(Picture: Fraunhofer IAO)

From 25th to 26th April 2017, the Triangulum Follower City Prague hosted the project’s Steering Committee Meeting, where the project partners took the opportunity to exchange experiences and present the latest developments in the Triangulum cities and work packages. On this basis, the next steps were discussed and planned.

New electric vans, university courses on power management, an app on how to save energy in office buildings and a sewer tunnel to provide energy for three buildings – these were just some of the many recent achievements and developments in the three Triangulum Lighthouse Cities. Also, replication activities and on site assessments in the project’s Follower Cities Prague, Leipzig and Sabadell were another focus of the last project months.

(Picture: Fraunhofer IAO)

A visit to the University Center for Energy Efficient Buildings and its smart home rounded off the programme.

During the past months, the City of Leipzig has made a stronger effort to build up and intensify networks with local and national partners to foster Smart City processes in the city – comprising events to work on the future of the Smart City Leipzig, a lecture series on Smart City topics and participation in the DELL Smart Cities Roundtable.

“Zukunftsforum” is an established event where city leaders and CEOs of local utilities come together to discuss future strategies for Leipzig. With the 6th meeting taking place on 13 March 2017, it was time to leave theoretical aspects behind and to focus on more practical actions. The participants came to the conclusion that, after working on a joint definition and more strategic aspects for Smart City Leipzig, the focus should now be shifted to concrete actions. Therefore, the next meeting in May 2017 will focus on Smart Mobility in the context of the growing city Leipzig.

Besides that, the local Triangulum team works closely together with other partners to engage citizens, science institutions and other stakeholders in Smart City topics. Together with the Institute of Urban Development and Construction Management of Leipzig University, the evening lecture series “HOT SPOTS :: DER STADTENTWICKLUNG” is being continued during the summer semester at Leipzig University, focusing on digitization and urban development. The topics of the lectures will range from the digitization processes in Munich over cross-media citizen communication to digital-analogue inclusion.

Further information: https://www.wifa.uni-leipzig.de/isb/veranstaltungen/hot-spots-der-stadtentwicklung.html

Another activity comprised a lecture by Nadja Riedel of the City of Leipzig at the Leipzig Graduate School of Management. The lecture, taking place on 5 April 2017, focused on Smart City processes and the Triangulum project. The participating students are working on a semester project called “Corporate Innovation”, focusing on the Smart City transformation processes in Leipzig. The results will be presented at the end of June this year.

In order to get in contact with local and national enterprises, the City of Leipzig participated in the DELL Smart Cities Roundtable at the SpinLab in Leipzig-West on 7 March 2017. The topic of the discussion round was „Data Transformation – standards and processes“ and Mike Reichmuth of the City of Leipzig presented the current Smart City processes and the Triangulum project in Leipzig.

Furthermore, an article on the Smart City process in Leipzig was published in the current issue of “Informationen zur Raumentwicklung”, a publication by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development.

Find the article under:

http://www.bbsr.bund.de/BBSR/DE/Veroeffentlichungen/IzR/izr_node.html

The animated film was instantly clicked about 27,000 times and does therefore form a powerful means to spread the Triangulum idea widely. The film is currently only available in Norwegian language but subtitles in English will be added soon. Get an impression and watch the video:

At the end of March 2017, around 45 delegates from the City-Zen Project, an EC funded FP7 project, visited Manchester for two days of Smart City experiences. During this time, Triangulum presented its work to date, and visitors enjoyed a trip to the Manchester Metropolitan University, the site of a number of the planned interventions in Manchester. These include Solar photovoltaic and a battery, which will work alongside the University’s existing CHP to demonstrate ways in which peak demand can be reduced.

In their efforts to deliver and replicate Smart City solutions, the EU’s nine Lighthouse projects formally signed a Cooperation Manifesto in Nottingham (UK) on 23 March 2017 – among them Damian Wagner, project coordinator of Triangulum.

