FEATURES
35
Smart services
for Smart citizens
The case of Bergamo
as an urban innovation LAB
Sergio Cavalieri*, Vittorio Zanetti**
I
n the recent intricate environment it is difficult to forecast
the future, so why don’t we devise it together? Instead of
passively gazing at evolution trends, citizens should promptly
drive and master them. This is the starting point of Bergamo
2.035, a multidisciplinary long-term research plan focusing on
what lies ahead for the mid-sized town in Lombardy for the
next 20 years. The Name of the project, recalling Bergamo’s
telephone area code, it is not meant to be just a time limit, and it
underlines the innovative connotation portraying “Cities 2.0” for
a new sustainable urban development, in all of its dimensions:
environmental, social, economic and institutional.
Arisen from the will and the commitment of Bergamo University
and Fondazione Italcementi, the articulated program aims to
raise the citizens’awareness towards innovation and to improve
their standard of living through their proactive participation
and the integration of complementary perspectives and roles.
Specialists, Professors, Researchers and Students from
Bergamo and Harvard University (GSD) have been collecting
best practices and implementing pilot projects in this regard,
contemplating Bergamo as the perfect innovation laboratory
to revamp the territory and to tightly link it to the academic
world. An open Exhibition Lab has also been launched in the
city centre to display and explain to everybody the goals of the
project and even to collect feedbacks or suggestions.
*Professor Univesitrà degli Studi di Bergamo
**Student Università degli Studi di Bergamo