Future of our Cities | Converging Generations by Accelerate

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FOREWORD

At Accelerate, we believe in the power of inspiration, converging disciplines and building bridges across industries and academia as a way to stretch our minds and to co-create opportunity spaces and solutions to systemic, large-scale challenges.

It also allows individuals to exercise iteration, curiosity and risktaking. These competencies will become increasingly more relevant as disciplines converge to solve complex challenges and as we are required to retool and develop talent to position us for the future.

For the 2018 Accelerate ThinkTank “Future of our Cities - Converging Generations” we invited over 50 industry thought leaders, students, faculty members and design thinkers to contextualize possible future scenarios, brainstorm, and identify opportunities across disciplines and sectors. The participants came from over 40 different organizations in the Boston area, who would not ordinarily intersect on a day-to-day basis, and represented a variety of industries including manufacturing, AI/VR, robotics, healthcare, engineering, architecture, urban planning, design, government, civic innovation, management consulting, transportation, urban farming, play, museum, real estate development, community and social work.

This booklet captures the spirit of the day, the energy of the participants, and shares the opportunity spaces developed for the “Future of our Cities”.

The ThinkTank is not a defined format. It is participant-driven and facilitated by experienced design thinkers. Although the outcomes of the day are unpredictable, there is an innate trust that curating a talented group of individuals with diverse backgrounds, open minds, and curiosity will lead to interesting explorations and realizations. The ThinkTank utilizes design thinking methodologies, offers a forum for inspired conversations and creative immersion, and provides an opportunity for people to draw outside the lines around issues that are shaping our future.

Please reach out if you have any questions or are interested in organizing a ThinkTank. You are welcome to use this content to engage in further exploration - we would love to hear about the outcomes and the adventures in the process. All the best, Monique Fuchs Associate Vice President Innovation + Entrepreneurship Wentworth Institute of Technology Founder, Accelerate

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION

CHALLENGE | FUTURE OF CITIES

HUMAN LENS 17 Converging Generations..................................................................22 Children...........................................................................................23 Working Population.........................................................................27 Aging Population.............................................................................31 Disability + Accessibility Across Generations....................................35 CITY LENS 39 Smart Cities | Technology Impact + Co-Creation..............................41 Philips | Future of Cities Scenarios...................................................47 Scenario 1 | Fab Lab.................................................................. 51 Scenario 2 | Sandbox.................................................................55 Scenario 3 | Resort...................................................................59 Scenario 4 | Campsite................................................................ 61 FINDINGS 71 Mapping of Initial Opportunity Spaces..............................................73 Final Opportunity Spaces.................................................................80 Communities..............................................................................81 Sustainability + Civic Pride..........................................................91 Transportation + Mobility...........................................................101 Interaction + Infrastructure........................................................112 Play.......................................................................................... 124

METHODOLOGY 135 Converging Disciplines...................................................................137 Big to Small | Scenarios to Solutions..............................................147 Design Thinking.............................................................................153 FINAL THOUGHTS

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PEOPLE 165 Speakers.......................................................................................167 Participants....................................................................................173 Facilitators.....................................................................................175 Graphic Facilitator..........................................................................177 ThinkTank Team............................................................................179 Organizing Team............................................................................190 Hosting Organization......................................................................191 CALL FOR ACTION

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CREDITS

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

On February 24, 2018 Accelerate, Wentworth Innovation + Entrepreneurship Center launched the first Future ThinkTank at WorkBar Back Bay in Boston. Industry thought leaders, students, and faculty members from diverse disciplines came together to tackle the topic â&#x20AC;&#x153;Future of our Cities - Converging Generationsâ&#x20AC;? through design thinking methodologies and working in randomly organized groups. The process was organic and participant driven and allowed individuals to push their comfort zones as they ventured into the unknown. Experts discussed the challenges different generations are facing, which allowed a human-centered approach to be woven into the fabric of the discussions. Philips Lighting presented their Future City Scenarios to inspire participants and stretch their thinking. The aim was to take these future city scenarios and work towards tangible opportunity spaces. These opportunity spaces could further concretely define problems and develop solutions down the road and outside of this one-day ThinkTank, thereby, seeding conversation for the next endeavor. The following opportunity spaces were uncovered and filled with ideas over the course of the day.

ACTIVATING ALL GENERATIONS TO SOLVE SYSTEMIC CHALLENGES

Taking advantage of the strengths of each generation is at the heart of activating all citizens. The elderly lend their expertise to civic service or companies and engage as mentors with the younger generations. In turn, the younger generation offers skill development workshops to the elderly allowing them to become familiar with new technologies and content and contribute longer to the workforce. Multiple generations meet regularly through events such as ThinkTanks and Hackathons so that they have designated forums to debate and solve issues facing their communities locally and beyond, and to discover and explore each others values.

PRESERVING THE PAST FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

The demographics of today’s cities are shifting constantly due to impacting income inequality, affordable housing, access to education and safety, gentrification, immigration and climate change. These developments inspire difficult conversations amongst communities to preserve their history while being flexible to fundamentally incorporate new cultures and heritages of diverse communities in order to thrive and survive in the future. Storytelling is taking a front seat and the creation of real and virtual connection points keep history a vital and neccessary part of the city.

MOBILITY FOR EVERYONE

Mobility improvements of the future won’t be limited to strictly vehicles. Biking and walking have become priorities as alternate transportation modalities, thus limiting car usage in the city. Skywalks, smart sidewalks, subterranean walkways and high-speed trains are the new norm for citizens to travel rapidly around cities without impacting traffic patterns. The integration of autonomous vehicles will create a revolutionary transportation mechanism for citizens who wouldn’t ordinarily be able to operate a vehicle to travel from their homes to workplaces, schools and essential services.

TURNING RESIDENTS INTO CITIZENS

Once common ground and issues of interest are established, infrastructure can help to facilitate human interactions more intentionally, thus building positive relationships and trust amongst fellow citizens. As residents buy into the possibilities, these interactions serve as a catalyst for citizens to become more active participants within their communities. Internet of Things [IoT] technology will be widespread in future infrastructure systems and community members will be able to utilize and direct the data collected collected based on their interest (amount of time spent in traffic at an intersection, number of children on the same play structure, etc.). This will improve the design of physical spaces and increase gatherings, community building, and quality of life.

PLAY FOR ALL

Integration of play will be introduced in public and private infrastructures well beyond playgrounds and parks as a way to engage all generations. From interactive art displays and digital piano steps in public places to different floor surfaces, restorative environments with table tennis, swings, and sandboxes in workplaces will intrigue and inspire curiosity spanning the age spectrum. This development is allowing individuals to take breaks to refuel their creativity and energy while contributing to their mental and physical health.

The content discussions of the day were fascinating and the outcomes certainly inspired participants. However, the interactions between individuals across disciplines and the methodologies used throughout the day were equally, if not more, impactful. Many attendees committed to seek intentional input from other disciplines in the future. By incorporating this as part of their work environments as well as utilizing the design thinking methodologies to generate more dialogue and ideas, individual thinking evolved into collective thinking.

“HOW WE SHAPE OUR FUTURES, CATALYZE, AND DIRECT THE UNDERLYING DRIVING FORCES WILL GREATLY DEPEND ON OUR ABILITY TO BREAK DOWN BARRIERS, IDEATE ACROSS DISCIPLINES, AND ENGAGE WITH ONE ANOTHER TO CO-CREATE IMPACTFUL SOLUTIONS.” -Monique Fuchs Associate Vice President, Innovation + Entrepreneurship Wentworth Institute of Technology Founder, Accelerate

INTRODUCTION Accelerate, Wentworth Innovation + Entrepreneurship Center, first introduced the ThinkTank Concept [TTC] in 2013. We partnered with the City of Boston and successfully implemented the TTC four times as an interdisciplinary, citywide initiative solving real-world challenges and jump-starting civic innovation and entrepreneurship. The format brought together over 500 students, designers, innovators, community partners and city officials from more than 25 disciplines. In 2018, the ThinkTank evolved to convene the academic community and industry to challenge assumptions, explore possibilities, co-create ideas and envision the “Future of Our Cities” with a focus on “Converging Generations.” The format is highly participatory and promotes colocation. It is imperative to provide the space and informal setting in which participants can build bridges and experiment with being uncomfortable as they are confronted with assumptions, thinking styles and viewpoints potentially foreign to their own disciplines, experience and backgrounds. Typically, as part of the day-to-day office routine, there are no natural connection points between an archaeologist and an innovation leader at a children’s hospital. The ThinkTank format thrives on these kind of collisions and encourages participants to celebrate them well beyond the one-day event. The ThinkTank format also challenges hierarchies as experts and senior leaders are mixed with young professionals and students. Every comment and every contribution is relevant and treated equally, democratizing the environment. Knowledge is a valuable key-driver, but curiosity, asking questions and making unusual connections is the fuel for inspiration and ideas - something that can be produced by any individual. By providing an environment which ensures and encourages “free thinking,” you find preconceived barriers are removed and limitations lifted for the transformation to begin.

“THERE ARE PEOPLE HERE THAT I HAVE NEVER SEEN IN MY LIFE BEFORE, BUT IN THE PROCESS OF SHARING IDEAS I FEEL THAT I HAVE KNOWN THEM AWHILE. THERE IS COMMUNITY AND THERE IS EMPOWERMENT I FELT FROM IT AND A SENSE OF VALUE FROM CONTRIBUTING MY IDEAS TOWARDS REAL LIFE PROBLEMS.” - Leon David Legislative Aide State Rep Dan Cullinane

“PEOPLE ARE THINKING ABOUT LARGER QUESTIONS RATHER THAN SOLUTIONS.” - Yuri Cataldo Innovation Engagement Manager Autodesk

“THERE IS A LOT OF EXCITEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT AND PEOPLE CAN SEE THE PROBLEMS HERE AND SINK THEIR TEETH INTO THEM RATHER THAN SAYING ‘I’LL JUST GO SOMEWHERE ELSE’.”

- Tess Bailie User Experience Group Leader Draper

“BY IDENTIFYING WHAT MIGHT BE DRIVING FORCES THAT ARE SHAPING THESE FUTURES, IT’S THESE THINGS THAT ARE IN A CERTAIN WAY IMMUTABLE AND ARE TAKING PLACE IN MANY DIFFERENT PLACES OF THE WORLD AT THE SAME TIME.” - Jose Manuel Dos Santos Head of Design and User Experience / Americas Philips Lighting

Photo By: Tory Lam

CHALLENGE | FUTURE OF CITIES Envisioning the city of the future has occupied humans most likely since the first towns or cities were built. The built urban environment merges with immaterial systems all working together to create complex cities that attract so many of us to reside in these areas. Cities throughout history have been centers of trade, taking advantage of shared resources and uniting forces to benefit its inhabitants. Cities for converging generations will continue those traditions, sharing knowledge and resources between generations, creating sustainable living environments and allowing access to amenities for all. Our cities are defined by cultural diversity and continuing change. They are dynamic organisms, growing and shrinking, increasingly needing to adapt to changes in economy, politics and climate. The literal and intellectual territory of the city includes formal downtowns and informal settlements – periphery and core. According to the United Nations, over 50% of the world’s population is living in cities today, increasing to 66 percent by 2050.1 These numbers mean that managing and shaping suitable urban environments will become an important and inevitable challenge. “As a result, [...] countries will face numerous challenges in meeting the needs of their growing urban populations, including for housing, infrastructure, transportation, energy and employment, as well as for basic services such as education and health care.”2 While the fragility of the planet has become more obvious in recent years, opportunities and less conventional solutions reveal the spaces of opportunity. New approaches could include taking advantage of disruptive technologies, the sharing economy, questioning traditional form of ownership/introducing a laboratory for change, and supporting citizen involvement and co-creation by bringing together generations for knowledge sharing purposes.

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http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/urbanization/the_worlds_cities_in_2016_data_booklet.pdf [accessed 3/5/18] http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects-2014.html [accessed 3/11/18]

HUMAN LENS

“THE EXCITING THING ABOUT THIS THINKTANK WAS, DESPITE HAVING ALREADY ESTABLISHED OPINIONS, YOU NEVER KNOW HOW THOUGHTS AND IDEAS WILL BLEND. AS ONE OF THE SENIOR PARTICIPANTS, I LEFT FEELING MY EXPERIENCES WERE GREATLY APPRECIATED AND AFTER DISCUSSING CONVERGING GENERATIONS THROUGH MENTORING PROGRAMS, FELT MORE VALUED. FOR ME IT CONFIRMED, AGE IS JUST A NUMBER. LET’S DO THIS AGAIN!”

