The King’s Foundation and FormationQ Launch ‘Harmonious Urban Growth’ Programme to Help Cities Plan Sustainable Expansion Using Quantum Optimisation
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Insider Brief The King’s Foundation and FormationQ launched a three-year initiative that will use advanced computational modelling and IonQ quantum technology to support sustainable urban planning across rapidly growing cities in the Commonwealth. The programme builds on The King’s Foundation’s Rapid Planning Toolkit, which was previously tested in Bo, Sierra Leone, to help guide development away from flood-prone areas while improving walkability and infrastructure planning. FormationQ, alongside urban planning consultancy Space Syntax, will use quantum optimisation methods to model complex city systems such as transportation, water networks, ecological corridors, and neighbourhood layouts in an effort to improve environmental resilience, public health, and infrastructure efficiency. PRESS RELEASE — The King’s Foundation and FormationQ today announced a new partnership to showcase how towns and cities across the Commonwealth can grow sustainably using quantum technology. The partnership, entitled Harmonious Urban Growth: A Health-Optimised Expansion Framework Using Quantum Methods, is a three-year programme designed to help cities grow sustainably while improving the health of people and the planet. The initiative will incorporate advanced computational modelling, including quantum optimisation enabled by trapped-ion systems from IonQ, to explore new methods for planning complex urban systems and sustainable town planning.Today, around 1.3 billion people live in unplanned settlements, and that number is expected to grow by well over one billion more in the next 30 years. When urban expansion occurs without planning frameworks, infrastructure and public services can struggle to keep up with population growth, creating long-term challenges for mobility, public health, and environmental resilience. Early planning helps cities become more livable, walkable and sustainable. In many of the places growing most rapidly, professional planning resources are limited, yet the need to organise urban expansion has never been greater.
The Harmonious Urban Growthprogramme builds on The King’s Foundation’s Rapid Planning Toolkit, a practical methodology developed with Commonwealth partners following the Declaration on Sustainable Urbanisation (CHOGM 2022). The Toolkit enables mayors, planning authorities and built-environment professionals to establish clear frameworks guiding responsible expansion before informal settlement patterns become difficult to reverse. The Toolkit was piloted in Bo, Sierra Leone, where it helped local authorities and community stakeholders avoid development in flood-prone wetlands while identifying walkable areas and infrastructure corridors for future expansion. The three-year programme will be supported by UK urban planning consultants Space Syntax, who will bring their knowledge on cities, mapping, and data to the initiative. Working alongside The King’s Foundation and FormationQ, they will apply digital modelling techniques to the toolkit process, harnessing the power of IonQ’s quantum technologies to develop new platforms that can support our understanding of the complexity of cities. Ben Bolgar, Executive Director for Projects at The King’s Foundation, said: “We are excited to partner with FormationQ to explore how our Rapid Planning Toolkit can help communities grow sustainably across the world. We hope that the work of the Projects Team at The King’s Foundation will impact more communities positively as a result.” Through the partnership, FormationQ will contribute advanced computational and optimisation capabilities, leveraging the IonQ quantum platform, to allow planners to explore large numbers of potential spatial configurations across interconnected systems including water networks, ecological corridors, transportation infrastructure, neighbourhood centres and block structures. Urban planning across these layers involves complex combinatorial decisions. Advanced optimisation techniques, including quantum approaches, can help analyse these interactions more efficiently and generate alternative spatial frameworks that balance walkability, environmental resilience, infrastructure efficiency and economic accessibility. Nada Hosking, Founder and CEO of FormationQ, said: “Rapid urbanisation is one of the most complex systems challenges of the 21st century. Cities must balance environmental resilience, infrastructure capacity, economic opportunity and human wellbeing simultaneously. Advances in computational modelling, including quantum optimisation techniques, offer new ways to explore these complex interactions and support better planning decisions.” The computational modelling informs a participatory planning process in which planners, local authorities and community representatives review spatial options and shape a preferred framework. Proposed plans can then be tested directly on site, with streets, squares and public spaces physically marked on the ground and digitally mapped to guide early development. By combining quantum computing, participatory planning and field testing, the Harmonious Urban Growth programme aims to create a scalable framework for guiding sustainable city expansion in rapidly urbanising regions. The collaboration between The King’s Foundation and FormationQ reflects a shared commitment to supporting resilient communities and responsible stewardship of the built environment.
Matt Swayne LinkedIn With a several-decades long background in journalism and communications, Matt Swayne has worked as a science communicator for an R1 university for more than 12 years, specializing in translating high tech and deep tech for the general audience. He has served as a writer, editor and analyst at The Quantum Insider since its inception. In addition to his service as a science communicator, Matt also develops courses to improve the media and communications skills of scientists and has taught courses. matt@thequantuminsider.com Share this article: