Our cities are changing rapidly, thanks to the advent of smartphones, driverless cars, data sensors, connected vehicles, and public Wi-Fi. Thanks to technology, commuters and urban dwellers in general have more options that help them navigate cities and tap into real-time data to find parking and public transport connections. These advances in digital technology in urban environments also allow experts to reinvent cities and optimize their infrastructure.

Google’s latest spin-off, Sidewalk Labs, creates new tech products that will address the problems of city life and improve transportation, social services, health and public safety. Owned by Alphabet Inc., parent company of Google, this “smart-city” venture is building an integrated platform for urban innovation that spans technology, data, policy best practices, relationships, and capital. Sidewalk Labs has hired a team of experts – engineers, city planners, and entrepreneurs – to create these digital products and amass a wealth of knowledge that will allow them to analyze and optimize how city dwellers live, work, commute and use public services.

The enterprise plans to create companies in partnership with entrepreneurs, and work with successful management teams seeking public-private partnerships to help take full advantage of the biggest urban opportunities. Through the use of ubiquitous connectivity, real-time sensors, precise location services, distributed trust, autonomous systems, and digital actuation and fabrication, Sidewalk Labs hopes to solve urban problems such as high costs of living, congested commutes, public health crises and fossil fuel dependency.

Some of the main areas will be performance-based code, advanced materials, and new ownership models for modern affordable housing, digital mobility system which will manage limited road space to improve transportation equity and air quality, personalized social services and new business models, renewable energy, and smarter storage for distributed energy management.

In 2015, Sidewalk Labs acquired companies Control Group and Titan forming a subsidiary called Intersection, which operates with city governments to design media platforms that create public assets and offer advertising options to clients. Interserction’s most recognizable product to date is LinkNYC, a first-of-its-kind communications network that will replace over 7,500 pay phones across the five boroughs with new structures called Links. Each Link provides fast, free public Wi-Fi, phone calls, device charging and a tablet for access to city services, maps and directions.

Thanks to advertising, LinkNYC is completely free. Its innovative digital OOH advertising network is expected to generate more than a half billion dollars in revenue for New York City and provide clients with an optimized, context-aware platform which can reach more people in New York City.

Another flagship platform, Flow, uses aggregated, anonymous traffic data to help city managers identify bottlenecks or redirect trains and buses to neighborhoods with poor transit. It uses technology to stitch together available parking, reducing the time drivers spend circling and the amount of land devoted to parking. This aims to allow cities to better understand where, how, and why people are traveling in order to plan stronger transit networks, and explores the options people have in transportation, the choices they make, and the information that factors into them.

Sidewalk Labs has also been working with 10 cities in the Smart Cities Challenge organized by the US Department of Transportation, which provided $40 million in federal funds to the winning application to modernize their transportation infrastructure through the use of state-of-the-art digital technology. The challenge received seventy-eight applications in total and last June, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced that Columbus, Ohio, has been selected as the winner. Sixteen other applications still received some funding and Sidewalk Labs plans to work with these cities to implement and improve Flow, with the possibility for the cities to buy the product.

“We’re taking everything from anonymized smartphone data from billions of miles of trips, sensor data, and bringing that into a platform that will give both the public and private parties and government the capacity to actually understand the data in ways they haven’t before,” Daniel L. Doctoroff, Sidewalk’s chief executive, told The New York Times. Doctoroff is a former deputy mayor of New York City and former chief executive of Bloomberg.

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The shift towards “smarter cities” is become a more widespread trend, with new technologies and data gathering being tested across the world in order to optimize urban infrastructure. We are excited to see how these solutions affect our daily life.

The post Google’s Sidewalk Labs Aims to Make Cities Smarter appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with Lihi Gerstner and Adi Biran, co-founders of Splacer, an online platform that brings together people who own unique spaces with people who are looking to book singular locations for meetings, workshops, parties, exhibitions or other special events.

Airbnb turned homes into hotels; Splacer transforms undiscovered and underutilized spaces into event venues. As architects, Lihi and Adi understand the power that space can have. With their platform, they want to improve the way that we use and share spaces, promoting a more sustainable model of urban life. They envision a world where beautiful spaces never go to waste and can be a part of a sharing community.

Keep reading to learn how these two architects founded their project starting with a test version that meant renting their own homes, and how this endeavor eventually led to a company with three offices in two continents.

I hope you enjoy the interview!

When did you two team up and what are your respective backgrounds?

We met about 20 years ago in our undergraduate studies, but only clicked when we found ourselves during our master’s studies. Since then we have been collaborating on various projects, teaching architecture, and working on several research studies related to architecture, cultural & demographic behavior, and the future development of cities.

In the 2 years since we founded Splacer we also became business partners. We both hold a B.Arch Degree from the Pratt Institute of Architecture and a Master’s in Advanced Architecture Design from Columbia University. Adi has experience as an architect, lecturer and entrepreneur in Israel and New York, while Lihi has owned and managed her own architecture practices in New York, Paris, Brussels and Tel Aviv and has also been Creative Director and Advisor for several art and fashion companies.