- Josephe Cote Chief Strategy & Commercialization Officer Navy Yard IP

CONVERGING GENERATIONS

Human-centered design is critical to create relevancy as we develop products and services. It was therefore essential to give insights into all generations and abilities to holistically explore the future of our cities. Children and individuals with disabilities require accommodations within our city scapes for a higher level of accessibility and are often an afterthought or not considered at all. In recent years, more attention has been paid to the aging population across the world and the societal challenges that this aging population will present from both a healthcare and infrastructure perspective. The working population, including the burgeoning workforce of Millennials and Gen Z, has been at the forefront of how we envision the future of our cities. Their contributions are directly linked to economic impact and the need to retool and educate our workforce in the context of machine learning, AI and other disruptive technologies. These generations are also shaping our work environments, which are driven increasingly by loosely coupled engagements (gig-economy) and â&#x20AC;&#x153;slashâ&#x20AC;? careers. The ThinkTank was approached from an inclusive and integrative perspective since the building of community ecosystems requires that all generations come together to solve societal challenges influencing our collective futures.

CHILDREN

Kate Tooke, a senior associate and landscape architect with Sasakiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Urban Studio, noted that while our cities are growing, children are an often marginalized group even though the percentage of children in cities is significantly increasing. It is projected that by 2039, 60% of urban dwellers will be children and future citizens of the city. Today, children engage in free play outside, on average, less than four minutes a day. This occurs for many reasons: academic pressure, distractions through technology and media, but also safety. Over the last few decades, the radius of childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mobility has continuously decreased. These developments impose real consequences for children due to the shrinking range of play. Creativity is declining, obesity and mental illnesses are increasing significantly impacting behavior, as well as outdoor play opportunities and habits. As we consider city infrastructures, it is imperative to advocate for more creative playgrounds beyond the standardized kit that has no relation to context, community, and culture. An expanded vision for playgrounds and public space should include all types of play â&#x20AC;&#x201C; functional, physical, dramatic, constructive and game-based.

There are successful examples of interactive spaces being integrated into existing urban spaces, including pop-up parks that create play opportunities in unexpected locations. In addition, considering streets and pathways that create connective tissue and are part of children’s everyday access points as they navigate between home, school, and other activities - either alone, with their families, or caregivers - are opportunities to provide more freedom to explore in an integrative way. Further, ARUP’s study “Cities Alive: Designing for Urban Childhoods” lays out five challenges for Urban Childhoods: • Traffic and pollution • High-rise living and urban sprawl • Crime, social fears, and risk aversion • Inadequate and unequal access to the city • Isolation and intolerance3 According to Fred Rogers, play is a serious endeavor. It is critical to invest in the future of young individuals to develop citizens prepared to lead the next generation. The reality is that our brains continue to embrace play into adulthood to make sense of the world, to build interpersonal skills, and to provide a stimulus for creative connections and relaxation. Perhaps considering this notion as we design the future of our cities may serve all generations.

ARUP, “Cities Alive: Designing for Urban Childhoods” https://www.arup.com/publications/research/section/cities-alive-designing-for-urban-childhoods [Accessed March 11, 2018]

KEY OUTCOMES Why is this important? • The number of children living in cities is increasing exponentially. • The combination of limited communal playspaces, technological distractions, rising academic pressures and safety concerns is severely limiting the amount of time that these children spend at play. • Lack of play is leading to rising rates of obesity and mental illness amongst city-dwelling children, while their creativity is declining as a result. • Seamless integration of children into day-to-day city life is not necessarily given.

“... EVERY CHILD HAS THE RIGHT TO REST AND LEISURE, TO ENGAGE IN PLAY AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES APPROPRIATE TO THE AGE OF THE CHILD AND TO PARTICIPATE FREELY IN CULTURAL LIFE AND THE ARTS.” - UN Article 31 Photo By: Tory Lam

How will this impact the future? • We need future generations of children in cities to have access to opportunities for play so that we can prevent these current issues from becoming systemic. • We have to consider a stronger integration of children’s needs beyond playgrounds and look at them as active participants in city life in areas such as commuting from home to school (train, bus, bike), utilizing city parks for after-school activities/recreation (sports fields, lighting, placemaking), and engaging in daily routines (doctor visits, restaurants, post office).

“DESIGNING FOR CHILDREN MEANS WE ARE DESIGNING GREAT CITIES.” - Kate Tooke Landscape Architect + Senior Associate Sasaki Urban Studio

WORKING POPULATION The working population is the most visible demographic of contemporary urban city dwellers. Kristian Kloeckl, Designer and Associate Professor at Northeastern University, explained how experience design brings together physical and digital environments. This results in an overlap between the (formerly) private workplace and the public realm, where human experiences meet physical spaces. Historically, environments were linked to activities and formed by related logistics (agriculture, industrial production lines, vertical cities for office use). The continuing digitization of information and processes allows an untethering of many working people from a fixed and controlled workplace leading them to spend work time in trains, cafes, parks and other public spaces. Access to work at all times has challenged the traditional 9-5pm life and work rhythm, merging personal and professional spheres. This poses interesting challenges for urban environments:

CITY VS SUBURBAN CAMPUS The new workforce wants to be close and central to activities. This exercises pressure on large companies to leave their suburban locations and move into the city. Opposite to this, companies are taking the “urbanization of suburbs” approach, creating corporate camps with amenities mirroring the urban environment to attract future talent.

MULTI-GENERATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS In a typical business, four generations are involved in the workplace at the same time – requiring new scenarios that allow for a variety of working methods and needs creating life-stage friendly workplaces.

PERMEABILITY OF WORKPLACES AND PUBLIC REALM Workplaces have been rigid, access controlled environments with clearly defined processes and centrally managed. In contrast, public spaces are open to anyone at any time, inviting collective participation that causes unpredictability and improvised action in generative ways. It will become essential to consider what permeability may mean for workplaces, how said workplaces can add value to the general community surrounding them, how the public would move through the space, potentially taking advantage of amenities typically not accessible, how much workplaces can leverage the public and take advantage of existing infrastructures without becoming capsules.

KEY OUTCOMES Why is this important? • Traditional boundaries of work in regards to time and place are challenged. • Many companies are relocating to offices in the midst of revitalizing or gentrifying neighborhoods that appeal to both current and prospective employees. • Other companies are bringing the amenities of city life to suburban campuses at a price point that is less expensive than renting or purchasing office space in downtown districts. How will this impact the future? • Since most workplaces incorporate employees of multiple generations, there is an innate challenge in balancing everyone’s needs/ wants and workplaces will become more versatile and customizable as a result. • Opportunities for the public to utilize formal work environments and employees to engage in the public realm will pose questions around data security, work efficiency, and performance outcomes. • The continued expansion of companies moving into the city will add additional strains on key services/resources such as transportation, infrastructure, housing, telecom systems, and healthcare.

“WE FOUND AN INTERESTING SITUATION WHERE THE PRIVATE WORKPLACE MEETS THE PUBLIC REALM AS SOMETHING THAT SEEMS INCREASINGLY SOUGHT OUT BY THE WORKFORCE.” - Kristian Kloeckl Associate Professor, Department of Art + Design Northeastern University

AGING POPULATION Emily K. Shea, Commissioner on Affairs of the Elderly for the City of Boston, emphasized that people have never lived this long, making an agefriendly city inevitable, according to the World Health Organization. “In 2017 Boston reached a tipping point, where we have more people over the age of 60 than children under the age of 18 - and we will never go back.” This has been true in cities across the globe and deliberations are necessary to capture how we think about getting older and how we can utilize these additional years of living. It is critical to think broadly across sectors and communities and not only consider a service approach for the elderly. As we change our views on aging towards increased respect and social inclusion of the aging population, the following considerations for age-friendly cities become more relevant:

TRANSPORTATION As elderly stop driving, they want and have to stay engaged and access locations such as the doctor’s office or grocery store. Emerging technology such as self-driving cars or ride-sharing services can assist. COMMUNITY + OUTDOOR SPACES Crosswalks, transit-oriented developments with short pathways and opportunities to rest, accessibility of buildings and parks would promote access and orientation. HOUSING Alternative living arrangements that encourage a sense of community within their neighborhoods can be a key to a healthy living at any age such as micro-units, home share models (old-young), accessory dwelling.

COMMUNICATION + SOCIAL ISOLATION Information and access to information are crucial factors for an immersion of seniors in the everyday life of our cities while staying connected to programs, events, and services. The current senior generation has less access to the internet, necessitating other forms of media such as newspapers. However, this will shift as more technology savvy generations age. HEALTH + SOCIAL SERVICES Exercise remains imperative in order to stay connected and active. Technology has made home health monitoring services possible, which will require a balance with external services. Long-term care requires higher coordination of systems and higher integration with the community.

CIVIC + WORK ENGAGEMENT + ECONOMIC SECURITY The aging population is a huge contributor to community services and tapping into their experiences and knowledge more intentionally would provide added value in the community and in the workplace while emphasizing the potential of bringing together old and young, teaching each other, and ultimately benefiting the overall community. “Because active aging is a lifelong process, an age-friendly city is not just “elderly-friendly”. Barrier-free buildings and streets enhance the mobility and independence of people with disabilities, young as well as old. Secure neighborhoods allow children, younger women, and older people to venture outside in confidence to participate in physically active leisure and in social activities. Families experience less stress when their older members have the community support and health services they need.”4

World Health Organization. “Global Age-friendly Cities: A Guide.” http://www.who.int/ageing/publications/Global_age_friendly_cities_Guide_English.pdf [accessed March 9, 2018]

KEY OUTCOMES Why is this important? • Cities around the world have more citizens over 60 than under the age of 18. • Critical upgrades must be made in communication, healthcare, housing, and transportation. • Equip communities to fund the infrastructure and services that will be necessary to support this influx of elderly citizens. How will this impact the future? • Infrastructure modernization and new technologies, such as autonomous vehicles, can change the way how seniors navigate the city. • Communication and information sharing become critical for seniors to stay involved and engage in civic decision making. • Seniors are living healthier lives as home healthcare and social services become augmented with technology. • Alternate housing models will explore the combination of multigenerational communities. • Integration into the workforce beyond retirement age will pose interesting considerations.

Photo By: Tory Lam

“LONELINESS IS AS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH AS SMOKING 15 CIGARETTES A DAY.”

- Emily Shea Commissioner Commission on Affairs of the Elderly City of Boston

DISABILITY + ACCESSIBILITY ACROSS GENERATIONS David Morgan, President & CEO of Future In Sight, challenged participants to place disability at the heart of the matter and therefore consider it an ideal source for innovation efforts.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Lean in and design for the few not the many. Start with the 1% diversity and special needs, drive innovation and test against the many.â&#x20AC;? Every human wants to be the same on some level, yet also be celebrated for their differences and uniqueness. This is also true for individuals with disabilities, as they want their needs to be understood and then treated the same as everybody else. Each individual with a disability has the opportunity and the right to do whatever anybody else does and various disciplines have the obligation and privilege to explore the space and life of individuals with disabilities and begin to actively create solutions for them and with them.

This consideration plays an active role as we think about the future of our cities allowing everybody, with or without disabilities, to participate in sports, take care of their household, navigate the environment, engage in professional activities and recreation. Disruptive technologies, automation, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality have the potential to act as a potent equalizer allowing access with fewer or no obstacles to cities and other environments. As outlined in the United Nations publication Good Practices of Accessible Urban Development-Making urban environments inclusive and fully accessible to ALL there is still much work to be done to create inclusive environments and flipping to design for the few could be a valid first step.

“For the 15 percent of the world’s population who live with a disability, many of whom reside in urban areas, available evidence reveals a widespread lack of accessibility in built environments, from roads and housing, to public buildings and spaces. Evidence also reveals a lack of accessibility to basic urban services such as sanitation and water, health, education, transportation, emergency and disaster response, resilience building, and access to information and communications. These accessibility limitations greatly contribute to the disadvantages and marginalization faced by persons with disabilities, leading to disproportionate rates of poverty, deprivation and, exclusion. These disadvantages also impede the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other internationally agreed development goals.”5

United Nations, “Good Practices of Accessible Urban Development.” http://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/desa/good_practices_in_accessible_urban_development_october2016.pdf [accessed March 11, 2018]

KEY OUTCOMES Why is this important? • Citizens with disabilities and mobility challenges tend to be treated as afterthoughts by government and community stakeholders unless they are required by law to assist their needs. • The costs associated with building/renovating infrastructure and creating support systems to help these citizens engage in the everyday activities associated with city life are relatively minimal, but spending money on a small segment of the population is typically unpopular policy with the general public. How will this impact the future? • Thanks to continued activism and awareness for the rights of people with disabilities/mobility challenges, communities are advocating for an increased societal focus on allowing these fellow citizens access to the same opportunities and amenities that 99% of the population already enjoys. • As our population of stakeholders in government and the private sector continues to age, they may be faced with disabilities/mobility challenges in their own lives or those of family/friends. Personal experience leads to greater empathy/understanding and creates a sense of urgency to take an active role in finding solutions. • Creating infrastructure/support systems for citizens with disabilities and mobility challenges has allowed these citizens to become more active and more easily travel to work, help tutor children or engage in physical fitness.

Creative Accessibility Mapping Tour Photo Credit by Andi Weiland | SOZIALHELDEN

“THERE IS NO SINGLE BETTER SOURCE FOR YOUR FUTURE INNOVATION EFFORTS THEN TO DIVE DEEP AND UNDERSTAND THE NEEDS OF THOSE WITH DISABILITIES.”

