How will everyday life evolve in the cities of tomorrow? What kind of changes will smart systems, technologies of automation and constant connectivity bring? Which new economic models might emerge and what will the role of the particularities of different geographical areas be? How will the development of the future cities affect the environment and the natural resources of the planet?
The future today seems to be closer than ever. A new way of living has already emerged based on the constant aggregation and processing of data. Nonhuman factors, like the algorithms, have been introduced in models for smarter cities and smarter homes, promising the constant optimization of a city’s functioning and of citizens’ everyday life. While the mediation of technology is, indisputably, of central importance when discussing the future of the urban environment, at the same time the following needs to be pointed out: Projections to the future usually refer mostly to economically advanced metropolises or to urban centers with no local features attributed to them. The different geographical particularities, the local economies and the dynamic of citizens’ involvement are, for instance, often left out, shaping an image for tomorrow’s cities, which is inevitably generalized and idealized.
