Anders Logg and Minna Karstunen receive the 2026 Areas of Advance Award for their work with the Digital Twin Cities Centre. It brings together mathematics, computer science, architecture and civil engineering in digital models that can provide a better basis for planning and building the cities of the future.
A digital twin is a virtual model of reality that can be updated with current data. The technology has long been used in the manufacturing industry to simulate factories, processes and products. At the Digital Twin Cities Centre (DTCC), the idea has been applied to urban planning and construction.
Just as a car or an aircraft can be tested in a computer simulation before it is built, a digital twin can be used to analyse a city and test different solutions in advance. The model encompasses the existing city, the planning and the construction process itself.
A living model of the city
Urban development is complex: a change in one area often affects several others. In a digital twin, information about wind, heat, air quality, water and subsurface conditions, for example, can be connected. This makes it possible to ask relevant questions based on current data and identify relationships that would otherwise be difficult to detect.
‘Simulations and models have been around for a long time, but they have often been isolated. With a digital twin, the ideal is for the model to be alive. You can see what the city looks like right now and how its different parts are connected,’ says Anders Logg, Professor at the Department of Mathematical Sciences and Director of DTCC.
The results also need to be accessible to those who will use them. The centre therefore works with several forms of visualisation: web tools, virtual and augmented reality, and 3D-printed city models onto which different data layers can be projected.
Breadth is essential
DTCC brings together 35 partners from academia, the public sector and industry. The researchers contribute long-term knowledge development, the companies see opportunities for new services and products, and the municipalities need tools to address concrete problems in their operations. The differences in perspective present challenges but are also a strength.
When the partners share real-world data, work processes and needs, the researchers gain a clearer picture of which problems are most pressing. The research can then be directed towards solutions of practical significance, while the scientific methods are developed.
‘Urban development is very complex. When you do something, it affects many other parts, and it is not always easy to understand all the effects. This is where one of the great strengths of digital twins lies,’ says Minna Karstunen, Professor at the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering and Deputy Director of DTCC.
Modelling an entire city requires knowledge from many fields and at several scales, from individual construction projects to the city as a whole. It is therefore not something that a single researcher or discipline can do alone.
‘Interdisciplinary work creates respect for disciplines in which you are not an expert. You realise that your own field may account for ten per cent and that the other ninety per cent is also needed to achieve a good result,’ says Anders Logg.
A collaboration that has endured
The centre grew out of previous initiatives involving virtual cities and urban development. When a shared idea was needed for a call for proposals, digital twins became the link between the research groups’ different specialisations. The initiative began during the Covid-19 pandemic but has nevertheless succeeded in generating engagement and progressing to a second funding period.
The prize recipients particularly emphasise that DTCC is a team effort. A strong management team, researchers and partners have helped to develop the centre and hold together an operation with many different circumstances and interests.
‘Modelling an entire city is so broad that you cannot do it alone. You need expertise from a great many fields. Going beyond your own scientific field is demanding, but also very rewarding,’ says Anders Logg.
Facts / Areas of Advance Award
The Areas of Advance Award has been awarded since 2010. It recognises research at Chalmers that helps to solve the major challenges of the future and works towards a sustainable society through interdisciplinary collaboration. The prize money is SEK 100,000 and is to be used for joint activities.
Facts / Prize citation
Anders Logg and Minna Karstunen receive the 2026 Areas of Advance Award for developing new ways of bringing together research, technology and practice for the sustainable urban development of the future. Together, the two prize recipients have driven the establishment and development of the Digital Twin Cities Centre, bringing it to a strong international position. The Digital Twin Cities Centre is a platform that helps to address some of the most complex societal challenges of our time. In a short period of time, the centre has developed an approach in which advanced modelling, data analysis and visualisation create new opportunities to understand and plan the cities of the future.
In an environment where sustainability issues, resource use and societal development are becoming increasingly intertwined, DTCC has demonstrated how multidisciplinary research can be translated into practical benefit. By bringing together partners from academia, the public sector and industry around a shared infrastructure, the centre has created the conditions for new forms of knowledge development and decision support. By combining long-term research with practical application, DTCC has strengthened Sweden’s position in an emerging international field while laying the foundation for better-informed, transparent and sustainable decisions in urban development.