- David Morgan President & CEO Future In Sight

CITY LENS

SMART CITIES | TECHNOLOGY IMPACT + CO-CREATION Tom van Arman, Founder of Tapp in the Netherlands, joined the ThinkTank virtually to share smart city developments and their impact in Amsterdam and beyond. In the context of increased life expectancy, declining labor force, and increased healthcare and housing costs, cities have limited options to tackle broader societal challenges. Considering a three-domain approach may prove to be beneficial in order to progress these challenges into solutions for citizens and society.

1 2 3

Identifying public partners in national and local governments and economic boards is essential to learn about the challenges the city is facing. Pulling in the private sector for funding and content expertise such as telecommunication, energy and data processing firms, and their ability to provide sustainable changes to their infrastructural services. Engaging makers, startups, and small businesses to produce solutions.

Consumer technology allows us to live longer and more independently - wearable devices track activities and health conditions; smart wireless integrated systems enable seniors to interact with information, e.g. smart speakers, smart buttons with lock and SOS technology, home automation, intelligent pill boxes, robots for daily chores, companion and telepresence robots. All might contribute to less risk and independent everyday experiences.

Smart communities explore new models of living and the co-creation of cities as illustrated in the following examples: HOUSING FOR SERVICE This project brings together students and seniors, offering financial benefits and housing opportunities for younger people in exchange for support and help in the house or with the digital world. Private developers work with state/local governments to build apartment complexes where seniors share space with younger individuals/families who receive tax credits for agreeing to help care for their elderly neighbors.

POSTAL SERVICE RE-IMAGINED The postal service in the Netherlands has deployed their postal workers to document problems in communities since changes in delivery mode from physical mail to digital information has required to reinterpret the classic role of postal employees. In addition, post boxes are equipped with monitors to transmit noise levels, heat and air quality turning traditional functions into data collection centers. COMMUNITIES CO-CREATING CITIES Environmental Scientists, Designers, and Architects organized a community, Café de Ceuvel,6 deploying barges to restore polluted land and prepare a stronger ecological system essentially creating a clean tech playground, where sustainability is made tangible, understandable and fun. Buildings produce energy, which is stored in batteries. Through the use of blockchain technology as a new currency, residents can pay in the cafe with kilowatt instead of Euro. This is a remarkable movement allowing citizens to not only live in cities, but create them. A conscious and thoughtful interaction with the various systems is necessary since civic leadership might not act quickly enough to regulate the process.

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“Cities should also be mindful of the organizational challenges that accompany smart city implementation. Functional silos, the challenges of cross-sector collaboration, and political gridlock will not disappear with the arrival of these new ‘smarter’ systems. If these challenges can be overcome, then smart city development can prove beneficial.“7

http://deceuvel.nl/en/ [accessed 3/7/18] National League of Cities, “Trends in Smart City Development.” https://www.nlc.org/sites/default/files/2017-01/Trends%20in%20Smart%20City%20Development.pdf [accessed March 7, 2018]

KEY OUTCOMES Why is this important? • The cities that we wish to pass down to future generations can’t be built by a single group of stakeholders. • Solving these issues will require a collaborative effort with public partners, private sector investors/experts and entrepreneurs all involved in the process of co-creating smart cities beyond technology to help conquer these omnipresent societal challenges. How will this impact the future? • All citizens benefit from these partnerships as communities become more sustainable, resourceful, cost-effective and healthier over the long term.

“IT’S NOW TIME TO TAKE A HARD LOOK AT THE IMPACT OF ROBOTS, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, AUTOMATION AND TECH WEALTH ON OUR SOCIETY.”

- Tom van Arman Founder & Director Tapp

“OUR CITY IS CHANGING. WE NEED TO HELP ENSURE IT CHANGES FOR THE BETTER. THINKTANK PROVIDED A RARE AND IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY FOR US TO UNDERSTAND OUR CHALLENGES AND DESIGN FOR A BETTER FUTURE.” 45

- Robby Bitting Director of Special Projects MassChallenge

PHILIPS | FUTURE OF CITIES SCENARIOS Rooted in a 129-year old tradition in designing lighting for buildings and cities, Philips had a solid business model with very little competition. As soon as LED was introduced, the whole industry changed. Jose Manuel dos Santos, Head of Design and User Experience/Philips Lighting/Americas, discussed three focus areas that emerged for Philips Lighting:

1 Lighting for everyone of lighting based on user needs, e.g. related to circadian 2 Quality rhythm 3

Connected lighting, which is a revolutionary opportunity and a bit like Pandora’s box - “Connected to what?”

Philips had started to engage in scenarios planning a long time ago because they understood that there would be significant disruption

Philips, “Future of Cities,” https://goo.gl/qENTWN [accessed 3/12/18]

in the market and identified driving forces that would be shaping these futures. “The four [future city] scenarios center on the interaction of two driving forces. A driving force is a form of pressure that influences a domain. Forces can be long-lived, but they manifest in the short term as trends that come and go. In scenarios planning, we seek the most impactful and uncertain driving forces, as they are more likely to be the sources of future change and challenges than phenomena that are familiar and understood.”8 Two key driving forces were:

1 Access to information 2 Adapting to rapid changes

Other contributing forces include:

social inclusion and conflict, subscription economy, sustainability and resources, personal data, interaction and engagement. “The scenarios do not focus on a specific element in a domain, such as lighting, but rather envision how we may experience future cities in general [...] in the global context with changing infrastructures and technologies and their impact on experience and use of the urban environment.” 9 “The seeds of the future are already visible today. Next to each scenario, we describe the seeds from which the drivers grow, demonstrating their influence today while leaving room to imagine how they might create bridges to the future. By offering extreme views, we aim to stretch thinking and challenge assumptions. This approach is supported by Shoemaker (1993), who argues that scenarios are a unique approach to deal with complex and uncertain environments, and to help overcome corporate blind spots.”10

Philips, “Future of Cities,” https://goo.gl/qENTWN [accessed 3/12/18] Vogel, Sandra. “Philips Lighting looks at city life in 2035.” https://internetofbusiness.com/philips-lighting-city-life-2035/ [accessed 3/7/18]

SCENARIO 1 | FAB LAB Municipalities work hard to provide basic infrastructures, while citizens take the lead in realizing their own local and virtual community experience. Citizens are attached to their global communities, not necessarily to the cities in which they live. People who belong to these global â&#x20AC;&#x153;familiesâ&#x20AC;? share values and build crucial knowledgesharing and competency networks. Flexible, fast, and smart, such communities succeed in addressing membersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; changing needs. Outpacing the speed of the municipality, communities team up with innovative businesses. Businesses have a local presence in the community and use communities as carriers for innovation.

www.philips.com/cityscenarios

PEOPLE TAKE OWNERSHIP TO REALIZE INFRASTRUCTURE AND EXPERIENCE WITHOUT WAITING, OR AGAINST THE INTENTIONS OF THE AUTHORITIES. Photo By: Tory Lam

SELF-MADE TRAFFIC SIGNAGE People around the world are contributing to road safety by adding traffic signage themselves. Traffic signage vigilantism includes painting or better marking of cycling lanes, erecting signage for better wayfinding in tricky locations, and creating no-parking zones to reduce the danger of turns in narrow streets. http://bit.ly/trafficvigilante

Photo Credits Shutterstock: Rawpixel.com

BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE Citizens take infrastructure construction and maintenance into their own hands, as authorities are not acting or are too slow to act. In two very different settingsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Panama and the USâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;citizens organized to build their own bridges to create access to vital resources, such as medical care and transportation. http://bit.ly/panamabridge

Photo Credits Shutterstock: Rawpixel.com

www.philips.com/cityscenarios

OPEN INFORMATION While some jurisdictions limit internet access, activists find workarounds to make restricted information available. Citizens caused an uproar and hackers launched attacks when authorities in Russia, Thailand, and China attempted to pass laws and take actions that could lead to or reinforce online censorship. http://bit.ly/hackerworkaround

Photo Credits Shutterstock: Rawpixel.com

SCENARIO 2 | SANDBOX

Citizens are in the lead, enabled and coordinated by the municipality as their primary partner. With the municipalityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trust, citizens can create their own environment within the city. Citizens strive for user-centric innovation and use the services of local businesses to improve city livability and experience. Municipalities facilitate the connections between different citizen-run services and initiatives. Cities are eclectic environments that offer a multitude of different experiences. Citizens are attached to their cities and want to contribute to them and improve them, so they are less likely to relocate.

www.philips.com/cityscenarios

AUTHORITIES MOTIVATE AND SUPPORT CITIZENS TO REALIZE SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE COMMUNITIES AND EXPERIENCES.

COMMUNITY GARDENING Given the chance and the means, citizens are already contributing to city experiences, from beautification to supporting community shops, restaurants, and bars. In New York City, a community initiative, with the support of different public funds, re-established a community garden to give local residents access to affordable fresh food. Organized place-making movements around the world help improve the community experience. https://www.pps.org/

INTERACTIVE CITIZEN CONTROL In some cities, citizens shape the city experience through new digital means. In a pilot test in the Netherlands, people with reduced mobility can use a smartphone app to extend green phase duration at pedestrian crossings. Cyclists can use a smart e-bike solution to generate energy and collect information for the city as they cycle around town. http://bit.ly/smartcitytechnology

www.philips.com/cityscenarios

COMMUNITY-DRIVEN SOLUTIONS

Rather than dictating citizen engagement, authorities and organizations inspire citizens to realize solutions that will improve their lives. Inspiration could come in the form of awards for realizing community health improvements, or meals for unemployed and homeless people in exchange for work in restaurants or as city guides. http://bit.ly/healthyfoodaccessinfo

SCENARIO 3 | RESORT

www.philips.com/cityscenarios

Photo Credits Shutterstock: Yurich

With personalized recommendations for leisure, education, work, and lifestyle, city municipalities offer citizens highly regulated and guided city experiences. To keep pace with citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; desires, municipalities work hard to maintain city quality standards. With the needs and desires of citizens in mind, municipalities regulate and steer the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business landscape using a municipal approval process, which can create challenges for corporations operating within the city limits. By supporting approved companies, municipalities create a balanced business ecosystem that citizens can enjoy and trust.

PEOPLE ARE GUIDED AND FACILITATED IN THEIR CHOICES REGARDING WORK AND DAILY LIFESTYLE. PERSONALIZATION People want personalized recommendations, even though all of the consequences of doing so are unclear. Personalization has already taken over online news, searches, and shopping, but it does not stop there. Apps are now starting to offer people ways to optimize their daily schedules and realize their personal goals. http://bit.ly/personalizedrecos

OPTIMIZATION While going about their daily routines, people look for ideal conditions that automatically ensure their day-to-day needs are satisfied. Real estate service companies typically manage office space for large corporations. However, entrepreneurs and small business can also make use of well-serviced co-working spaces. Community managers make sure the needs of members are addressed by optimizing the office space and by organizing courses, informal get-togethers, and other social events. http://bit.ly/weworkconnections

SCENARIO 4 | CAMPSITE A few major platform providers are in the lead and brand the city experience through service offerings. Public spaces and city infrastructures are corporate owned. Cities team up with local and global partners to provide unique urban experiences. Global plug-and-play services allow people to live nomadic lifestyles. Bound only to a platform and its provider, citizens are unattached to any particular city. These digital nomads follow their dreams and desires, moving easily and quickly from one city experience to the next.

www.philips.com/cityscenarios

AS DIFFERENT PLACES OFFER UNIQUE BENEFITS IN BOTH THE PHYSICAL AND VIRTUAL WORLDS, PEOPLE ADOPT NEW LIFESTYLES WITH UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES.

Photo By: Tory Lam

ADVOCACY In some cities, large corporations dominate the city experience. Opening a new office or moving a corporate headquarters to a new city brings benefits, such as new jobs. However, moves often increase rents, and large high-street chains can have a destructive impact on the economic ecosystem of small local retail shops. Losing the original city character is a negative side effect of gentrification. When a city loses its soul, people can take to the streets to voice their concerns. http://bit.ly/seattlegentrification

Photo Credits Shutterstock: Anton Havelaar

DIGITAL IMPACT The digital world inspires new lifestyles, but with all of the possibilities for interaction available online, isolation is becoming an increasingly common social issue. Isolation gives rise to problems such as loneliness, lack of interpersonal skills, and difficulty developing intimate relationships with friends and life partners. http://bit.ly/isolationjapan

Photo Credits Shutterstock: Anton Havelaar

www.philips.com/cityscenarios

DIGITAL NOMADS You no longer have to take a year off after you finish your education, or a sabbatical from work, to tour the world and explore other cultures. An increasing number of professionals have become digital nomads, expats, or global commuters. Transition to this sort of working style can be triggered by political events such as elections, a former employer’s decision to relocate, or the simple curiosity to explore. Entrepreneurs and professionals can take advantage of programs that offer organized travel around the world to experience different cities, as long as the proper infrastructure and network are available to allow them to continue working remotely. As technology advances—for example, with proposed high-speed transportation hyperloops—people could commute longer distances between a desired working place and an affordable residential area. www.remoteyear.com

Photo Credits Shutterstock: Anton Havelaar

KEY OUTCOMES Why is this important? • Within the context of cities – access to information, rapid societal transformations, social inclusion and conflict, sustainability, resources, and data are the major driving forces influencing the future of our cities. How will this impact the future? • The players within cities will need to re-negotiate their roles and come together to determine how to collaborate and co-create dependencies fostering impactful solutions. • Municipalities may become providers of infrastructure, facilitators of citizen-driven services, or maintain their roles as regulators. • Citizens may engage actively as creators or become users of the city. Their identity may not only be defined locally, but possibly globally adding new challenges on how invested they are in shaping their current living environments as they may follow a nomadic lifestyle. • Businesses may become collaborators and partners co-creating services and products used in cities with other organizations and citizens. The corporate sector may also become a vetted ecosystem with tight regulations or businesses may exclusively engineer and influence cityscapes. • Technology may be utilized to unite or divide. Players may be invested to create technology improvements together or businesses may push to further customize services optimizing the understanding of needs and wants and opening discussions around transparency and data security among others.

