What are Smart Cities and why are they the future of urban design?

¿Qué son las Smart Cities y por qué son el futuro del diseño urbano?

Within a matter of years, it will be the norm for buildings and districts to be ‘smart’, using technology and very detailed planning to create built environments which are self-monitoring, self-configuring, self-diagnosing and self-correcting. The key ingredient for a successful smart city is data – measuring an area’s performance and its users’ experiences to optimise how it functions in real time. This process requires a lot of sensors, sophisticated automation technology, interconnected systems and robust data processing, but the result is a high degree of efficiency in terms of space, time, cost, maintenance requirements and environmental performance.

In this Insight paper, Antonio Aguilar and Chanipa Prommuangdee from our Bangkok studio discuss Chapman Taylor’s work on smart cities in several locations across Asia, with a focus on the role of design in ensuring that they achieve their central aim of providing a happier and more efficient place in which to spend time.

What is a smart city?

If you were to ask 10 people, even those deeply involved in the sector, to describe what they think a smart city is, you would receive 10 different answers. However, there is common agreement about the fundamental element, which is the collection of relevant data and its use to automatically regulate a built environment for the benefit of its users.

There are common threads to all smart city projects – our aim, on every smart city project Chapman Taylor is involved with, is always to provide a better quality of life, including easier interactions between people and the places in which they live, improved functional efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Where does the process of creating a smart city begin?

A smart city project could range widely in scale, from a building complex or a residential street to a mixed-use urban district or an entire town or city, as long as the development in question is using data and technology to continually monitor and adjust its own functioning in response to requirements. Therefore, although the manner in which we will proceed always depends on the nature of the project and the context within which it sits, the common starting point is the collection of data and its analysis.

The data collected may relate to numerous important features which could, or do, affect the way in which the place is experienced; this may include information about, for example, car use, walkability, energy use, hours of sun, rainfall, infrastructure and biodiversity. The data is objectively analysed to gain key insights into the project’s characteristics and requirements.

In many cases, the context includes existing buildings and infrastructure which may be years, decades or centuries old; for those, we will assess how we can improve the existing assets without damaging the character and historic legacy of the area. In heritage cities, the existing buildings and historic features can be enhanced by the use of data and technology without any negative impact upon the way those places are experienced – indeed there can be great benefits in terms of, for example, people and traffic management, environmental protection and energy sustainability.

For brand new buildings and districts, we begin by thinking about how we will ensure that the new environment will function effectively and flexibly, both now and in years to come, as development continues in and around it. This process includes assessing which factors will be key drivers for the development, such as, for example, sustainability and user happiness, and what sensors will be needed to ensure that the smart city operates efficiently and improves quality of life for its users.

What benefits do smart cities offer?

Smart technology creates new possibilities for people, including new experiences and new levels of interactivity. Smart cities can facilitate a better quality of life in an environmentally sustainable, functionally flexible and dynamic place. Smart systems allow us to predict future needs, save energy, anticipate, identify and prevent problems, improve operational efficiency, create new means of interaction between the built environment and its users and optimise how users experience that environment.

Smart city technology can improve liveability and safety; there is existing camera technology, for example, which can detect when an elderly or vulnerable person has fallen on a street and send an instantaneous order to a central command centre, using GPS data, to dispatch medical help and security – all without direct human involvement. It can even do this at night, using infrared vision.

Major efficiency gains and cost savings can be made through the use of smart technology to optimise how energy is used and how the environment is protected. For example, lights, heating and air conditioning can automatically be reduced or turned off for spaces which sensors detect are empty. Google’s DeepMind AI company, based in the UK, used data analysis to reduce cooling loads at Google’s data centres by 30%, saving an enormous amount of energy. The company is now working with the UK government to optimise the National Grid by, for example, predicting when, and to what extent, wind farms will be productive.

Information about water use and flow rates can help pinpoint possible leaks (some worldwide cities lose up to 40% of their water supply this way). Air quality can be monitored in real time, allowing measures to be taken to reduce air pollution or to warn people with lung and heart conditions of potential hotspots.

Traffic can be monitored automatically to reduce the risk of traffic jams by warning cars directly of busy routes and offering less busy alternatives. Smart parking systems can help drivers avoid wasting time looking for places to park where there are none, with real-time information about where spaces are vacant. The Chinese city of Guangzhou, using Alibaba Cloud’s machine learning and data analysis technology, has improved intersection traffic speeds by up to 50%, allowing traffic to flow more smoothly purely through the use of measurement and analysis.

