G.O.A.L.'s Flagship Research & Development Programme
Urban OS 2040
Shaping Human-Centred Urban Development Through Research & Collaboration
Urban OS 2040 is G.O.A.L.’s flagship Research & Development programme, bringing together Human Flourishing, Family Formation and Urban AI to help shape the places of the future.
Our ambition is to help conceive, design and realize at least one complete new or regenerated urban development by 2040, small or large, based on the Urban OS Core.
We are developing the knowledge, partnerships and development collaborations needed to make this possible. Research and real-world exploration advance together: the Core guides how we approach urban development, while practical questions, external expertise and local experience strengthen its foundations.
Why Urban OS?
Cities shape human life through interconnected systems. Understanding and developing them requires knowledge that connects across disciplines.
Housing, mobility, public space, education, technology and the environment collectively shape how people live, connect, develop and thrive. Decisions in one area influence the conditions created in others.
Urban OS brings these relationships into a shared architecture centred on human life. It connects disciplinary expertise around common questions: what conditions should a place create for its inhabitants, how do its systems work together, and how can those conditions improve over time?
This gives researchers, planners, designers, public institutions and other collaborators a shared foundation for approaching urban development as an integrated whole.
Human-centred urban development begins with the people who will live there.
01
Mission
To unite knowledge, expertise and development collaborators to conceive, shape and realize human-centred urban environments through the Urban OS Core.
02
Vision
A future in which urban environments are conceived, developed and adapted around the conditions that enable people to flourish.
By 2040, we aim to have contributed to the completion of at least one new or regenerated urban development that brings Human Flourishing, Family Formation and Urban AI together through the Urban OS Core.
The Urban OS Core
An Integrated Knowledge Architecture for Human-Centred Urban Development
The Urban OS Core brings together three frameworks comprising 49 elements:
-
The Five Pillars of Health
Nutrition, Movement, Knowledge, Mindset and Environment.
-
The Urban Family Formation Environment
the interconnected conditions that support forming and sustaining a family.
-
The Urban Artificial Intelligence System
a framework for considering how Urban AI can support human life and the functioning of urban environments.
Together, these frameworks provide a foundation for examining relationships across urban systems and shaping development ambitions, questions and briefs.
The Core is a developing knowledge architecture. Its application requires disciplinary expertise, local understanding and engagement with the people whose lives a development will affect. It evolves through research, critical evaluation and learning from practice.
How Urban OS Develops
Research, Partnerships and Real Places—Developed Together
Urban OS advances through three connected activities.
Strengthening the Core
We develop its foundations through research, evidence, expert judgment and constructive challenge. Contributions are evaluated and integrated across the programme’s three focus areas.
Building Working Partnerships
We seek complementary organizations to make defined contributions to Urban OS and help translate its architecture into development practice. Selected partners may take a lead role within an agreed area of expertise and phase of work.
Exploring Development Opportunities
We seek municipalities, development authorities, developers and other relevant organizations with opportunities to shape a complete new or regenerated urban area.
These activities inform one another. Development conversations reveal practical questions. Partners bring expertise to address them. Research and integration strengthen the Core, which in turn informs further exploration and application.
G.O.A.L.’s Role
Initiating the Programme, Leading Its Development and Connecting Its Expertise
G.O.A.L. initiated Urban OS 2040 and leads its direction, conceptual Research & Development and systems integration.
We bring the Urban OS Core, develop relationships around its application and connect contributions into a coherent human-centred foundation. Working with development counterparts and specialist collaborators, we aim to translate that foundation into the ambitions and conceptual direction of real places.
01
Initiator
Establishes the programme’s vision, foundations and long-term ambition, and initiates relationships through which Urban OS can develop and find application.
02
Programme Lead
Guides priorities, partnerships and development explorations, coordinating agreed contributions and maintaining the programme’s direction.
03
Systems Integrator
Connects knowledge and expertise across Human Flourishing, Family Formation and Urban AI, maintaining coherence as the Core develops and is applied to particular contexts.
Towards 2040
A Complete Development. A Foundation for Further Application.
Our milestone is to help realize at least one complete new or regenerated urban development based on the Urban OS Core by 2040.
The development may be small or large. What matters is the opportunity to shape a coherent place in which the Core’s three focus areas inform how urban life is supported.
The route will develop through the opportunities, expertise and relationships we establish. Each exploration should strengthen our understanding of what Urban OS can contribute, what needs further development and what realization requires.
Learning from the first development will inform the continued evolution of the Core and its potential application in other places.
Where Next?
Explore the Core, contribute your expertise or help identify a place where Urban OS could take shape.