THE EVOLUTION OF CITIES - Virtual Panel
“Cities are evolving all the time, and with that so is citizenship and society. This session will take a glance at what is on the horizon for the general development of the places we live.”
Q. What do each of you see as being the main elements of evolution for cities over the next few years?
So - BIO RECOGNITION SURVEILLANCE AND TECHNOLOGY!!!!
Think - FRIEND OR FOE? - SCREENS - DYSTOPIA OR WONDERLAND?
I’M AN ETERNAL OPTIMIST
READ THIS!!
Vision - Greening and securing (surveillance/human recognition) brings big ethical challenges and YET massive upsides.
Once recognised crime drops, seamless experiences begin. We will see many tests to nudge these ideas in. Guaranteed because without it pandemics will collapse the economy and bad actors will infiltrate the heartbeat of our nations. Let’s get the big picture clear here. Inevitable - screens, biconnectivity - pre qualified status. It will happen. That changes everything.
Impact of Broadband
Infrastructure, roads, cars/bikes/electric - Traffic congestion & Pollution
How will this evolve?
Buildings going up…. Lease as if you own it… work/home alternative ways of living. Everything bundled together (gas,electricity,water,gym,broadband)
Faster growth in red wall towns
Smart Sustainable cities….. is a journey (long term planning) not a final destination.
To take into account the following challenges…. Sewage, Pollution/climate concerns, affordable housing, water supply, solid waste, data security, transportation systems, basic amenities.
Q. What impact will lockdown have had on society and communities?
Society?
SAME OLD SAME OLD - A RACE BACK TO ECONOMIC BUSINESS AS USUAL -PUBS HOLIDAYS - SOCIAL LIFE!!!!
Think - HUMAN HABITS TAKE GENERATIONS TO CHANGE.
READ THIS!!
Vision - Mostly short term change only - because what will replace the fear will be the inevitable need to survive? There’s no doubt that the plague taught a few people how to work virtually but for the vast majority it will go back to the same as before. We have to hope more moral leaders emerge and change things more substantially but that’s a generation away. Sorry.
Communities- Loss of retail outlets.
Positives… what will people want to keep…
Reducing consumerism,
Slowing down and putting less pressure on ourselves.
Prioritising family and friends
Ethical action and activism in our highly interconnected world
Exercising daily
Baking, vegetarian cooking, and growing herbs
Spending more time in nature
Working from home, if possible
All these are good but are they hopes rather than realities. Systems change is not really happening.
Q. Is the use of touchless technology likely to be introduced?
YES
THE IPAD HAS BEEN AROUND 10 YEARS. IN LONDON THE OYSTER CARD WAS 2003.
IN THE SAME TIME SCALE WE WILL BE SURPRISED WHEN SOMETHING ISN'T SMART ENOUGH TO TALK BACK AND INTERACT IN SOME WAY WITH US.
RETAILERS ARE NOT TAKING CASH, PURCHASES ARE MADE WITH TOUCH CARDS SO NO RISK OF SPREADING INFECTION
READ THIS!!
Vision - Lets be clear about what touchless can mean in the future. Implants, facial and bio recognition - proximity to devices (swipe/wave/tap) no brainer and the models will change too perhaps - citizen enrolment to smart city passes and prepayment to utility based on behaviours and status. Cannot rule anything out.
BIO HACKING…. meaning...
https://blog.daveasprey.com/beginners-guide-to-biohacking-101/
Touch-screen technology may only just have been ushered in by various businesses as a means to cut back on labour costs and increase the rapidity of the ordering process, but new research suggests Covid-19 may already have led the technology to become obsolete. Eight in ten UK consumers expect to change how they engage publicly with technology, having suddenly become aware that they could be hastening the spread of potentially deadly microbes.
Digital out of home (DOOH) media owner Ocean Outdoor has today (18 May) announced plans to introduce touchless advertising screens across the UK, using new technology that will enable the company to replace its touchscreen deployments.
Ocean will be deploying Ultraleap’s mid-air haptics technology to DOOH, meaning its displays and interfaces – used by brands and retailers to market their promotional campaigns – can be triggered by natural hand interactions
“People are understandably cautious about using any kind of touchscreen technology in public places. Haptics is an ideal solution. It is hygienic, safe and will add a whole new dimension to Ocean’s experiential offer and immersive brand experiences.”
She added: “Post the coronavirus lockdown, consumers will be craving positive connections, so brands who create the all-important wow factor will get greater cut through to emotionally resonate with audiences during this highly charged time, providing the potential to exponentially grow market share.”
According to Ultraleap, its ‘virtual touch’ technology uses hand tracking and ultrasound to create sensations on a user’s hand to simulate the sense of touch.
Q. There has been pushback against the introduction of new tech that will enable smart cities such as 5G – does that portray a lack of willingness by citizens to embrace change?
ITS ECONOMICS, POLITICS AND THAT’s IT.
CITIZENS WILL HAVE A ROLE BUT THESE THINGS WILL HAPPEN - THERE'S AN ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE.
READ THIS!!!
Vision - This also comes down to the maturity of each city and it’s investment in required infrastructure. Once a better way (increased utility) is in place and we slowly make it harder to find the old way etc. Build it and they will come - EG - everyone hated Oyster. Where’s the queue gone? Do we want ticket kiosks back?
No. It reflects a small minority rather like the Luddites - (There will always be people who feel not all technology is a good thing. But the world we live in means it isnt going to stop happening. There is a bigger picture with 5G asides from just phones…. Give example of grape being sewn up by a robot on another side of the world…. This needs better more precise 5g technology within the medical world to progress operations that don’t need to be in the same country, let alone surgeon being in the same operating theatre.)