One client for whom we work offers residential apartments with a smart concierge-type system, so that any emergencies or maintenance problems can be dealt with immediately without the need to phone or email anybody.

Smart technology has also proved to be of crucial help in the COVID-19 epidemic, with mobile devices enabling swift movement tracking following someone’s diagnosis; other people can then be traced and tested if they came into contact with the person in question, potentially inhibiting opportunities for further transmission of the virus. In a smart city context, the location of every mobile phone can be traced by their unique identifiers, through mast triangulation, to a precise pinpoint – upon a positive diagnosis, it could be possible to quickly disinfect every shop, corridor and room an infected person has visited.

Smart cities rely on data collection – are there privacy and data security concerns?

Privacy is an extremely important aspect and consent is key if people are to have confidence in the system. Any group data that is collected must be anonymous – nobody should be capable of being identified via the data collection process without their explicit consent.

For example, measuring the number of cars on a road at a particular time does not require us to know to whom the cars belong. Face recognition technology, by contrast, being necessarily tied to individual identities, should always require the approval of those to whom the technology is being applied.

How is the technology chosen?

One of our jobs, in collaboration with other consultants, is to advise clients about what technology is appropriate for their specific circumstances – there are lots of technology types, brands and models on the market and choosing the right equipment requires a detailed understanding both of what that hardware or software is capable of doing and of what the project requires, now and in the future. Does the technology allow for adaptation to new circumstances, for example, or is it appropriate for the characteristics of the place (such as climate, culture, topography, patterns of interaction and key uses)?

We use our experience and knowledge of the market to guide clients through what can seem a labyrinth of options; on some of our recent smart city developments, we presented clients with a selection of possible technology choices from which they could choose their favoured WiFi infrastructure to monitor traffic and people movements and to facilitate a quick response to any accidents or emergencies.

How have their specific contexts informed Chapman Taylor’s approach to smart city projects?

We never approach any project with preconceptions or ready-made solutions, and that applies to smart cities too. We always ask ourselves what the problems need to be solved in that particular place and what we want to achieve there. Throwing a lot of technology at a project just because it worked elsewhere is no use if it is not serving the fundamental needs of that place and its people.

We are currently designing a 500,000m2 GFA mixed-use smart city district in a Vietnamese city; we began by examining what problems were being faced by people in the area on a daily basis and figuring out how we could help. Noise pollution was a major problem, due to traffic, construction and other activities, and there was also a lot of air pollution caused by fumes from car exhausts and nearby industrial buildings. In addition, we found that power was unreliable there, with the electricity supply often failing or being switched off, while flash flooding was common during monsoons because the nearby river often burst its banks.

These are fundamental issues for local people, and these had to be addressed before thinking about other matters. We followed the same process with a 1,800,000m2 GFA mixed-use smart city design we are currently creating for Thailand, and are currently doing so on another smart city development in the same city for which we are now in the research stages – a 2,000,000m2 GFA mixed-use urban district with major civic and cultural components.

We are also working on an important transport-orientated smart city development in another Thai city, which will begin construction next year, and two more smart city designs are currently under way for India.

What is the future direction for smart city design?

The way forward will be to integrate smart components within the built environment in a manner so discreet that people using those spaces will not appreciate any sense of their existence. For example, when travelling by car, bus or bicycle, everything will seem completely natural, though journeys will be quicker and smoother. Discerning the difference that smart technology has made might only be possible by experiencing traffic in places which do not have similar technology.

Artificial Intelligence will become much more prevalent in the coming years, with the technology now progressing very quickly. Traffic or building management systems are very complex and can process and analyse large amounts of data very quickly where it would take a very long time for a human to do so.

The other major change which will become normal is the level of interactivity between people and their built environments. Where most people now have to get up to turn a light switch on or off, we will soon see voice or gesture control becoming more common. We will also see a marked increase in the use of facial recognition technology. It will all help to create a more seamless interaction with buildings and wider developments, including at a city-wide level.

In South East Asia, there is now a strong push by governments to develop smart cities, with the use of tax incentives and other measures to encourage the creation of many new smart districts in the coming decade. Chapman Taylor is already at the forefront of this expansion and will continue to promote the benefits of smart city design, both in South East Asia and throughout the rest of the world.

