The Sidewalk Toronto smart city was scuppered by a combination of local opposition, excessive secrecy and the prioritisation of profit and technology over sustainability and community, according to architect Ben van Berkel. More
Readers are debating why the Alphabet subsidiary's plans for a waterfront smart city were abandoned and sharing their thoughts on other top stories in this week's comments update. More
Alphabet subsidiary Sidewalk Labs has abandoned its ambition to create a smart neighbourhood in Toronto amid "unprecedented economic uncertainty" caused by the coronavirus pandemic. More
Open-government advocate Bianca Wylie discusses her concerns over smart-city project Sidewalk Toronto in the fourth VDF talk in collaboration with reSITE. More
Senegalese-American singer Akon says he has signed an agreement with the government of Senegal to build a city with a cryptocurrency-based economy named Akon City. More
Danish architecture studio BIG is designing a "prototype city of the future" with wooden buildings and autonomous vehicles for Japanese car company Toyota near Mount Fuji in Japan. More
Architecture studio Partisans has unveiled plans to transform a Canadian town into a smart community, combining fibre optics, autonomous vehicles and drone ports within a rural setting. More
Alphabet subsidiary Sidewalk Labs is moving forward with its ambition to create a smart neighbourhood in Toronto, after addressing a number of "critical issues" in its initial scheme. More
From a smart forest in Mexico to a Nevada desert city powered by blockchain, a wave of smart cities are being proposed in North America. Here are five examples from the continent that hint at the shape of future neighbourhoods. More
Italian architect Stefano Boeri has unveiled plans to create a forested smart city near Cancun, Mexico, that is designed to be a "pioneer" of more eco-efficient developments. More
Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs has outlined its Toronto Tomorrow masterplan to turn a parcel of the city's waterfront into the "neighbourhood of the future". More
Dutch practice UNStudio has unveiled a masterplan for Karle Town Centre, a garden-filled smart city in Bangalore where buildings will be covered in cooling white paint. More
All eyes should be on China in the race to develop smart cities, says architect Carlo Ratti, who is co-curating this year's Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture in Shenzhen. More
WeWork parent The We Company has revealed plans to explore the design of cities of the future with a new initiative spearheaded by New York's Studio Dror and former Google executive Di-Ann Eisnor. More
A "raincoat" designed by architecture studio Partisans to protect pavements in harsh weather is among a series of prototypes that Alphabet company Sidewalk Labs has revealed for its smart city in Toronto. More
UNStudio has unveiled plans to create the "smartest neighbourhood in the world" in the Netherlands, where residents produce their own resources and control the use of their data. More
Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs has tapped Thomas Heatherwick's studio and architecture firm Snøhetta to develop proposals for the smart, mass-timber city that the company is developing on Toronto's waterfront. More
Silicon Valley companies including Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook are threatening democracy by usurping governments as the key provider of public spaces and services, according to a new book examining the rising power of tech giants. More
Moscow's new Rublyovo-Arkhangelskoye district, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects and Pride Architects, will be a "people-centric" sustainable smart city. More
Cryptocurrency millionaire Jeffrey Berns has revealed plans to develop a large parcel of Nevada's desert into a smart city powered by blockchain technology. More
