Livable cities of our future

BRYCK dedicated its upcoming startup program to driving changes into the direction of livable cities for all of us.

Over one half of the world population already lives in cities and their number will grow even more in the upcoming years. That is only one reason to take a closer look at the cities of our future and their livability. Since the topic of livable cities is particularly broad, we are focusing on three main topics for our Startup Sprint:

• Transport of goods & people
• Energy & Waste
• Buildings for living & working

Let′s see some great examples, how innovative ideas can make a city more livable. TRANSPORT OF GOODS & PEOPLE The infrastructure of a city goes beyond its road network and the provision of energy and water. It can mean accessible and sustainable public transport, resilient and diverse neighborhoods, or inclusive and affordable housing, at best everything combined. One great example for an innovative transport infrastructure is the newly introduced smart commuting algorithm in Israel. It matches different commuting options, like public transport or car sharing with each customer to optimize capacity utilization of each option. Unlike other services it also takes the respective current capacity into account and therewith prevents jammed roads, trains, and busses. The Israeli people quickly adapted to this new way of commuting: after three weeks of running, the app had already organized over 75,000 trips while offering around 250 different modes of transportation (see more information here). It was originally implemented to deal with the Covid-19 crisis by making transportation less crowded but looking at the great success of the project its likely to stay.

Also, the often discussed future of the transport of goods with drones hit a new milestone in 2022: GoogleX drone delivery spin-off Wing made over 200,000 customer deliveries using their advanced technology. Fueled by the disruptive changes due to the pandemic Wing quickly adapted to the new circumstances and offered rapid Covid-19 tests as well.

INFRASTRUCTURE: ENERGY & WASTE

Similar to a lot of other subject areas, environmental topics and sustainability also attract attention in the field of urban planning. That does not exclusively mean the sustainable design of new buildings but can also be about the green conversion of existing structures. Examples reach from urban farming in Singapore to biofuel made of New York’s food waste. Also access to water is not always a given. In Mexico City 32% of the residents don′t have enough water to take care of basic needs. Instead of relying on the import of water from other parts of the country a nonprofit organization took a different approach. They used data to identify districts that had limited access to water as well as high potential for rainwater harvesting using the roof space of existing buildings. Over 20,000 of these systems are already installed and the goal will be achieving 100,000 by 2024 to solve the water inequity in Mexico City.

BUILDINGS FOR LIVING AND WORKING

With rising prices of housing caused by the increasing demand, affordable and inclusive living spaces became a relevant bottleneck in urban planning. Municipalities are taking action by dedicating housing exclusively to this topic, securing viable and accessible neighborhoods. Bergen, Norway for example offers housing to particularly vulnerable people with low incomes especially families. Other projects aim to foster valuable communities with multigenerational urban neighborhoods, that offer shared spaces like an open kitchen, a bicycle workshop or a workspace for their residents.

These three are only a few features of livable cities, which have shown the grand effect of innovative ideas. We are excited to explore more of them with our BRYCK startup programs.

If you have missed our sprint program for livable cities but have a great idea to make our cities more livable, you can still reach out to us via [email protected] and make use of our individual support program. https://bryck.com/startup-programs/

We′re looking forward to build a livable future together with you!