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FTurban ingenuity December 6 2012 supported by ft.com/ingenuity foreword Enduring visions his, the third FT Urban Ingenuity FTurban ingenuity magazine, marks the end of a year-long December 6 2012 process leading up to the announcement of the winners of the 2012 FT/Citi TIngenuity Awards. Entries for the awards came from all over the world, and from city authorities, community groups, charities and companies. Some entries were high tech, for example looking at how to use data from people’s mobile devices to ease traffic congestion. Others were simpler, but potentially transformative, such as one asking children to document an urban Indian hazard. Our distinguished panel was charged with supported by establishing the most ingenious solutions to urban ft.com/ingenuity problems in the categories of education, energy, healthcare and infrastructure, as well as deciding on an overall winner. But what were the criteria? As the judges’ discussion went on, it became clear that they were looking for originality. Some entries were highly impressive, but the same solution had already been effected elsewhere. The judges wanted FT/Citi Ingenuity Awards: to be sure that the winning projects had had an impact, or were most likely to do so. They wanted Urban Ideas in Action the winners to inspire others. They wanted them to EnErgy engage with a wider community, attracting sufficient Winner: Community Cooker public support to be sustainable. This was the most Foundation, Kenya important criterion: the winning projects needed runner-up: Tokyo Metropolitan to be enduring. All of the category winners, and the Government, Japan overall winner, promise to be exactly that. HEalTH These awards have proved something most of Winner: GSK New Citizen Health us already suspected. Cities are dense networks of Care Project, China systems and people. Disrupting those has immediate runner-up: Child Eye Care effects; witness the upheaval superstorm Sandy Charitable Trust, India caused in New York. But those same densely packed EducaTion people immediately set about re-establishing the Winner: College Possible, US city, just as they did after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. runner-up: The judges preferred Urban dwellers are energetic, and the most not to choose a runner-up innovative go further than simply finding ways infrasTrucTurE to ease their lives. They come up with ideas, Winner: JCDecaux – Vélib’ technologies and systems that benefit us all. It (Lifetime Achievement), France is their endeavours that we celebrate with these runner-up: The judges preferred awards. not to choose a runner-up Michael Skapinker oVErall WinnEr: Editor, FT Special Reports Community Cooker Foundation COVER PHOTO: MARIELLA FURRER ft.com/ingenuity | 3 urban ingenuity contents 38 6 introduction 22 HeaLtH 36 coLumn with innovation, city community health depends residents of medellín are dwelling can only get better on individuals’ actions reclaiming their city, says alejandro Echeverri 8 Judges 24 gskneW citiZen The awards judging panel a non-profit organisation 38 infrastructure in Shanghai sets the tone Simple ideas can solve Han brOwninG 10 oPinion complex urban problems aT The world’s poor need their 28 oPinion leaders to show ingenuity, a new community marks 40 VeLib’ writes abhijit banerjee london’s Olympic legacy, The Paris bike hire scheme says lord coe leads the two-wheel field 12 energy Vision and resilience are 30 rio de Janeiro 42 oPinion key to long-term planning rio aims to win from host- new “urban protocols” ing major sports events could bring athens back to 14 community life, writes aristide antonas cooker 32 education foundation closing the gap is good 44 oPinion award-winning cooker for economic growth alain mabanckou recalls a provides multiple solutions childhood in Pointe-noire 34 coLLege 20 oPinion PossibLe 46 oPinion cities evolve according to for a ticket out Small projects offer big the needs of their citizens, of poverty, changes to poor children, says Sir Terry farrell get a degree says Kristin r. lindsey PHOTOS: GETTY, carOlinE blacHE, mariElla furrEr, jOn 4 |ft.com/ingenuity 20 Special reports editor 44 michael Skapinker Editor Hugo Greenhalgh Commissioning editor rohit jaggi Designer Sheila jack Picture editors michael crabtree, john wellings Production editor George Kyriakos Sub-editor lynne O’Donnell Head of strategic sales Patrick collins Head of project delivery rachel Harris Advertising production Daniel lesar contributors ariSTiDE anTOnaS is an athens-based architect 40 abHijiT banErjEE is an economist and author lOrD cOE is head of the london Olympic Games organising committee cHriS cOOK is the fT’s education correspondent ED crOOKS is the fT’s uS industry and energy editor SHarmila DEVi is a freelance 14 writer Sir TErrY farrEll is a british architect alEjanDrO EcHEVErri is an architect based in