Hey @fredrikaa,
I applaud this effort since I know how long it can take to write and edit a post of this length, but it was absolutely worth it! thanks! I had a blast in reading it!!!
I studied mechanical engineering with a strong focus in renewable energy! I agree with your statement on the smart cities! in fact ETH also open a future cities lab in Singapour! Here is a video from all the poeple reading this great comment of your post @freedrikaa:
thee are the the main vision of those labs in general and i can categorize mainly in those:
Through Science
To achieve sustainability, science is essential. Science provides the basis for understanding how cities develop and interact with the environment at different scales. Cities are composed of physical stocks, resource flows, social institutions, and cultural catalysts which interactions generate a quantifiable ‘metabolism’. The scientific focus of our research is to quantify such metabolisms, and understand how they might be best structured for the benefit of sustainable cities.
By Design
A sustainable city must also be liveable. To achieve liveability, design is essential. Design is a collaborative process that combines analytical techniques, imaginative strategies and transdisciplinary knowledge to generate new ideas and bring them to fruition. Design skills bring often conflicting technical, economic, social, and cultural demands (such as environmental sustainability, profit, comfort, convenience, identity, security, satisfaction, and desire) into innovative and harmonious relationships.
In Place
Science and design are effective only if they serve places and the lives that are lived in them. Places result from common processes (growth and decline; competition and co-operation; ebb and flow of capital, people, goods and ideas; and climate change) and differentiating factors (geography, culture, language, and history). Our research addresses diverse lived places, from compact cities with high population densities to extended cities with a mosaic of urban and rural land uses.
Sorry if i was too long and thanks again for the post @freedrikaa
happy steeming
Francesco
