Frost*collective

In episode 24 of the podcast we speak to Usman Haque, founding partner of Umbrellium – an architecture and design company that builds urban technologies that support citizen empowerment and engagement. This insightful conversation unpacks how Usman began his career, how he ended up where he is today and his experiences along the way. Vince and Usman touch on the future of our cities, how they should be designed and why ultimately, they need to go beyond being smart and be engaging. For over 20 years Usman has used the skills he developed through formal architecture training to engineer and design not only physical spaces but the software and systems that bring them to life. Before creating Umbrellium, he launched Thingful.net, a search engine for the Internet of Things, as well as the IoT data infrastructure and community platform Pachube.com, which was acquired by LogMeIn and subsequently Google. Usman has received a number of exemplary accolades such as the 2008 Design of the Year Award (interactive