Il trionfo della città intelligente

Often, in our culture, it circulates the idea that large cities are in crisis and that the solution is to escape to the smaller towns, in search of green spaces and clean air. In fact, the economic and statistical data leads us asserting that the cities continue to be alive, and confirming that the well-being, the development and the progress of our civilization depend largely on the number of cities and megacities around the world. A few numbers suffice to understand that the city in the new millennium is at the heart of the economy of the future and that the stakes are very high: more than half the world's population lives concentrated on the 2% of the overall territory, consumes three quarters of the total energy and produces 80% of greenhouse gases. In 2050 the percentage of people who will live in cities will rise, from 50% to 70%; more than half of global GDP will come from the 600 largest cities (OECD, 2012). The big challenge is the ability to grow the agglomerations with efficiency and improving the quality of life of citizens; in the city of the future, environment, people and technologies must be designed in an integrated and sustainable way: this is what is behind the concept of the smart city. In the first part, the essay proposes some considerations about the smart city system and in the second one focuses on the role that, in this system, plays the construction sector.