Back to the Future: Tapping into Ancient Knowledge Toward Human-Centered Sustainable Smart Cities

Abstract

Terms such as resilient, smart, and sustainable are often used as synonyms in defining future cities. While pointing out specific features and objectives, the implementation of each one of the concepts cannot exist if not implying the other two. A city cannot be resilient if not based on a wide range of sustainability concepts and principles of smart growth and social engagement. It cannot be smart without considering long-term perspectives and adaptability; it cannot, finally, be sustainable if not observing resilience and smart approaches to design and infrastructures. What is worth highlighting here, is how, on smart cities, academic and technical literature mainly focuses on technology, while omitting the traditional urban requirements of sustainability, resilience, and quality of life. Smart cities are cities first; are social built environments, where advanced technologies provide smart data collection and delivery to offer their inhabitants a better quality of life, and before that, offering livable physical solutions enabling social and facilitating interaction. In a metaphor, public space is the hardware, where technological software can be applied; public space is the platform where data exchange is made possible.