What is The Future for Cities?

Interview with María Yanez, an assistant development manager at Nightingale Housing. We will talk about her and their visions for the future of cities, how Nightingale changes the development industry, what sustainability means to them, and many more. 

Maria Yanez forms part of the development management team at Nightingale Housing, a not-for-profit organisation that provides economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable homes across Australia. Maria holds a Master of Architecture degree at the University of Melbourne and was recently awarded the 2021 Grimshaw Award for Architectural Engineering and the Dean's Award Master of Architecture 2019 and 2020. She is a registered architect in Chile and has previously led design studios at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, alongside the 2016 Pritzker Prize architect Alejandro Aravena. She is currently a design tutor of the Bachelor of Design program at The University of Melbourne.

You can find out more about María Yanez and Nightingale Housing through these links:

What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on twitter @WTF4Cities!

I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.

Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Summary of the response article titled On the difficulty of agreeing upon a universal logic for city standards from 2019 by James Merricks White, published in the City – analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action journal. 

This article is the response to the last research episode’s debate article, by Schindler and Marvin which was about three standards for the future of cities, and I highly encourage everyone to check that as well. But I thought it would be interesting to hear the contra arguments. This response article investigates and corrects Schindler and Marvin’s mistake of leaving out the system in which the chosen three ISO standards were conceptualised.

You can find the article through this link.

Abstract: In a paper published within the Debates section of City last year, Schindler and Marvin laid out an agenda for the study of city standards, which they argued impose a universal logic of control. While they described three published standards and situated city standards within the context of smart cities, their failure to consider the institutional setting of the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) led them to overemphasise the coherence and unity with which city standards are actually developed. In this response piece, I correct this omission by excavating the origins of TC 268, the technical committee dedicated to city standards. This reveals not a universal logic of control, but a body of expertise in contentious and contingent emergence. While ultimately, I agree with Schindler and Marvin that city standards are deserving of greater attention from critical urban scholars, I argue for a more situated response to their politics that leaves open the possibility of them having positive effects on urban equity and social change.

The transcript is available through this link.

What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on twitter @WTF4Cities!

I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.

Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Summary of the the debate article titled Constructing a universal logic of urban control? International standards for city data, management and interoperability from 2018 by Seth Schindler and Simon Marvin, published in the City – analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action journal. 

Since we are investigating the future of cities, I though it would be interesting to include how standards approach data and urban management from a generalisation point of view. The article investigates 3 ISO standards promising to standardise cities as data, quality management and simplified decision-making. Furthermore, this article will be the basis of the next research episode which will debate the conclusions of this article.

You can find the article through this link.

The transcript is available through this link.

What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on twitter @WTF4Cities!

I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.

Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Interview with Luke Husengo, system architect and data magician. We will talk about his two visions for the future of cities, the connection among data, information and knowledge, smart cities, awareness of opportunities, and many more.

Luke Housengo is an Enterprise Architect with a focus on Data, Information, Knowledge and Artificial Intelligence. Luke develops data and technology strategies and manages data governance for Australian Enterprises and the Victorian Government. He also provides innovation research services in Swarm Intelligence, Graph AI and Cryptocurrency. Luke is the principal architect of a future city project that combines cryptocurrency, swarm intelligence and smart data.

You can find out more about Luke Husengo and his endeavors through these links:

Links to the mentioned elements:

What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on twitter @WTF4Cities!

I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.

Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Summary of the research article titled Smart city policies: A spatial approach from 2014 by Margarita Angelidou, published in the Cities journal.

Since we are investigating the future of cities, I though it would be interesting to include smart cities spatial understanding. The article investigates the strategic choices around smart city policy making through examples from all over the world, with some recommendations towards the future.

You can find this paper through this link.

Abstract: This paper reviews the factors which differentiate policies for the development of smart cities, in an effort to provide a clear view of the strategic choices that come forth when mapping out such a strategy. The paper commences with a review and categorization of four strategic choices with a spatial reference, on the basis of the recent smart city literature and experience. The advantages and disadvantages of each strategic choice are presented. In the second part of the paper, the previous choices are illustrated through smart city strategy cases from all over the world. The third part of the paper includes recommendations for the development of smart cities based on the combined conclusions of the previous parts. The paper closes with a discussion of the insights that were provided and recommendations for future research areas.

The transcript is available through this link.

What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on twitter @WTF4Cities!

I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.

Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Summary of the position paper titled Managing climate change in Australia - A global, long-term view from 2019 by the United Nations Associations of Australia, abbreviated to UNAA. 

Since here we are investigating the future of cities, I though it would be interesting to include the position of the UNAA on the climate change which is one of the greatest challenges humanity and cities facing. The piece gives an overview of what the appropriate response by Australia would include. It must be also mentioned that this piece is focusing on Australia, but there are great things to learn for other parts of the world.

You can find this paper through this link.

The transcript is available through this link.

What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on twitter @WTF4Cities!

I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.

Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Interview with Kieran Leong, an architect and principal at the Melbourne office of DesignInc company. We will talk about his vision for the future of cities, their special approach to the design projects, biophilic design, and many more. 

