New urban technologies will completely change the way we design cities and change the way you work with them. Through a series of sessions, we will guide you through new requirements and show you opportunities that will come with these highly innovative urban technologies. The first Urbantech session will show you how data and sensors can reveal secrets about the city – and what it means for the professionals who design our city.

For as long as we have designed cities, we have aimed to meet the needs of the citizens. Trying to understand their flows, habits and desired ways of moving and living. Until recently, the design has been based on experience and data, which was collected in a manual fashion. But with new urban technologies, we have reached new levels of understanding the city. And with that: a completely new way of designing it. Are you a professional who is developing the city's architecture and infrastructure, then this topic will change your way of working with it.

We are already tracking pollution, traffic and buildings. And we are getting continuously better in using sensor technologies to track and use data in smarter ways. But what if sensors could eliminate pollution or do more than simply optimizing energy use? How far are we from a future where urban technologies can track and change our emotions and experiences to make us act more sustainably?

Urbantech Sessions investigates how new urban technologies will shape the way professionals work with architecture, construction and urban development. We will discover trends and near-future technologies, and how to make the best of them while navigating in an ever-changing market. We will consider how they might transform your role, the way you collaborate and your needed skills as a professional working with urban environments.

At this first Urbantech Session, we will look at an urban technology, which is invisible to most – data and sensors that can bring knowledge we have never been able to collect before. We will dig into what these technologies can do, how you can get ahead and design better solutions – to inevitably create better cities.

Urbantech is established by COWI, VKR Holding/VELUX, EWII and supported by Realdania and The Danish Industry Foundation. The program is run by Rainmaking in collaboration with BLOXHUB, Danish Design Centre, Danish Architecture Center and Amazon Web Services.

Speakers:

Morten Skov Jørgensen is Senior Cyber-Physical Specialist at Alexandra Institute. Alexandra Institute is a non-profit organization that provide consultancy and development of new innovative products and services based on the newest IT research, user participation and business development. Among their many fields of expertise is technologies in cities. Morten specializes in IoT and in the interaction between humans and computers – including sensors and actuators that provide immediate feedback. At this event, Morten will talk about the trends and future of the use of data and sensors in our cities. What new technologies will help us shape the future cities and how do we work with them?

Architect Oliver Schulze is Founder of Schulze+Grassov, a studio of architects, landscape architects, urban designers and anthropologists based in Copenhagen with an international portfolio of projects in Denmark, Germany, the UK and the United States. According to Schulze, the design of cities is changing and before we can ask “what shall we build”, we need to understand “how shall we live?” That means that we will say goodbye to a century-old planning culture of drafting static plans with frozen visions of the future, and instead, we need to go on a journey together to develop a process that is dynamic and inclusive. At this event, Schulze will talk about how to use data and new technologies in creative ways in this process, and what it means for the role of the architect and planner.

Program:

• Welcome and Introduction to Urbantech Sessions
• Lecture by Morten Skov Jørgensen, Alexandra Institute: How Data and Sensors Will Change the Way We Design Cities – Trends and future
• Table session #1
• Break
• Lecture by Oliver Schulze, Schulze+Grassov: How Data and Sensors Will Change the Way We Design Cities – What does it mean for the professional?
• Table session #2
• Network and bubbles