Understanding Smart Cities Chapter 2

Course Information

• Course Name: Understanding and Managing Smart Cities
• Course Code: BDE3135
• Instructor: Dr. Ramy Ahmed Fathy
• Department: Digital & Sustainable Business Economics
• College: College of Management & Technology, Cairo

Chapter 2: Historical Perspective of Smart Cities

Agenda

• Urban Utopias
• The Smart City Approach
• Sustainable Communities: The Ultimate Goal

Disclaimer

• Slides are for educational use only.
• Sharing, reproducing, or using outside the classroom without prior approval is not permitted.

Urban Utopias

• Dreaming about the future of cities seeks to improve sustainability.
• Alternative solutions aim to improve human conditions but can be unrealistic.
• Some solutions are flawed due to stereotypical ideas.

Plato's Utopia

• Plato created one of the first utopias, envisioning cities as self-sufficient entities with three classes.
• The community is divided into philosopher-kings (rulers), warriors (guardians), and producers (tradespeople).
• This Greek utopia addresses historical societal conflict.

Thomas More's Utopia

• More's Utopia showcases a fictional island society in the New World.
• The idea emphasizes common ownership for a just society, opposing war, oppression, and injustice.

Garden City Movement By Howard

• Ebenezer Howard's garden cities are compact towns with greenbelts.
• Intended as self-sufficient communities, combining city and countryside elements.
• Howard aimed for a more sustainable urban environment with improved living.
• This concept faced challenges in implementation, failing to meet expectations and difficulties attracting investments. Some experiments ended unsuccessful.

The Radiant City By Le Corbusier

• Le Corbusier envisioned a "Radiant City" with strict order, symmetry, and standardization.
• The idea involved demolishing and rebuilding cities on a regular layout, with zoning segregation by income.
• He aimed for efficiency and standardization rather than a concern for lifestyles.
• However, the implementation of the Radiant City faced significant critical flaws, such as misrepresenting the real needs of the residents.

The Global Impact of The Garden City Movement

• The Garden City movement influenced and continues to influence urban planning and development in other places.
• It inspired a shift toward sustainable solutions and affordable housing.
• It helped to bring about significant and lasting changes in 20th-century urban design and planning practices.

The Smart City Approach: Is It A New Utopia?

• Smart cities are driven by the corporate sector, aiming to use technology to address imperfections in cities.
• The corporate approach mirrors historical utopian visions.
• Smart cities have been criticized for focusing on technology rather than people's needs.

ICT Led Smart Cities: Songdo International Business District

• Songdo IBD shows the continued similarity between earlier utopian experiments and smart city development.
• This district exemplifies the challenges facing smart city initiatives.
• It highlights issues like focusing on technology alone while not considering residents' needs and social impact.

Sustainable Communities: The Ultimate Goal

• Sustainable urban planning prioritizes greater equity, less poverty, and expanded opportunities for communities.
• A top-down approach may not meet the complexities of urban life

Batty's Approach

• Batty criticizes utopian urban planning models, emphasizing the importance of a people-centric, inclusive, and adaptable approach.
• There is no perfect, universal code for cities that guarantees success.

People-Centered Smart Sustainable Cities

• Urban planning needs to focus on the specific needs of residents, rather than a top-down approach that fails to understand the complexities of real life.
• It is crucial to avoid the hype and misleading information that surrounds smart city development.

Dive into Chapter 2 of the course 'Understanding and Managing Smart Cities'. This chapter explores the historical perspective of smart cities, including concepts of urban utopias and sustainable communities. Examine various approaches and the contributions of thinkers like Plato to the ideal city model.