En cuestión de muy poco tiempo será normal que los edificios y distritos sean "inteligentes" utilizando tecnología y una planificación muy detallada para crear entornos construidos que sean autocontrolados, autoconfigurables, autodiagnósticos y autocorregibles. El ingrediente clave para una ciudad inteligente exitosa son los datos y la monitorización de los mismos ya que miden el rendimiento de un zona urbana y las acciones de sus usuarios para optimizar su funcionamiento en tiempo real. Este proceso requiere muchos sensores, tecnología de automatización sofisticada, sistemas interconectados y procesamiento de datos de gran capacidad pero el resultado es un alto grado de eficiencia en términos de espacio, tiempo, costo, factores de mantenimiento y protección de impacto ambiental.

En este documento Insight, Antonio Aguilar, colegas de nuestro estudio de Bangkok, dialogan sobre el trabajo de Chapman Taylor, como urbanistas, arquitectos y diseñadores internacionales, en ciudades inteligentes realizadas o en proceso actual en varios lugares de Asia y del mundo con un enfoque en el papel del diseño para garantizar lograr el objetivo central de crear un lugar más feliz y más eficiente en el que los habitantes de nuestras ciudades y entornos urbanos disfrutemos de nuestro tiempo.

What is a smart city?

If you were to ask 10 people, even those deeply involved in the sector, to describe what they think a smart city is, you would receive 10 different answers. However, there is common agreement about the fundamental element, which is the collection of relevant data and its use to automatically regulate a built environment for the benefit of its users.

There are common threads to all smart city projects – our aim, on every smart city project Chapman Taylor is involved with, is always to provide a better quality of life, including easier interactions between people and the places in which they live, improved functional efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Where does the process of creating a smart city begin?

A smart city project could range widely in scale, from a building complex or a residential street to a mixed-use urban district or an entire town or city, as long as the development in question is using data and technology to continually monitor and adjust its own functioning in response to requirements. Therefore, although the manner in which we will proceed always depends on the nature of the project and the context within which it sits, the common starting point is the collection of data and its analysis.

The data collected may relate to numerous important features which could, or do, affect the way in which the place is experienced; this may include information about, for example, car use, walkability, energy use, hours of sun, rainfall, infrastructure and biodiversity. The data is objectively analysed to gain key insights into the project’s characteristics and requirements.

In many cases, the context includes existing buildings and infrastructure which may be years, decades or centuries old; for those, we will assess how we can improve the existing assets without damaging the character and historic legacy of the area. In heritage cities, the existing buildings and historic features can be enhanced by the use of data and technology without any negative impact upon the way those places are experienced – indeed there can be great benefits in terms of, for example, people and traffic management, environmental protection and energy sustainability.

For brand new buildings and districts, we begin by thinking about how we will ensure that the new environment will function effectively and flexibly, both now and in years to come, as development continues in and around it. This process includes assessing which factors will be key drivers for the development, such as, for example, sustainability and user happiness, and what sensors will be needed to ensure that the smart city operates efficiently and improves quality of life for its users.

¿Qué es una ciudad inteligente o “Smart City”?

Si le pidiera a 10 personas, incluso a aquellos profundamente involucrados en el sector, que describieran qué creen que es una ciudad inteligente, recibiría 10 respuestas diferentes. Sin embargo, existe un acuerdo común sobre el elemento fundamental, que es la recopilación de datos relevantes y su uso para regular automáticamente un entorno construido en beneficio de sus usuarios.

Hay factores comunes en todos los proyectos de ciudades inteligentes: nuestro objetivo en cada proyecto de ciudad inteligente en el que participa Chapman Taylor es siempre proporcionar una mejor calidad de vida, incluyendo interacciones más fáciles entre las personas y las conexiones entre los distintos lugares en los que interactúan con una mayor eficiencia funcional y sostenibilidad ambiental.

¿Dónde comienza el proceso de creación de una ciudad inteligente?

