KPIs for an agile and evolutionary urban design
One of the first KPIs (Key Performance Indicator) that I remember seeing for urban space is included in the Maciá Plan that Josep Lluìs Sert carried out for Barcelona in the 1930s. It proposed as the main KPI the decrease in infant mortality in the Ciutat Vella district, which at that time was around 20% per year.
7 scientific laws about cities that will fascinate you
Urban development, as everything in nature, follows certain rules. It is a question of time that science will find more laws about cities....
3GPP: Smart Cities Should Engage With Mobile Standards Developers
A challenge for smart cities is to identify the impact of new standards and technologies and determine how 5G standards development creates (or constrains) opportunities for urban innovation.
The urban innovation spiral
The time-lapse between two disruptive innovation is shortening, the innovation pace is accelerating exponentially. The quest for new basic energy sources advances quicker than ever: wood, coal, oil, renewables, coltan, lithium… maybe data in the near future (why not?), with most of this research happening in urban innovation ecosystems.
Marshall McLuhan. Understanding media (and cities)
McLuhan explains why the rise of urban middle classes are more effective to defeat dictatorships than embargos or weapons, why revolts come from cities, and why cities are are where social and political changes are baked. In this sense, cities are also liberating tools or, as McLuhan puts it “the work of cities is the translation of people to a more suitable form than of his ancestors “.
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Jane Jacobs: Death and Life of Cities 04/05/2020 
The 5G Digital Divide 01/09/2020 
Marshall McLuhan. Understanding media (and cities) 26/09/2020
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Jane Jacobs: Death and Life of Cities
Jane Jacobs’s “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”, her main book published in 1961, still remains a surprising source of ideas covering a multitude of aspects that guide life in cities: the economy, security, habitat, traffic, governance, planning, participation…
Spring 2020 On-line Program of Talks & Lectures
No travel, no face-to-face events this spring. But we will be sharing screens and ideas anyway. In these hard times, there is a lot to be talking about on urban innovation and smart cities: data, DIY manufacturing, open challenges for recovery, start-ups.
Join us in our next talk:
June, 16th. At the Smart Cities’ Sofa Summits. Talk about “Smart City Challenges for Recovery after Covid-19”
Master in Collective Housing (MCH) – UPM/ETH
(MCH), an international postgraduate program of advanced architecture design in cities and housing presented by Universidad Politécnica...
Situationists For Open City Makers
Amongst the “avant garde” revolutionary intellectuals, the situationists were one of a kind. Though they were few, they often were waging battles under the leadership of a young Guy Débord to surpass other contemporary movements such as letterism and surrealism. Their views on urbanism or automation were anticipatory.
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