Adam Greenfield discusses Project Farevalue which aimed to solve an everyday problem transit riders face: confirm stored value on your transit card. The team produced a working prototype, but with a hazy patent landscape Greenfield decided to abandon Farevalue and his practice, to focus on showing what he believes the future should look like through teaching and writing.

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• Adam Greenfield is on Mastodon @adamgreenfield, has a Wikipedia entry (which is boss), check out Adam’s old blog Speedbird, and he has a Patreon
  
  
• Lifehouse: Taking Care of Ourselves in A World on Fire, available on Amazon, via publisher Verso, Google Books
  
  
• Photos: Project Perry (Farevalue)
  
  
• Benedetta Piantella at NYU iTP
  
  
• Mayo Nissen’s portfolio page on Farevalue (Project Perry)
  

Adam Greenfield is a multifaceted professional with extensive experience in design, technology, politics, and culture, primarily focused on their intersection in urban contexts. After a stint at Nokia in Helsinki as the head of design direction, where he felt his impact was limited, Greenfield moved to New York to establish Urban Scale, a design studio aimed at enhancing networked cities and citizens. Residing in London for the past decade, he has written several books on technology and urban life, including an upcoming release scheduled for July 7th, 2024. Greenfield’s work is characterized by a deep understanding of the interplay between technology and urban governance, despite not having a formal technical background.

“I had to shut down the practice and it was the best thing in the world for me, because I got out of a space that I’m not constitutionally very well suited to, and was able to pursue inquiries that were really much closer to my heart. And that has been very generous to me in all the years since I thought I was one thing, I struggled to be that thing, I wasn’t very good at being that thing. The universe told me pretty clearly I was not that thing. And what I’ve turned out to be instead has made me much happier.”

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