The Future of Cities

If you had a say, how would you shape the future of cities? What would be your major concerns? Data privacy? Communities? Affordable Housing?

Our Managing Principal, Jamie Grossman participated in a panel discussion at the  EnsembleCo event to discuss these topics. We was joined by panelists from Evergreen Brickworks, CFC Media Labs, Stackt Market and HousingNowTO. 

Some of the major themes that came out of the event were:

Data Privacy - who owns the data, how do we regulate it, and how can we turn the data into meaningful information?

Community Building - studies show that loneliness rates are on the rise for adults and more and more, urban properties are being occupied by single tenants. How do we build cities that create communities? How do we design developments suitable for 8 year-olds and 80 year-olds?

Access over Ownership - with the rise of platforms like Airbnb and Uber, we will continue to see people prefer access to services, as needed, vs. outright ownership. 

The creation of smart cities is a hot topic right now, especially in Toronto. One area we are grappling with in regards to smart cities is who owns our data? Should it be in the hands of everyone, or in the hands of enterprises, to drive new innovation, or in the hands of government, to ensure privacy and regulation?