medellín EDwin HEaTHcOTE is the fT’s architecture correspondent anDrEw jacK is the fT’s pharmaceuticals correspondent jOSEPH lEaHY is the fT’s brazil correspondent KriSTin r. linDSEY is head of the Global fund for children alain mabancKOu is a writer and academic Yann mOrEll Y alcOVEr is a freelance writer PaTTiwalDmEir is the fT’s Shanghai correspondent 22 Hal wEiTZman is a chicago academic introduction awards EntriEs Compare and contrast The awards attracted an impressive field of international entries trying to benefit city dwellers, writes Edwin Heathcote ities are simulta- versal. As our world urbanises, that can radically transform the neously both the the gap between wealthy and everyday lives of those for whom zenith of civilisation poor widens. Cities attract the fresh running water, sanitation – a word that derives adventurous, the ambitious, the and electricity are still far-off Cfrom the Latin civitas chancers and the crooks just as dreams. for city – and incubators of some they do the wealthy, educated The FT/Citi Ingenuity of the worst poverty and injus- and inventive. There is no single Awards: Urban Ideas in Action tice on the planet. As more than solution to the problems of programme is an attempt to half the world’s population is urbanity. Instead there are myr- find the cream of those ideas, now urban – a figure expected to iad small innovations – surely inventions and innovations. It rise to 70 per cent by 2030 – the many yet to be discovered – that is an effort to gather the most city has become universal. can slightly improve the lot of ingenious solutions to the most The experience of the city, city dwellers in particular places. ubiquitous problems and to however, is very far from uni- There are seemingly simple ideas encourage those with ideas to 6 |ft.com/ingEnuity roll them out and export them, ple a city or to prejudice life for that means it is all the more to help as many city dwellers as millions living in them. Those important for the future of the possible improve their experi- four categories did indeed throw planet for the global north to ences of urbanity. up a remarkable range of ideas change its ways than it is to This first year for the awards and it was heartening for the make changes in the slums. attracted a huge raft of entries judges to see such a wide spread The cooker project was from a truly international of programmes, innovations selected as the overall winner spectrum. The ideas addressed and inventions spanning global because it managed to ingen- everything from cycling to recy- south and north. iously address two huge prob- cling, from smart cities to simple That same spectrum, in its lems afflicting the slums. Rub- school books. There were com- remarkable diversity and rich- bish is the bane of the informal plex and high-tech ideas aimed ness, also threw up a number of On the fringes: city. With no organised collec- at incrementally improving the difficulties in the judging process. as cities grow tion it piles up and becomes a lives of commuters in wealthy We found ourselves attempting many struggle magnet for disease and pests. cities and the quality of air, to compare Barcelona’s high- to cope with The cooker addresses the prob- transport and life in those cities. tech Bitcarrier with iKhalay- the influx of lem of rubbish disposal as well There were ingenious, low-tech ami’s attempts to rehouse slum migrants as energy, at the same time cre- ideas aimed at addressing the dwellers. One improves traffic ating a real community resource basic needs of the one-third congestion in a sophisticated city that brings people together. It is of city dwellers who currently with a smart city system while an extraordinary and deserving survive in slum conditions. the other radically transforms the winner that emerged to unani- The discourse around cities lives of some of the planet’s poor- mous acclaim. is often polarised into developed est people. The debates we had dur- and developing worlds, high- Energy is another broad ing the judging process have tech solutions for the global category, one in which the judges prompted us to make some north and worthy low-tech ended up comparing an admi- changes to the categories for innovations for the global south. rable programme attempting next year’s submissions. The middle however – where the to make more efficient com- We have decided to take a real growth is – often remains mercial office space in Houston, more regional approach for the absent. The exponentially grow- Texas – perhaps the future, inviting submissions on a ing middle-tier cities being built least green city on Debate about geographical basis that will, we in China and elsewhere for an the planet – with cities often hope, allow us to make clearer emerging middle class have their the Community comparisons. The principle will own issues of incubating urban- Cooker Foundation misses out the remain the same.