Social Smart Urban Environment: A Process that Needs to Be Disrupted to Improve the User Experience

Abstract

This paper discusses the extent to which disruptive design can be an indisputable component of smart and inclusive solutions within the development of urban design in Lisbon peripheral dwelling areas. Driven by smart solutions to humanise the built environment, Lisbon urban centre design is changing and offers equipment and services, enhancing the people’s appropriation of the urban space. Lisbon is growing as a smart place in its sustainable, economic, social and cultural dimensions whilst the dwelling areas, namely those peripheral adjoining, remain characterised by monofunctionally poor urban design solutions, where commuting possibilities (offered by the public and private transport) and proximity to employment (offered by the city centre) are the main assets. This model of planning the urban environment perpetuates itself in space and time, underestimating the development of technology, the sense of identity and belonging and, mostly significantly, overlooking a good experience for users. A new approach is urgent. It is argued that a user-oriented approach, attentive to the context, where creative solutions emerge as a contribution to a smart, sustainable and inclusive community and where the interactions between individuals and the environment, regardless of its physical or virtual features, contribute to a positive user experience.