Main content

Aleks Krotoski explores what technology tells us about ourselves and the age we live in. As more of us move to live in cities, how can they cope with this constant expansion?

Every week a million more people move to live in cities. Can they cope with this constant expansion? Aleks explores whether 'Smart' cities are the answer or do they come with a hidden price of personal freedom. She visits the world's "smartest" city, Masdar in Abu Dhabi and explores the social engineering that's as much part of the design as the bricks and mortar.

Contributors: Physicist Geoffrey West, Urban Explorer Brad Garrett, Lean Doody from ARUP, Dr Iyad Rahwan, Architect and Artist Usman Haque.

Producer: Peter McManus.

Available now

30 minutes

Last on

Mon 14 Oct 2013 16:30

Music Played

  • Boards of Canada

    Gemini

  • Clint Mansell

    Leaving Mineapolis

  • Hauschka

    Paddington

  • Boards of Canada

    Collapse

  • Clint Mansell

    leaving Dulcie

Bradley Garrett

Bradley Garrett

Bradley Garrett is writer, photographer, and researcher at the University of Oxford. From 2008-2012, he lived as an urban explorer, photographing the hidden and off-limits spaces in cities around the world.

Geoffrey West

Geoffrey West

Physicist Geoffrey West Μύis one of the leading scientists working on a scientific model of cities. ΜύHe has found that simple, mathematical laws govern the properties of cities -- that wealth, crime rate, walking speed and many other aspects of a city can be deduced from a single number: the city's population.

Μύ

LΓ©an Doody

LΓ©an Doody

LΓ©an Doody is an Associate at ARUP, where she leads work in Smart Cities, concentrating on the application of information and communications technology in urban developments and how information technology and data can impact how people use cities.

Usman Haque

Usman Haque

London based architect Usman Haque is director of Haque Design + Research. He designs interactive architecture systems and researches how people relate to each other and their spaces.

Dr. Iyad Rahwan

Dr. Iyad Rahwan

Dr. Iyad Rahwan is Associate Professor in Computing & Information Science at Masdar Institute, a research institute established in cooperation with MIT.

Broadcast

  • Mon 14 Oct 2013 16:30

Featured in...

Podcast