Un proyecto de ciudad inteligente podría variar ampliamente en escala, desde un complejo de edificios o una calle residencial hasta un distrito urbano de uso mixto o una ciudad o pueblo entero, siempre que el desarrollo en cuestión utilice datos y tecnología para monitorear y ajustar continuamente su propio funcionamiento en respuesta a las necesidades. Por tanto, aunque la forma en que procederemos siempre depende de la naturaleza del proyecto y del contexto en el que se ubica, el punto de partida común es la recogida de datos y su análisis. Los datos recopilados pueden relacionarse con numerosas características importantes que podrían afectar, o afectan, la forma en que se experimenta el lugar; esto puede incluir información sobre, por ejemplo, uso del automóvil, accesibilidad para peatones, uso de energía, horas de sol, lluvia, infraestructura y biodiversidad. Los datos se analizan objetivamente para obtener información clave sobre las características y requisitos del desarrollo urbano.

En muchos casos, el contexto incluye edificios e infraestructura existentes que pueden tener años, décadas o siglos; y en ellos evaluaremos cómo podemos mejorar los activos existentes sin dañar el carácter y el legado histórico de la zona. En las ciudades patrimoniales, los edificios existentes y las características históricas pueden mejorarse mediante el uso de datos y tecnología sin ningún impacto negativo en la forma en que se experimentan esos lugares; de hecho, puede haber grandes beneficios en términos, por ejemplo, de personas y gestión del tráfico, protección del medio ambiente y sostenibilidad energética.

Para los edificios y distritos nuevos, comenzamos por pensar en cómo nos aseguraremos de que el nuevo entorno funcione de manera eficaz y flexible, tanto ahora como en los años venideros, a medida que el desarrollo avance en él y sus alrededores. Este proceso incluye evaluar qué factores serán impulsores clave para el desarrollo, como, por ejemplo, la sostenibilidad y la felicidad del usuario y qué sensores serán necesarios para garantizar que la ciudad inteligente funcione de manera eficiente y mejore la calidad de vida de sus usuarios.

What benefits do smart cities offer?

Smart technology creates new possibilities for people, including new experiences and new levels of interactivity. Smart cities can facilitate a better quality of life in an environmentally sustainable, functionally flexible and dynamic place. Smart systems allow us to predict future needs, save energy, anticipate, identify and prevent problems, improve operational efficiency, create new means of interaction between the built environment and its users and optimise how users experience that environment.

Smart city technology can improve liveability and safety; there is existing camera technology, for example, which can detect when an elderly or vulnerable person has fallen on a street and send an instantaneous order to a central command centre, using GPS data, to dispatch medical help and security – all without direct human involvement. It can even do this at night, using infrared vision.

Major efficiency gains and cost savings can be made through the use of smart technology to optimise how energy is used and how the environment is protected. For example, lights, heating and air conditioning can automatically be reduced or turned off for spaces which sensors detect are empty. Google’s DeepMind AI company, based in the UK, used data analysis to reduce cooling loads at Google’s data centres by 30%, saving an enormous amount of energy. The company is now working with the UK government to optimise the National Grid by, for example, predicting when, and to what extent, wind farms will be productive.

Information about water use and flow rates can help pinpoint possible leaks (some worldwide cities lose up to 40% of their water supply this way). Air quality can be monitored in real time, allowing measures to be taken to reduce air pollution or to warn people with lung and heart conditions of potential hotspots.

Traffic can be monitored automatically to reduce the risk of traffic jams by warning cars directly of busy routes and offering less busy alternatives. Smart parking systems can help drivers avoid wasting time looking for places to park where there are none, with real-time information about where spaces are vacant. The Chinese city of Guangzhou, using Alibaba Cloud’s machine learning and data analysis technology, has improved intersection traffic speeds by up to 50%, allowing traffic to flow more smoothly purely through the use of measurement and analysis.

One client for whom we work offers residential apartments with a smart concierge-type system, so that any emergencies or maintenance problems can be dealt with immediately without the need to phone or email anybody.

Smart technology has also proved to be of crucial help in the COVID-19 epidemic, with mobile devices enabling swift movement tracking following someone’s diagnosis; other people can then be traced and tested if they came into contact with the person in question, potentially inhibiting opportunities for further transmission of the virus. In a smart city context, the location of every mobile phone can be traced by their unique identifiers, through mast triangulation, to a precise pinpoint – upon a positive diagnosis, it could be possible to quickly disinfect every shop, corridor and room an infected person has visited.

¿Qué beneficios ofrecen las ciudades inteligentes?

