Smart Living

In the approach to the Smart Cities Mission, the objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ Solutions. The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development and the idea is to look at compact areas, create a replicable model which will act like a light house to other aspiring cities. The Smart Cities Mission of the Government is a bold, new initiative.

Voted the least attractive city to grow up in in 2006, Rotterdam has since spent €15m (£13.2m) on improvements to public spaces, housing and safe traffic routes in lower income neighbourhoods in an effort to build a child-friendly city. An open space in a city park forest has been converted into a nature playground – Natuurspeeltuin de Speeldernis – giving children the opportunity for unstructured play. Kids can enjoy the biodiversity of “wild” space, build dens, fires and rafts, and camp out. It now draws 35,000 visitors a year.

In Albania, children are the greatest value for the people. Taking this into account, the local government of Tirana considers the importance of future generations as a priority issue. First of all, they have changed the narrative of the city administration. Usually, in politics, they always worry about the next election. So they could take the conversation to the next level – how do we worry about the next generation, rather than just the next election?

CAPE, Community Action Platform for  Energy project will develop an interactive website designed to assess energy use for individuals and communities in Milton Keynes. It will provide data and therefore information for its users. The website will be made available free of charge to residents, community groups, landlords and local businesses. It will give them a ready-to-use tool to jump-start and scale-up energy projects, and to access opportunities for rapidly growing market for energy efficiency and renewable energy systems.

The idea of the food boxes is not the idea of the association, it has been present in the country for years, but they would have liked to make this initiative available to local people as well. The boxes are 65x59x39 cm cabinets made of plastic with reinforced metal. The cabinet is made of waterproof and UV-protected material. Each box belongs to a volunteer team. The team visits the box several times a day in hot weather or at least once a day, checking the food in it. Volunteers also clean the boxes daily.

Created in partnership with landscaping manufacturer Marshalls, Responsive Street Furniture uses digital technology to make streets work better for people who find moving around difficult for all kinds of reasons. It brings the adaptability of digital devices like iPads to the fabric of the city, allowing it to change to best suit the needs of the individuals who are using it. These changes include brighter street lighting, audio information, extra places to sit and more time to cross the road.

"Strøget" - The Pedestrian Street: When the volume of traffic increased in the beginning of the 60s - in the inner part of the old narrow streets - and the expanding shopping areas around central Copenhagen - as well as the sidewalks streets became more and more crowded with busy pedestrians - who was bumping into each other and blocking the way on the narrow pavements - Copenhagen’s City Council decided in 1962 - to establish a car free pedestrian zone from the westerly Town Hall Square to Kongens Nytorv (The Kings New Square) in the eastern part of the town called “Strøget” - which also i

In the future a digital city card may be the key to all Helsinki services. Visits to the swimming pool, bus journeys, library loans and appointments at the health care centre would all be managed with a single card. In the past yeast, Forum Virium Helsinki has run pilots to test how HRT travel card could work as a digital city card. Pilots have been run with several libraries, among others. HRT travel card is in the pocket of every Helsinki resident. This is why it has been a perfect starting point to start piloting the city card.

In summer 2011, a new guiding concept for cruise tourists was piloted in Hernesaari, Helsinki. A guided route was built from the harbor to the city center. What made the route special, were the digital tags attached to the signposts - they allowed people to access mobile services. The purpose was to attract cruise passengers to get acquainted with the city of Helsinki. The guided path was ready during summer 2011. It ran through Telakkakatu and Bulevardi to Erottaja and take around thirty minutes to walk through. Both larger boards and smaller sign plates marked the way.

 It is powered by a solar panel that is attached to the backpack. Thanks to the GPS map application APE@MAP by Onyx Technologie OG, one can upload hiking maps with more than 30,000 suggestions of routes to one’s cell phone. In addition to measuring time, speed and altitude, the application offers the possibility to record and modify routes using the cell phone. Additionally, outdoor sports enthusiasts can mark where they found something particularly interesting on the route. The system is available for cell phones with the Android operating system.