Facial Recognition… big pushback has been with businesses. The Founder of Basecamp will not agree for any API or plugin that uses this technology. Big tech companies back away from selling facial recognition to Police. IBM, Amazon, Microsoft upend their facial recognition businesses
Q. What improvements can tech bring to future city development?
IT'S NOT ABOUT THE TECH IT'S ABOUT THE UTILITY - CONVENIENCE - SECURITY - ECONOMIC IMPERATIVES - THERE'S AN INEVITABILITY TO THIS.
NUDGE STRATEGIES EVERYWHERE - IN CANARY THERE'S SO MANY NUDGE INTERVENTIONS - refill water bottles, lease it like you own it, the disappearance of lorries, many more.
READ THIS!!
Vision - Secure Convenience and utility through connected mobility/lifestyle solutions - mixed journeys (car, bus, plane with single payments/cashless) with secure interconnection to ancillary services) Seamless retail, entertainment and business solutions fully integrated. Once personal recognition systems are fully in place = connected individual = upgraded utility. Voice - automation and secure recognition everywhere.
Lower pollution through electric vehicles
Smart cities are connected cities, and they work in conjunction with everything from IOT sensors to open data collection and smart streetlights to provide better services and better communication.
Smart Energy
Smart Transportation
Smart Data
Smart Infrastructure
Smart Mobility
Smart IOT devices
Other Information & Experiences
NY has worked with alongside Bristol City Council with a few innovative projects:-
Media Sandbox with Ogilvy Labs & Watershed & Pervasive Media Studios - a competition that saw a Creative, Technologist & Academic working together with their ideas and to bring them to fruition. One of the ideas was an app for wheelchair users and the safest routes to get around the city.
Playable Cities with Ogilvy Labs & Watershed & Pervasive Media Studios
This was a collaboration with Clare Reddington
On the board of Sound Diplomacy
empower cities and places to achieve their social, cultural and economic goals through music and the night time economy
Went to the opening of The Cystal Building - Siemens Way -2012
A sustainable Cities initiative by Siemens
The Crystal is a building on Royal Victoria Dock in east London that contains a permanent exhibition about sustainable development.[2] It is owned and operated by Siemens. It is part of the Green Enterprise District policy that covers much of East London. Using solar power and ground source heat pumps to generate its own energy, it has set a high benchmark for sustainability. The building is the first to achieve the highest sustainable building accolades from the world's two leading accreditation bodies, LEED[3] and BREEAM,[4] Platinum and Outstanding respectively. It is the most sustainable building in London.
live and have worked in a Future city, going up around me over the last 20 years. Canary Wharf and now Wood Wharf
A city that has a life underground, dustbin vans and trucks are not on the main roads but underground.
They have their own police force.
Wood wharf have a nursery, primary school. Lease as though you own it.
Cognicity is the city of the future, realised today. This pioneering project identifies and accelerates the development of smart city technologies, transforming Canary Wharf into a smarter, more aware city. The first phase of Cognicity was the Cognicity Challenge, which comprised six streams of six companies each
INTERESTING SITES to bring in other learnings
The “Cognicity Hub”, activated by graduates of the Challenge, an initiative to discover, develop and deploy smart cities technologies on the Canary Wharf estate, will create a dedicated space for Level39 smart cities members and other smart cities companies to grow their businesses, showcase their technologies and take advantage of the collaborative and supportive working environment at Level39.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jan/02/25-predictions-25-years
https://worldengineeringday.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Smart-City-IOT-WFEO-Version-1.pdf
https://readwrite.com/2020/06/07/these-three-industries-are-about-to-be-hit-by-aiot/
https://www.dezeen.com/2020/06/11/wechat-car-free-city-tencent-net-city-shenzhen-nbbj/
Architect NBBJ has unveiled a masterplan for Net City, a car-free district in Shenzhen "roughly the size and shape of Midtown Manhattan" for Chinese technology company Tencent.
Set to cover two million square metres of land on a peninsular alongside the Dachan Bay shipping-container terminal, the development will include offices, homes, parks and entertainment venues.
There will be no roads for cars in the district, which will be "roughly the size and shape of Midtown Manhattan" or two-and-a-half times better than Beijing's Forbidden City.
Instead, residents, commuters and visitors will connect to Shenzhen via subway and traverse Net City on foot or by bicycle. Ferries will provide public transport along the waterways.
Designing a car-free district is an opportunity to "rethink cities
NBBJ plans to plant mangrove trees along the shore to act as a natural flood defence. Sensors will be used to track flooding
https://www.incredibleedible.org.uk/our-story/
Their Values - Every Incredible Edible group is different, and everyone has their own take, but out of all we have learned we value… if you eat, then you’re in
https://www.thedrum.com/can-do/events/230
Pam Warhurst - Todmorden close to Manchester
In your passion, your action and your purchasing. Find ways to create local solutions to global problems.
Set up in 2008 - stopped waiting for permission and turned the town around
https://bcghendersoninstitute.com/the-art-of-innovation-a-conversation-with-steve-blank-40b48bba05d8
I think with people still wanting to work at home, offices are going to be reconfigured and commercial real estate will take on different meaning. I think medicine is changed forever due to telemedicine. We could go on and on. I just think that every corporation ought to figure out how much of this is going to stick, and how do you take advantage of it as the economy recovers.
