Rick Robinson takes us back to the starting point of the “Smart” cities discussion, asking what they are for and emphasising the importance of connecting the concept of smart to ordinary people and communities. Robinson outlines a way of thinking about smart city initiatives that re-connects those projects to human

Every Friday, Circulate rounds up a collection of stories and interesting articles from the week. This week we have a story about the pioneering changes being made in the Finnish education system, an article summing up the Internet of Things, experts call regenerative design a “big trend”, and a piece outlining the

Leading figures from major cities across Europe have signed an agreement to move towards a circular economy.

According to recent statistics from Metal Packaging Europe, recycling rates for rigid metal packaging hit a record high in 2012, with 73.6% of this material being reprocessed for further use.

Carl-Emil Larsen, president of EurEau, has emphasised the importance and value of water when thinking about the resource question. He suggests that water, as a resource, is in danger of being taken for granted by European Union circular economy policymakers.

One key principle of the circular economy is that energy must come from renewable sources, and so far this year Costa Rica is reaping the benefits of investment in this area.

Students from Technische Universität München (TUM) and the University of Texas at Austin (UTA) have designed a one-story house that is affordable and produces more energy than it uses. The project has been named “NexusHaus” and has been developed in answer to the lack of affordable housing in Austin, Texas. Students

Scientists at Tel Aviv University are proclaiming it to be the “materials revolution of the 21st century” and there are few examples that pronounce the intersection between the technological and the biological in quite this way. Organic nanotechnology continues to make significant strides with the announcement that computer screens made

Every Friday, Circulate rounds up a collection of stories and interesting articles from the week This week we highlight an article asking for a new focus on remanufacturing, a strong critique of the idea that the sharing economy is a “technological saviour”, why diversity is important for urban production and growth, and

Frequently, the Internet of Things (IoT) as a topic is discussed conceptually and it becomes difficult not to get lost in its potential scale. Some figures, including a recent report from KPMG, have suggested that as many as 28 billion ‘things’ will be connected to the internet by 2020. That’s why