Planet Idea is an innovative Italian start-up founded in 2015 in Turin, and operates internationally as a Competence Center on smart cities. They form a part of the international Planet Holding group.
Planet provides strategic consulting and develops projects to integrate innovation into the urban environment by acting on four thematic macroareas: built environment, ecosystem resources, technological systems, and society. Their approach integrates ideas, solutions, and best practices into the urban environment with the aim of truely making cities smart. Projects are measured using a “smartness index”, which is based on the following six qualities: attractive, healthy, inclusive, digital, efficient, and informative. Achieving these six smart qualities fosters the conditions necessary for transitioning towards smarter cities and communities.
Planet’s Competence Center is constantly monitoring the market for products, services, and best practices to add to its Observatory. The smart solutions are chosen only if they have a high technology readiness level (TRL), are immediately available and reliable, and are ready to be applied in the field.
The Competence Center is composed of a multidisciplinary team made up of over 30 experts including: architects, urban planners, agronomists, civil and environmental engineers, communication managers, social media managers, smart city regulation experts, and social inclusion experts.
Planet Idea has gained extensive experience during the design of the world’s first smart city with social housing, as known as the Smart City Laguna. Originally launched in 2014, it is now currently under construction in Sao Goncalo do Amarante in Brazil and is expected to be completed in 2020. In 2016 they developed the first smart square in Italy, located in Turin. Lastly, Planet Idea has designed and created a smartphone application called Planet App. It gives citizens and public administrations access to a variety of solutions offered in the smart city and renders the services more intelligent and interconnected.
In 2017 Planet Idea was selected by StartupItalia! for their “100 best Italian startups” list, and won the Smart Cities category for “Startup Europe Awards 2017 Italy”. Turin’s smart square was also selected as one of the best examples of an active public space in the world during the European research project called Active Public Space. The aforementioned project was promoted by three major European research centers headed by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) in Barcelona. Finally, the Smart City Laguna was awarded the annual prize “Sindicato dos Engenheiros do Estado de São Paulo” in Brazil.