The signing ceremony was held at Conference Centre of the Nottingham Trent University and saw Councillor Sam WEBSTER (Nottingham City Council) and Pro Vice-Chancellor Michael CARR (Nottingham Trent University) host representatives of projects that, altogether, span over 50 towns and cities across Europe. The signing of the manifesto seals the cooperation that is already a reality within the Lighthouse project community. However, the manifesto is being seen as a further crucial step in the EU’s endeavours to optimise project outcomes and ensure these become mainstream beyond the projects themselves.

Nottingham, a city recognised for its strong ecological drive, was an ideal setting for project partners to pledge their commitment to Smart Cities and Communities. The signing of the Cooperation Manifesto came as part of a study tour organised by Nottingham city council and Nottingham Trent University under the Remourban Lighthouse project. The tour included workshops on topics such as smart city indicators, innovative business models and integrated planning for accelerating urban transition. Furthermore, a site visit enabled delegates from the European Commission, INEA and other Lighthouse projects to discover the realities of Remourban’s green endeavours in Nottingham’s Sneinton district and e-bus charging depot.

(Picture: Fraunhofer IAO)

Lighthouse project Remourban will be throwing its doors wide open this month when its first study tour takes place in lighthouse city Nottingham, UK. Behind the tour is project partner Nottingham Trent University – named UK’s greenest university – in cooperation with the Action Cluster on Integrate Planning and the Smart Cities Information System. And Triangulum partners will join in…

Partners of the Triangulum project will participate in the study tour, to learn more about the sister project and to share their experiences.

The day will feature a series of workshops on topics such as smart city indicators, innovative business models and integrated planning for accelerating urban transition. And attendees from the European Commission, INEA and other Smart City projects will be able to capture the realities of Remourban’s green endeavours in Nottingham’s Sneiton district and e-bus charging depot during the site visit.

The study tour marks the ever-closer collaboration among Lighthouse projects and will see the signature of a formal collaboration agreement.

Hundreds of people were celebrating in Stavanger city on 11th February, when the three battery buses funded by the Triangulum project were unveiled. The design of the buses was part of a high school design competition and the inhabitants of Stavanger could vote for their favourites.
At the event, the county mayor gave a speech presenting the project and introducing the high school student who won the competition and created the bus design.
The vehicles were placed in a triangle to illustrate the project’s name, covered with a banner showing the Triangulum logo and the promotional slogan “See what happens today at 12…”. Coffee and cupcakes were served in the middle of the triangle while other actions like face painting for kids were happening inside the buses. Hundreds of colourful balloons with the Triangulum logo and the slogan “Smart solutions for a smart region” rounded off a day packed with attractions. The activities were documented by a professional photographer, who produced a short film clip that was spread via social media and had instantly about 20,000 viewers. Get your own impression an have a look:

Active citizen involvement as a key to success….. “Samenspraak” (translates as “participation”) was the title of an event in Eindhoven in December, inviting citizens and neighbourhoods to have their say about the planned measures in the Eckart Vaartbroek demo district.
Discussions focussed on the innovative light route which is part of the Triangulum project’s activities. Participants were provided with the latest information and were actively involved in the planning process. A variety of questions were considered, such as what are the specific requirements? How can residents benefit the most? What advantages does the new system have in comparison to “traditional” lighting systems?
Integrating residents right from the outset is a main concern of the project. This inclusive approach creates commitment and therefore guarantees the successful implementation of the measures.

Triangulum’s fourth newsletter is online. Read the newsletter here.

A delegation from Manchester City Council, the University of Manchester and e-forum visited Tianjin in China on 09.12.2016 to develop their role as an observer city in Triangulum.

Mark Duncan, James Evans, Shaun Topham and Paul Stewart were hosted by the Tianjin Foreign Affairs Office at the Tianjin Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. In addition to looking at some of the city’s smart developments including Binhai and the new eco-city, plans were made to share Triangulum outputs with key partners in the city.

(Picture: Triangulum Manchester)

(Picture: Triangulum Manchester)