How to Enhance the Future of Urban Environments Through Smart Sustainable Urban Infrastructures?

Abstract

According to the United Nations (UN), about 70% of the world’s population projected to live in urban areas by 2050. Therefore, cities are experiencing an enormous urban transition the world has ever seen, accounting for 80% of global carbon dioxide emissions, consuming over two-thirds of the world’s energy, and producing 1.3 billion tons of waste per year. Leaders, governments, architects, urban designers, developers, planners and business leaders need to make decisions and find solutions for how billions of urbanites will live in the future. Therefore, future cities will require new design principles to face their urban challenges and problems such as pollution, poverty, poor environment, land use management, green-house gas emissions and socio-economic and environmental risks. In this context, the case study area of this paper will be El Raval district, which is in a medieval quarter of Barcelona. This area considered as one of the oldest and a significant part of the city that contains many heritage buildings and unique traditional urban context going back to hundreds of years. The district has an influx of immigrants, which has transformed its label from an industrial neighbourhood into a residential one and low rents that have attracted many people of low income, making it a vibrant and multicultural community. Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to address the implementation of innovative solutions, advanced technologies, ICT and IoT that might enhance people participation in the urban design processes and respond to urban futures challenges. The result of this research will lead to creating a platform to resolve the conflicting values of architectural heritage and smart cities principles, sourcing new sustainable technologies and the integration of the smart infrastructure systems.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.23.2019.14