committed to improving access to government information by making it available online, indeed redefining “public” information as meaning “online,” and by creating new tools and websites to enable individuals and communities to better access that information and put it to use.
We want to catalyze greater government transparency by engaging individual citizens and communities -- technologists, policy wonks, open government advocates and ordinary citizens –- demanding policies that will enable all of us to hold government accountable.
Sunlight develops and encourages new government policies to make it more open and transparent, facilitates searchable, sortable and machine readable databases, builds tools and websites to enable easy access to information, fosters distributed research projects as a community building tool, engages in advocacy for 21st century laws to require that government make data available in real time and trains thousands of journalists and citizens in using data and the web to watchdog Washington.
Major elements of our work include the Sunlight Labs, Sunlight Reporting Group, Sunlight Live and the Open House Project.
The Sunlight Foundation uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and open.
Website:href="http:/www.sunlightfoundation.com">www.sunlightfoundation.com
The Sunlight Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that uses the power of the Internet to catalyze greater government openness and transparency, and provides new tools and resources for media and citizens, alike.
We are committed to improving access to government information by making it available online, indeed redefining “public” information as meaning “online,” and by creating new tools and websites to enable individuals and communities to better access that information and put it to use.
We want to catalyze greater government transparency by engaging individual citizens and communities -- technologists, policy wonks, open government advocates and ordinary citizens –- demanding policies that will enable all of us to hold government accountable.
Sunlight develops and encourages new government policies to make it more open and transparent, facilitates searchable, sortable and machine readable databases, builds tools and websites to enable easy access to information, fosters distributed research projects as a community building tool, engages in advocacy for 21st century laws to require that government make data available in real time and trains thousands of journalists and citizens in using data and the web to watchdog Washington.
Major elements of our work include the Sunlight Labs, Sunlight Reporting Group, Sunlight Live and the Open House Project.
The Sunlight Foundation uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and open.
Friday, February 22, 2013
OpenPlans
Location: Nationwide
Website: www.openplans.org
We help cities work better.
OpenPlans builds open source civic infrastructure. We collaborate with the public sector to create technology for more efficient, responsive, and inclusive government. Our tools address difficult transportation and planning problems — from multi-modal trip planning to public input on infrastructure projects.
Want to work with us?
Developers, city agencies, transportation officials, let’s work together to help your city work better.
Website: www.openplans.org
We help cities work better.
OpenPlans builds open source civic infrastructure. We collaborate with the public sector to create technology for more efficient, responsive, and inclusive government. Our tools address difficult transportation and planning problems — from multi-modal trip planning to public input on infrastructure projects.
Want to work with us?
Developers, city agencies, transportation officials, let’s work together to help your city work better.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
MIT Center for Advanced Urbanism
Location: International
Website: www.cau.mit.edu
The MIT Center for Advanced Urbanism’s objective is to become the world’s pre-eminent cultural center about the design of metropolitan environments, by articulating methods and projects to integrate separate disciplinary agendas in architecture, landscape, ecology, transportation engineering, politics and political philosophy, technology and real estate through a most eloquent design culture on scales ranging from the complex infrastructural intersection, to that of a neighborhood, on to the scale of an entire regional system.
Urban environments are being planned, designed, constructed, and retrofitted at an unprecedented pace and scale, which often precludes a rational, thoughtful process.
Global economic forces have eclipsed standard paradigms of post-World War II urban expansion and ideas of incremental urban development. New megacities are being built all over the world in record time and often without standard protocols or procedures of the established design and urban planning professions.
c Pressing cultural and environmental concerns are demanding new levels of accountability as we measure ecological performance, energy use, mobility and density relationships, and the deployment of dwindling resources.
These and other factors challenge the intelligence and efficacy of new urbanization forms and existing conventions and typologies for development. We have entered into a new era or urban growth whereby the rules have changed and paradigms of urbanism desperately need recalibration to meet today’s global challenges.
The MIT Center for Advanced Urbanism’s mission comes from four working principles:
- Challenge pre-conceived professional roles and find solutions to real world problems.
- Embrace large-scale design and planning.
- Embrace technology in the design and planning of city form and function.
- Commitment to deliver real world projects and clear paths to solve pressing urban design, architectural, and environmental problems.
MIT’s Center for Advanced Urbanism is framed by six over branching areas of research:
- Territorial Design
We have entered an era of a new scale of design. Whether it is the immensely large-scale development projects underway in areas such as the Gulf and China, or the reconstruction and retrofitting of nation’s existing infrastructure. This presents a disciplinary challenge for designers, as existing techniques are not necessarily suitable or scalable.
The formal and figurative features that we can logically conceive and think of the very large scale need to be reimagined. Research must urgently address and develop new elements that are critical in the instrumentarium of the large-scale designer.
- Changing Systems
As our environment undergoes changes, our cities and their corresponding systems will need to adapt. Urbanism for a changing climate is first and foremost a question of rigorous systems analysis.
In part this is achievable through the integration of so far disconnected disciplines. In so doing, new opportunities arise for analysis such as through connecting datasets that have remained compartmentalized within each specialization.
