Making future cities 'smarter' by supporting city designing practitioners

This PhD research investigates the smart city concept, its connection to the future of cities, and how to operationalise these in city designing practice. The smart city concept is explored through reviewing literature, a digital review of Australian built environment research groups, interviews and focus groups with Melbourne-based architects, urban planners, urban designers and engineers. Findings show that smarter cities and smarter approaches help create more sustainable and liveable urban futures. Urban agents - designers, academia, governments, citizens and industry - have collective responsibility to establish better future cities. The created conceptual framework can help designers apply smart approaches for urban transformation.