VIRTUAL Lisbon Livable Cities

Abstract

Lisbon is often touted as one of the most successful cities at implementing Smart City initiatives. What cultural characteristics have contributed to this success when so many other initiatives have failed? This paper will explore the failed or stalled projects of Quayside in Toronto, PlanIT Valley near Porto, and Masdar City in the UAE to understand whether Lisbon may have found the right combination of citizen participation, municipal investment, and tech innovation to model Smart City success. The role of AI in Smart City adoption is also ever evolving and may hold potential in allowing us to transform our built environment into livable and desirable places where all citizens can thrive while collectively reducing our carbon footprint. The failed attempts at urban utopias such as SAAL Bouça in Porto, Quinta da Malagueira in Evora, both by Alvaro Siza, SAAL Setubal by Goncalo Byrne, ANDRO designed by MASSLAB, and others will be compared and contrasted. These neighborhood village examples provide prototypical spatial and political relationships that give insight to creating affordable, healthy, and vibrant communities for the contemporary city.