Photo By: Tory Lam

“CITIES DO NOT KNOW WHERE TO START, SO CREATING THAT VISION WITH A STEP BY STEP PLAN BECOMES THE MOST IMPORTANT THING.” - Jose Manuel Dos Santos Head of Design and User Experience / Americas Philips Lighting

“THE SAME WAY WATER SHAPES A CANYON OVER MANY YEARS, THE POPULATION IS SLOWLY SHAPING THE STREETS AND BLOCKS WHERE WE LIVE. IT’S A REMARKABLE EXPERIMENT THOUGH TO PAUSE THE FLOW AND TALK ABOUT WHAT WE WOULD AND COULD DO IN A UNITED EFFORT TO SHAPE OUR SPACE.” - Greg Affsa Product Experience Manager Optum

“IN THE AGE OF ANTHROPOCENE THE CITY HAS BECOME THE LATEST MAN-MADE LAYER OF THE GEOLOGY OF OUR PLANET. SMART CITY INTERVENTIONS COMBINED WITH EFFICIENTLY CONFIGURED PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND HUMANE ARCHITECTURE WILL BRING OUR URBAN CONTEXT INTO A SUSTAINABLE AGE.” - Anne-Catrin Schultz Assistant Professor of Architecture Wentworth Institute of Technology

“INCREASED POPULATION DENSITY MEANS INCREASED EXPOSURE TO AIR, NOISE, AND LIGHT POLLUTION. FOR ARCHITECTS IT IMPACTS HOW WE SHAPE BUILT ENVIRONMENTS THUS IMPACTING OUR COLLECTIVE WELL-BEING. CONSIDERING THE HUMAN LENS WILL HELP US TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN DESIGN AND PUBLIC HEALTH AND CONTRIBUTE POSITIVELY TO THE FUTURE OF OUR CITIES.” - Pilar Botana Designer and Visualization Specialist Stantec

FINDINGS

MAPPING OF INITIAL OPPORTUNITY SPACES ThinkTank participants split into interdisciplinary groups considering how the future may look like from all ages and abilities. Each group proposed a cluster of challenges and considerations that cities must address in the future. These challenges were inspired by the morning’s speakers who highlighted the human and city lens for each topic. The main themes identified across groups were mobility-challenged citizens, community building/interaction, infrastructure, sustainability/civic pride, children/play, and transportation. Evolving these themes, participants constructed “How might we...?” questions for ideation and further uncovering of opportunity spaces. The following graphic shows the development of themes and ideas leading into five opportunity spaces as defined by the groups and illustrated in this booklet.

CHALLENGES + CONSIDERATIONS ELDERLY

COMMUNITY

• Harness the power of seniors people at work • Isolation • Stigma • Exposure • Connecting needs across generations

• Danger in small cities • Socio-economic problems • Diversity • Bridging gaps

INTERACTION • Connecting communities • Perception VS. reality • Accessibility • Connectivity • Equality • Technology • Relationships • Interactions in cities • Density • Communication • Too much reliance on technology

TRANSPORTATION • Inaccessible transportation • Lack of transportation options • Barriers • Improvements • Consider generational + accessibility challenges

CHILDREN + PLAY • Play for everyone • Exploration for children • Freedom • Creativity • Childhood play • Keeping kids safe • Playground

SUSTAINABILITY + CIVIC PRIDE • Sustainability • City natural resources • City history • Encouraging stewardship • Civic duty • Sense of pride

DISABILITIES

• Tech to improve lives • Design for everyone’s vulnerabilities • Accessibility disadvantages financially • Accomodations for bigger needs • Helping the 1% • Focus on visuals for people w/ disabilities • Supporting and encouraging vulnerability

HOW MIGHT WE...?

INFRASTRUCTURE

• Private VS. public space • Vertical development • Housing

HOW MIGHT WE...? SUSTAINABILITY + CIVIC PRIDE

• Engage a community in sustainable living • Increase civic pride, stewardship and engagement to preserve the environment and unique history • Frame and define sustainable living

TRANSPORTATION + MOBILITY

• Leverage innovation to connect citizens and visitors who currently have limited mobility • Better support use of public transportation

INTERACTION

• Create virtual spaces to meaningfully interact with/ people unlike yourself

INFRASTRUCTURE

• Transform Boston infrastructure to transform residents into citizens • Transform public infrastructure, including transit, to foster interactions • Use city design to encourage collisions of communitie to build supporting networks

COMMUNITIES

• Enhance collaboration to develop relationships in our community • Foster local/ small scale/ lifestyle entrepreneurship • Build a platform for interpretation rich communication with a common language • Build a platform for community by community to solve problems • Build a public space for collaborative interorganizational opportunities for reflection + solutions • Redefine wealth with the human value at the center

ELDERLY

• Build a platform to foster intergenerational skills and value sharing

DISABILITIES

• Meet people at their most vulnerable times • Build cities that are experientially interesting and inclusive for the 1% • Make inclusive and holistic definitions of communities

CHILDREN + PLAY

• Encourage children to be more creative/play • Use public spaces to promote play and diverse interactions • Have inclusive and experiential play spaces • Build communities and encourage play • Reframe social norms to encourage play and creativity • Make cities more focused on wellness play and community • Enable play within out cities 78

HOW MIGHT WE...? | ADVANCING OPPORTUNITIES

COMMUNITIES

• Enhance collaboration to develop relationships within a community • Build cities that encourage collisions of communities to build supporting networks

PEOPLE

• Redefine wealth with human value at the center • Build cities that are experientially interesting and inclusive for the 1%

SUSTAINABILITY + CIVIC PRIDE

• Engage a community in environmental/ sustainable living • Increase civic pride stewardship and engagement to preserve the environment and unique history

TRANSPORTATION + MOBILITY

• Leverage innovation to connect citizens and visitors who currently have limited mobility • Improve utilization of public transportation

FOSTERING INTERACTIONS

• Create/design an inclusive platform for rich communications with a common language and rewards • Use existing infrastructure to transform residents to citizens • Transform public infrastructure to foster human interactions

PLAY

• Reframe social norms to encourage creativity • Have inclusive and experiential play spaces • Rethink social norms of play to promote cross-generational interaction • Build communities while encourage play 79

FINAL OPPORTUNITY SPACES COMMUNITIES

• HMW... activate all generations to solve systemic challenges?

SUSTAINABILLITY + CIVIC PRIDE

• HMW... preserve the past while ensuring a sustainable future?

TRANSPORTATION + MOBILITY

• HMW... encourage and support mobility for everyone throughout the city?

INTERACTION + INFRASTRUCTURE

• HMW... use infrastructure to transform residents into citizens?

PLAY

• HMW... create spaces to catalyze and encourage play for ALL citizens?

COMMUNITIES

ACTIVATING ALL GENERATIONS TO SOLVE SYSTEMIC CHALLENGES In the world we live in, there is a gap between generations. We see a perpetual lack of communication that has manifested throughout the ages. In the midst of this communication gap, a consistent distrust between age groups has formed. This distrust and lack of communication has become ingrained in our societies to the point that there often seem to be significantly more issues that divide generations than those that unite them together. Ageism has become a dual-edged sword. It not only prevents the young from respecting the process of aging and the knowledge that comes with it, but it has kept the old from acknowledging the idealism of youth and the value that their visions for a better future warrants. This perpetual stigma on both sides of the spectrum has become a barrier that our communities struggle to overcome. The youth are afraid to speak up for fear of condescending attitudes towards their views and not being understood. The elderly are afraid to speak up for fear that they have become irrelevant in contemporary society. What if there could be mutual respect towards the qualities and abilities that each generation brings to the table?

Technology also plays a critical role in the development of trust and communication between young and old. Younger generations are early adopters of the latest technological innovations, which they use to rapidly connect and congregate with one another. Older generations often struggle to keep up with these changes in technology. This disconnect can have a variety of negative consequences for older generations. In the workplace they may not be able to keep up with technological advances or their jobs could be replaced through automation altogether. What if we harvest the best of each generation? For example, knowledge and experience from seniors and technological savvy from younger generations. What if senior internships are introduced? What if mentor relationships are mandatory? What if skill retooling and development became an integral element of corporate culture to help sustain talent?

find cross-generational solutions? For example, picking up children from daycare and bringing them to afternoon activities is something working parents cannot accomplish, but seniors may have the time to support families. By recognizing each generationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strengths and weaknesses and acknowledging the value each brings to engaged interactions, opportunities are created.

In order to strengthen our communities and break the barriers that stand between them, it is the responsibility of all generations to find common ground. Since both the elderly and the young have valuable opinions and resources to share, we must collectively come together to provide these disparate generations with the platforms and resources they need in order to stay active and relevant in contemporary societies by making their voices heard. To bring the elderly out of isolation and teach youth the confidence to speak up, these generations must work as one to build the future that incoming generations deserve. What if the elderly engage in civic work that infuses their experiences and knowledge to positively impact their communities? What if generations identify their pain points and

“ALTHOUGH PEOPLE ARE CONSTANTLY IMPROVING THEIR OWN LIVES AND THE LIVES OF THEIR NEIGHBORS, THERE ARE STILL VAST AMOUNTS OF LATENT ENERGY IN THE COMMUNITIES. TECHNOLOGY’S PRIMARY ROLE SHOULD BE TO HELP START, CONNECT, OPTIMIZE AND SCALE SOCIAL INITIATIVES.” -Ramon Salinas Senior Business Strategist Continuum

HOW MIGHT WE ACTIVATE ALL GENERATIONS TO SOLVE SYSTEMIC CHALLENGES? TRANSFORMATION This opportunity imagines key transformations, specifically that we move: • From Distrust to Appreciation • From Barriers to Collaboration • From Disengaged to Vocal STANDING IN THE FUTURE As we stand in the future, citizens from across multiple generations have come together to solve critical issues facing their communities and beyond. The cycle of older generations not understanding younger generations and vice versa has been alleviated so that all community members can share their ideas and visions for the future without fear of backlash or resentment. There is a steady flow of information between all generations and they collaborate on projects deliberately as a unit. Representation from each generation is expected in conversations led by municipalities to assure development that is best for everyone within a city. People feel connected to their community with municipalities building this connection through drawing attention to citizen-run groups. The elderly are tutoring the young after school and the young are teaching the elderly about new technology during their free time. The elderly are bringing their knowledge to the workplace and younger generations are sharing their opinions with community stakeholders.

Shared learning across all generations has become a core foundation of society, and most importantly, it is mutually beneficial. Technology has played a large part in this transformation. Younger generations have gained the trust of the older generation by creating technology that allows them to live healthier and more productive lives. Younger generations also work with their older counterparts to ensure that they have free physical and online classes as well as workshops and tutorials available so that they can quickly adopt new technologies into their lives. The working population has expanded beyond the traditional age group. The elderly play an important role in the workplace. They have remained relevant beyond retirement by staying involved in mentoring programs and volunteering to lend their knowledge to organizations. They have begun new careers as entrepreneurs and team up with young innovators to make their ideas a reality. Young citizens are getting involved in the workforce at a younger age by contributing their visionary ideas through Hackathons and ThinkTanks. This allows the elderly to stay in the workforce and pass down their valuable institutional knowledge to incoming generations of employees.

KEY OUTCOME Why is this important? • Distrust and lack of communication between older and younger generations is an age-old issue that causes regular conflict within communities. Older citizens often feel as though they are treated as irrelevant or stubborn in their ways by their younger counterparts while the next generation doesn’t believe that their ideas are taken seriously by older generations that are in positions of power. How will this impact the community? • Unless we have multiple generations coming together to determine how they can solve these systemic issues by becoming mutually beneficial to each other, this cycle of distrust and lack of communication will continue to prevent their communities from reaching maximum potential and productivity necessary to achieve their goals for the future. How will this change in the future? • The multiple generations come together for society’s benefit and foster mutual understanding and dialog with each other. Younger generations help bring older generations up to speed on technological developments that can lengthen and improve their careers. Older generations mentor their younger counterparts so that they have every opportunity to become future community leaders and change agents. These generations hold regular ThinkTanks, hackathons and forums where they discuss the needs of their communities and how they can work together to solve them.

