Episode 3: Well Connectivity

We wrapped up this special series with Juan Cortes and Martha Thorne, who dialled in from Spain to chat about the opportunities and challenges for technology in urban design. They shared their hopes for the future of ‘intelligent cities’ that use technology to make daily life easier, enable people to participate in everything from how their data is used to political activism, and bring communities together in new, more meaningful ways. But this also came with a caution to ensure that we don’t abuse the information we have, and that there is transparency and accessibility across the digital world we’re building.

Juan is the Urbanism & Sustainability Lead in Spain for Jones Lang Lasalle, where he has been successfully incubating, launching and directing strategic development and urban planning projects through an approach that blends social, environmental and economic sustainability to catalyse healthy and successful places.

Martha is the Dean of the IE School of Architecture & Design, part of the IE University in Madrid/Segovia, Spain. She recently stepped down from the position of Executive Director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, a role she held since 2005. Martha's main interests centre on how architecture, design, and urbanism can contribute to sustainability and resilience in the contemporary city as well as the evolution of architecture and design education.

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Design Meets Insight is hosted by Namrata Krishna, our Design Strategy Lead and part of our Design Advisory team. This episode is co-hosted by Dan Birdsall, one of Heta’s founding directors.

We’d love to hear from you, so please get in touch at studio@hetaarchitects.com, or find us on LinkedIn at

Linkedin: Namrata Krishna

Linkedin: Daniel Birdsall

Linkedin: Juan Cortes

Linkedin: Martha Thorne

"I always felt the Internet of Things, IOT, is quite artificial, quite cold, but [some] ecological engineers are now speaking of the Internet of Nature, ION, which is much more beautiful. This is about using data and sensors to improve the green infrastructure of our cities and help them thrive."

Juan Cortes, JLL Spain

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