Smart City Lab – Lenzburg 2020, the results!

And there it went!
In the beautiful Aula Blecherain, blended by the October sun, the organizing committee gathered and broadcasted the announcements of the challenges to be worked upon during the Smart City Lab Lenzburg.

Meant to take place on site, this collaborative ideation-workshop about the future of how to live together, took place online. An online event actually feels very abstract: a lonely little number at the bottom of a computer screen tells about how many other screens are switched on as well…
But as groups start forming, Slack starts beeping and conversations start resonating through the computer speakers, it suddenly takes a sense of reality: it’s happening!
People are indeed thinking together to solve a problem.
The truth is, the setting itself is a challenge: almost each step of the workshop, from team definition to problem definition, from co-creation to presentation, requires until now a different software. But soon workflows were clear to everyone and the discussions focussed on ideas, processes and results.

During those two intensive days, we were happy to welcome five short presentations and inputs on different aspects of smart city tools and smart sustainability: one smart city tool is the successful „Züriwieneu“ app, presented by its project-leader for the city of Zürich, Christian Gees. Allowing citizens to report damages and issues in the city itself, it harvests collective intelligence and links it to the appropriate services of the city.
The potential of Data Analysis for planning and optimization in cities was presented by Luis Gisler von Cividi.ch, introducing us to their gemeindescan.ch data visualization platform.
Interesting insights in a new planning and evaluation tool “Smart Site” were presented by Regina Flury vor Arx from novatlantis.ch for Energiechweiz. The general development strategy of such areas was introduced by Daniel Kellenberger, Project leader for 2000W Areale in DE-Switzerland for Energieschweiz.
And a team from the University of Bern presented “Smart Town”, an overall concept for a better management of cultural events in small to medium cities.

Finally, as Virtual the event was, as Real turned the results to be.
This time again, this collaborative workshop came with a harvest of very promising contacts, collaborations, blueprints and prototypes.

The very interesting aspect of the Smart City Lab Lenzburg is the bottom-up movement it involves: while made on measure for very local issues, the projects tackle national or at time even global issues.

Smart-Recycling-Station
Presented a concept for a Smart Waste collection station: Solar powered waste bins with RFID & reporting function as well as a gamified interaction with users (App, entry card including a reward system). https://hack.opendata.ch/project/547

Belebung Altstadt or the Awakening of the sleeping beauty :
A concept for an App platform allows the different users of the city to find easily what the city has to offer: from everyday needs to leisure and culture, consumers find what they look for and more, while shop owners can identify the best spaces for their offer. https://hack.opendata.ch/project/661

Lenzburg electrically independant
Working towards this far vision, the team analysed the present situation in an exhaustive overview and hypothesized scenarios. https://hack.opendata.ch/project/664

Photovoltaics /ZEV im Lenz
The team produced an in depth analysis and model of the photovoltaic potential, usage and project feasibility on the roofs of a new buildings group.  https://hack.opendata.ch/project/608

Energy-counselling of the future
After assessing precisely the needs and potentials of individual/sur-mesure counselling for the stakeholders of the energy sector, the team set a roadmap to create a tool harnessing the new tools (Smart-meters, IOT, AI) for individual consumption analysis in order to enhance service and encourage energy transition. https://hack.opendata.ch/project/662

Connecting neighbourhoods
The team created a blueprint for an open, modular city communication and services platform allowing inhabitants, service providers, shops, cultural and social actors to inform and exchange, motivating and enhancing fluid interaction between the city’s diverse neighbourhoods.https://hack.opendata.ch/project/611

Toolkit for urban data collection
This team created an easy to use software for a set of low cost sensors in order lower the threshold for more continuous in-stream measurements of a city’s variables (such as traffic flows). Gathering high quality data allows assessing the current situation and supports decision making. https://hack.opendata.ch/project/660