Designing sustainable cities: another look at HP Labs research
On the heels of the launch of HP’s new sustainability-focused research facility, industry analyst Tom Raftery took a fresh look at recent HP Labs research describing a new approach for building next-generation cities.
From the research:
Unlike the previous generation of cities built during the Industrial Age, next generation cities will be able to leverage current information technology (IT). We can now use IT, specifically computer-aided design, to optimize the design of new cities. What’s more, we can embed information and communication technology into everything within a new city to achieve optimal operation of city-scale infrastructure…
This paper introduces the concept of a sustainable IT ecosystem as one that employs key elements of information technology to improve the sustainability of compatible ecosystems. We apply this concept to the physical infrastructures that form the next-generation city ecosystem and introduce a framework that provides a more sustainable alternative to conventional physical infrastructures.
As Raftery notes in his summary of the paper, “this kind of research is incredibly important if we are to try to live within our means on this planet – something at which we fundamentally failed to do to-date.”
If you’re looking to learn about creative applications of IT and design thinking -- and stretch your imagination a bit -- this paper is for you.
Download it [PDF] or read below:
