Cities of Things

How will we live together with intelligent things?

With the rise of AI (artificial intelligence) combined with IoT (the Internet of Things), the concept of what is a “thing” shifts from a passive artifact to an active partner. Capable of performing tasks and making judgments, Things increasingly “work with us” to produce positive change in everyday life.

In Cities of Things, we focus on the evolving relationship with intelligent things—things that are services at the core, things that are citizens. With Cities of Things, we are shaping the future of our cities with intelligent things.

A future that stimulates the livability of cities and empowers citizens to shape it with urban robots and robotic things. With Cities of Things, we like to contribute to a future where citizens and intelligent things live together in concert and citizens can lead in defining the performance of intelligent things.

Activities

Knowledge Hub Cities of Things

Since 2021, the Cities of Things Foundation has been established to increase and disseminate knowledge about coexisting with intelligent autonomous objects in the urban environment. This knowledge is collected for and made available to designers of urban space and objects in that urban space and policymakers of urban space, and all other stakeholders.

The foundation achieves this by bringing together experts and professionals in knowledge sessions, field labs, and other activities that can multiply knowledge. The knowledge is disseminated by producing publications and organizing meetings, trips, presentations, and other activities that are directly or indirectly related or beneficial to this.

Prototype the future of Cities of Things with WijkbotKit

The result of the CityLab010 project is an actionable prototyping kit called Wijkbot (Hoodbot). It proved its value in research through prototyping. In workshops and hackathons, WijkbotKit is used to envision the potential futures of city bots in neighborhoods, including the relationships between humans and city bots.

Find more information on the Wijkbot and over 30 examples via the special section.

Research and field labs

Cities of Things originated as a research program at Delft University of Technology, faculty of Industrial Design. A Design Research Lab was established and existed for four years within the university before creating a dedicated foundation for the knowledge hub.

Partnering with academic institutions and educational partners is key to Cities of Things. We have an active relationship with the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering of the Delft University of Technology. For Wijkbot, we closely partner with the Creating010 research group within Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, specifically the Civic Prototyping research.

We collaborate in programs with other universities and universities of applied sciences.

Rooted in academic research, we assert that knowledge building and applying in practice go hand in hand, and connecting to practice is core to growing knowledge and relevance, as Wijkbot underlines. We choose field labs and city labs as the format to connect research and practice.

Get in touch

Contact Iskander Smit if you would like to know more about this knowledge hub and research program or become a partner in research or applied projects. Subscribe to our newsletter to be updated on the latest developments and research.

(Image by Maria Luce Lupetti for this research paper.)