La tecnología inteligente crea nuevas posibilidades para las personas, incluidas nuevas experiencias y nuevos niveles de interactividad. Las ciudades inteligentes pueden facilitar una mejor calidad de vida en un lugar ambientalmente sostenible, funcionalmente flexible y dinámico. Los sistemas inteligentes nos permiten predecir necesidades futuras, ahorrar energía, anticipar, identificar y prevenir problemas, mejorar la eficiencia operativa, crear nuevos medios de interacción entre el entorno construido y sus usuarios y optimizar cómo los usuarios experimentan ese entorno. La tecnología de ciudad inteligente puede mejorar la habitabilidad y la seguridad. Por ejemplo existe ya tecnología con cámaras, por ejemplo, que puede detectar cuando una persona mayor o vulnerable se ha caído en una calle y enviar una orden instantánea a un centro de comando central, utilizando datos de GPS, para enviar ayuda médica y seguridad, todo sin la participación humana directa. Incluso puede hacer esto por la noche, utilizando visión infrarroja.

Se pueden lograr importantes ganancias de eficiencia y ahorros de costos mediante el uso de tecnología inteligente para optimizar cómo se usa la energía y cómo se protege el medio ambiente. Por ejemplo, las luces, la calefacción y el aire acondicionado se pueden reducir o apagar automáticamente en los espacios que los sensores detectan que están vacíos. La empresa DeepMind AI de Google, con sede en el Reino Unido, utilizó el análisis de datos para reducir las cargas de refrigeración en los centros de datos de Google en un 30%, lo que ahorró una enorme cantidad de energía. La compañía ahora está trabajando con el gobierno del Reino Unido para optimizar la Red Nacional, por ejemplo, prediciendo cuándo y en qué medida los parques eólicos serán productivos.

La información sobre el uso del agua y las tasas de flujo puede ayudar a identificar posibles fugas (algunas ciudades de todo el mundo pierden hasta el 40% de su suministro de agua de esta manera). La calidad del aire se puede controlar en tiempo real, lo que permite tomar medidas para reducir la contaminación del aire o para advertir a las personas con afecciones pulmonares y cardíacas de posibles puntos críticos.

El tráfico se puede monitorear automáticamente para reducir el riesgo de atascos al advertir a los automóviles directamente de las rutas con mucho tráfico y ofrecer alternativas menos transitadas. Los sistemas de estacionamiento inteligentes pueden ayudar a los conductores a evitar perder el tiempo buscando lugares para estacionar donde no los hay, con información en tiempo real sobre dónde hay espacios vacíos. La ciudad china de Guangzhou, que utiliza la tecnología de análisis de datos y aprendizaje automático de Alibaba Cloud, ha mejorado la velocidad del tráfico en las intersecciones hasta en un 50%, lo que permite que el tráfico fluya de forma más fluida mediante el uso de mediciones y análisis.

Un cliente con el que colaboramos ofrece apartamentos residenciales con un sistema inteligente tipo conserje de modo que cualquier emergencia o problema de mantenimiento se pueda resolver de inmediato sin necesidad de llamar por teléfono o enviar un correo electrónico a nadie.

La tecnología inteligente también ha demostrado ser de ayuda crucial en la epidemia de COVID-19, ya que los dispositivos móviles permiten un seguimiento rápido de los movimientos después del diagnóstico personal; luego se puede rastrear y analizar a otras personas si entran en contacto con la persona en cuestión lo que podría inhibir las oportunidades de una mayor transmisión del virus. En el contexto de una ciudad inteligente, la ubicación de cada teléfono móvil se puede rastrear mediante sus identificadores únicos hasta un punto preciso: con un diagnóstico positivo, podría ser posible desinfectar rápidamente cada lugar, pasillo y/o habitación que una persona posiblemente infectada haya visitado.

Smart cities rely on data collection – are there privacy and data security concerns?

Privacy is an extremely important aspect and consent is key if people are to have confidence in the system. Any group data that is collected must be anonymous – nobody should be capable of being identified via the data collection process without their explicit consent.

For example, measuring the number of cars on a road at a particular time does not require us to know to whom the cars belong. Face recognition technology, by contrast, being necessarily tied to individual identities, should always require the approval of those to whom the technology is being applied.

How is the technology chosen?

One of our jobs, in collaboration with other consultants, is to advise clients about what technology is appropriate for their specific circumstances – there are lots of technology types, brands and models on the market and choosing the right equipment requires a detailed understanding both of what that hardware or software is capable of doing and of what the project requires, now and in the future. Does the technology allow for adaptation to new circumstances, for example, or is it appropriate for the characteristics of the place (such as climate, culture, topography, patterns of interaction and key uses)?

