The City of the Future: The Urban (Un) Seen Connecting Citizens and Spaces via Community Sensing

Maximizing the potential of digitalization, technologies of the virtual realm present an opportunity to rethink the experience of space, society, and culture. Cities designed with integrated smart technologies and sustainable energy sources can improve urban life. Given the impact of these technologies, this paper examines the connections between data, infrastructure, and the public realm. Artificial intelligence (AI) can transform the environment we live in, and cities are facing the rise of urban intelligence (UI). Mobile sensors and handheld devices, referred to as "urban tech,"allow cars, buses, bicycles, and citizens to collect data about air quality, noise pollution, and the urban environment at large. Smart urban infrastructures can address issues such as crime, environmental pollution, and public health and help improve quality of life. How will our lives change intellectually, physically, and emotionally as the Internet of things (IoT) migrates into urban environments? Twenty-first-century architecture can find new purpose by adopting a coherent vision for the future. Virtual space can function as a mediating layer between the real and the yet to come, between cultural identities and a truly global technological existence.