Along with most major capital cities, London faces many challenges. They extend from economic challenges like the cost-of-living crisis and housing crisis, to environmental threats such as pollution and climate change to the global pandemic Covid-19 that we have all just lived through. Regardless of the industry you work in, the borough you reside in, the demographic you lie in, the last few years have been significantly disrupted with no area of life being unaffected by these challenges.

 

We know we need to use more sustainable energy, and urgently, we know increasing populations means even more need for affordable, good quality housing in places where people want to live. In order to achieve these goals, we need to ensure the information we are using to make decisions is reliable, accurate and current.

 

Alongside this, and perhaps because of these challenges, we have seen a major shift to how we live, work and play in our city. There has been a move towards remote work with many companies adopting hybrid models, allowing employees to work from home a couple of days a week. Financial concerns have influenced spending habits with many households cutting back on basic items to prioritise monthly bills such as energy and mortgages. 

 

There is another change affecting us all: technology. This is where VU.CITY resides in making positive changes in the midst of so many negative ones. The mission is to revolutionise urban planning and development by providing an immersive, collaborative, and data-driven platform that empowers city planners, architects, developers, and other stakeholders to create smarter, sustainable, and inclusive cities for all. 

The goal is to leverage cutting-edge technology, including 3D modelling, AI, and geospatial data, to enable cities to be designed, simulated, and evaluated in a virtual environment, leading to more informed decision-making and better outcomes for communities and the environment.

VU.CITY is a Platform for visualising data, primarily in 3D, so that we can all understand change within the built environment. The built environment is not only infrastructure and property but also the spaces and movement between them. That movement could be in the form of traffic and people but also air particles and shadow. The other element is that of time, the fourth dimension, where one can see change over a defined period.

 

The purpose of VU.CITY is to bring together as many data sets as possible, both passive and live, to enable our users to understand how and where change is occurring and, most importantly, what impact these changes will have in the future. This enables better planning and hopefully, better decisions.

 

The more current the data, the more relevant the decision. The pace of life has significantly increased, as exemplified by social media, and therefore our response to it must also be rapid. So often, we are slow to make decisions and often rely on incomplete or out-of-date data. VU.CITY seeks to address this issue by remaining current and looking at the future to support sustainable placemaking.

 

An intelligent city is one where its citizens and governance can see and understand predicaments and make changes rapidly against ongoing circumstances. This is where VU.CITY can play its part. Technology lies at the heart of where a city can assess change and challenge it simultaneously.

 

The technology comprises three different elements:

 

 

Through the combination of these elements, you can see how change impacts a city. The Local Authorities in London, for instance, are leading the charge in adopting this technology, using it to collaborate with architects, developers, and planning consultants to make better decisions.

 

In the face of many unprecedented challenges, London stands at a critical juncture, grappling with economic, environmental, and societal hurdles. Amidst this landscape of complexities, VU.CITY hopes to provide a platform to support the positive transformation of our Capital. Through the harnessing cutting-edge technology and an expansive array of data, our platform stands committed to revolutionising urban planning and development. 

 

We endeavour to empower city stakeholders to not just envision but actively shape smarter, sustainable, and inclusive cities for all. By facilitating immersive experiences and informed decision-making, we aspire to navigate the ever-evolving urban landscape, where each decision holds the potential to enhance communities and safeguard the environment. 

 

As we embrace this era of rapid change and innovation, VU.CITY remains steadfast in its mission to pave the way for a future where cities thrive and adapt seamlessly to the needs of their inhabitants. This will embody the essence of progress and resilience for future generations.