On Wednesday afternoon, UW officially launched the Future Cities Institute (FCI), a centre that will be dedicated to developing and improving city spaces in the future. According to the institute’s website, it hopes to bring together “interdisciplinary partners from academia, industry, government, grassroots organizations and communities.”
FCI was founded by Caivan, a real estate development company that invested $10 million into the project. Caivan co-founders and CEOs Frank Cairo and Troy van Haastrecht are both UW alumni, and have been involved with the university’s Future Cities Initiative since 2020, when they provided the environment faculty with a $1 million seed investment.
As an expansion of the Future Cities Initiative, FCI has outlined four areas of research that they currently plan to focus on: housing, modelling integrated future cities, mobility, and sustainable infrastructure. In order to create “sustainable and resilient cities,” FCI will depend upon cross-disciplinary collaboration and research from these four focus areas.
The institute will also offer post-graduate programs aimed at “training the next generation of urban leaders.” Beginning this year, the environment faculty will be offering a master of future cities program, and a master in engineering in future cities program will be launched in the future. A new diploma for undergraduate students is also available through the faculty of environment, called the diploma in future cities.
More information about the institute is available on their website.