“DIFFERENT GENERATIONS BRING TO THE TABLE A DIFFERENT APPRECIATION OF TIME.”

- Juan Necochea Director of Operations and Networks ChileMass

SUSTAINABILITY + CIVIC PRIDE PRESERVE THE PAST FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Who we are and how we perceive ourselves (and others) is greatly influenced by the communities we live in and how we define the cultural and historical past of said communities. Culture is manifested in shared language, norms, artifacts and behaviors to define interactions through the bonds we create amongst other people within a community. History also features strongly in the values that a community holds; people and communities are more resilient when they know and feel part of their â&#x20AC;&#x153;story.â&#x20AC;? Emotional resonance is created as citizens recognize the challenges and opportunities communities before they faced so that they have a deeper appreciation for the heritage implicit to the place they inhabit.

business models such as Airbnb change the housing market even further. Landlords are opting to rent their apartments to tourists rather than local families, with the sole intent of enhancing their own opportunities for additional income. As a result, families have to move out of their areas and community clusters are being disturbed as floating inhabitants occupy these living spaces without any ties to the local community. Finally, immigrants are not only bringing an influx of newcomers to communities, but their own unique elements of culture and history. Is it possible for communities to adopt a versatile position so that they can keep an open mind toward maintaining their past while embracing the future?

Increasingly, however, many pressures are threatening peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sense of place, culture, history, and belonging. Environmental pressures, specifically related to climate change, are changing the very nature of communities. Constraints have emerged that impact where we can live, making many communities uninhabitable or requiring families to leave their homes and settle in unfamiliar territory. Economic pressures are making many communities unaffordable to the families who have lived there for generations. Many large cities are facing a deficit of affordable housing, pushing families out of the city while impacting their employability and financial stability. New

Societies who navigate shifting demographics sustainably and stably are those that focus on building equitable and inclusive communities grounded in their unique history and culture. How can cultural integration create a sense of continuity? Will new business models impact the structure of our cities and communities? How could new business models contribute to the strengthening of community rather than fragmentation? How might the characteristics that define a city be translated into a sustainable future? How can technology bring history and culture to life around us?

“THE THINKTANK WAS A REFRESHING REMINDER OF HOW DIVERSE BOSTON’S PROFESSIONAL ECOSYSTEM HAS BECOME. THE DAY’S ACTIVITIES HELPED ME TO TAKE A STEP BACK FROM DAILY LIFE, AND REFLECT ON HOW TODAY’S DECISIONS WILL AFFECT THE FUTURE OF OUR CITIES.” - Dan Holzer Senior Mechanical Engineer Shell TechWorks

HOW MIGHT WE PRESERVE THE PAST WHILE ENSURING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE? TRANSFORMATION This opportunity imagines key transformations, specifically that we move: • From Cohesive Community to Diverse Community • From Defined Culture and History to Fluid Cultural Identity • From Physical Places to Living History Around Us STANDING IN THE FUTURE As we stand in the future, our city’s story is now a living history that is dynamically weaving together the multitude of cultures represented in its people. Communities work together to create guided city experiences that portray the authenticity of their community to visitors. All generations work together to reimagine what a sustainable city looks like and how to keep their civic pride alive. The story is one that is told by many outlets. Within communities, public art tells the story of both first settlers and current dwellers. Emerging technologies (AI, AR, VR) are implemented by the youth within communities so that residents and visitors alike are able to appreciate and experience the historical contexts of their neighborhoods from the generations of people who have inhabited

them. Through augmented reality, people can tap into the historical significance of a local restaurant and learn the story of the family who now owns and operates it. Through virtual reality, participants can see how the infrastructure of a community has changed and meet the leaders/innovators who stewarded these changes. The elderly population is engaged as a liaison for current citizens by telling and recording stories about past generations and their achievements. By personalizing our part, we become mindful of our present position on history’s timeline and in turn, can stretch our imagination to what our future might be. Through this living and co-created story, history and culture are preserved while also creating a springboard into the city’s future. The story is inclusive, and all inhabitants see themselves represented - contributing to a shared investment in the continued growth of our communities across the city. Citizens all work together to improve their communities as a whole. As civic pride grows, so does the individuality of communities and cultural richness thrives between these exchanges.

KEY OUTCOMES Why is this important? â&#x20AC;˘ Contemporary issues such as lack of affordable housing and climate change are forcing communities to consider how they can preserve their history and culture to pass down to generations to come who will grow up in a future without many certainties. How will this impact the community? â&#x20AC;˘ To prepare themselves for an uncertain tomorrow, communities will need to helm the difficult road of strengthening their existing histories and cultures while remaining inclusive to newcomers that wish to contribute their own legacies and ideas to improve their prospects for the future. How will this change in the future? â&#x20AC;˘ Multiple generations collaborate on recording and sharing their histories/cultures through spoken word (tours, Q&A sessions, forums, workshops) and emerging technologies (VR films, AR applications, chatbots, etc.) that can be passed down to fellow community members so that they can understand how these roots have impacted their current lives and get a glimpse of what their future might hold.

“AS WE BUILD NEW BUILDINGS, WE CAN BE INSPIRED BY THE HISTORY OF THE CITY.” - Jody Gordon Assistant Professor of Humanities/Archaeology Wentworth Institute of Technology

TRANSPORTATION + MOBILITY MOBILITY FOR EVERYONE

The population in cities is projected to increase dramatically over the next decades putting tremendous strain on transportation infrastructure, commuting, and mobility. Failing tracks and tunnels of overcrowded public transit systems, insufficient connection points across the city grid, unpredictable schedules, and safety concerns have made utilizing public transportation an unreliable means of getting around in a city.

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investing in future infrastructure. We will need the next generation of transportation, such as autonomous vehicles and high-speed trains, to more effectively connect neighborhoods and allow those with mobility challenges to travel around their cities. How can we as community members work with government leaders to ensure that they are allocating resources to improve our transportation systems so that they are accessible to all citizens?

Since many municipalities have limited budgets to fund public works and service projects, infrastructure is often an afterthought for government stakeholders even though their constituents rely on effective transportation systems to travel from their homes to places of work, education, leisure and critical services such as hospitals and homeless shelters. The state of roads, highways, and tunnels is in desperate need of improvement. What if traffic patterns throughout the day could be mapped so that high-frequency roads would respond to smarter ad-hoc routing? What if roads could be opened and closed based on need? What if IoT could be used to self-repair pavement so that potholes could be avoided altogether? What if tunnels could send automatic alerts to drivers if ceiling tiles are jeopardized and are at risk of falling down?

These future infrastructure investments should also be cognizant of making our cities more accessible for pedestrians and bicyclists. Narrow sidewalks are adjacent to streets clogged with vehicles and bike lanes are in the middle of multiple traffic lanes. Unfortunately, this is the norm in many cities, leading to a frustrating co-existence for pedestrians and commuters alike. In many European cities bike lanes are far from an afterthought, they are an integral part of city planning. The safety of bicyclists is widely considered and European cities emphasize the importance of alternative transportation as a way to keep cars out of the city, thus promoting a healthy lifestyle. How might we create the next generation of infrastructure to allow for dedicated subterranean biking and pedestrian passageways that quickly shuttle commuters to their destinations without disrupting traffic flows?

As we collaborate with local leaders to improve our current transportation systems, we will also need to determine our plans for

Multiple business models are exploring the sharing mentality of citizens. This is particularly notable as the Millennials and every

generation after them is less interested in owning a car and relies more on public or alternative transportation. As Millennials begin to occupy positions of power at the municipal, state and federal government level, how will future infrastructure projects be impacted? Will we see increased spending on public transit systems and dedicated rideshare vehicle lanes since they are reliant on those methods of transportation to travel around cities? What if technology could curate neighborhood specific sharing experiences? How might we distill our needs for a car and then bring those needs to the consumer? Instead of driving to go shopping, we order online. Instead of going to the doctorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office, there will be traveling doctors. Since our global population continues to age substantially, we must also consider the mobility challenges that the Baby Boomer generation is beginning to experience. Will we need to create more dedicated skywalks and wheelchair paths in our future infrastructure plans to accommodate these citizens as they continue to age? Should public transit systems of the future have specific trains that are exclusive to those with mobility issues so that they are allowed additional time to enter and exit the train to reach their destinations? Experiences that were inaccessible to the elderly in the past, such as long-distance travel and instant medical care are easier to access. Through autonomous vehicles and ride sharing, the elderly have numerous transportation options and can get around as they please.

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“I COULD FIND A CHANCE TO TAKE A LOOK AT “FUTURE OF OUR CITIES” FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES. EACH PERSPECTIVE HAS ENLIGHTENED MY PATH ON SMART CITIES - INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS. NOW, I AM SEEING VERY CLEARLY THAT WE HAVE THE FULL POWER TO BRIGHTEN OUR CITY’S FUTURE. THANKS WIT ACCELERATE FOR THIS GREAT EVENT!” - Tugba Arsava Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering & Technology Wentworth Institute of Technology

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HOW MIGHT WE ENCOURAGE AND SUPPORT MOBILITY FOR EVERYONE THROUGHOUT THE CITY? TRANSFORMATION This opportunity imagines key transformations, specifically that we move: â&#x20AC;˘ From Transportation to Mobility â&#x20AC;˘ From Legacy Systems to Modern Technology â&#x20AC;˘ From Exclusive to Inclusive STANDING IN THE FUTURE As we stand in the future, accessibility has been brought to the forefront of mobility. Through technology and artificial intelligence, everyone is able to access the amenities and necessities of the city without fear of getting around. There are customized transportation methods for every individual to recognize their mobility needs. With the press of a button, the Internet of Things is instantly summoned and a personalized transportation experience, such as an autonomous vehicle, arrives before them. In the future, mobility is not restricted to vehicular transportation. Pedestrian traffic has been modernized and modified through moving walkways and skywalks to make walking and biking more accessible. There are intelligent sidewalks that can melt snow and assist citizens with mobility challenges so that the sidewalk knows who is walking and can adjust as needed. Similarly, crosswalks have been reimagined. They can move and change based on traffic and pedestrian needs, with longer signals available for the disabled or elderly.

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Health benefits are increasing as a positive side effect of people walking more. The elderly are living longer and children are spending more time outside. Citizens are enjoying strolls around the city and taking in the sights. By making pedestrian traffic safer and more accessible, everybody feels safer to roam the streets. Finally, street lighting has become more responsive thanks to IoT with sensors that instantly recognize movement and switch on these lights accordingly. As autonomous vehicle integration becomes widespread, existing roads and infrastructure will be renovated to enable these vehicles to operate in designated lanes. Citizens have learned to trust public transportation through autonomous vehicles. Buses and taxis have been optimized and are more flexible depending on the needs of the communities. With adjustable transportation comes accessibility for those with mobility challenges. Everyone can now have a consistent experience that they can rely on and eventually depend on. Autonomous vehicles have also increased productivity since citizens can work on their commutes to and from home without having to operate their vehicles. Commutes have thus become an extension of the workday with wifi available on all transportation methods, allowing citizens to enhance productivity when needed, collaborate more with other individuals, or manage their work and life responsibilities more flexibly and thus taking the stress out of a 9-5 workday.

Traffic patterns have been significantly altered to reduce traffic flow and public transportation has been transformed thanks to the introduction of hyperloops and high-speed trains that allow for rapid movement within and between cities. Living outside of the city has become more accessible, leading to metropolitan areas expanding beyond their previous size and scope. People can choose transportation modes that will get them to their destinations in a personalized fashion. They can opt into quick transportation or take the scenic route, the ride they desire is just a click away. Amenities of the city are easier to access and community members can enjoy themselves as they move around the city. In a parallel development, remote work has also been increasingly acceptable. Personalized services are now virtually available at peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fingertips such as healthcare, which can be accessed remotely through virtual doctors instead of standard office visits. This development has led to a significant reduction in commuting in volume for daily communities and has decreased traffic significantly.

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KEY OUTCOMES Why is this important? • Outdated infrastructure has created a myriad of issues for cities, as they are ill-equipped to handle intense traffic, the rise of alternative transportation methods and an increasingly aging population with significant mobility challenges. • Keeping the current status quo and relying on inadequate infrastructure systems that haven’t changed in generations will only lead to more gridlock. • Fewer opportunities would be available to proactively invest in alternative transportation options like high-speed trains and subterranean passageways which could help to reduce traffic flow. How will this change in the future? • Integrating and implementing state-of-the-art infrastructure projects will assuage the current chaos of urban environments. The proliferation of autonomous vehicles, high-speed rail lines, and hyperloops will ease traffic congestion and lead to safer, more efficient transportation options for all citizens. Beyond vehicular transportation, dedicated pathways and smart sidewalks for pedestrians, bikers and the mobility challenged will provide an extensive network of options for citizens who opt to pursue alternative methods of transit.

