Integrating ICTs to Reimagine the Public Realm

IBI’s Smart City Platform provides the digital environment to connect these, and other, applications under a seamless ICT system to foster a better way to manage the public realm in cities. The award-winning Bhubaneswar Smart City Master Plan in India and the recently adopted Smart City Strategy for San Pedro Sula, Honduras are just two examples of our strategic approach to advance the design of the cities of the future.

Both plans weave ICTs through the cities’ administrative structures, facilitating coordination across business units and widening the exchange and reliability of a common data base about community needs and government performance. The implementation agenda is progressing well in both cities, building momentum through quick wins on priority issues that foster the collective resolution to tackle bigger initiatives.

Our experience in working with these communities confirmed the deep penetration of ICTs across diverse cultural and economic spectrums, as well as the adaptability of local capabilities to use these as tools to improve quality of life. Breaking the “business-as-usual” approach is necessary to stimulate innovation, and the integration of ICTs in city-building provides the tools for such collective explorations.

In an increasingly connected environment where digital tools are rapidly evolving, the adaptation of engagement media to foster positive dialogue about the allocation of public space in cities and towns is critical. We are now focused on broadening the flexibility of our engagement toolkit to be easily deployed through digital media, allowing for synchronic and asynchronic virtual sessions to facilitate and capture discussions about the future of the public realm. These tools can be tailored to the needs of specific projects and the aspirations of every community, thus allowing our strategic approach to accommodate smart design principles to reimagine the social space of the cities and towns that we enjoy.