We use our experience and knowledge of the market to guide clients through what can seem a labyrinth of options; on some of our recent smart city developments, we presented clients with a selection of possible technology choices from which they could choose their favoured WiFi infrastructure to monitor traffic and people movements and to facilitate a quick response to any accidents or emergencies.

How have their specific contexts informed Chapman Taylor’s approach to smart city projects?

We never approach any project with preconceptions or ready-made solutions, and that applies to smart cities too. We always ask ourselves what the problems need to be solved in that particular place and what we want to achieve there. Throwing a lot of technology at a project just because it worked elsewhere is no use if it is not serving the fundamental needs of that place and its people.

We are currently designing a 500,000m2 GFA mixed-use smart city district in a Vietnamese city; we began by examining what problems were being faced by people in the area on a daily basis and figuring out how we could help. Noise pollution was a major problem, due to traffic, construction and other activities, and there was also a lot of air pollution caused by fumes from car exhausts and nearby industrial buildings. In addition, we found that power was unreliable there, with the electricity supply often failing or being switched off, while flash flooding was common during monsoons because the nearby river often burst its banks.

These are fundamental issues for local people, and these had to be addressed before thinking about other matters. We followed the same process with a 1,800,000m2 GFA mixed-use smart city design we are currently creating for Thailand, and are currently doing so on another smart city development in the same city for which we are now in the research stages – a 2,000,000m2 GFA mixed-use urban district with major civic and cultural components.

We are also working on an important transport-orientated smart city development in another Thai city, which will begin construction next year, and two more smart city designs are currently under way for India.

What is the future direction for smart city design?

The way forward will be to integrate smart components within the built environment in a manner so discreet that people using those spaces will not appreciate any sense of their existence. For example, when travelling by car, bus or bicycle, everything will seem completely natural, though journeys will be quicker and smoother. Discerning the difference that smart technology has made might only be possible by experiencing traffic in places which do not have similar technology.

Artificial Intelligence will become much more prevalent in the coming years, with the technology now progressing very quickly. Traffic or building management systems are very complex and can process and analyse large amounts of data very quickly where it would take a very long time for a human to do so.

The other major change which will become normal is the level of interactivity between people and their built environments. Where most people now have to get up to turn a light switch on or off, we will soon see voice or gesture control becoming more common. We will also see a marked increase in the use of facial recognition technology. It will all help to create a more seamless interaction with buildings and wider developments, including at a city-wide level.

In South East Asia, there is now a strong push by governments to develop smart cities, with the use of tax incentives and other measures to encourage the creation of many new smart districts in the coming decade. Chapman Taylor is already at the forefront of this expansion and will continue to promote the benefits of smart city design, both in South East Asia and throughout the rest of the world.

Las ciudades inteligentes dependen de la recopilación de datos: ¿existen preocupaciones sobre la privacidad y la seguridad de los datos?

La privacidad es un aspecto extremadamente importante y el consentimiento es clave para que las personas tengan confianza en el sistema. Cualquier dato grupal que se recopile debe ser anónimo; nadie debe poder ser identificado a través del proceso de recopilación de datos sin su consentimiento explícito. Por ejemplo, medir la cantidad de automóviles en una carretera en un momento determinado no requiere que sepamos a quién pertenecen los automóviles. Por el contrario, la tecnología de reconocimiento facial, al estar necesariamente ligada a las identidades individuales, siempre debe requerir la aprobación de aquellos a quienes se aplica la tecnología.

¿Cómo se elige la tecnología?

Uno de nuestros trabajos, en colaboración con otros consultores, es asesorar a los clientes sobre qué tecnología es adecuada para sus circunstancias específicas: hay muchos tipos de tecnología, marcas y modelos en el mercado y elegir el equipo adecuado requiere una comprensión detallada de ambos que el hardware o software es capaz de hacer y de lo que requiere el proyecto, ahora y en el futuro. ¿La tecnología permite la adaptación a nuevas circunstancias, por ejemplo, o es adecuada a las características del lugar (como clima, cultura, topografía, patrones de interacción y usos clave)?

