A Multiscalar Approach for ‘Smart City’ Planning

Smart cities represent an urban model of the strategic planning of the future cities. However, the ‘smart cities’ topic remains a challenge for urban agglomerations and still a philosophical concept referring to interdisciplinary fields. In this paper, we map out the evolutionary development of the city towards a comprehensive perception of the smart city concept. The paper discusses the concept focusing on the district design as a vital ingredient of the living lab of the city introducing a multi scalar approach. The authors introduce a definition towards the ‘smart’ idea in the future cities setting ‘smart’ objectives in the early beginning of the city planning in a participatory process towards the understanding of the ‘smart’ concept in its spatial dimension.