May 2015

How To Raise Kids That Can Make the Future Happen

May 29, 2015

My home country of Finland has a small population. The country is large, whilst our biggest city, Helsinki, counts just 625,000 people. What you can find in Finland are water, forests… and brains. By that I mean that the most important resource we have is people. It is absolutely vital that we nurture our young…

Pioneering the Future of Urban Cycling

May 26, 2015

Cycling is booming. For convenience, expense, health and environmental reasons, more and more people are turning to the bike as their main means of urban transportation. However, personal safety is consistently given as the greatest barrier to participation. Blaze Laserlight – The World’s First Laserlight from Blaze. on Vimeo. The summer before my final year…

BSD City, Indonesia – A Sustainable Response to Rapid Urbanization

May 25, 2015

Indonesia is projected to have 32 million people seeking housing in its urban areas by 2030. In parallel, the nation’s demographic profile is in transition, with a growing working-age population but also a larger, aging group with specific needs and spending power. As the nation’s capital and one of the most rapidly growing cities in…

Tweet Chat Recap: Creating the Cultural City

May 21, 2015

In a globalized world, culture helps cities affirm their identities – Global Cultural Districts Network, @GCDNet On Wednesday, May 20, we teamed up with the Global Cultural Districts Network (GCDN) to host a discussion on the role of culture in cities. Over the course of one hour, we invited a mix of thinkers, cultural leaders…

Fostering Local Creativity To Revitalize Struggling Cities

May 19, 2015

The future of cities – particularly small to medium sized ones – is networked, niche, global and connected. For many, it is about finding ways of making small things work and connecting distinct, dynamic local initiative, creativity and entrepreneurship. In 2008, I started a project called Renew Newcastle in Australia. Newcastle, about two hours’ drive…

Why The Fight Against Urban Poverty Starts With Each One of Us

May 15, 2015

One cold night in San Francisco, I was walking downtown and passed a woman sleeping on the street with only a thin blanket protecting her from the cold, hard ground. I felt totally helpless and wondered why, in a city with so much wealth and innovation, where I can press a button to order a…

Which Innovators Are Changing Your City? Meet Our 2015 “WhatWorks” Lineup

May 13, 2015

In India, an anonymous volunteer community is leading a city street cleanup initiative. Over in Finland, a city-inspired educational system aims to educate the leaders and entrepreneurs of the future. In Peru, a university-led project is creating drinkable water from greenhouses installed under billboards. These proactive solutions are examples of how we can tackle major…

How Will Smart Lighting Impact the Future City?

May 06, 2015

A century ago, less than 10 per cent of the world’s population lived in cities. The next three decades will see the largest increase in the world’s urban population in human history. By the middle of this century, 6.5 billion people will live in cities, up from 4 billion today. By 2050, two out of…

Tackling Pollution and Improving Travel Safety on the Streets of Jakarta: Q&A

May 04, 2015

Action on mobility and climate need to be taken now. As one of the most congested cities in the world, Jakarta encapsulates the urgent need to find innovative solutions for mobility and climate change. Ahead of the New Cities Summit in Jakarta, we are calling upon Indonesia-based innovators to enter the Jakarta Urban Challenge to…