Building kinder cities to rediscover the human touch

Trapped within the restrictive confines of our daily lives, words like kindness and charity have lost all meaning. In an attempt to get ahead in life, mankind has forgotten about the comforts of the human touch. Indifference to the sufferings of our fellow men will only spell disaster in the long run. It is an irrefutable fact that man is a social animal. When the very fabrics that hold society together start to tear at the seams, it is only a matter of time before everything inevitably collapses. What use, then, our cities with lofty skyscrapers? What use the wealth we have accumulated at the expense of others?

It is, therefore, important that we go back to the basics. Qualities like kindness need to be revisited before it is too late. We will only truly advance as a society when the strongest among us lend a hand to our weakest members. Our homes and the cities we reside in, need to reflect these qualities. Kinder cities would make a world of difference to every inhabitant of this planet we call home.

Lenovo, a leading global technology giant, has taken the lead and adopted this concept wholeheartedly. The company launched its ‘Kind City’ project in a bid to develop future cities based on kindness. This is one of the very first attempts at creating model cities with kindness as a building block. The project strives to encourage inclusive community building where empathy rightfully takes its place at the forefront.

The multi-complex mazes that make our homes and working spaces have birthed a feeling of disconnect. The inability to engage in meaningful conversation with fellow peers is becoming an increasingly worrying trait across the board. This often leads to disassociation with reality and sows the seed for deteriorating mental health. It, therefore, comes as no surprise that suicide rates and mental health issues are at an all-time high.

Kind City project is the biggest crowdsourced public ‘census’ to author the blueprint for a city built on kindness. Its single purpose is ‘to bring a more empathetic future to life through insight from global research, a public invitation to participate, and an interactive podcast featuring city dwellers and some of the world’s brightest minds’.

Helmed by a panel of renowned visionaries, who are achievers in their own right, Kind City is a one-of-a-kind project that actively seeks public opinion on what makes a ‘kind’ city. The inclusion of the biggest stakeholders to voice their insights on what they believe would make the perfect city is a novel idea. Providing the public with a platform to express their desires and expectations is the first step towards building an inclusive society, which is vital for an ambitious project like Kind City.

A study conducted by Lenovo showed that traditional organizations and governments are falling well short of the mark when it came to parameters like kindness. The study showed that a major kindness gap existed in cities, with only 37 per cent of all surveyed feeling that their current city was a kind place to live and work in.

If Lenovo’s Kind City project comes to fruition, it has the power to initiate widespread reforms in our perception of cities forever.

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