Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.
Category: Smarter Cities
Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.
The Solar Impulse flight aims to show that clean technologies exist. Masdar City, the plane’s departure site near Abu Dhabi, was set to be the city of the future. What’s left of this dream?
-OpEd- BOGOTA — As unlikely as it may sound, many of the countries we closely associate with planning and foresight are turning their attention to Colombia for inspiration on how to address the parallel problems of industry pollution, energy production and food security. The South American country boasts enviable geographical and climatic conditions, exceptional biodiversity and above all, a varied and preponderant farming sector. Together these factors are sparking talk about what some call the “new economy” or “bioeconomy.” This new way of looking at economic growth may help rectify the serious environmental harm done by the excesses of the […]
Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.
Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.
Bogota residents are increasingly braving reckless car drivers, crime and pollution to cycle their way through the Colombian capital. It’s one way people are taking back public spaces.
Architectural and planning innovations have given new life to Bilbao, Spain, transforming it from a grey post-industrial city into a trendy tourist destination.
Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.
Local planners in Bukavu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, are clearing out homes and businesses that encroached over the years along the city’s main avenues.
Soil-free gardens, pollution-free factories moving back to town. City dwellers will see dramatic changes to life and work. Some bumps for sure, but overall good news for urbanites.
Uruguay shows again why it is one of the world’s most progressive countries, with the government’s recent pledge to aim to use only clean energy in the future.
BEIJING — This year’s China Hi-Tech Fair, held last month in the southern city of Shenzhen, included for the first time a pavilion dedicated to smart cities. During the event, participants also unveiled China’s first “standard for smart cities,” which will be tested starting in January in eight chosen pilot cities and industrial parks. A […]
The Mexican capital is revamping its international airport, with a new terminal designed by star architect Norman Foster that will double capacity, save energy and dazzle the eyes.
The so-called congestion charges that have been levied in London and other major cities are being closely considered in the Chinese capital, which has serious pollution and traffic issues.
MUNICH — For people driving through Germany in a normal car, things couldn’t be easier. With just a single debit card, they can refuel everywhere at anytime. That is not, unfortunately, the case for people who drive electric cars. To travel, let’s say, from Wolfsburg via Stuttgart and Munich to Berlin and back, that person […]
BUENOS AIRES — Cycling is catching on in this bustling city of taxis, buses and cars, especially since the bike-lending program EcoBici was launched in 2010. In fact, it’s currently one of the few systems in the world in which the stations are operated by trained personnel and the service is free. But the differences […]
The Russian capital has invested in new mobile applications aimed to better aid and involve citizens. The results are mixed: parking app is good, democracy app not so much.
After hundreds of years of reducing our physical activity with the help of machines, we now find we need to move to remain healthy. A friendly city is one that forces you to walk more.
BERLIN — Worldwide researchers are experimenting increasingly with moss, algae and potted plants as a way to turn houses into multifunctional buildings. The question is “how a facade in a city neighborhood can generate additional value,” says Steffen Braun of the Stuttgart Fraunhofer Institute’s Urban System Engineering. Behind that lies “a whole new approach to […]
Using donated same-day bread and soon-to-expire food from supermarkets, this volunteer-run Copenhagen restaurant then turns proceeds over to needy African students.
Villagers in the mountain outpost of Melung are among the few in rural Indonesia who can solve daily problems – and sell their products – thanks to an onsite Internet connection.
Since the Egyptian government cut fuel subsidies earlier this year, the cost of fuel has hit working Egyptians where it hurts. Carpooling and even bus-pooling are gaining steam.
If you want milk or Berlin-made vodka, bring your own bottles. At Original Unpackaged, there’s no cardboard or shrink wrap, nothing jarred or canned. Is this the smart consumer of the future?
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, people have come to rely on the ability to do basic financial transactions anywhere. The downside is when cellular connection crashes.
TEL AVIV — Vincent van Gogh’s famous oil painting “Starry Night Over the Rhone” displays a wonderful enchantment technique. Occupying two-thirds of the canvas, the night sky is dotted with moon and stars, creating an illusion of movement, as if they were trying to burst out of the canvas. It’s not just a masterpiece. It […]
SURAT — It’s no longer a question of time. The city of Surat, on the western coast of India, will soon face flooding that could trigger outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever, and rising temperatures that could force companies to relocate their factories. Its 4.5 million residents are already preparing for the disasters triggered by […]
Malls, not walls, in Germany’s capital, but can it compete with the Internet?
RABAT — At the mouth of the Bou Regreg River in Morocco, the small blue boats go from one shore to the other. The tireless rowers have assured the exchange of goods between Rabat and Salé, a commuter town on the other side of the river. “We wanted to preserve the boats, because they are […]
What does “sustainability” really mean? A forward-looking French architect offers his reflections as part of Worldcrunch Impact: Smarter Cities.
HAMBURG — When Natalie Leroy talks about this German city’s water, her voice changes. It’s as if it was bubbling directly from the holy spring in Lourdes, not from one of the thousands of faucets in Hamburg. “It’s just water…” you might want to tell her, but then you would be getting it totally wrong. […]
IVRY-SUR-SEINE — The Plateau special planning district in this small town south of Paris could almost be mistaken for a regular construction site. Since 2007 the multidisciplinary artist Stefan Shankland has guided the construction of some 1,000 apartments according to an “action research” program launched by the city government and developed over the course of […]
We all want to get places faster, cheaper…and cleaner. Travel and commuting are parts of busy lifestyles and some cities have taken measures to make it much easier, and the journey more enjoyable, for their passengers. Whether it’s WiFi on the subway so you can check your emails, smartcards so queues don’t back up, or […]
BUENOS AIRES — The daily arrival of droves of people to work in Argentina’s capital has economic benefits, since these commuters are also consumers who spend their money on goods and services inside the city. But that windfall is more than cancelled out by increased spending on education, health, maintenance of public spaces and other […]
SESTRORETSK — There was a time when this northwest Russian city was considered the engine of the workers’ revolution. It had been the largest weapons factory in Imperial Russia, and just after the launch of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, workers frequently set off from here to expropriate property from the Czar’s followers in nearby St. […]
From the concrete jungles of New York and Mexico City to the outbacks of Australia and Tunisia, ground-level isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. With our populations rising and spreading out across the lands, it makes sense to dig deeper into the earth. There are a growing number of projects embracing this solution to […]
France’s star architect Dominique Perrault is focusing his attention downward: “We come from the earth and we shouldn’t be afraid of it…”
A green city collaboration between Singapore and China has all the features of an environmentally sustainable future. But one thing it’s missing: people.
WAINGAPU — In a remote western village on the Indonesian island of Sumba, 37-year-old Rambu Cinta sits on the porch of her thatched roof house chewing beetle nut. For most of her life she has lived without electricity. “Before at night we didn’t have anything to do. So after we had eaten dinner we just went to sleep,” she says with a laugh. Now her family is one of 100 households that are getting electricity from a nearby micro-hydro power plant. Umbu Hanggar says it has changed the home economics for his family, and extended family. “With electricity, the women […]
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11 Smart Cities Around The World
There is a long and healthy tradition of “sister cities,” where municipal leaders from different countries build ongoing relationships and exchange ideas. The same spirit drives this Smarter Cities series, the second installment of our Worldcrunch Impact solutions journalism initiative. For experts in the field, a “smart city” may refer to those using the latest […]