But, amid this speedy transformation, one query rises above all: how can innovation really serve the folks, as increasingly of them migrate to cities?
That query lies on the coronary heart of this 12 months’s World Cities Day, which can be celebrated in Bogotá, Colombia, beneath the theme Individuals-Centred Good Cities.
Organized by the UN’s city company, UN-Habitat, the occasion brings collectively mayors, specialists on metropolis life and neighborhood leaders from around the globe to discover how knowledge, design, and digital instruments can construct communities that aren’t solely smarter, but additionally fairer, greener, and extra inclusive.
By 2050, practically 70 per cent of humanity is anticipated to dwell in city areas, intensifying calls for for housing, companies, and local weather resilience.
In his message for the day, UN Secretary-Normal António Guterres emphasised that innovation should shut gaps, not widen them.
“A really good metropolis places folks first, particularly essentially the most susceptible,” Mr. Guterres stated. “After we place folks on the centre, digital innovation will help drive equity and sustainability for all.”
Bogotá’s massive experiment
Bogotá, lengthy identified for city experimentation, has earned world recognition for combining know-how with citizen engagement.
From TransMilenio, its influential bus speedy transit system, to Ciclovía, which turns streets into car-free neighborhood areas each Sunday, the town has redefined how city design can foster social connection and sustainability.
For Elkin Velásquez, UN-Habitat’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Bogotá provides a compelling instance of how knowledge and dialogue can form higher futures.
“The worldwide observance right here will foster worldwide dialogue on people-centred good cities — the place know-how enhances high quality of life and strengthens neighborhood bonds,” he stated.
Bogotá, Colombia’s capital metropolis.
Listening to the town
Among the many keynote audio system in Bogotá is Carlo Ratti, architect, engineer, and director of the MIT Senseable Metropolis Lab in america, in addition to curator of the 2025 Venice Structure Biennale.
Mr. Ratti, one of many world’s main thinkers on city innovation, believes that cities should evolve past the notion of the “good metropolis” towards what he calls the “senseable metropolis.”
“I’m not keen on the time period ‘good metropolis,’” Mr. Ratti stated. “It typically implies a top-down system guided by know-how alone. Cities should at the beginning be about folks — responsive, inclusive, and adaptive. A ‘senseable metropolis’ makes use of know-how not for its personal sake, however to raised hearken to and serve its residents.”
For Mr. Ratti, Bogotá embodies this spirit. “It has lengthy intrigued me as a number one metropolis for city experimentation,” he stated. “Tasks like TransMilenio and Ciclovía have turn out to be world case research.
“They present how native interventions, when scaled and embraced, can shift city trajectories.”
On precept, Mr. Ratti believes that in an age of local weather emergency and demographic transition, “essentially the most radical act could also be to not construct or construct in another way”. Instead, he suggests prioritizing reuse, retrofitting, and transformation.
“And should you really must construct on greenfield websites, be taught from the logic of nature. By way of vitality and circularity, a tree remains to be a lot smarter than any constructing we are able to design”, he concluded.
A people-centred imaginative and prescient
Based on Anacláudia Rossbach, Government Director of UN-Habitat, the town’s strategy exemplifies what a people-centred good metropolis ought to seem like.
“In Bogotá, the good cities strategy is people-centered, aiming to enhance well-being and high quality of life,” Ms. Rossbach stated.
“Programmes like Ecobarrios and Mi Casa deal with resilience and sustainability, whereas digital initiatives corresponding to Chatico, a digital agent, use Synthetic Intelligence to assist residents entry info on public companies and take part in consultations.”
These initiatives, she defined, signify a broader effort to advance sustainable mobility, data-driven policymaking, and bridge the digital divide.
Bogotá, Colombia, is acknowledged as a pacesetter in good metropolis initiatives, with a deal with digital transformation, mobility, and concrete sustainability.
“These are good examples of know-how and innovation that serve folks and communities,” Ms. Rossbach added. “It’s very important that such experiences are shared globally, permitting different cities to adapt these classes to their very own contexts.”
A world dialog
World Cities Day marks the conclusion of City October, UN-Habitat’s month-long marketing campaign for sustainable and inclusive urbanization. This 12 months’s observance in Bogotá goals to depart behind a legacy, one constructed on collaboration, studying, and shared dedication to a extra equitable city future.
“The legacy we search is twofold,” Ms. Rossbach concluded. “First, to showcase the creativity of cities in advancing people-centred good approaches. And second, to strengthen the networks of cooperation that guarantee innovation serves folks, and never the opposite means round.”
As digital instruments turn out to be ever extra embedded in city life, the problem for cities is evident: to make sure that good options stay human ones.