Usamos nuestra experiencia y conocimiento del mercado para guiar a los clientes a través de lo que puede parecer un laberinto de opciones; En algunos de nuestros desarrollos recientes de ciudades inteligentes, presentamos a los clientes una selección de posibles opciones tecnológicas entre las que podían elegir su infraestructura WiFi preferida para monitorear el tráfico y los movimientos de personas y facilitar una respuesta rápida a cualquier accidente o emergencia.

¿Cómo ha influido el enfoque de Chapman Taylor sobre los proyectos de ciudades inteligentes en distintos países?

Nunca abordamos ningún proyecto con ideas preconcebidas o soluciones prefabricadas y eso también se aplica a las ciudades inteligentes. Siempre nos preguntamos qué problemas hay que resolver en ese lugar en particular y qué queremos lograr allí. Cada lugar es único y cada proyecto también. Añadir mucha tecnología en un proyecto solo porque funcionó en otro lugar no sirve de nada si no satisface las necesidades fundamentales de ese lugar y su gente.

Actualmente, por citar algunos proyectos, estamos diseñando un distrito de ciudad inteligente de uso mixto GLA de 500.000 m2 en una ciudad vietnamita en la que comenzamos examinando los problemas que enfrentaba la gente en el área a diario y averiguando cómo podíamos ayudar. La contaminación acústica fue un problema importante debido al tráfico, la construcción y otras actividades y también hubo mucha contaminación del aire causada por los escapes de los automóviles y los edificios industriales cercanos. Además, descubrimos que la energía no era confiable allí, ya que el suministro de electricidad a menudo fallaba o se cortaba, mientras que las inundaciones repentinas eran comunes durante los monzones porque el río cercano a menudo se desbordaba. Estos son temas fundamentales para la población local, y deben abordarse antes de pensar en otros asuntos.

También estamos trabajando en un importante desarrollo de ciudad inteligente orientada al transporte en otra ciudad tailandesa, que comenzará a construirse el próximo año, y dentro del grupo varias de nuestras oficinas internacionales están involucradas en el diseño de de ciudades inteligentes como pueden ser en India o el impresionante Distrito Aeroportuario en Jeddah, en Arabia Saudí.

¿Cuál es la dirección futura del diseño de ciudades inteligentes?

El camino a seguir será integrar componentes inteligentes dentro del entorno construido de una manera tan discreta que las personas que usan esos espacios no apreciarán ningún sentido de su existencia. Por ejemplo, al viajar en coche, autobús o bicicleta, todo parecerá completamente natural, aunque los viajes serán más rápidos y suaves. Discernir la diferencia que ha hecho la tecnología inteligente solo podría ser posible experimentando el tráfico en lugares que no tienen una tecnología similar.

La inteligencia artificial será mucho más frecuente en los próximos años, y la tecnología ahora progresa muy rápidamente. Los sistemas de gestión del tráfico o de edificios son muy complejos y pueden procesar y analizar grandes cantidades de datos muy rápidamente cuando un humano tardaría mucho tiempo en hacerlo.

El otro cambio importante que se volverá normal es el nivel de interactividad entre las personas y sus entornos construidos. Donde la mayoría de las personas ahora tienen que levantarse para encender o apagar un interruptor de luz, pronto veremos que el control por voz o por gestos se vuelve más común. También veremos un marcado aumento en el uso de tecnología de reconocimiento facial. Todo ayudará a crear una interacción más fluida con los edificios y desarrollos más amplios, incluso a nivel de toda la ciudad.

En el sudeste asiático, ahora hay un fuerte impulso por parte de los gobiernos para desarrollar ciudades inteligentes, con el uso de incentivos fiscales y otras medidas para fomentar la creación de muchos nuevos distritos inteligentes en la próxima década.

Chapman Taylor ya está a la vanguardia de esta expansión y continuará promoviendo los beneficios del diseño de ciudades inteligentes por todo el mundo, tras 60 años de “expertise” global creando ciudades mejores y para todos.

ANTONIO AGUILAR

Senior Architect

Antonio has more than thirteen years of experience, working internationally in the United States, China, Middle East, Europe and currently based in Thailand. Driven by a passion for design and technology, working internationally has allowed him to deliver large scale projects and complex developments to the highest level of quality and detail.

Areas of expertise:

Smart Cities, Masterplan, Hospitality & Resorts, Transport, Commercial, Residential, Mixed-Use.

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