Urban Brilliance: See what two cities are up to at the H22 City Expo

Tallinn and Linz will be among the European cities eager to show their innovative side

The much-awaited H22 City Expo in Helsingborg is set to begin next week, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. One thing that will be certainly worthy of some extra attention will be the Urban Brilliance innovation area where six cities from across Europe have been invited to showcase their best practices and solutions for the challenges of today.

Here is a sneak peek at what two of these cities – Linz (Austria) and Tallinn (Estonia) have prepared for the inquisitive minds of the participants.

Tallinn and its smart city inclinations

The exhibition of the Tallinn pavilion focuses on digital solutions supporting smart development of the city, smart technological applications and environmental protection. These are key themes that will be introduced in the presentation story of Tallinn as the capital of innovation and next year's European Green Capital through successful cooperation projects with local success stories and companies.

According to Vladimir Sveti, the deputy mayor of the Tallinn delegation, the key word in urban development is a cooperation between different parties:

"According to the legend, Tallinn will never be finished, and the same can be said about a smart and green city - we must constantly develop and adapt to change. We are proud to be the European Green Capital next year, but with our daily efforts we want to contribute to a much more distant future and we want to create a city where everyone can live well. In cooperation with the city's institutions, local communities and the business sector, we can offer and implement innovative solutions that would contribute to the development of Tallinn and contribute to the improvement of our living environment."

The Tallinn Pavilion is represented by 10 companies whose innovative solutions have been applied in Tallinn and whose ambition is to increase sales of their products and services in foreign markets: Auve Tech autonomous last mile vehicles; Bikeep smart bicycle parking; Datel space-based infrastructure deformation monitoring systems; Extery innovative urban furniture; My furniture combining fungal filaments and organic residues; the special Rinaldo lighting solutions; Ringo Eco open repackaging platform; Starship Technologiesparcel robots; the Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol innovation centre focusing on the development of new technologies; and Ülemiste City, a business city developing the Test City concept. 

An introduction to the Tallinn Pavilion and the program can be found on the Tallinn Innovation website.

Linz: a city of digital humanism

The City of Linz, in Austria, has been proactive in nurturing and stimulating creative digital ideas on the condition that they are human-centred and that they contribute to creating a viable sustainable future. In that respect, here’s a look at some of the projects they plan to present at Urban Brilliance.

The world of fashion is currently undergoing a fundamental change. Attention is finally drawn to fast fashion's negative environmental and social impacts, and new technologies promise to change the fashion and apparel industry radically. The artistic research project “Fashion and Robotics” is looking for innovative, sustainable and bio-based approaches to develop new alternatives. To achieve these goals, three fields are cooperating that have not worked together in a fashion context before: Fashion, Creative Robotics and Biomechatronics.

With Grow Whole Garments at H22 City Expo, “Fashion and Robotics” exhibits a process of growing whole bacterial cellulose garments in textile membranes seamlessly. Komagataeibacter xylinus is an aerobic acetic acid bacterium that uses oxygen to metabolize sugar into cellulose. As fabric-producing bacteria, they could potentially offer an alternative to the cotton plant, which has some undesirable effects from an environmental perspective. As clothing has to fulfil various functions non-evenly spread along the body, the cellulose growth is locally monitored and tweaked by industrial robotics to gradually interweave diverse fabric attributes.

Furthermore, attendees to the Linz exhibition can meet the Boston Dynamics’ “Spot”, a robot dog helping to visualize the consequences of climate change with digital twins in and around our city. Participants can find out how a major steel company like VOEST Alpine can succeed in the transformation into a climate-friendly operation by switching to hydrogen power.

Alternatively, you can have an insight into the Ars Electronica Center and its Futurelab. Or get inspired by the participation approaches of the city's Innovation and Climate Office and take the chance to send your message to the Linz citizens with the interactive “Spot on” installation.

Urban Brilliance will also feature innovative exhibitions from Valencia, Oslo, Tampere and Copenhagen.