As part of the growing interest in cities to address persistent sustainability issues in society, ‘smart cities’ have increasingly become a ubiquitous phenomenon globally. For multinational enterprises (MNEs), this has provided opportunities to develop and market technological innovations to facilitate …

In the debate about smart cities, an alternative to a dominant top-down, tech-driven solutionist approach has arisen in examples of ‘civic hacking’. Hacking here refers to the playful, exploratory, collaborative and sometimes transgressive modes of operation found in various hacker cultures, this time …

Beyond the potential of new layers of urban infrastructure - sensor-laden networks, big data, artificial intelligence - to optimize cities functionally, lay promising opportunities to also use these technologies for new forms of social interactions. In an ongoing smart city development project, we explore …

The aim of the research-by-design project The Hackable City is to develop a research agenda and toolkit that explores the role of digital media technologies for new directions for urban planning and city-making. How can citizens, design professionals, local government institutions and others creatively …

We studied 12 smart city projects in Amsterdam, and –among other things- analysed their upscaling potential and dynamics. Here are some of our findings: First, upscaling comes in various forms: rollout, expansion and replication. In roll-out, a technology or solution that was successfully tested and …

In many cities, pilot projects are set up to test or develop new technologies that improve sustainability, urban quality of life or urban services (often labelled as “smart city” projects). Typically, these projects are supported by the municipality, funded by subsidies, and run in partnerships. Many …

This contribution presents how a value-sensitive participatory design approach was used with the aim to design meaningful applications for inhabitants in a city. In two bachelor courses, design students were challenged to account for a diversity of human values in urban interaction design by following …

Emerging pervasive technologies such as the Internet of Things and Open Data will have severe impact on the experience, interactions and wellbeing of citizens in future smart cities. Local governments are concerned how to engage and embed citizens in the process of smart city development because without …

Over the last few years, the term “smart cities” has gained traction in academic, industry, and policy debates about the deployment of new media technologies in urban settings. It is mostly used to describe and market technologies that make city infrastructures more efficient, and personalize the experience …

After decades of being deemed the idealistic hobby of a niche group of fanatics, Green has finally entered the mainstream of the architectural service industry. However, most architects and urban planners are not yet adequately equipped to translate the challenges of climate change and resource and energy …