In a roundtable with ARCHITECT, architect Paul Doherty, policy and sustainability expert Debra Lam, and author Anthony Townsend trade opinions and insights on what the buzzword really means, why the world’s largest companies want a stake, and how architects can step up to the plate.
ARCHITECT: How do you currently define a smart city? I say “currently” because the definition has evolved as technologies have come and gone, and as experiments have failed or succeeded.
Lam: I think of smart cities as a process because it’s a change in local context and improvements in technology. It’s not an end state. You don’t suddenly declare yourself a smart city and then forget about it.
You’re starting out with a challenge, problem, or mission and thinking about what hardware, research, and processes are available in the toolkit. But it’s not led by technology and it’s not some sort of shiny object to just purchase and think you’re smart.
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