Revealed! 38 projects shortlisted for the 2024 Future City Awards.

The shortlisted projects for the Future City Award 2024 have been recently announced. After the professional scoring and ranking by 21 annual reviewers, and referring to the data results of the AI algorithm, finally 38 projects have been shortlisted for this year's annual award.

The 38 projects come from 12 cities: Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Shanghai, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Taizhou, Shaoxing, Dalian, Luoyang, and Zhenjiang.

Among them, the number of shortlisted projects from Beijing and Shenzhen is the largest, with 10 each. Followed by Chengdu with 5, Wuxi with 4, Shanghai with 2, and the other cities with 1 each.

The Future City Award 2024 is jointly hosted by the World Urban Planning Education Network (WUPEN) led by Academician Wu Zhiqiang and 36Kr Future City Laboratory (CityLab), with technical support provided by the Smart City Team of China Academy of Urban Planning and Design (Beijing), the Casting Foundation Project of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, and the Institute of Urban Development and Planning of Tsinghua Tongheng Urban Planning & Design Institute.

The AIWUS 2.0 independently developed by Academician Wu Zhiqiang's team serves as the AI technical support for this award, providing multi-dimensional data references. AIWUS 2.0 focuses on providing professional guidance in urban planning and technological innovation through deep learning of the research results of many experts and scholars, especially Academician Wu Zhiqiang, and has the ability of independent thinking and conversation. The final result of the shortlisted projects is mutually calibrated between AIWUS and the expert group's manual review.

Future City Award 2024: Building "Confidence and the City"

Based on the Future City Award 2023, the Future City Award 2024 adheres to the basic evaluation quadrants of "Intelligence, Sustainability, Friendliness, and Localization", and sets the annual theme as "Confidence and the City", with four aspects of upgrades:

• Strengthen the "Solution Unit", giving priority to the practical achievements of the landing of artificial intelligence technology. It jointly compiles the "White Paper on Major Application Scenarios of Artificial Intelligence in China" led by the Institute for International Governance of Artificial Intelligence of Tsinghua University, and the "Casting Foundation Project" of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology to assist China's digital transformation, to achieve scene intercommunication, case mutual recommendation, and joint release of research results;
• Optimize the "Space Evolution Unit", with the "Future Office Space Award", "Future Public Space Award", and "Future Residential Area Award" set up under it;
• Newly establish the "Future Consumption Unit", with the "Digital-Driven Consumption Award" and "Business Scene Innovation Award" set up under it;
• Newly establish the "City Unit", with the "Annual Urban Renewal Model", "Annual New-Quality Productivity Park", and "Annual Urban Vitality Center" set up under it.

A total of 11 projects have been shortlisted for the "Solution Unit", among which 2 projects are shortlisted for the "Digital Life Application Award"; 4 projects are shortlisted for the "Low-Carbon Sustainable Application Award"; the competition for the "Urban Intelligence Application Award" is still fierce, and 5 out of 18 participating projects are finally shortlisted.

A total of 8 projects have been shortlisted for the "Space Evolution Unit", among which 3 projects are shortlisted for the "Future Public Space Award"; 3 projects are shortlisted for the "Future Office Space Award"; and 2 projects are shortlisted for the "Future Residential Area Award".

A total of 5 projects are shortlisted for the newly established "Future Consumption Unit". Among them, the competition for the "Business Scene Innovation" award is relatively fierce, and finally 5 projects are shortlisted; for the "Digital-Driven Consumption Unit", although it is set up for the first time, there is also a vacancy for the first time. The evaluation experts believe that this award is dedicated to discovering which newly emerging products and technologies can have a positive and active driving effect on consumption. The projects declared this time have deviations in positioning and understanding of the project.

The "City Unit" has the largest number of registration projects, nearly 40, and finally 12 projects are shortlisted. Among them, 4 projects are shortlisted for the "Annual Urban Renewal Model"; 6 projects are shortlisted for the "Annual New-Quality Productivity Park"; and 2 projects are shortlisted for the "Annual Urban Vitality Center".

In the special unit, the "Annual Future City Sample" has two projects shortlisted.

Shortlisted Projects

This year's award launched the project solicitation on July 31, 2024. The organizing committee has received more than 160 declaration projects from more than 50 cities across the country. Based on the basic evaluation quadrants of "Intelligence, Sustainability, Friendliness, and Localization", finally 96 declaration projects have passed the initial screening of the organizing committee and entered the initial evaluation.

After the initial evaluation tour on the 36Kr all-media platform, the professional evaluation by 21 annual reviewers, and the public voting with more than 1.6 million participants, a total of 65 projects have been shortlisted for the online roadshow and annual review meeting, and 59 projects actually participated.

On November 6 and 8, the Future City Award 2024 held an online roadshow and annual review meeting in Beijing. The roadshow representatives of the 59 shortlisted projects in the five major units and twelve individual awards made a declaration overview and answered the questions of the evaluation experts in various professional fields.

The final result of the Future City Award 2024 will be announced at the beginning of next year. At that time, the organizing committee will announce the shortlisted awards and the annual awards of 11 projects in 5 major units.