Smart City beyond the buzz
‘Smart City’ appears to be a key concept when it comes to building cities of the future. But it is not easy to understand what it is. It has something to do with ‘IoT’ (Internet of Things), with digital transformation, with resource management, with citizen engagement; and with many other things… “Ask a hundred government officials, senior corporate executives or investors what a smart city is and you will probably get a different answer each time. We believe each city should define its own smart city.” (Osborne Clarke 2015) In the past year I’ve been involved in several projects and learned...
read moreOther world, this world
Sometimes it is important to see the world in a new light. To help us imagine how and what the future might be like, it is possible to use Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR) to get a sense of new possibilities. VR has a dreamlike quality, getting into another zone, discovering what is in there, sometimes hidden, sometimes like a game. Of course, these zones do not come from nowhere, they have been created and programmed, to trick our minds into an illusion that helps us see a different kind of reality. However, the headset largely isolates you from the real world. Augmented...
read moreCitizen City – empower to co-create future cities
At FreeUp, we do quite some work with and for city governments. More and more cities face challenges that can not be solved in isolation. There is a need for engaging with society to create our cities’ futures. To find ways to tackle the challenges, cooperation is needed, not only with businesses and knowledge parters, but especially also with citizens. “Successful cities will be designed around the needs and desires of increasingly empowered and enabled citizens – who are expecting personalized services from the organisations that serve them.” (Future Agenda) FreeUp is involved in an...
read moreExplorations of perception & expression
In the last week of April, Liesbeth was co-teaching the programme “True Perception, Authentic Gesture”, together with artists Herbert Elsky and Fatou Traoré. With a group of 20 people from various parts of the world, we went through a week of creative exploration, using movement, painting, object arranging, voice and writing, among other modes. And we were enjoying the nature in the beautiful setting of Dechen Chöling, a retreat centre in the Limousin, France. The programme was based on ‘Dharma Art’; investigating how we are creating ourselves each moment, the artistry of life itself, how we...
read moreStrengthening the co-creation team
As innovation and co-creation team, the ways of working and the network of professionals always keep developing and expanding. In collaboration with Lingo Tours for the creative mind, FreeUp moved into a new office space on the 3rd of March. Together we are working on the interior to make it an enjoyable and healthy co-creative environment. It is still work in progress, but it already feels great! Another development project, started by co-workers Liesbeth, Marlies and Jacomine, is exploring the possibilities of establishing a new legal entity as co-op, so that we can strengthen our...
read moreBuilding trust – the key ingredient
On 23rd of November, Liesbeth, Marlies and Rikjan took part in the ‘Kantoor vol Energie’ EET-café (“Office full of energy Excellent Expert Team (EET)” in Rotterdam. A gathering of forerunners in the development of energy neutral buildings and infrastructure. Jaap Strating, procurement officer of the city of Eindhoven, presented our project ’the smart way towards sustainable municipal buildings’. With the core team we developed a new way of working that allows for maximum sustainability by optimally building on the qualities and the innovative solutions brought in by the different...
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