INVENTING A TRULY SMART CITY - AN INTERDISCIPLINARY SALON IN NEW YORK CITY

In collaboration with SAVIDA and ETH Zurich the Swiss think tank W.I.R.E. organized an interdisciplinary salon for the IDEAS CITY festival in New York City. The topic to be discussed «Inventing a truly smart city» aimed at the development of social innovation for the city of the future, based not merely on technological progress but on the benefits for its inhabitants.

Together with the environmental artist Natalie Jeremijenko, Matt Jones of Google Creative Lab and Nick Yulman of Kickstarter the guests developed over 150 ideas in speed datings on topics such as privacy or automation in future cities.

In the afternoon, the students of «Parson the New School for Design» developed the ideas further into practical solutions. The interdisciplinary teams focused on the needs of various target groups and developed scenarios, services and products to meet the challenges of the ageing society, climate change or solidarity in an increasingly fragmented society.
The projects were accompanied by artist Priska Wenger who created a poster with the most important ideas of the day.

In the evening, the salon opened its doors for the public. The ideas presented by the various teams were discussed in a larger group in terms of their potential and practicability. Finally, the poetry slammer Todd Colby ended the salon with his impressions of the day.

W.I.R.E. will pursue the developed ideas further together with the «Parsons The New School for Design» and aims for their implementation in the near future.

Many thanks to all guests and coaches!

«The Swiss Pavillon» of the ETH Zurich curated by creative heads from Switzerland und NYC was an amazingly creative and inspiring day.

Get a glimpse of the ideas we developed:  

> MeSa is a credit-card system that offers interest rates depending on the readiness to provide institutions with personal data. Users have the full power to decide which data is used and for what purpose.

> The Longevity Park is a visionary neighbourhood in New York City, where people of various backgrounds meet. It is aimed to enhance longevity, intellect, diversity and resilience.  In the park people can bathe in super-healthy, bacterially enhanced water, harvest fruit and vegetables from communal gardens or relax in wellness-landscapes.

> BRIDGE harnesses local altruism to create a needs-based community platform for the elderly. It exists both as a digital and a physical interface. Goods, competences and needs are discussed locally and encourage the interaction of people of various age groups.