ECO
We are used to and increasingly reliant on smartphones for our social and business communications. Can that technology be scaled up to a smart city? RUPERT BATES reports.
“Steve Jobs of Apple was a extraordinary visionary and I say that as a former Microsoft man.” Meet Steve Lewis of Living PlanIT. If a Jobs legacy is iconic mobile
devices, mixing smart technology with cool design and brand conscience, then Lewis, London born but, when not globe- trotting, living in the United States, might be about to take apps to a whole new level; to the level of entire communities. For smartphone, read smart city. The test bed is PlanIT Valley, a
city being built from scratch near Porto in Northern Portugal. This ‘living laboratory’ has a long way to go yet, but the concept is as
fascinating as it is big – a planned population of 225,000 people on completion, with homes, offices, schools and shops, as well as medical and leisure facilities. Lewis, the CEO of Living PlanIT,
stresses it is not a science park, but a real, living, breathing, connected community, while testing the latest technologies. “A city can only be sustainable if it is conceived and built to be economically, socially and technologically sound,” says Lewis, who previously held senior positions at Microsoft and IBM. Living PlanIT – “we are a
technology company not a real estate developer” – wants to create faster, cleaner, intelligent
cities to meet global population growth, which is expected to rise by 47% between 2000 and 2050. PlanIT Valley is just the start; innovating locally, but then replicating that innovation around the world and tapping into a global market of “trillions of dollars.”
It all sounds a bit Blade Runner with intelligent buildings and vehicles and electronic sensors responding to human activity and anticipating future behaviour. But such is the march of technology we are talking digital fact not science fiction. Maybe we have missed the eco-
point. Reducing carbon emissions, saving energy and searching for
the holy grail of zero-carbon living is all very laudable and Lewis embraces all the traditional green virtues and ambitions. But what about the role technology and digital infrastructure can play in delivering sustainability? Not only that, but technology’s wider applications for social cohesion, health, education and employment and how a digital underlay – let’s call it computer piling – can transform developers’ construction methods and business models. “We are building software that allows us to collect data from an array of centres and using that data to make intelligent decisions in the physical world,” says Lewis, calling on the wisdom of leading global players such as Cisco, McLaren, Hitachi and Philips, creating an ‘eco-system’ of partners for knowledge, delivery and scale. Data capture to respond to and
predict human behaviour and enhance consumer experience is a great commercial tool for
Steve Lewis, CEO of Living PlanIT ©2013 Living PlanIT SA – All Rights Reserved
showhouse May 2013 |
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