- Durable Suburbia
The trend we need to expect, hope for, and actively plan for in future urban change of western cities, concerns the gradual densification of our suburbs. Our suburbs are becoming more intensely developed, putting pressure on the existing infrastructures, and as they age, they become progressively dense and more mixed in terms of class, culture and program.
This suburban transformation poses considerable challenges to the existing infrastructure and current mobility systems, and requires a re-think of domestic as well as retail culture in the suburban sphere.
- Resilient Infrastructures
Designing infrastructure for one single purpose is a strategic mistake; instead, such large investments, which are to service society for generations, can be made to serve a variety of different agendas - including not only transportation, but also real estate, ecological diversity, and public space, among others.
Furthermore, a sound infrastructural design permits utility in a variety of completely different circumstances. This is not a call to make infrastructural investments more complex and expensive; but to make them more intelligent and open-ended.
- Technological Urbanism
The steam engine, the car, the elevator, and the AC unit have in common that each contributed to a dramatic transformation in the form and configuration of cities.
We must look to new emergent technologies and their potential impact on the design, planning, and construction of our cities. We must examine the next generation of disruptive technologies and the influence they will have on the spatial order of cities.
- Ideal Cities
Ideal cities have, throughout history, provided templates, forms, and figures of our collective imagination, through which we conceive of, plan, and direct ourselves towards our common future.
It is important that this discursive tradition remain active and that we continue to formulate ideals, hopes, and especially, the forms that correspond to them.
Website: www.cau.mit.edu
The MIT Center for Advanced Urbanism’s objective is to become the world’s pre-eminent cultural center about the design of metropolitan environments, by articulating methods and projects to integrate separate disciplinary agendas in architecture, landscape, ecology, transportation engineering, politics and political philosophy, technology and real estate through a most eloquent design culture on scales ranging from the complex infrastructural intersection, to that of a neighborhood, on to the scale of an entire regional system.
Urban environments are being planned, designed, constructed, and retrofitted at an unprecedented pace and scale, which often precludes a rational, thoughtful process.
Global economic forces have eclipsed standard paradigms of post-World War II urban expansion and ideas of incremental urban development. New megacities are being built all over the world in record time and often without standard protocols or procedures of the established design and urban planning professions.
c Pressing cultural and environmental concerns are demanding new levels of accountability as we measure ecological performance, energy use, mobility and density relationships, and the deployment of dwindling resources.
These and other factors challenge the intelligence and efficacy of new urbanization forms and existing conventions and typologies for development. We have entered into a new era or urban growth whereby the rules have changed and paradigms of urbanism desperately need recalibration to meet today’s global challenges.
The MIT Center for Advanced Urbanism’s mission comes from four working principles:
- Challenge pre-conceived professional roles and find solutions to real world problems.
- Embrace large-scale design and planning.
- Embrace technology in the design and planning of city form and function.
- Commitment to deliver real world projects and clear paths to solve pressing urban design, architectural, and environmental problems.
MIT’s Center for Advanced Urbanism is framed by six over branching areas of research:
- Territorial Design
We have entered an era of a new scale of design. Whether it is the immensely large-scale development projects underway in areas such as the Gulf and China, or the reconstruction and retrofitting of nation’s existing infrastructure. This presents a disciplinary challenge for designers, as existing techniques are not necessarily suitable or scalable.
The formal and figurative features that we can logically conceive and think of the very large scale need to be reimagined. Research must urgently address and develop new elements that are critical in the instrumentarium of the large-scale designer.
- Changing Systems
As our environment undergoes changes, our cities and their corresponding systems will need to adapt. Urbanism for a changing climate is first and foremost a question of rigorous systems analysis.
In part this is achievable through the integration of so far disconnected disciplines. In so doing, new opportunities arise for analysis such as through connecting datasets that have remained compartmentalized within each specialization.
- Durable Suburbia
The trend we need to expect, hope for, and actively plan for in future urban change of western cities, concerns the gradual densification of our suburbs. Our suburbs are becoming more intensely developed, putting pressure on the existing infrastructures, and as they age, they become progressively dense and more mixed in terms of class, culture and program.
This suburban transformation poses considerable challenges to the existing infrastructure and current mobility systems, and requires a re-think of domestic as well as retail culture in the suburban sphere.
- Resilient Infrastructures
Designing infrastructure for one single purpose is a strategic mistake; instead, such large investments, which are to service society for generations, can be made to serve a variety of different agendas - including not only transportation, but also real estate, ecological diversity, and public space, among others.
Furthermore, a sound infrastructural design permits utility in a variety of completely different circumstances. This is not a call to make infrastructural investments more complex and expensive; but to make them more intelligent and open-ended.
- Technological Urbanism
The steam engine, the car, the elevator, and the AC unit have in common that each contributed to a dramatic transformation in the form and configuration of cities.
We must look to new emergent technologies and their potential impact on the design, planning, and construction of our cities. We must examine the next generation of disruptive technologies and the influence they will have on the spatial order of cities.
- Ideal Cities
Ideal cities have, throughout history, provided templates, forms, and figures of our collective imagination, through which we conceive of, plan, and direct ourselves towards our common future.
It is important that this discursive tradition remain active and that we continue to formulate ideals, hopes, and especially, the forms that correspond to them.
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