Precisely because of the magnitude of the problems they face, cities are increasingly emerging as the most fertile grounds for creating change. They are the laboratories in which many of the world's most intractable challenges will be solved.

Digitization has a profound effect on cities. Information about urban conditions can be captured in real-time, processed, and fed back into cities, enabling new ways to monitor, understand, and impact them. These transformations are on their way to revolutionize urban life.

Two and a half years ago, a friend of mine, my brothers and I shared a common vision. It was time, we thought, to re-think the way people live and work. Technology enables us to work virtually anywhere anytime with anyone. In this context, what should workspaces look like?

Unfortunately, we cannot just take down cities and rebuild them, add more capacity in public transports, or create more physical space. The only thing we can do is become better at how we manage them. And the way we do it is simply by predicting what will happen.