The Airbnb effect – the platform’s impact on cities

Airbnb has opened up opportunities for tourists to break away from the norm and enjoy the city as locals do. With millions of people worldwide renting their homes for short stays and shaking up the tourism industry, how did cities adjust to the so-called ‘Airbnb effect’? Melbourne, Berlin and Amsterdam showcase different reactions to the …

Curitiba, Brazil: the world’s first sustainable city

Although there’s a lot of talk about cities that are sustainable, green and built for people, you’ve probably never heard much about the city of Curitiba, the capital of the Parana province in Brazil and the eighth most populous city in the country. Curitiba may not be in the news as much as other cities …

Call for speakers: Smart City Expo World Congress

The Smart City Expo World Congress is an event that has been taken place every year since 2011, and it is an opportunity for urban thinkers to learn about the latest ideas about what the future might look like for our cities. It brings together public administrations, companies, entrepreneurs, researchers and citizens who inspire each …

January 2017 Opportunities for Urban Thinkers

PhD position in Smart Technologies for Empowered Citizens, at the Eindhoven University of Technology The Postdoc research will be carried out as part of a project called Smart Technologies, Empowered Citizens, funded by the The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The research in this project is concerned with a) design principles and b) media theoretical …

We went to CES 2017 and caught a glimpse of future cities

UrbanizeHub was at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. We saw a great number of amazing new technologies that promise to change the way we live our lives, improving even the most routine experiences to a great extent. Some of the most impressive innovations are promising to change the way we …

C40 Mayors Summit: cities lead fight against climate change

The C40 Mayors Summit took place during the first days of December in Mexico City, gathering officials from 90 cities as well as industry leaders to discuss the issue of climate change and the radical measures cities have to take in order to combat its effects. The Summit comes after the historic Paris Climate Agreement came …

UN Conference in Marrakech confirms essential role of cities in fighting climate change

The UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech, Morocco (COP22) is taking place from 7-18 November, and it is being called ‘the implementation COP’. After the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change was signed at COP21 last December and came into force just a few days before COP22 (on November 4th, 2016), the Marrakech summit is …

UrbanizeHub at Different City – Smart City in Bucharest

Urbanizehub was at the 1st edition of the ‘Different City – Smart City’ Conference which was held in Bucharest, Romania in the first week of November 2016. The Conference’s main theme was ‘Innovation and New Technologies in Managing Cities Today and in Planning of the Smart Cities of Tomorrow’, and it was organized by the …

Paris Agreement: city reforms are crucial for achieving targets

The Paris agreement was signed in December 2015 and came into force on the 4th of November, 2016. Countries have agreed to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and cap global temperature rise at 2 degrees Celsius above 1990 levels. Cities around the world account for 70% of all greenhouse gas emissions, which means that …