What made you decide to found Splacer? Was there a particular moment that sealed the decision for you?

We’ve always been interested in the ways in which space is being utilized and how it could be better designed to match different activities throughout the day/year. We first tested the idea in Israel, listing our own homes and our friends’ spaces for people to rent for events. It was such a success that we built a company around it that now offers more then 500 spaces across New York and San Francisco.

How did you finance your start-up in the beginning and how is the situation today?

We launched a very lean product and funded it by ourselves. We managed to book events and were later able to hire another person to help us with more bookings.

Last May, we raised our seed fund and with this managed to develop a great team and product, and launched our operation in the US. Today, we have offices in Tel Aviv, New York City and San Francisco, and over 500 spaces are listed on our site.

How many people do you employ and what kind of professional background do they have?

Splacer is made up of architects, curators, technical types, business-minded people, installation artists, photographers, writers, filmmakers, musicians and more. Our team members’ backgrounds are as diverse and unique as the spaces we offer on our platform. Presently we’re 18 people divided between 3 locations.

Who are your clients?

Splacer is a resource for anyone looking to host an event: creative directors looking for a photo shoot location, film directors, those in need of a cool space to host a conference or work retreat, and even individuals who want to host a dinner or birthday party in a unique space bigger than their own apartment (which is an issue in many expensive urban areas). Our spaces are so versatile that the opportunities are endless.

How do you find these great places?

We actively seek them out – and also go by word of mouth! People list their homes and commercial spaces with Splacer because we have a reputation for seeking architecturally distinct locations. You can get a sense of the aesthetics from our website, and our team is creative to the core. They’re constantly on the prowl for urban gems – and we’ve unearthed many.

Do you offer your services as architects/designers when you see a space with potential?

No, Splacer is a platform to list, discover and book event spaces, and as of today we do not offer design or architecture services.

Splacer is often called the Airbnb of event spaces. Are you planning to go global with Splacer like Airbnb?

Right now, our focus is on expanding across the US. So far, we’re in New York City and San Francisco, with Splacer opening soon in a handful of other US cities.

You started out in Tel Aviv, but I can’t find places in Tel Aviv listed on your site. Why is that?

Tel Aviv was our pilot city where we tested, developed and fine-tuned Splacer’s model for scalability. We recently decided to terminate our operation in Israel for several reasons and mainly focus on our US expansion.

Did your architectural skills set help you to become digital media entrepreneurs and do you continue to use these skills in your work?

Every day! Splacer spaces are all vetted for their architectural integrity. We want the platform to offer interesting and cool spaces that pass muster with designers, spark excitement with users, and are accessible to anyone.

Do you have any advice for archipreneurs who are interested in starting their own business?

Think of technology as a new tool for planning and building your surroundings. Be persistent and don’t give up on your dreams. Find the best team members to build your business with and, most importantly, – don’t be afraid to dare and enjoy what you do.

How do you see the future of the architectural profession? In which areas (outside of traditional practice) can you see major opportunities for up and coming developers and architects?

The architecture and construction industries are notoriously slow to adopt new technologies. Architecture must be responsive to local environments and needs, and architects need to better use technology, as it opens new worlds for planning and building our surroundings and is an enabler of good design.

As with many other industries, technology is creating rapid change. With cities expanding, there has been a massive shift, and our perspective is perhaps: “Don’t keep building… but rather find a way to use existing structures and technology to meet our cities’ growing needs.”

About Lihi and Adi

Adi Biran, Founder + CEO
Adi is an accomplished architect, lecturer, and entrepreneur working in Israel and New York, where she owned her own architecture and consulting firm. She brings her creativity, business development and research skills to Splacer. Adi holds a B.Arch. Degree from the Pratt Institute of Architecture and a Master’s in Advanced Architecture Design from Columbia University, both with the highest honors.

Lihi Gerstner, Founder + CMO
Lihi is an accomplished architect with international experience who owned and managed architecture offices in NYC, Paris, Bxl & TLV. Lihi brings this international experience to Splacer, together with her own sense of style and design as a creative director in the fashion, advertising and art industry. She holds a B.Arch. Degree from the Pratt Institute of Architecture and a Master’s in Advanced Architecture Design from Columbia University, both with the highest honors.

The post How two Architects Created a Platform to Share Unused Space for More Sustainability: Splacer appeared first on Archipreneur.

Over the last few decades technology has gone from impacting the way we communicate and work to affecting every aspect of our daily lives. It has started to spill into the physical world and change the appearance and structure of our cities. Architects are no longer free to choose the degree to which they factor in technology in their design processes. Its omnipresence has started to change the way architecture users experience built environment, requiring and expecting an increasing level of responsiveness and interactivity. By putting the power of choice into the hands of ordinary people, technology has forced designers to reevaluate their role and embrace the changes.

