Smart city neighbourhood beyond branding

Abstract

The article aims to address strategies, and the innovation behind smart neighbourhoods in Europe by leveraging technology and data to make cities more efficient, livable, and sustainable as the current need of urban development. The article’s focus point is the assessment of project cases in Aspern (Vienna), Brainport (Eindhoven), Santa Gulia (Milan), Harbor City (Oslo), Hafen City (Hamburg), and Nordhavn (Copenhagen), to showcase the most driven factors for planning and designing smart neighbourhoods. The study explores various literature for designing smart neighbourhoods that serve as a starting point of smart city initiatives for the urban development of smart cities and should continue beyond city boundaries to entail decentralized energy generation systems, electric charging stations, electric vehicles, and storage facilities which contribute on the neighbourhoods’ development. Conversely, it was also apparent that all of the plans for smart neighborhoods are still being implemented, that there is a lot of experimentation going on, and that the neighborhoods are continuously being improved to better serve their communities. Overall, the included smart neighbourhoods have demonstrated several approaches to being intelligent and sustainable by continuously aiming to develop in higher smart levels such as providing a more sustainable and eco-friendly life for its citizens through a variety of projects. By combining these approaches, smart neighbourhoods can continue to progress, which will significantly improve the quality of life for those who live there.