Abstract
Cities have recently witnessed the emergence of connected objected and advanced technologies that are going to have an increasing influence on city planning and design as well as urban studies. Cities are mostly defined by their complexity. Megacities are characterized by millions of daily human flows and activities driven by individual and collective decision-making. From this approach, how can urban environment be improved for people’s daily life? And how can healthier and smarter services for citizens and public space users be provided and be translated into urban planning and design applications? Based on the outcomes of the international digital urban design workshop happening in June 2019 (co-organized by Southeast University of China and ISOCARP), the session will put in perspective the future challenges of urban planning and design disciplines under the angle of digitization. Three professors will be invited to present their research on the topic and the outcomes of the digital design week in Nanjing. An interactive discussion with the public will follow then. During the first part of the session, Mr. Yi Zheng will introduce the session topic and present the results of the Nanjing International Digital Urban Design Week. Pr. Junyan Yang (Southeast University of China) will then speak about the relation between digitization, public space and urban design. The session will highlight the impacts of the digital transition on emerging urban planning and design approaches, and illustrate how our understanding of the city is changing with big data. The question on how to make cities healthier and more sustainable through smart technologies will be raised, taking a few cities and megacities as references and Nanjing as a case study. Several digital urban design samples will be shared to the public in order to inspire its participation in the last part of the session. Pr Simon Marvin (Director of the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield) will give a presentation about robotization of production, smart city services in our urban environment, applied to digitization and AI (Artificial Intelligence) and daily life of people in the city. The question on how the urban environment could be (re-)designed to match with smart objects and applications will be introduced at the end of its presentation. Pr Michael Tomeldan (University of the Philippines) will present then a general view on urban issues in Southeast Asian megacities, in relation with digitization and its perspectives in the region. The public will be invited to discuss the current transformations of traditional urban lifestyles and potential responses by urban planners, considering the challenges brought by big data and digital technologies.
