Introduction
Ancient cities reveal valuable lessons for the development of modern cities. What should modern cities offer to people? What are some of the most important factors that determine a city’s success? Believe it or not, ancient cities have many of the answers.
Consider this: ancient cities were built primarily for people, not cars – some ancient cities barely made room for horse-drawn carriages. The “design for people, not cars” ethos of modern urban planning could, therefore, be considered a mere continuation or revival of ancient design principles: keep everything within walking distance, design for beauty, ensure safety, and provide for social interaction with gathering points.
In many ways, the smart city concept is simply good urban planning that incorporates both advances in digital technology and new thinking in the age-old city concepts of relationships, community, environmental sustainability, participatory democracy, good governance and transparency.
Often, the intelligent city concept involves a re-urbanization of cities, encouraging urbanites to focus their time, energy and abilities to the ongoing urban project through a new layer of electronic connectivity. A virtuous circle is thus formed, in which the city empowers its citizens to power its evolution, creating a positive feedback loop. Above all, smart cities are interactive cities.