Architecture and the Smart City

Increasingly the world around us is becoming ‘smart.’ From smart meters to smart production, from smart surfaces to smart grids, from smart phones to smart citizens. ‘Smart’ has become the catch-all term to indicate the advent of a charged technological shift that has been propelled by the promise of safer, more convenient and more efficient forms of living. Most architects, designers, planners and politicians seem to agree that the smart transition of cities and buildings is in full swing and inevitable. However, beyond comfort, safety and efficiency, how can ‘smart design and technologies’ assist to address current and future challenges of architecture and urbanism?

Architecture and the Smart City provides an architectural perspective on the emergence of the smart city and offers a wide collection of resources for developing a better understanding of how smart architecture, smart cities and smart systems in the built environment are discussed, designed and materialized. It brings together a range of international thinkers and practitioners to discuss smart systems through four thematic sections: ‘Histories and Futures’, ‘Agency and Control’, ‘Materialities and Spaces’ and ‘Networks and Nodes’. Combined, these four thematic sections provide different perspectives into some of the most pressing issues with smart systems in the built environment.

The book tackles questions related to the future of architecture and urbanism, lessons learned from global case studies and challenges related to interdisciplinary research, and critically examines what the future of buildings and cities will look like.

Sergio M. Figueiredo is an architect, author, curator and historian. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Architecture History and Theory at TU Eindhoven, where he also heads the Curatorial Research Collective (CRC), a fledgling curatorial and research group. Previously, as a Fulbright scholar, he completed a doctoral dissertation at UCLA while also being appointed Senior Lecturer of Architecture History and Theory at OTIS College for Art and Design. He has contributed to several publications, ranging from refereed articles on Places and ARQ, to op-eds on DomusWeb and articles in Volume, as well as guest-editing an OASE special issue on architecture museums. His first book, The NAi Effect: Creating Architecture Culture, was published in 2016 by nai010.

Sukanya Krishnamurthy is a Chancellor's Fellow/Senior Lecturer at the School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh. Her focus lies at the interface between urban and social geography, where her scholarship analyses how cities can use their resources and values for better sustainable development. Key interests include place-making and participatory approaches, urban cultures and representation, society and smart urbanism. Over the last few years she has bought these interests together within child-friendly planning, participatory processes within Living Labs, urban development and management of informal areas, and enabling agendas of context driven planning. She serves as a board member on various civic society associations (Apolitical, Play Scotland) and is also a member of Dutch and EU research evaluation commissions. She has been a PI and team member on research projects (EU, NWO, third-sector funding) in the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Israel, UK, Turkey and India.

Torsten Schroeder is an architect, researcher and design advisor. Currently he is Assistant Professor of Sustainability in Architectural Design at TU Eindhoven. His key research interests are sustainability, resilience and circular economy within architecture and cities and he focusses on translating these three concepts into comprehensive design projects. Torsten co-founded and co-directs the Archi Lab, a university-based architectural and urban think tank dedicated to exploring, creating and developing future concepts and scenarios. He obtained his PhD in the Cities Programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science, winning the prestigious RIBA PhD research award in 2015. Torsten offers a unique blend of practical and research expertise. He has more than ten years of experience in designing and realising a wide range of outstanding architectural projects for leading design practices, amongst others for Rem Koolhaas/Office for Metropolitan Architecture as architect and project leader on projects in the USA, Germany, South Korea and China.