The Flow of Urban Life: Recent Episodes
KONE
Urbanization and digitalization are transforming the way we live, work and commute in cities. The Flow of Urban Life is a podcast by KONE that explores how we can innovate to improve urban flow and create smarter, more sustainable cities of tomorrow.
What will the rapid spread of technology through our living and working environments mean for the architecture of the future? Will all urban builds look space-age futuristic? According to well-known architect Fernando Romero, a growing focus on sustainability means we will continue to repurpose and refurbish legacy architecture while imagining new cityscapes.
With technology advancing so rapidly, it isn’t always easy to imagine the workplace of the future. What we can imagine is that it will be an experience rather than just a destination, says workplace strategist Leeson Medhurst. What will that mean? Imagine VR headsets with gestural interfaces, team meetings in the metaverse, green screen environments and more.
Can we measure quality of life by based on city infrastructure or are there other yardsticks that people value? Urbanist Kristen Jeffers says that while there are common factors that make urban environments livable for most people, it’s important to be inclusive and to design cities with variations of “humanness” in mind.
With 55% of the world living in urban environments and that number set to grow, it’s clear that climate change will affect our cities. The good news according to climate-resistance specialist Aditya Bahadur, is that there are ways to harness technology, big data and AI to mitigate the most damaging effects of extreme events.
How does a large, sprawling hub like Mumbai ensure that more than 21 million residents can commute to work, school or for leisure? In this episode Additional Commissioner, Ashwini Bhide explains how Mumbai’s metro expansion project will ensure safe, comfortable, and efficient commuting, create opportunities for expanded economic activity and ultimately contribute to women’s participation in the workforce.
Architect Le Corbusier believed that a uniform standard for the height of human beings would improve the appearance and function of architecture. But when all humans are not the exact same shape and size, whose scale should we be working to?
In this episode of our podcast, Sam Hughes talks to Hanna Harris, Helsinki's Chief Design Officer, and Juha-Matti Kuusinen, Head of Flow Intelligence at KONE, about what it means to design better connected, more inclusive cities that work for everyone.
The Flow of Urban Life is a podcast produced by KONE. Subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts and follow KONE on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Smart cities have always been using data to imagine a better future for urban inhabitants. In 2022, enhanced digitization continues to help us recognize greater opportunities for citizen participation within built environments, find new avenues for business growth, and identify previously ignored waste.
As the next chapter of digitized, urban living continues to develop at pace, how can we ensure that the technology facilitating this shift is used ethically, delivers sustainable solutions to genuine end user problems, and creates greater opportunities for all?
The Flow of Urban Life is a podcast produced by KONE. Subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts and follow KONE on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
How an office is designed can have a big impact on our productivity and well-being. After months of working from home, we’ve gained a stronger sense of what works and what doesn’t – and not everyone is ready to embrace the thought of returning to the traditional way of working. Will we return to the office at all? How will we meet new expectations for the future of work?
Sam Hughes talks to three guest speakers about the predicted transformations in the workplace in 2021 and beyond:
Torben Østergaard, Architect and Partner at 3XN
Mahwesh Khan, Research Associate at IMD
Etti Seppä, Business Design Expert at KONE
The Flow of Urban Life is a podcast produced by KONE. Subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts and follow KONE on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Technology has long faced scrutiny for its negative effects on our wellbeing. But what if it could help us connect with our surroundings on a deeper level? In this episode, Sam Hughes is joined by Anders Sörman-Nilsson, a leading futurist and the founder of the think tank Thinque, to discuss how innovations in the digital world could transform our physical spaces.
The Flow of Urban Life is a podcast produced by KONE. Subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts and follow KONE on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
From city cleaning to supermarket deliveries, to medical professionals and other frontline workers – services play a key role in making our cities more pleasant, more productive and healthier places to be. With fast-paced urbanization, some people are turning to technology to help meet the growing demand. Could robots help? Sam Hughes talks to three guest speakers to find out:
- Oliver Stahl, CEO at Robotise, a Germany-based start-up on a mission to introduce service robots into people's everyday lives
- Kaisa Spilling, Development Manager at Forum Virium, the City of Helsinki’s innovation company
- Crystal Hu, Marketing Manager at Gaussian Robotics
The Flow of Urban Life is a podcast produced by KONE. Subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts and follow KONE on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
How can we make our cities more inclusive? The host Sam Hughes explores how technology can improve urban design with three guest speakers, all with expertise in working with accessible technology:
Ilkka Pirttimaa, developer of BlindSquare, the world’s most widely used GPS-app for the blind, deafblind and partially sighted.
Holger Dieterich from SozialHelden, co-founder of Wheelmap.org, a map designed to help people find and mark wheelchair-accessible places all over the world.
Mirva Nevalainen, Head of Ecosystem Partner Operations at KONE, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry with a mission to improve the flow of urban life.
The Flow of Urban Life is a podcast produced by KONE. Subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts and follow KONE on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Urbanization and digitalization are transforming the way we live, work and commute in cities. The Flow of Urban Life is a podcast by KONE that explores how we can innovate to improve urban flow and create smarter, more sustainable cities of tomorrow.
The host Sam Hughes is joined by guests from around the world, each with a new perspective on topics like urban design, city living, technology and sustainability.