Integrating ICTs to Reimagine the Public Realm
The world as we knew it in January 2020 may not be coming back. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced most of us to quickly adapt to allow for some continuity of our daily activities under unprecedented measures, pushing us to test the limits of Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) and its reliability to support new ways of interaction and collaboration. The disruptive effect of the pandemic has created unexpected opportunities to advance significant transformations in how we live, move, work, play, and heal, safely.
The depth of such opportunities is yet unknown; from the wider integration of working-from-home arrangements in regular business practices and its potential impacts on mobility patterns, transit usage and the demand for office space in traditional downtowns, to the role of governments in supporting national and local economic activities. At the core of these potential transformations though, is the future of the social life of cities and the characteristics of the space where it customarily takes place: the public realm.
Featured Projects
Bhubaneswar Smart City Strategy and Implementation
Bhubaneswar, India
Our award-winning 2015 Smart City Strategy for Bhubaneswar established a Program Management Unit with over 30 staff in the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited, to produce the nerve centre of Bhubaneswar’s pan-city technology plan.
San Pedro Sula Urban Municipal Master Plan
San Pedro Sula, Honduras
The San Pedro Sula Municipal Development Plan (PMDM) emerged from the community’s aspirations to transform their city – the industrial capital of Honduras – into a Smart City that puts people first. Under IBI Group’s leadership, the plan highlights the importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the collection and dissemination of critical data to foster better decision making, break traditional silos, and strengthen inter-municipal coordination.
Samuel is a results-oriented professional planner with more than twenty five years of experience leading professional teams to achieve integrated development initiatives of urban and regional scale. Samuel contributes competent expertise acquired through public and private sector positions in various locations in North America, with emphasis on project visioning, planning, budgeting, management and execution. Particular areas of interest include integrated project leadership; urban land development; land use and transportation synergies; integration of placemaking design and Smart City tools and regional planning and development.