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INTERACTION + INFRASTRUCTURE TURNING RESIDENTS INTO CITIZENS

What will it take for residents to occupy their space as citizens? More importantly, what is the difference? We all live in communities; we are their residents. We own homes and rent apartments. We send our children to schools. We participate in community activities. We support local businesses, we pay for local utilities, and we use local parks for recreation and play. But to what extent do we actively engage or contribute? How do we take ownership of our communities? What authority do we have to shape their present and future? Finally, what inspires or prevents community members from taking responsibility of their futures and committing to their communities? These questions are challenging on many fronts. It begs the question, what will it take to unleash the talents, vision, and creativity of residents in service of their communities? How can residents become active makers, shapers, and change agents? What does civic engagement look like beyond efforts to simply get residents to vote? Much of this can be explored through the infrastructure of our communities - the tangible and intangible ways that people interact and engage with each other on a daily basis. How might we define infrastructure to be inclusive of both physical and cultural elements? How might traffic signs change how we interact with each other? How might we dismantle the physical boundaries that currently divide communities to allow for more easily accessible movement within our cities? How might we co-create these communities in which we want to live, work, and play? 112

HOW MIGHT WE USE INFRASTRUCTURE TO TRANSFORM RESIDENTS INTO CITIZENS? TRANSFORMATION This opportunity imagines key transformations, specifically that we move: • From Consumers to Active Change Agents • From Infrastructure to Community Hubs • From Statically Planned to Dynamically Adaptive • From Distantly Governed to Citizen Driven STANDING IN THE FUTURE As we stand in the future, people feel a sense of belonging, being connected and part of something bigger than themselves. Interactions between residents are at the core of establishing relationships while inspiring dialog and trust. Residents not only utilize the physical space of their communities, they feel connected and committed to the people around them. Thus, they are more ready to collaborate and take action together to change their surroundings. Future infrastructure inspires interactions. Playspaces are designed for the broader community across all stages of life and not only for children. Streets are not only designed to promote the efficiency of transportation and to ensure safety, but also actively facilitate human interactions. People become more visible in the community beyond defined times of when and where they use infrastructure. (e.g. people walking their dogs in the morning, kids playing soccer at parks after school).

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In the future, infrastructure encourages and evokes interactions through “smart” technology. The “Brain”, as local citizens refer to it, uses artificial intelligence to inspire collaboration amongst residents. The Brain has three essential jobs that help transform residents into citizens. First, as a “silent matchmaker” breaking down social barriers that obstruct collaboration while actually enabling people to find and connect with each other. Want a 3 on 3 basketball game? The Brain will find you players and schedule it for you. Want to organize a group clean up? The Brain will find the best day and time to optimize for participation. Want to discuss the construction planned for the town hall? The Brain will organize registration and allocate seats to the citizens who wish to attend. Want to run for the planning committee? The Brain will communicate your objectives to fellow community members. The second job of the Brain is to help public infrastructure get smarter and become more effectively utilized, connecting residents that otherwise wouldn’t be interacting. The Brain scrapes the internet for data - who checks in, who takes photographs, how are people feeling, are there any risk factors contributing to crimes? Based on this data, The Brain would adjust messaging in real-time to promote the elderly to be more involved, children to play outside more, generations to interact, and provides seamless accessibility for those living with mobility challenges.

The third job of the Brain is to create more common experiences at the borders between communities. While local communities are unique, they can also be defined and influenced by what happens next door in neighboring communities. Casting a wide net across those community boundaries allows for residents to self-organize, creating shared experiences to catalyze a macrocosm of networked communities and collective action that allows individuals to curate purpose driven interactions. The Brain impacts the way people perceive their community and enables them to feel part of something bigger than themselves. Residents not only occupy the physical space within their communities by simply living there, they also have an increased sense of connectedness and commitment to the people around them. They discern that their actions can influence and activate their surroundings in real time, making them embrace continued participation and activity. They increasingly show up, engage, and collaborate. As citizens engage with their communities, the infrastructure becomes smarter and more effective at relationship building. This leads to a positive feedback loop that accelerates the transformation of residents to citizens.

KEY OUTCOMES Why is this important? • Currently, our infrastructure does not evoke meaningful exchanges between people or inspire residents to actively participate in improving their communities. • Having residents involved as active change agents lead to communities that are designed for all people, regardless of age or ability and transforms them into citizens. How will this change in the future? • Physical (playgrounds, placemaking signs, tunnels) and virtual infrastructure (AI programs, AR/VR applications) will converge and serve as a platform for connecting citizens with one another, leading to smarter interactions, exchange of ideas and collaboration, and closer relationships within communities. • Smart technology and different community formats make it easy to build platforms and utilize infrastructure to convene, empower, and activate citizens.

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“CITIES ARE BY NATURE DIVERSE AND NEED CITIZENS MORE THAN NEIGHBORS.”

- Manuel Delgado Professor of Architecture Wentworth Institute of Technology

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“THIS THINKTANK HAS REALLY OPENED MY EYES TO THE POWER OF MULTI GENERATIONS COMING TOGETHER & WORKING TOGETHER FOR EVENTS WHERE WE IDEATE ON THE FUTURE OF CITIES.” - Lisa Piccirillo User Experience Designer Bose Corporation

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PLAY PLAY FOR ALL Historically, play is tightly anchored with childhood experiences. However, human beings continue to benefit from play regardless of age. Although some societies or cultures donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t consider play to be a priority for growth and development, many others deem play to be an essential lens for making sense of the world around us. Play develops creativity and imagination while fostering social, cognitive, and emotional strength. It is fundamental to navigating our environments and negotiating our space in the world. Play helps us to define ourselves, build self-esteem and confidence. Play is critical to how we form connections with others in order to refine and practice collaborative action. Play also develops competencies such as risk-taking, resilience, adaptability, tolerance for failure, mastering difficult tasks, and testing ideas. Deprived of play, we become less capable of interacting with others while our mental and physical health deteriorates. Today, real and artificial barriers hinder or at least limit access to play. What will it take to provide more opportunities for play across all generations? Safety concerns alter the radius and freedom of play significantly. What if communities would integrate play environments and explore using community members to help with supervision,

perhaps by activating the aging population? Kids are scheduled in structured activities to provide supervision and develop concrete skills. What if exploration and discovery are recognized for lifelong competency development rather than an opportunity for exercise? Technology usage infringes on how children spent their time and creates social isolation. What if technology would enable play and live interaction that augments play environments instead of separating them? Inclusive play spaces have been aiming to create environments designed for all abilities - social and emotional, physical, sensory, cognitive, and communication differences. How might we extrapolate this to another level so that we shift the societal narrative that play is for kids only? What are the necessary conditions for designing and building playspaces that are inclusive to all citizens from all generations? How do we react to adults riding a unicycle, blowing bubbles, or juggling in public spaces? How would outdoor and indoor spaces need to be constructed to foster play and overall activity? How can cities and companies embrace physical spaces to create interactions allowing for fun and play?

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“IT’S SO GRATIFYING TO SEE THAT PEOPLE FROM ALL DIFFERENT DESIGN BACKGROUNDS AND USER EXPERIENCE BACKGROUNDS UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF HAVING A PLAYFUL CITY WITHOUT ME HAVING TO EXPLAIN IT TO THEM.” - Cora Carey Program Developer and Project Manager Boston Children’s Museum

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HOW MIGHT WE CREATE SPACES TO CATALYZE AND ENCOURAGE PLAY FOR ALL CITIZENS? TRANSFORMATION This opportunity imagines key transformations, specifically that we move: • From “Kids only” to “Play for all” • From Isolation to Interaction • From Passive Observation to Exploration • From Designated Spaces to Unstructured Integrated Opportunities STANDING IN THE FUTURE As we stand in the future, multi-generational interaction, inspired curiosity, and collaborative creativity are core to our play experiences. Integrated play in all aspects of life - public places, work environments, restaurants, government buildings - has changed the perception that play is solely for children. Taking ourselves less seriously, being less self-conscious and engaging in fun and playful behavior enhances how we interact with one another, generate ideas, and test our boundaries. Dedicated play areas are more dynamic and adaptable. They consist of movable and flexible materials, as well as structures that can be built, taken apart, and transformed to reshape the boundaries of these spaces based on the desires of individuals and groups.

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Rather than being didactic and structured in their design, playspaces are the physical manifestations of collaboration and creativity within the context of their community. Playspaces themselves are large and small, planned and unplanned across communities. Through playful placemaking, citizens can interact with their environment and with each other. Indoor and outdoor environments are designed with an inclusive play mentality through the generational and ability lens. Kids can roam around, while seniors can interact with them from nearby benches. Public spaces allow water pathways to wade through while providing a parallel path for adults to follow and support kids. Piano steps allow kids to jump back and forth playing a song while providing railings for elderly to do the same and the ability for wheelchairbound individuals to manipulate the piano steps from a platform. Technology such as virtual and augmented reality have a more substantial role in how we can engage and interact with our environments and with each other. Apps control and enhance certain spaces and allow individuals to engage with one another in the real environment while mapping their interactions virtually. Games can be co-created through community engagement in public spaces.

Companies and organizations integrate play on various levels. Play is a recognized approach for talent development, allowing employees to partake in activities unrelated to their disciplines, e.g. TedX style immersions. On the other hand, organizations also place ample value on wellbeing and mindfulness to refuel creative batteries and provide a recess for employees to exercise or take a mental health break where they can focus on grounding themselves rather than artificial urgencies. Table tennis, swings, and nap pods are only the beginning of how this trend can manifest in the workplace. Integrating bike pedals at each office desk, cooking together on a dedicated day, creating a maker wall capturing images of things people made at work or at home. Exploring different surface areas for floors and seating arrangements using wobbly, soft flooring to access the conference rooms, instead of chairs utilizing water-filled balls to sit on, creating sandboxes in the middle of tables to embrace haptical experiences while thinking about new business strategies. From local parks to co-working spaces, play amongst people of all ages and backgrounds has gone from an afterthought to a major priority for the continued development and well-being of our communities. This shift in attitude has been marked by community stakeholders placing an increased importance on investing resources into the promotion of play that can be enjoyed and utilized by everyone who frequents our cities in the years to come.

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KEY OUTCOMES Why is this important? • The act of play is crucial to developing creativity and imagination while fostering social, cognitive, and emotional strength. Unfortunately, play is often viewed as an activity that should be exclusive to children and young adults. How will this impact the community? • With extended opportunities to engage in play, citizens are provided the opportunity continue to build relationships and develop new skills while taking themselves not so seriously and embracing mental breaks, refueling their batteries. How will this change in the future? • Play has become an inclusive activity that all citizens are motivated to participate in regardless of age or ability. The societal attitude towards the value of play has shifted, causing municipalities to understand its important role within communities and en-couraging its implementation into public and private spaces. • As a result, creativity among individuals and groups has improved, interactions with each other are more productive, and communities feel strengthened having created bonds through play.

“IF YOU DESIGN A CITY FOR AN 8 YEAR OLD AND AN 80 YEAR OLD IT WILL BE GOOD FOR EVERYBODY.” -Emily Shea Commissioner, Commission on Affairs of the Elderly City of Boston

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“ THE THINKTANK WAS AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE THAT ALLOWED ME TO ENAGAGE WITH A PLETHORA OF PEOPLE FROM VARIOUS BACKGROUNDS. IT WAS ENTHRALLING TO HEAR THE DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES ON FUTURE CITIES, AND THE PROCESS OF DIFFERENT MINDS WORKING TOWARDS A SINGLE SOLUTION WAS A WONDERFUL AND CREATIVE PROCESS THAT LED TOWARDS A SOLUTION THAT COULD NOT BE ACHIEVED OTHERWISE.” - Alyssa Cooper Computer Science Student ‘20 Wentworth Institute of Technology

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METHODOLOGY

CONVERGING DISCIPLINES Subject matter expertise is a cherished and valued denominator for good reason - it allowed society to leapfrog, make discoveries and advance any discipline-specific body of knowledge. However, the complex challenges we are facing today on a global scale can no longer be solved in one-dimensional ways. Inquiry needs to be informed by questions across disciplines. Answers become the product of recognizing a wider range of possibilities and stepping out of discipline-focused comfort zones. Developing appreciation and openness towards the language, methodologies, and tools of various disciplines allows us to harness alternate insights and viewpoints on a more holistic playing field while acknowledging the multiple facets of complex challenges. In order to translate discipline-focused expertise into tangible impact, we need to converge disciplines and create platforms where researchers and practitioners are able to explore the limits of their disciplines while co-creating new language and a common understanding of what is required to identify problems, outline goals and work towards solutions. Intentional curation is required for this type of collision since professionals typically donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t intersect with other disciplines on a regular basis in their day-to-day work environments. Organizations aware of creating connective tissue will be best equipped to position themselves for true impact in this new paradigm. This approach has been at the heart of our work at Accelerate, Wentworth Innovation + Entrepreneurship Center, and is reflected in the ThinkTank format we have developed to convene academia and industry across a multitude of disciplines.

