We help cities make better decisions about smart technology, so it actually improves people’s lives, leaving no one behind.
The IDHUS Institute is an independent consultancy specialised in Smart City strategy and sustainable urban development. Founded in Barcelona in 2019, we operate at the intersection of urban research, technology strategy, and public policy, working with city governments, public institutions, private organisations, and international networks to design and implement programmes that make cities more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.
Our work is grounded in a simple but powerful conviction: technology alone does not make cities smarter. What makes cities smarter is the quality of the decisions made about how, where, and for whom technology is deployed. Artificial intelligence, data infrastructure, digital platforms, and urban automation are powerful tools, but tools without direction. At IDHUS, we provide that direction, ensuring that technological investment translates into measurable improvements in the quality of life of urban residents, particularly those most at risk of being left behind.
The Challenge We Are Responding To
We are living through the most significant urban transition in human history. More than half of the world’s population already lives in cities, and by 2050 that figure will reach nearly 70%. This rapid urbanisation brings extraordinary opportunities, for economic development, innovation, and social progress, but also profound risks: growing inequality, unaffordable housing, overwhelmed infrastructure, environmental degradation, and cities increasingly exposed to the consequences of climate change.
The decisions cities make today, about land use, transport, energy, housing, public space, and digital infrastructure, will shape the lives of billions of people for decades to come. Getting those decisions right is not a technical challenge alone. It is a governance challenge, a social challenge, and above all, a values challenge. That is the challenge IDHUS was created to help cities navigate.
Our Framework: SDG 11 and the Global Urban Agenda
The IDHUS Institute structures all of its work within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, one of the 17 SDGs of the 2030 Agenda adopted by world leaders in 2015. SDG 11 establishes a clear and ambitious global commitment: to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable by 2030, and it provides a concrete set of targets against which urban progress can be measured and reported.
Our programmes and consulting engagements are designed to help cities advance against those targets, across the full spectrum of SDG 11:
- Affordable housing and slum upgrading: supporting cities in developing policies and programmes that expand access to safe, adequate, and affordable housing for all residents.
- Sustainable mobility: designing integrated transport strategies that prioritise public transit, active mobility, and universal accessibility, reducing both congestion and emissions.
- Inclusive and participatory urban planning: helping cities build governance processes that genuinely involve residents in decisions about their urban environment, ensuring that growth is planned, equitable, and sustainable.
- Cultural and natural heritage protection: advising on strategies to preserve the cultural identity and historic fabric of cities as assets for community cohesion and sustainable tourism.
- Disaster risk reduction and climate resilience: supporting cities in assessing their exposure to climate and disaster risks, and designing adaptation strategies aligned with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015–2030).
- Environmental quality: working with cities to reduce urban air pollution, improve solid waste management, and advance circular economy approaches at the city scale.
- Green and public spaces: promoting the integration of parks, urban forests, and inclusive public spaces into city planning as essential infrastructure for health, well-being, and social cohesion.
Beyond SDG 11, our work is also informed by and aligned with two complementary global frameworks:
The New Urban Agenda (Habitat III, Quito 2016), the United Nations’ most comprehensive global framework for sustainable urban development, which sets out shared principles and commitments for how cities should be planned, financed, developed, governed, and managed over the coming decades.
The Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which positions cities as critical actors in the global effort to limit warming to 1.5°C, and which increasingly shapes the investment decisions, regulatory environments, and partnership opportunities available to forward-thinking city governments.
Together, these frameworks provide IDHUS with a robust, internationally recognised foundation for the advice, strategies, and programmes we develop, ensuring that our work is not only locally relevant but globally credible.
What We Do
IDHUS works across four interconnected areas of practice:
Strategic consulting: We work alongside city governments and public institutions to develop Smart City strategies, digital masterplans, and urban innovation roadmaps that are grounded in the SDG 11 framework and aligned with national and regional policy environments. We help cities define clear priorities, build the internal capacity to act on them, and design governance structures that ensure accountability and long-term sustainability.
Programme design and implementation support: We translate global frameworks and strategic visions into operational programmes: defining objectives, designing interventions, establishing monitoring and evaluation systems, and supporting implementation teams on the ground. We have particular expertise in programmes that address the interface between digital technology and urban equity — ensuring that smart city investments reach and benefit all residents, not only the most connected or affluent.
Research and knowledge: We conduct applied urban research that connects academic insight with policy relevance. Our research informs both our consulting work and broader public debate on the future of cities, with a particular focus on the social, ethical, and governance dimensions of urban technology.
Capacity building and training: We design and deliver training programmes, workshops, and learning journeys for city officials, urban practitioners, and policy makers, building the knowledge and skills needed to lead sustainable urban transformation in an increasingly complex technological and regulatory landscape.
Our Vision and Purpose
To accelerate the transition towards a new paradigm of urban development, one where technological intelligence is aligned with human values, and where innovation serves as a tool for equity, inclusion, and planetary well-being.
We envision a future where cities are not merely engines of economic growth, but genuine platforms for human flourishing, where every resident has access to safe housing, clean air, reliable transport, and welcoming public spaces; where no neighbourhood is left behind by the digital transition; and where urban systems are designed to adapt, recover, and evolve in the face of climate risk, social disruption, and technological change.
We work with public institutions, city governments, private organisations, and global networks to design strategies, frameworks, and tools that help cities deliver on the commitments of SDG 11, bridging the gap between global agendas and local action, and translating international targets into concrete programmes that cities can implement, measure, and scale.
At IDHUS, we believe that the most advanced cities of the future will not be those with the most powerful technologies, but those that have learned to put them at the service of their most vulnerable citizens, building the sustainable, inclusive, and resilient urban communities that SDG 11 calls us to create. Because the true measure of a smart city is not the sophistication of its systems, but the quality of life of all the people who call it home.
Networks & Partnerships
The IDHUS Institute participates in a select group of international networks. These affiliations inform our understanding of where smart city policy is heading and give our clients confidence that our work is grounded in the wider European urban innovation ecosystem.
European Policy Centre (EPC)
Independent Brussels-based think tank focused on EU policy analysis and debate. Membership keeps IDHUS connected to the regulatory and governance discussions that directly affect smart city implementation across Europe.
World Alliance for Efficient Solutions
Solar Impulse Foundation initiative promoting clean, sustainable technologies. Membership connects IDHUS to a global network of organisations working on the intersection of technology and environmental transition in cities.
BABLE Smart Cities Network
European platform connecting cities and companies driving smart and sustainable urban growth. Through BABLE, IDHUS contributes expert knowledge and accesses a live ecosystem of urban innovation projects across European cities.
Our Logo and Brand
Our logo is a symbol of humanity’s evolution.
Just as each ring in the trunk of a tree represents a year of accumulated experience, knowledge, and wisdom in its evolutionary process, IDHUS embodies this philosophy, helping society grow and evolve through continuous learning, constant change, and steady development, learning from all that has been lived to create, with each new cycle, a better humanity.