The We Company recently announced new 'future cities
initiatives' which will combine technology, data and real
estate to 'help address problems spurred by globalisation,
urbanisation and climate change.' The project will involve a
team of engineers, architects, data scientists and biologists.
No further details are available at this stage, but resist the
temptation to dismiss this as just another tech company jumping on
a popular bandwagon. WeWork has already disrupted the office real
estate market to such an extent that it is now the largest
corporate office occupier in central London. Meanwhile,
Google's parent company, Alphabet, has set up Sidewalk Labs, an
urban innovation organisation that 'is reimagining cities to
improve quality of life.' This is not just indulgent desktop
idealism: Sidewalk Labs is currently designing a district in
Toronto's Eastern Waterfront 'to tackle the challenges of
urban growth.
