Jul 16, 2018
Each of us has diverse preferences, needs and requirements when navigating and moving through the city’s built environment. We each mobilize differently. Mobility (unlike transport) is personal; it’s a joint expression of individual likes and individual ability to move in real time, through physical space, within diverse environments. The ‘new smart’ As the new U.S.…
Jul 16, 2018
Modern cities are complex, flexible and ever-changing environments which can present wayfinding and navigation challenges for people with disabilities, and in particular, people with vision impairment. Traditional wayfinding aids, such as signage, are often inadequate for people with limited vision. Additionally, shared space schemes and inconsistent use of kerb drops and tactile paving can contribute…
Jul 16, 2018
When considering access and inclusion, I believe it is important to divide it into two sections: physical access and social access. Physical access is the one that seems to get the most publicity at the moment, and it’s certainly the one that we hear about in terms of legal standards. Ramps into buildings, wider doorways,…
May 07, 2018
The rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its application to everyday life represent an extraordinary opportunity, but also pose significant risks. For cities, this entails a profound evolution in the mode of governance, changes to the means of service delivery, and most notably, a transformation of neighbourhood life. These revolutionary changes can be likened…
May 07, 2018
Earlier in 2017, a video showing a passenger being dragged off a United Airlines flight sparked a massive social media campaign against United. The feedback on social platforms was so negative and so widespread the company lost hundreds of millions of dollars in market valuation in less than a week. But what lessons could this…
May 07, 2018
Many policies worldwide have been adopted recently in an attempt to create a framework that enforces an ethical and responsible development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The concept of inclusion is central to most of them. However, it risks remaining a polite word on paper, unless all sectors embrace its uttermost importance. Bringing everyone on board…
May 07, 2018
When we think about the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a smart city context, one of the primary issues that come up are around the privacy of citizens. But there are quite a number of other issues that can arise, especially around the areas of fairness, safety, bias and transparency. In this article I…
May 07, 2018
For techno-optimists, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the future of cities; needed to build and operate efficient, networked, modern skyspires that effectively use data to improve urban life – the “smart” transparent cities of tomorrow. But the public policy implications of AI aren’t just a science fiction future: they pose urgent present-day challenges to municipal regulations,…
Apr 23, 2018
New technology has the potential to help reinvigorate and renew the built environment by allowing the meaningful participation of end users and local communities in the development and urbanism process. It’s not uncommon for members of the public to be suspicious of developers and regard anything that they put forward as flawed. So it is…
Apr 23, 2018
A home, for the people who live inside it, is far more than a surface that they own or rent, or the address where they are domiciled. It is a place that is part of their identity, the place where they must feel at home. Yet, in 2018, although we can personalize almost everything –…
Apr 23, 2018
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) Since this quote was written, our cities have expanded – upwards and outwards – beyond what many alive in the mid-twentieth century may have thought possible.…
Apr 23, 2018
Good news for city development: there are more crowdfunding programs participating in various fields of new investments. In China, we have witnessed the development of a considerable amount of homestay hotels in cities as well as in suburbs thanks to crowdfunding mechanisms. I believe there will be more and more crowdfunding and crowdsourcing programs in…
