Jun 10, 2015
The Trillion Dollar Challenge By 2020, a staggering US$1.5trillion will have been spent on Smart Cities projects. It is no wonder, then, that so many politicians, officials, academics and corporations want to talk about urbanization. Global cities are growing at a massive pace, especially in Asia. That is why, this year, the New Cities Summit…
Jun 04, 2015
ICT plays a major role in upgrading urban public services such as public safety, culture and transportation. It makes the services more available and convenient in many aspects. In Seoul, South Korea, many examples illustrate this point. In 2013, Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) tried to offer a night bus service for low and medium income…
Jun 04, 2015
They say that necessity is the mother of invention. With all the need that exists in the world today, I would say we are in for a lot of innovation. The world has been facing some tremendous challenges—both natural and manmade: earthquakes, tsunamis, and drought, civil unrest and social disenfranchisement, infrastructure breakdown and shifts in…
Jun 01, 2015
As individual as we are, we need to find moments when we can come together in a public space. For me, these moments should be filled with notions of beauty, awe and wonder that trigger conversation, inspiration and civic pride. The canvas of a public space provides an ideal opportunity to bring these threads together,…
May 29, 2015
My home country of Finland has a small population. The country is large, whilst our biggest city, Helsinki, counts just 625,000 people. What you can find in Finland are water, forests… and brains. By that I mean that the most important resource we have is people. It is absolutely vital that we nurture our young…
May 26, 2015
Cycling is booming. For convenience, expense, health and environmental reasons, more and more people are turning to the bike as their main means of urban transportation. However, personal safety is consistently given as the greatest barrier to participation. Blaze Laserlight – The World’s First Laserlight from Blaze. on Vimeo. The summer before my final year…
May 25, 2015
Indonesia is projected to have 32 million people seeking housing in its urban areas by 2030. In parallel, the nation’s demographic profile is in transition, with a growing working-age population but also a larger, aging group with specific needs and spending power. As the nation’s capital and one of the most rapidly growing cities in…
May 21, 2015
In a globalized world, culture helps cities affirm their identities – Global Cultural Districts Network, @GCDNet On Wednesday, May 20, we teamed up with the Global Cultural Districts Network (GCDN) to host a discussion on the role of culture in cities. Over the course of one hour, we invited a mix of thinkers, cultural leaders…
May 19, 2015
The future of cities – particularly small to medium sized ones – is networked, niche, global and connected. For many, it is about finding ways of making small things work and connecting distinct, dynamic local initiative, creativity and entrepreneurship. In 2008, I started a project called Renew Newcastle in Australia. Newcastle, about two hours’ drive…
May 15, 2015
One cold night in San Francisco, I was walking downtown and passed a woman sleeping on the street with only a thin blanket protecting her from the cold, hard ground. I felt totally helpless and wondered why, in a city with so much wealth and innovation, where I can press a button to order a…
May 13, 2015
In India, an anonymous volunteer community is leading a city street cleanup initiative. Over in Finland, a city-inspired educational system aims to educate the leaders and entrepreneurs of the future. In Peru, a university-led project is creating drinkable water from greenhouses installed under billboards. These proactive solutions are examples of how we can tackle major…
May 06, 2015
A century ago, less than 10 per cent of the world’s population lived in cities. The next three decades will see the largest increase in the world’s urban population in human history. By the middle of this century, 6.5 billion people will live in cities, up from 4 billion today. By 2050, two out of…
