Tag: Urban Development
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Plehat Brings Natural Environments into Design Tools
Natural elements are an essential part of the built environment. However, BIM tools offer almost no support to landscape architecture. Plehat is introducing a new solution that helps architects and decision-makers to understand the dynamics of nature and make smart design choices. Plehat used photogrammetric 3D models of Uunisaari islands, to the south of Helsinki.…
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Citizen-Centric Development: An Interview with Ken Dooley
In this interview with Ken Dooley of Granlund, we discuss sustainability from a user’s point of view and how technology will help cities become more citizen-centric. Dr. Ken Dooley is a Technology Director at Granlund in Helsinki. He has over 15 years’ experience as a consultant in the built environment and has worked in London,…
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Smarter Planning Decisions with Geospatial Data
As more data on our environment becomes openly available, new ways to use it in design and decision-making emerge. A-Konsultit, a Finnish architectural design firm, and Sipoo, a municipality, set out to use geospatial data in a novel way. “We got a commission from Sipoo to devise a method for determining development rights in rural…
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Mapple: Better Design and Business Decisions with Location Data
I had the pleasure of interviewing Karolina Mosiadz, COO of Mapple, an urban intelligence startup. Can you say a few words about yourself and your role in the Mapple team? As a marketer, I help early-stage companies find product-market fit, get first customers and start scaling. I focus on projects that aim to bring a…
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How Machine Learning Can Help with Urban Development
An experimentation project has demonstrated the capabilities of machine learning in urban development. It used images as a starting point and came up with interesting and useful applications. “I read data science papers on how machine vision algorithms can be used with satellite imagery. I immediately saw a connection to what we had been doing,”…
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Toward Increased Citizen Engagement in Urban Planning
Digitalization creates new opportunities for citizen engagement in urban planning. I gave a short presentation on the topic at the Digitalization in Urban Planning event in Helsinki. The event was organized by CHAOS Architects, a tech company. Its AI cloud platform allows citizens to share ideas about their city and co-create it with their community.…
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City Development with Interactive 3D Models
The Finnish city of Hyvinkää has developed a unique internet service for collaborative 3D city planning. It gives real estate owners, investors, developers, designers, authorities, and citizens easy-to-use tools to publish their 3D plans and ideas for the built city environment. Participants can comment on the 3D plans directly in the city model. The 3D…
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How Uber is Developing Urban Mobility – An Interview with Marius Macku
I had the pleasure of interviewing Uber’s Marius Macku, Senior Associate of Public Policy & Government Relations, EU. We discuss the outlook for urban mobility. Can you say a few words about your background and your current position at Uber? Sure. I’ve joined Uber almost two years ago, leading our policy efforts around mobility in…
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The Digital Future of Construction – An Interview with Minister Tiilikainen
Kimmo Tiilikainen is the Minister of the Environment, Energy, and Housing of the Finnish government. He will be speaking at the upcoming World Summit on Digital Built Environment WDBE 2018 in Helsinki. Aarni Heiskanen interviewed Minister Tiilikainen on his views of the construction industry and its digital future. The Ministry of the Environment launched, in…
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How BIM is Revolutionizing Building Control in Finland
BIM is becoming mainstream in building design, but building control is still predominantly based on paper documents and 2D drawings. A Finnish KIRA-digi experimentation project has demonstrated how BIM can speed up and improve the building permit process considerably. Three Finnish cities–Hyvinkää, Järvenpää, and Vantaa–are in the vanguard of model-based building control. Together with Evolta,…