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“THE BEAUTY OF COCREATION IS IN BRINGING TOGETHER INDUSTRIES, ACADEMICS AS WELL AS DIFFERENT GENERATIONS. IT IS AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE TO WITNESS HOW THIS INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH FOSTERED ENGAGEMENT AND INSPIRATION AMONG EVERYONE AND RESULTED IN DIVERSE AND PRACTICAL IDEAS FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR CITY.” - Naz Mirzaie Senior Design Research & Service Designer Essential Design

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“WE TEND TO START FROM A PLACE OF ‘THAT’S NOT GOING TO WORK’ AND WHAT I GOT EXCITED ABOUT WAS THAT WE NEVER USED THOSE WORDS, EVERYTHING WAS POSSIBLE.” - Deborah Wright Dean, College of Professional & Continuing Education Wentworth Institute of Technology

“IT REALLY HIGHLIGHTS EVERY INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE AND HOW THAT CAN ACTUALLY DEVELOP DIFFERENT SOLUTIONS, YET ANSWERING ONE DESIGN CHALLENGE.”

- Nikki Alborz Department Chair of Interdisciplinary Engineering Wentworth Institute of Technology

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"OFTENTIMES, DESIGNERS DON'T CONSIDER HOW THEIR END PRODUCT WILL MAKE THE USER 'FEEL'. THE ACCELERATE HOSTED THINKTANK BROUGHT TOGETHER INTELLECTS FROM A VARIETY OF DISCIPLINES THAT ENCOURAGED EVERYONE TO EXAMINE THE EMOTION BEHIND THE DESIGN PROCESS." - Dan Carnazza Mechanical Engineering Student â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;18 Wentworth Institute of Technology

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“IT WAS A TRUE PRIVILEGE TO BE PART OF THE WENTWORTH ACCELERATE THINK TANK EVENT. THE EVENT DEMONSTRATED THAT PROFOUND CHANGE DOESN’T NECESSARILY REQUIRE THE DEEPEST EXPERTISE BUT RATHER DIVERSE BROAD PERSPECTIVES BY PEOPLE WITH FUEL AND PASSION TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, TOGETHER.” - Kate Donovan Education Innovation Technology Coordinator Boston Children’s Hospital Innovation

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“THIS THINKTANK WAS INNOVATIVE BECAUSE IT CALLED FOR INDIVIDUALS TO COME TOGETHER FROM PLURALISTIC PERSPECTIVES AND THIS BRIDGES US IN A MANNER THAT ALLOWS US TO SOLVE CHALLENGES IN THIS WEB 2.0 WORLD.” - Allana Da Graca Founder & CEO Turn on the Lights Global Institute, Inc

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“YOU GET A WONDERFUL DIVERSITY OF IDEAS AND OPINIONS AND SOLUTIONS AND DIFFERENT WAYS TO LOOK AT THE SAME PROBLEM.” - Michael Mozill Associate Professor of Business Management Wentworth Institute of Technology

BIG TO SMALL | SCENARIOS TO SOLUTIONS Conversations about the future are often hypothetical and aren’t necessarily perceived grounded or relevant for today. Human tendency is to embrace the equilibrium, the status quo and the present. Both are tangible in impacting us here and now. “The future in contrast, is the field of possibility, uncertainty, and intangibility. Although the future is challenging, we can [...] better prepare, tackle, embrace [it] and even enjoy changes when they happen.”11 “Scenario planning is a methodology that uses the inherent human capacity for imagining futures to better understand the present situation and to identify possibilities for new strategy.”12 Future scenarios are not “about predicting the future. It [helps to] break the habit, ingrained in most corporate planning, of assuming that the future will look much like the present.”13 Future scenarios are important considerations, packaged in “unthreatening stories”, of how the future may evolve. “Scenarios are intended to set the stage for a future world in which readers imagine themselves as actors and are invited to pay attention to deeply held assumptions about how the world works. What happens at a scenario’s horizon date is not as important as a story’s clarity of logic

11 Future of Cities, Philips, p. 9 12 Ramirez, Rafael; Wilkinson, Angela: 13 Wilkinson, Angela; Kupers, Roland: 14

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and how it helps open the minds to new dynamics while making it plausible.”14 We set out to utilize future city scenarios as a context to open the minds of thought leaders and participants across different disciplines and embrace possible alternative futures they might not have previously considered. These scenarios created the backdrop to uncover and ideate towards opportunity spaces anchored within the human lens of different generations and abilities. Moving from scenarios to more concrete opportunity spaces informs the context for further investigation and creates the launch pad for participants and their organizations to develop strategies and tangible problem definitions that could lead to impactful solutions down the road.

Strategic Reframing. The Oxford Scenario Planning Approach. Oxford University Press. 2016 Living in the Futures. Harvard Business Review. May 2013 Wilkinson, Angela; Kupers, Roland: Living in the Futures. Harvard Business Review. May 2013

"I HAD THE PLEASURE TO WORK WITH SO MANY BRILLIANT MINDS WHERE WE ALL INNOVATED ON SMART SOLUTIONS TO TACKLE THE COMPLEX PROBLEMS PEOPLE ARE FACING EVERY DAY.” - Shawn Toubeau Computer Science Student ‘20 Wentworth Institute of Technology

“THE THINKTANK WAS AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE FOR ME. IT WAS REALLY COOL TO SEE HOW SO MANY DIFFERENT PEOPLE COULD COME TOGETHER AND PRODUCE SUCH CREATIVE IDEAS THAT WERE ALL REALLY DIFFERENT. I REALLY LOOK FORWARD TO THE FUTURE IF IT IS CONTROLLED BY PEOPLE LIKE THE ONES PRESENT.” - Saffron Mello Biomedical Engineering Student ‘20 Wentworth Institute of Technology

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DESIGN THINKING Design Thinking is a mindset and process originally attributed exclusively to the design profession. However, it has become increasingly popular in recent decades and has been utilized within organizations and across disciplines to create value and competitive advantage in the development of products and services. Design Thinking provides a holistic context and integrative framework to orchestrate and strategize around possible solutions for ambiguous and uncertain future challenges. Its human-centered approach seeks to understand the underlying needs of consumers, populations, organizations, and systems. The process allows participants to tap into the unknown to uncover opportunity spaces and identify problems while asking questions, testing assumptions and ideating towards possible solution sets iteratively and in non-linear ways.

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Based on Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO the following approaches can provide impact:

1 Cultivate curiosity and a beginnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind Experiment early and often utilizing divergent 2 and convergent thinking 3 Collaborate across silos 4 Spread ideas packaged in stories a surplus of ideas allowing you to eliminate some 5 Create along the way 15

Facilitators from innovation and design firms such as Business Innovation Factory, Continuum, Essential Design and Optum provided expert guidance throughout the ThinkTank to assure that participants immerse themselves not only into the design thinking mindset and methodology, but also experience the approaches Brown outlined.

Tim Brown. What are the Top 5 Behaviors of Design-Driven Organizations and Why Do They Matter?. November 2017. https://designthinking.ideo.com/?p=1579.

FINAL THOUGHTS

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? Overall the ThinkTank was an energizing and inspiring event. Within a short time frame, participants generated a range of ideas, breaking through barriers of traditional education and workplace meetings, and truly stretched their innovative thinking to explore the “Future of Our Cities - Converging Generations”. There were certainly commonalities between the five opportunity spaces highlighted, but each was unique in its own right. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the ThinkTank, ideas and insights were freely presented by participants from a variety of fields who brought unique ideas and experiences to these conversations. Perhaps this is why it wasn’t surprising that every group focused on ensuring that our future cities are people-driven at their core, as opposed to merely becoming labs for technological transformation. While some embraced the integration of technology into every aspect of our lives, others were hopeful for a future where citizens are more conscientious of their technology habits and willingly share ideas in tech-free zones. They envisioned a tomorrow where young adults and seniors meet weekly for forums and town halls to brainstorm ideas for community service projects. A tomorrow where multiple generations serve as tour guides and evangelists for their communities, bringing historical and cultural landmarks to life for residents and visitors alike. Despite concerns over our reliance on technology, many groups were eager to embrace a future where emerging technology will perform the heavy lifting on society’s behalf across a multitude of key industries including education, manufacturing, and transportation.

These groups yearned for the day when they could rely on autonomous vehicles to shuttle them to the office while they prepared for a presentation with virtual reality to clients who traveled to the meeting by hyperloop. The most highlighted aspect of this ThinkTank by participants was the inclusion of all ideas and the joy of hearing so many sentences start with, “What if...?”. No matter what industry someone came from, they were given the freedom to voice their opinion without judgment from the group. This process leads to a multitude of innovative ideas that stretched our participants minds to think of the possible, not just the probable. At the start, the rapid generation of ideas can be overwhelming because it challenges the “normal” corporate and academic approach for results-driven solution, but as the day progressed and thematic trends emerge, the interaction and comfortable setting helped narrow the groups focus and sharpened their lens. Though there were many topics covered during the ThinkTank, we only scratched the surface of relevant issues to consider as a community. Among the major topics covered only tangentially were healthcare, privacy, and security, all of which are essential when analyzing the needs of future citizens. As we reflect on this ThinkTank and prepare for the future, we encourage you to take the baton on these topics and share your findings with us so that we can continue to propel these conversations forward as citizens and future leaders.

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PEOPLE

SPEAKERS

Jose has over 20 years of experience in design and design management, an MA in Industrial Design from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design/UK and an Executive MA in Product Design and Development from the Northwestern University/USA. His career started in Portugal in 1989 as an industrial designer, to date he has formed and sold two product design companies, worked as a product Design Director in Barcelona and led as Chief Design Officer in a large Internet company. In 2011 Jose expanded his international experience and joined Masco as a Design Director working closely with Liberty Hardware and other Masco companies such as Delta Faucet and Kraftmaid. And then in 2016 he joined Philips Lighting as their Head of Design and User Experience / Americas, a company that has demonstrated that it can design the way we interact with light (think Hue!), and that will define how light impacts our everyday life at home, at work or in public spaces.

Jose Manuel Dos Santos

Head of Design and User Experience/Americas Philips Lighting

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Jose has also been very involved in and passionate about design education and entrepreneurship. Among other initiatives, he started a network of talented Portuguese industrial designers, and co-founded a non-profit organization dedicated to young entrepreneurship. He has been a guest speaker at numerous industry events speaking on design and design thinking, taught design to designers and non-designers at a higher education level, and has been a jury member at several design schools and competitions. Jose is a creative individual that works in partnership with business executives to translate and mediate design value into business ventures.

Kristian Kloeckl is Designer and Associate Professor at Northeastern University in the Department of Art + Design and the School of Architecture. Prior to coming to Northeastern, Kloeckl was a faculty member at the University IUAV of Venice and a research scientist leading the Real Time City Group at the MIT Senseable City Lab as part of which he established the lab’s research unit in Singapore. There, he and his team pioneered a data platform and data visualization research initiative that brought together real time data from Singapore’s key public and private urban systems operators. Kristian has led research initiatives in partnership with entities such as AT&T, SNCF, Audi, Changi Airport, New England Conservatory and in his professional practice has worked on projects for JCDecaux, Viacom, Herman Miller, Migros, among others. Kristian’s work probes the boundaries of interaction design in the context of today’s hybrid cities and investigates the role of improvisational frameworks for design. He has published extensively on these issues in international publications and his work has been exhibited at venues such as the Venice Biennale, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Vienna MAK, the Singapore Art Museum.

Kristian Kloeckl

Designer/Associate Professor of Art+Design and School of Architecture Northeastern University

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Emily K. Shea has been serving as Commissioner on Affairs of the Elderly for the City of Boston since April 2011 and was re-appointed by Mayor Martin J. Walsh in January 2014. The Commission serves as Boston’s Area Agency on Aging and Boston’s Council on Aging. In her role as Commissioner, she launched Age-Friendly Boston, a collaborative initiative focused on making Boston an even better place to live and to age. Commissioner Shea has fostered numerous partnerships throughout the city of Boston and the state of Massachusetts to improve the quality of life for older adults.

Emily Shea

Commissioner, Commission on Affairs of the Elderly City of Boston

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Prior to her work at the City, Ms. Shea’s work focused on meeting the needs of older adults as the Executive Director of Windsor House Adult Day Health Programs and President of the Massachusetts Adult Day Health Association, then as Executive Director of the Robert Wood Johnson funded initiative the Boston Partnership for Older Adults, and finally in her most recent role as Director of Elder Services for Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), Boston’s anti-poverty agency. Ms. Shea received her MSW, MPH and Certificate in Gerontology from Boston University and her BA from St. Michael’s College.

