Trying things out, observing the results, learning from them, adjusting, trying again. A loop of learning and progressions that can be used at all scales, from personal projects to… cities. In this case, Singapore uses such a methodical approach to becoming a net-zero city.

Yes, the word “smart” is definitely overused, especially for cities and buildings. When at all needed, the technology aspect should actually be there to make us smarter, collecting data to help in making better decisions. That being said, there are quite a few good ideas in the article another frontier for the digital revolution about “smart buildings.” Like printed sensors and antennas to monitor problems and failures.

Though it is unnecessary to frequently update terms to highlight a potential area of interest, it is still highly useful to explore different perspectives. In this short article, the authors consider that the “Smart City” should rather be termed a “Deep Learning City”.

One “boring” aspect of how we built cities going forward is also a very old one, concrete. A material that’s been around since the Romans, humanity has produced an astonishing volume of it and is still doing so at a no less astonishing rate.

We’re usually focused on positive solutions in this space but this really excellent (if somewhat bleak) article by Lev Kushner and Greg Lindsay at Bloomberg’s CityLab is very much worth a read, as it exposes a glaring need for more pro-active and forward looking governance in cities.