The cities of the future as depicted on screen can seem more fantastical than functional: dystopian megalopolises with colossal skyscrapers, omnipresent technology, airborne transport, and a surprising lack of people. Although eye-catching and convenient, much of the future depicted would not likely serve the best interests of this fictional town’s residents.

Today, as societies consider how to construct urban environments in the face of challenges such as population density and resource scarcity, a vital aspect of what gives cities their soul can be overlooked – their communities. For what good is utopia, if no-one actually wants to live there?

Fortunately, a growing array of architects, engineers, and officials are taking the lived experience of a city’s residents into account, and this is far from a new way of thinking. During the Italian Renaissance in the 14th and 15th centuries, the notion of ‘Umanesimimo’ – a focus on humans, their values, capacities, and worth – resulted in the concept of the ‘ideal city’. Pienza, one resulting settlement in southern Tuscany, served as an early example of conscious urban planning.

It maximised interactions between, and happiness of, its inhabitants, while offering one of the first public housing systems and a central square that became the heart of urban life.

Why are advanced and sustainable smart cities important?

According to the United Nations, two in three people are likely to be living in cities or other urban centres by 2050, so as cities continue to grow in both size and number, people must find ways to live in ever closer proximity. Accordingly, designers and planners must rethink the way buildings and urban environments are constructed to find intelligent solutions that take into consideration green space, leisure facilities, and mobility, and allow both the settlement and its community to thrive.

Some have tackled this challenge by starting from scratch, planning futuristic new cities in a range of bold locations: reclaimed Malaysian coastal land, artificial Maldivian islands, even the depths of the Arabian desert. The Line, a 170-kilometre linear city in Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk province, is intended to house 9 million people but offer no roads or cars, and purportedly produce no emissions.

There is still not a perfect solution. For those attempting it, Songdo in South Korea should serve as a cautionary tale. Conceived as the world’s smartest city, Songdo was a 10-year, USD 40 billion project completed in 2015. Designed with sensors to control all municipal elements, from traffic flow to energy usage, and households with Internet of Things controls, over forty per cent of the land was dedicated to green space. But, as of 2020, it was home to just 170,000 people. According to critics, designers did not approach the city from a human-first perspective, instead putting technology at its centre, and the result is a ‘cold’ and ‘deserted’ settlement that has certainly not alleviated overcrowding in nearby Seoul.

Instead of a new beginning, perhaps a better approach is to improve and revitalise our existing cities by equipping them to face imminent challenges and embrace future innovations. Technology will undoubtedly play an ever-dominant role in their development, but it can be applied in a less tangential, more community-focused manner than in Songdo.

The gold standard of this already exists. Singapore recently completed the world’s first digital twin of an entire city using AI. This allows the country to virtually test any kind of planning decision before implementing it in reality. Scalable and widely available, this technology can assist with infrastructure and property development the world over. In Singapore’s case, it also helps the densely populated island nation to model the effects of rising sea levels as a result of climate change.

Another benefit of the digital twin comes as computing power is further incorporated into urban architecture. The floods of additional data from smart infrastructure peppered with sensors and systems can be efficiently and securely captured, processed, and analysed, before being put to practical use; turning off lights or heating in empty buildings to reduce energy consumption; cutting congestion and emissions by manipulating traffic flow at peak times; preparing for extreme weather by forecasting the resultant energy needs or relief requirements.

While cities must be advanced, they must also be liveable, while providing access to economic, social, and cultural opportunities. According to goal 11 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, they should be inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable too. A lot for every well-intentioned urban planner to take into account.

Progress is already positively impacting the residents of many global cities. Take Barcelona, the sprawling Catalan capital. Since 2016, the city has been rolling out ‘superilles’, nine-block grids reclaiming neighbourhood streets from cars and replacing them with parks, green spaces, and recreation areas for the residents. Not only has this increased community interaction and bicycle use, but added vegetation has helped combat the ‘heat island’ effect during hot summers, and reduced both air and noise pollution.

Sven Eggimann, an urban infrastructure researcher at the Swiss research institute Empa, says, “I think the strength of superblocks is that it provides a vision to transform cities that is not centered around cars”. And he’s not the only one who thinks that. As well as being implemented in additional Barcelona neighbourhoods, superblocks are being considered in cities as far apart as Mexico City, Tokyo, and Vienna.

What must we consider?

Much like Pienza, which put the town square at its centre to prompt interactions between residents, we can combine initiatives that embrace technology, sustainability, and liveability to put people at the heart of our urban environments and foster cohesive communities. As these approaches take root in the coming years and decades, people will increasingly look to amenities and comforts that make life easier and more satisfying. While addressing the needs of now, we also have the potential to create prosperous, safe, and sustainable cities of tomorrow that are prepared to face the challenges ahead, and whose residents one day might consider them ideal.

This article was originally published as part of our award-winning Vision magazine, available for download below.