From 'smart cities' to wellness cities 5.0
Every year, Barcelona becomes a showcase of the urban future. Robots that clean streets, smart grids, sensors that monitor air quality and mobility... While technology advances at a breakneck pace, one question arises forcefully: can a city truly be "smart" if it doesn't improve the emotional, relational, and community lives of its inhabitants? After more than a decade of smart citiesIt seems clear that technical intelligence is not enough. The great task ahead is to evolve towards a new paradigm: the "City 5.0," where technology serves human well-being, not the other way around.
The term City 5.0 It comes from the concept society 5.0, promoted by the Japanese government in 2016 as part of its 5th Basic Science and Technology Plan. It is a vision of society centered on people, in which economic growth and the resolution of social problems coexist. Applied to the urban sphere, City 5.0 moves beyond the fascination with data and algorithms to embrace a more holistic intelligence: one that combines innovation with equity, efficiency with empathy, and sustainability with a sense of community. Unlike thesmart city Unlike the traditional city, which is essentially a sensor ecosystem, City 5.0 is an ecosystem of solutions designed for inclusion, sustainability, and citizen empowerment. We're talking about the emerging super-intelligent society. —super smart society—, as the Japanese proclaim.
As urban geopolitics expert Pau Solanilla writes, "true urban intelligence is not measured in megabytes, sensors, processes, or algorithms, but in shared human well-being." In his article "Cities 5.0, much more than smart cities", published in The New Barcelona PostSolanilla warns that the current paradigm risks creating new divides if it doesn't incorporate a humanistic perspective: "Technology without equity, and without a human approach and sensitivity, can generate, and already generates, new divides and inequalities." Her reflection points to the heart of the debate: the city of the future will not be the most connected, but the most just.
The Smart City Expo World Congress, recently held in Barcelona, confirms, however, that the global conversation remains dominated by technology. With more than 1,100 exhibitors and 27,000 participants, the motto The time for cities It invited cities to lead the global transformation. But most of the presentations focused on artificial intelligence, energy efficiency, or smart mobility, relegating the relational and community dimension that defines urban well-being to the background.
I believe the Smart City Congress is evolving, but it's still developing towards a more holistic vision of the city. It's worth asking whether urban technology isn't being presented as an end in itself rather than as a means to serve human well-being. This shift requires the congress to incorporate a complementary educational effort: sessions explicitly focused on climate change, socio-environmental equity, urban health and well-being, and the human dimension of innovation. Because simply limiting the discussion to what we can do with AI and data is insufficient. The key question is: how do these technologies improve the lives and relationships of city dwellers?
This evolution would be much more than a thematic adjustment: it would involve redefining urban intelligence. It's not enough to innovate in infrastructure; we must innovate in coexistence. And this is especially true in a time of acute mental health crisis like the one we are currently experiencing. Cities 5.0 are not designed solely by engineers and urban planners, but by professionals in psychology, education, ecology, and active citizenship. They are ecosystems where technology amplifies care and sustainability, where progress is measured in shared well-being, not gigabytes processed.
Ultimately, embracing City 5.0 requires merging three dimensions: the technological, the social, and the ecological. If the Smart City Congress wants to rise to this challenge, it must open spaces—and audiences—for populations to express themselves not so much as efficient machines, but as sustainable, resilient, and free human communities.
The most significant urban transformation will be the one that puts human beings at the center and fosters curiosity, ethics, and citizenship as much as technology and data. The true urban revolution will not arrive when all cities are smartbut when all are truly human.