Architectural typologies such as multi-family housing, office spaces and urban design have seen drastic changes due to the fast-paced technological evolution. The proximity of living spaces and work, which has marked most of the 20th century, has become a loose concept. Cities are developing and spreading in way that is less dependent on topography and physical connectedness, while our houses are becoming smarter and more energy efficient.

Numerous companies and startups across the globe are recognizing the importance of these phenomena and are at the forefront of a new wave that is flooding city streets. Particularly noticeable is the shift towards the ‘sharing economy’ which allows individuals to become retailers and service providers by cutting out the middleman. Peer-to-peer businesses have crossed over from the virtual world into the physical realm.

Here we categorized the main areas of modern living most transformed by technology and the major companies that channel this change.

#1 – Housing and Real Estate

The “sharing economy” or “collaborative consumption” has had the strongest impact on the housing and real estate market. Similar to Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner which creates no content and Uber, the world’s largest taxi company that owns no vehicles, AirBnB owns no real estate. Instead, it functions as a peer-to-peer online platform which allows people to rent their houses and apartments short-term. By choosing this type of accommodation over hotels and hostels, travelers acquire a wider range of choices, while owners can make profit from underused assets.

A similar scenario is playing out in the work environment. Companies like WeWork provide shared workspaces for entrepreneurs, freelancers and startups by subletting office spaces, along with furniture and Internet. Signing up for an unlimited membership allows people to use WeWork locations around the world and provides an opportunity to chose an environment that suits individual preferences.

WeWork operates by taking out a cut-rate lease on a floor of an office building and reorganizing the space in smaller parts which it then rents out to small business and startups. Because of the higher crowd density-the number of people per square meter-the company boosts its Net Operating Income (NOI), making it easier for them pay higher rents in prime locations compared to conventional companies. This development, connected to the growth of self-employment, telecommuting and freelancing, is redefining the concept of office spaces and threatens to completely overpower large companies in the fight for urban space.

Residential architecture is also being transformed by smart technologies. The introduction of connected appliances and clean energy into both old and new real estate is restructuring the use of domestic spaces. Smart heating systems, energy-efficient thermostats and automatic smoke sensors are among the products offered by Nest, home automation producer of programmable, self-learning, sensor-driven, Wi-Fi-enabled appliances that help save energy.

#2 – Transportation

Billion-dollar transportation company Uber has saturated the private transportation market with on-demand drivers, removing complicated logistics, parking tickets and maintenance hassle from the commuting equation. Hybrid companies like Tesla and Google, mostly operating in automotive and media industries, have already transitioned into different areas of technology.

Google is already testing their self-driving cars, outfitted with cameras and sensors and detailed maps of streets, traffic signals, curb heights and other information required for an unmanned vehicle to operate. It was recently announced that Tesla plans to build fully-functional autonomous cars by 2020, and Uber is planning to buy 500,000 of them.

Meanwhile, Uber has also introduced UberPool-carpooling service that cuts private transportation costs by almost 50%. Commuters are paired through Uber’s logistic engine with other commuters with similar pickup and drop-off locations. By making urban transportation more convenient and less expensive, Uber is making it less attractive for people to buy individual cars and could eventually reduce the number of cars on the road in a city.

Many predict that, because of Uber, millions of people will forgo owning a car in the next few decades. Fewer personal cars would make for less congested, less polluted cities, making taxi cabs, limo services, traffic congestion, accidents and public parking a thing of the past.

#3 – Commerce

eCommerce is slowly removing the need for brick and mortar retail, and threatens to drive the modern shopping mall to extinction. Rising fuel prices, suburban sprawl and worsening automotive traffic increase the rate at which people are turning to online shopping and websites like Amazon, Alibaba, eBay and Instacart.

Shoppers can easily find products online instead of dealing with large retail establishments. Reports indicate that over 200 shopping malls across the United States are suffering 35 vacancy rates or higher. Although e-commerce, along with catalogue and direct mail, makes up less than 9% of total retail sales, this new development is expected to create a huge revolution in retail trends over the next decade.

When it comes to the built environment, this would entail the disappearance of an entire architectural typology which has marked the last century. It will also affect inner city areas by putting a great deal of pressure on small retailers. The migration of retail from the physical world to the virtual one will impact the amount of available urban space, creating new opportunities.

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Private transportation and the real estate market may be experiencing the most immediate effects of technology, but this new trend is becoming increasingly important in the areas of urban planning and mass transport as well. Urban priorities are changing through mobility and the introduction of new frameworks for local and regional governance. Project developers and architects are facing new challenges in creating dynamic, evolving places that respond to the complexities of modern life.

What other companies do you think will impact the future of our cities?

The post Wired City: How Technology is Remapping the Urban Environment appeared first on Archipreneur.