David Morgan is the President & CEO of Future In Sight, a New Hampshire based nonprofit that transforms the lives of children and adults who are blind or visually impaired through a range of education and rehabilitation services. David is also a member of the Board of Trustees for Boston Architectural College and VisionServe Alliance. As a Vice President for Perkins School for the Blind, David led the development of new assistive technologies including the Perkins SMART Brailler that reimagined how children can learn braille. His efforts were recognized with a range of patents and awards including the Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Export Achievement Award, various Design Awards, and Innovator of the Year by SBANE and MassMEP. David also worked in industry and high tech for 20-years in engineering, product development, and manufacturing, most recently as President of a Dutch Semiconductor Firm.

David Morgan President & CEO Future In Sight

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Kate is a licensed landscape architect and senior associate within Sasaki’s urban studio, where she focuses on waterfronts, urban parkland and the intersection between communities and environment. She leads Sasaki’s research initiative on outdoor playscapes, and has been instrumental in the design and evaluation of several custom adventure playscapes. Prior to discovering landscape architecture, Kate taught math and science in the Boston Public School system: her passion for inspiring and empowering urban youth now infuses all aspects of her work as a landscape architect. She holds a Masters in Education in addition to a Masters in Landscape Architecture. Kate earned the 2011 National Olmsted Scholar award, the highest honor of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF), for her work on urban schoolyards, and has since served on LAF’s board of directors.

Kate Tooke

Landscape Architect + Senior Associate Sasaki Urban Studio

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Tom moved to Amsterdam as a traditional architect and urban planner who uses information technology in his designs. He develops, builds and manages smarter systems for todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mobile society by using open and user-generated data to create blueprints for a sustainable future. Tom is the Co-founder Amsterdam Innovation Exchange Lab, and director of Tapp - an award-winning agency that helps local governments and industries solve urgent problems with the latest rapid prototyping techniques, technologies by utilizing local maker communities. Tom is a regular lecturer at Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Vrij Universiteit, and Amsterdam Smart City, and on the board of Appsterdam.

Tom van Arman Founder & Director TAPP

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PARTICIPANTS THOUGHT LEADERS Jonathan Ablett Mary Adams Tess Bailie Omri Baumer Robby Bitting Pilar Botana Cora Carey Yuri Cataldo Joseph Cote Allana da Graca Leon David Kate Donovan Kathryn Firth Sebastian Fixson Tim Gerrish Rosa Herrero Dan Holzer Christina Lanzl Joshua McFadden Carole McFall Juan Necochea Tom Neumann Derek Pajaczkowski Alec Stern Karen James Sykes Jeremiah Treanor

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INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVE Christopher Auld Scott Bonney Jerry Cotellesa Stephanie Crepeau Eric Crouch Leslie DeLeon Lisa Piccirillo Taylor Rosenblum

STUDENTS

Maarouf Barry Christopher Boucher Dan Carnazza Alyssa Cooper James Coyne Jillian Dupras Zachary Keeler Saffron Mello Christopher Michel Joseph Schnackertz Sophia Seltenreich Robert Simon Shawn Toubeau Sage Williams

FACULTY

Nikki Alborz Tugba Arsava Steve Chomyszak Jody Gordon Delgado Manuel Jim McCusker Michael Mozill Anne-Catrin Schultz Deborah Wright

ccelerate

Wentworth Innovation + Entrepreneurship Center

HARVARDRESOURCE SOLUTIONS

FACILITATORS

Greg Affsa

Product Experience Manager Optum

Crystal Rome 175

Senior Experience Designer Business Innovation Factory

Sarah Folger

Naz Mirzaie

Ramon Salinas

Alexis Victor

Experience Designer Business Innovation Factory

Senior Business Strategist Continuum

Senior Design Researcher & Service Designer Essential Design

Brand Experience Strategist Continuum

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GRAPHIC FACILITATOR During his studies as an Industrial Design student at Wentworth Institute of Technology, Adam Zapotok pivoted towards his passions in different subjects including sustainable design, social innovation, children’s medical design, ethnographic design research, and service design. Meanwhile, Adam would be introduced to graphic facilitation by Carly Hagins, his mentor and teacher. He currently is an intern in the design and innovation team of C Space where he focuses on research but on occasions gets to fly around the U.S. to “doodle” for large companies like Exxon and Nissan so that key stake holders can retain more information from innovation workshops

Adam Zapotok

Innovation + Design Intern C Space

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THINKTANK TEAM Monique is an educator, business designer, future thinker, and intrapreneur. She mobilizes organizations to disrupt their status quo, launch new ventures, uncover future opportunities, and activate communities across disciplines while promoting the power of making, innovation and entrepreneurship. Currently, she is the Associate Vice President, Innovation + Entrepreneurship at Wentworth Institute of Technology, where she launched an innovation center to change the educational paradigm with a focus on developing talent and career pathways, encouraging interdisciplinary action to envision the future of work and life, and fostering product creation and social impact in the context of a strong maker culture. Monique was recognized as the 2017 Innovation All-Star by the Boston Business Journal in the education category. She holds a Master in Education and a PhD in Education/Organizational Development from the University of Passau in Germany. Monique has consulted, coached, and worked in profit and non-profit sectors and across industries and functions in Europe and the US. She is also on the Advisory Council of the Design Museum Boston.

Monique Fuchs

Associate Vice President, Innovation + Entrepreneurship Wentworth Institute of Technology Founder, Accelerate

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Eli MacLaren is a Chief Market Maker, leading Business Innovation Factoryʼs development efforts and is responsible for the startup and scale of the Experience Labs. With over a decade of experience in building and leading social ventures, Eli is an accomplished social innovator with a deep knowledge of the new platforms required to catalyze and scale social innovation. Eli joined BIF after serving as the Executive Director of the Maine Women’s Fund, a public foundation creating lasting change by investing in the power of women and the dreams of girls in Maine. Eli is a systems thinker with a proven track record building institutions — setting strategic vision and direction, raising capital, managing and developing partnerships and growing and integrating cross-disciplinary teams. Before leading the Maine Women’s Fund Eli served as Chief Program Officer at GlobalGiving, the first online philanthropic marketplace that enables donors to find and fund social entrepreneurs around the world.

Eli Maclaren

Prior to GlobalGiving Eli served as the International Director for Ashoka’s Citizen Base Initiative, where she worked with social entrepreneurs from around the world on strategies to finance and scale their work.

Chief Market Maker Business Innovation Factory

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David is the Executive-in-Residence for the Business Management Department at Wentworth Institute of Technology and a Partner at Roadrunner Moving and Storage in Charlestown. David has been fortunate enough to have had unique experiences over the course of his life. From living on the Schooner Appledore studying Humpback Whales, wandering Ireland in search of a story or camping in the Kalahari, all have greatly impacted his approach to business and education. David doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take himself too seriously, enjoys entrepreneurial pursuits, and actively seeks out interesting experiences, people, and communities. It allows him to recite a wealth of stories, connect the apparently disconnected spheres, and help others believe that making magic is possible. He is persistent in his pursuit to improve peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives, is very active in the community and enjoys partnering people with projects, and building relationships around innovation. He is a graduate of UMass Boston and in addition to Roadrunner, has owned and operated multiple small businesses over the last 25 years.

David Mareira

Executive in Residence Business Management Department Wentworth Institute of Technology

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“THE TREMENDOUS SUCCESS BEHIND EVENTS LIKE ACCELERATE’S THINKTANK BEGINS WITH AN OPEN-MINDED APPROACH AND IN GREETING EACH OPPORTUNITY AS A NEW POSSIBILITY. THE ENERGY AMONG PARTICIPANTS EXPANDED WITH EACH NEW ROUND OF SENTENCES BEGINNING WITH “WHAT IF” AND “WHY NOT”. BY TRUSTING THE PROCESS AND RESISTING THE ANXIETY THAT COMES WITH RISK AND THE DEMAND FOR END RESULTS, IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE MAGIC EMERGES.” - Dave Mareira Executive in Residence Business Management Department Wentworth Institute of Technology

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As an innovation consultant Ramon has worked with companies from more than 20 industries -including Goodyear, ExxonMobil, Abbott, and Conversehelping them identify and shape new growth opportunities. Currently, he is a Senior Business Strategist at Continuum, the global design and innovation firm, leveraging Design Thinking to develop human-centered solutions and to bring more consumer focus approaches to organizations. Over the years he has taught several innovation and entrepreneurship courses, and has served as a mentor to numerous startups. Ramon holds a Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in Humanities from UDD and an MBA from Babson College, where he teaches the Innovation Processes course.

Ramon Salinas

Senior Business Strategist Continuum

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Anne-Catrin Schultz studied architecture in Stuttgart, Germany and Florence, Italy, and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Stuttgart. Following post-doctoral research at the MIT, she relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area and worked for several years with Turnbull Griffin Haesloop (TGH) and Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM). She has taught architecture history and theory as well as design and art studios at the University of California in Berkeley, the California College of the Arts (CCA) and the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco. Between 2011 and 2013 Anne-Catrin was Assistant Director of the School of Architecture of the Academy of Art University contributing not only to the expansion of a recently founded architecture program but also assisting the build of an online program of its evolving curriculum. In the fall 2013 she joined the Department of Architecture at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.

Anne-Catrin Schultz

Assistant Professor of Architecture Wentworth Institute of Technology

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Anne-Catrin writes about historic and contemporary tectonics and narratives that go beyond the built environment. Her most recent book is “Time, Space and Material-The Mechanics of Layering in Architecture.” Anne-Catrin’s research focuses on the multiple layers of our built environment at the scale of buildings, cities and landscapes.

ORGANIZING TEAM THE ACCELERATE TEAM

Accelerate, Wentworth Innovation + Entrepreneurship Center

Tory Lam

Assistant Director

Danielle Nickless Coordinator

Rachael Schaeffer Design Catalyst

LEAD DOCUMENTOR

Emily McGinnis Citizen Experience Lab Manager Business Innovation Factory

STUDENT SUPPORT

DOCUMENTORS Hashem Hakeem Gwen Harvey Sydney Meyers Rachel Schaeffer

Maarouf Barry Dan Carnazza Alyssa Cooper James Coyne Saffron Mello Avery Munoz Joe Schnackertz Sophia Seltenreich Shawn Toubeau

PHOTOGRAPHER

VIDEOGRAPHER

Tory Lam Avery Munoz

Tarah Llewellyn

“ THE SAME WAY IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD, THE ENVIRONMENT THAT WE LIVE IN SHAPES US AS A COMMUNITY. AT THE THINKTANK, WE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY AS A DIVERSE GROUP TO MOLD OUR VILLAGE, INTO A PROSPEROUS AND SUSTAINABLE ECOSYSTEM.” - Maarouf Barry Business Managment Student Wentworth Institute of Technology

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HOSTING ORGANIZATION Workbar is a network of 20 coworking spaces and 1500 members in the Greater Boston area. Members of Workbar join for flexibility, high quality spaces and the opportunity to be around hundreds of experts and potential collaborators. Workbar’s network allows members to access the locations that’s most convenient to them wherever their work takes them.

Devin Cole

Head of Community Workbar

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Devin Cole is Head of Community at Workbar, a network of 20 coworking spaces and 1500 members in the Greater Boston area. As Head of Community, Devin leads Workbar’s efforts to ensure members have the opportunity to connect with and learn from one another both digitally and in person. Prior to Workbar, Devin managed the Connector Program at Boston World Partnerships, and ONEin3 Boston (now Spark Boston) at the City of Boston.

“I PARTICIPATE IN A LOT OF CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF BOSTON. MANY OF THEM GO NOWHERE. THINKTANK WAS NOT ONE OF THOSE. ACCELERATE PUT TOGETHER A GREAT GROUP OF PEOPLE AND THE FACILITATORS DID A FANTASTIC JOB OF PULLING APPLICABLE, CREATIVE IDEAS FOR BOSTON’S FUTURE OUT OF THE DISCUSSION. I HOPE WIT CONTINUES RUNNING THINKTANK SESSIONS!” - Devin Cole Head of Community Workbar

CALL TO ACTION

TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL We encourage you to take the information in this booklet and build upon it. Run with the opportunity spaces and see where the questions we proposed take you. Consider the â&#x20AC;&#x153;How Might We...?â&#x20AC;? questions that were explored, but not advanced and spend some time doing your own evaluations to uncover answers. Share both this booklet and its ideas with people inside and outside of your discipline. Pass it along to thought leaders innovating within industries, or academics looking for inspiration. Our hope is that you can dive further into the challenges that we have presented and develop counterpoints to our own conclusions as well as new problem sets that will start us down the path of identifying concrete and tangible solutions for the future of our cities. Let us know if you utilize this booklet as a backdrop to consider future solutions. We would love to keep track of the spreading of ideas and impact of the day.

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CREDITS DESIGN + LAYOUT Tory Lam

GRAPHIC FACILITATOR Adam Zapotok

CONTRIBUTOR

Monique Fuchs David Mareira Danielle Nickless Max Rollinger Eli McLaren Rachel Schaeffer Anne-Catrin Schultz

EDITOR

Monique Fuchs David Mareira Danielle Nickless Max Rollinger Anne-Catrin Schultz

acceleratethinktank.org #FutureOfOurCities #ShapingOurFuture