Kieran Leong is a design architect with over 15 years’ experience on a broad range of project typologies. Passionate and curious about learning and innovation; he explores biophilic design approaches to architecture. Clients and colleagues appreciate his interactive working style and thorough and logical methods of investigation. Starting with feasibility studies and concept design, Kieran is engaged at every project phase including documentation and project administration. His portfolio spans health and wellbeing, residential and education facilities. He aims to create environments that encourage positive human experiences, interaction and connection. He involves his clients, stakeholders and design teams in not merely meeting the brief; but exceeding its expectations.

You can find out more about Kieran Leong and DesignInc through these links:

What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on twitter @WTF4Cities!

I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.

Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Summary of the book chapter titled Smart and digital city: A systematic literature review from 2014 by Annalisa Cocchia. The chapter is part of the book titled Smart city – How to create public and economic value with high technology in urban space, published by Springer.

This chapter gives us an insight into the smart cities’ history since its infancy, and its conneting urban future concepts, through time analysis, terminology analysis, definition analysis, typology analysis and geographic analysis. The chapter follows the smart city concept’s evolution from 1993 until 2012 and its connections to other urban future concepts, such as the intelligent city, the knowledge city, the ubiquitous city, the sustainable city and the digital city.

You can find the chapter through this link.

Abstract: The concept of Smart City embraces several definitions depending on the meanings of the word “smart”: intelligent city, knowledge city, ubiquitous city, sustainable city, digital city, etc. Many definitions of Smart City exist, but no one has been universally acknowledged yet. From literature analysis it emerges that Smart City and Digital City are the most used terminologies in literature to indicate the smartness of a city. This Chapter explores the literature about Smart City and Digital City from 1993 to the end of 2012 in order to investigate how these two concepts were born, how they have developed, which are the shared features and differences between them. To accomplish with these goals, three steps were followed: (1) to set up a search strategy for systematic literature review to collect a representative subset of papers about Smart City and Digital City using Google Scholar; (2) to store the selected subset in an ad-doc database to synthesize the literature review; (3) to organize the literature review subset to extract quantitative and qualitative data and information about Smart City and Digital City evolution. The author proposes a literature review taxonomy through five specific analysis: (1) time analysis, to explore the causes of the trend of Smart City and Digital City literature in the latest twenty years; (2) terminology analysis, to examine how and where these two ideas were born and what have been the main events influenced their development; (3) definitions analysis, to select and compare the most cited and validated definitions of Smart City and Digital City trying to identify similarities, differences or overlaps between these two concepts; (4) typology analysis, to investigate if Smart City and Digital City are included into a specific urban strategy pursued by government or if they face specific urban problems without a comprehensive framework; (5) geographic analysis, to understand where are the largest concentrations of Smart Cities and Digital Cities in the world and which are their main characteristics and best practices.

The transcript is available through this link.

What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on twitter @WTF4Cities!

I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.

Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Summary of the book chapter titled Is smart city resilient? Evidence from China from 2019 by Shiyao Zhu, Dezhi Li, and Haibo Feng.

Smart city is often identified with many different aspects as well, such as sustainability, and I though it to be interesting to examine whether smart city should be resilient as well This article gives an insight into the smart cities’ resiliency through case studies of Chinese cities.

You can find the article through this link.

Abstract: Smart city is originally aimed at dealing with various urban problems due to rapid urbanization, like energy shortage, congestion, and environmental pollution. The Chinese government has been devoting to the promotion of smart cities for many years. However, it is unconfirmed whether the city is more resilient with all the modern technologies provided when unexpected predicaments like climate changes or disasters occur. Therefore, it is urgent to consider resilience in the smart city. This paper provides a MCDM approach to assess and rank the resilience of 187 smart cities in China. The results demonstrate that the overall resilience of smart cities is at a relatively low level. There is also a significant unbalance of resilience between smart cities due to different infrastructural, economic, social, institutional, and environmental conditions. The potential links between urban smartness and resilience were also explored, and the results showed significant positive relationship between the smartness of a city and its resilience. Evidence also proved that developing smartness is more or less useful for improving urban resilience. Suggestions such as strengthening the development of infrastructure and economy, and enhancing the multi-stakeholders’ cooperation are proposed to further promote the smart and resilient development in China.

The transcript is available through this link.

What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on twitter @WTF4Cities!

I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.

Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Interview with Andrew Lizzio, a business and solution architect and inventor. We will talk about his vision for the future of cities, swarm intelligence and communities, and many more.

Andrew wrote his first computer program at the age of 5, graduated from university as a computer scientist, and spent the last 25+ years designing computer systems for small and large organisations. Andrew has two small start-up companies: WizUp, currently developing a mobile application to better support interactive pedagogy within schools and universities and Clarus, that has just secured a worldwide patent on bionic technology to help paraplegics walk again. The culture of both companies is based on a deep belief that given the right environment, passionate individuals working together will make a difference, and maybe even change the world. Andrew is a somewhat quiet, unassuming and understated person. If you were to ask Andrew to label himself, he would proudly say “a nerd”. He hates crowds but loves people. Fears conflict but values differences, and believes that nature is a wonderful teacher, if we dare to listen. But what makes Andrew different is his ability to design systems that somehow design themselves. That is, systems that adapt to be more relevant to the people that use them, while they are using them.

You can find out more about Andrew Lizzio through this link:

What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on twitter @WTF4Cities!

I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.

Music by Lesfm from Pixabay