From Barona to the City of the Future: IULM’s Vision for Smart Cities
“What’s New in the City: Smart Cities as Laboratories of the Future”—the IULM Campus’s contribution to the debate on urban transformation.
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On July 16, IULM participated in the meeting organized by Il Foglio in the Sala delle Colonne at Banco BPM in Milan. It was a morning of discussion dedicated to the ideas, innovations, and opportunities that are transforming cities, featuring representatives from the academic, institutional, cultural, and business worlds.
“From the Suburbs to a Laboratory of the Future”:IULM’s experience illustrates a vision of the smart city that goes beyond technology, data, and artificial intelligence, placing people and the quality of relationships at the center.
“A city is smart when it succeeds in transforming a space into a community, when it creates opportunities, generates knowledge, and empowers people to be agents of change,”emphasized the Rector.
A concrete example of this vision is IULM’s history in the Barona neighborhood. Since the inauguration of the Via Carlo Bo Campus in 1994, the University has continued to invest in the area, contributing to the creation of spaces dedicated to education, culture, research, and engagement with the city.
Places such as Cascina Moncucco—a historic building restored and transformed into a university residence—and IULM 6, a venue for exhibitions, events, and initiatives open to the public, bear witness to the University’s role as a cultural and social infrastructure for the local community. This commitment continues through collaborations with schools, associations, institutions, and businesses, as well as through the University’s “Third Mission” activities.
“Universities today have a new responsibility: not merely to be present in their communities, but to help transform them,”concluded the Rector. “The most important infrastructure of a smart city is not digital, but human.”
You can watch a replay of the event on the Il Foglio website.