Karl Dickinson

Buzz stops are an example of how underutilised everyday spaces can be retrofitted simply, improving urban environments and creating habitats for biodiversity in the city. Commuters pass a lot of time at bus stops. Waiting times that we deem as acceptable can be as high as 13 minutes, although in...

ICAM provides an ethical choice for population management of free roaming animals, an issue largely ignored by leaders but a priority for citizens. National responses to the COVID-19 pandemic were a reminder of how a coordinated approach can be highly effective at keeping populations safe from harm. If the origin stories...

When an alleyway became too undesirable to even walk through, play and tactical interventions helped residents address their neighbourhood’s trauma and reclaim the space. Alleyways don’t get much attention but can be a critical space for revitalising a neighbourhood. One, in the West Hill neighbourhood of Albany, New York, USA, is...

Digital Twins offer cities an affordable, low-risk chance to experiment, tweak, and reformulate potential plans and possible solutions in an easily understandable, life-like virtual environment. Imagine if urban planners could test new concepts without risk and at minimum cost. What if we could see in advance what would go wrong,...

A city that prepares for the worse is disrupted the least. We explore what disaster preparedness looks like and how municipalities should be planning. The 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay area of California, USA, on 17 October 1989 damaging more than 23,000 homes, killing 63 people,...

It took just months to spruce up High Road Leyton, once again filling what was a declining town centre with businesses, people, and pride. London’s atmosphere was electric. In the run-up to the 2012 summer Olympic games, there was a sense of renewed hope just a few years after the...

Retrofitting has the potential to improve efficiency in the built environment, one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters, and help cities meet net zero targets. It is not a new idea, but many people still don’t grasp retrofitting. There’s a lot of misunderstanding and doubts about its efficacy. Sometimes the idea...

Conservatives fiercely resist behaviour change, but a six-point communications strategy designed to advance buy-in of heat pumps is a working model for engaging hard-to-convince groups. When Anja Floetenmeyer-Woltmann steps onto the stage, she is determined to change minds. In her work with the Mein Klimacoach (My Climate Coach) campaign in Hannover,...

So beneficial is it to add more than a smattering of vegetation to urban spaces that we've had to separate the main cases in favour. Think of it like this: we have a lot to gain from greener ground, and there's another world of wonders up on the roof. Of...

Non-profits in Denver have redefined the city’s understanding of chronic homelessness. Now their Collaboratory model is empowering people with lived experiences to design systemic change. Change-making can be a funny business. A lot of the time, we’re presented with a problem and the challenge is to find a viable and...

Against the odds, cities host an incredible array of flora (vegetation) and fauna (animals). How can we ensure that they thrive and why should we bother? Biological diversity – more commonly shortened to biodiversity – is a collective name given to all living organisms. Most of them will be one...

Leicester’s grassland strategy shows how diverse approaches to natural land management support biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and make cities more pleasant places to be. Since launching its Grassland Strategy 2023-2033, about 13.5% of all grassland in Leicester, UK, is managed as pollination or meadow grassland – habitat that promotes an increase...

A Lending Library allows citizens to borrow… well, anything. It’s emerging as an increasingly popular cost-saving, community-boosting, emission-reducing stalwart of the sharing economy. Could there be a greater neighbourly gesture than sharing your possessions? Lending someone an item that you own is to trust them to use it responsibly and that...

Borrowing may not seem an obvious action for cutting our carbon footprint, but Sharing Libraries are emerging as a popular arm of the circular economy. Like most of the world, Iceland’s population stayed indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic. To ease the boredom of staring at the same walls for weeks...

Faced with a decimated high street, residents of an Anfield neighbourhood created a community hub, reviving much needed services, decent jobs, and social infrastructure. There’s a wall of washing machines constantly on the go at Kitty’s Laundrette, and at the back of this modestly sized shop interior is a staff...

In response to the collective demands of 100,000 people, Via Verde has transformed Mexico City’s two-story highway from symbol of bad decision-making to a green space that supports citizens’ wellbeing. The greater metro area of Mexico City, Mexico, is home to more than 22 million people with 9 million in...

The cities we build today will still be standing for generations to come, so we need to anticipate how these will form the physical and social infrastructures people need in the future. Siobhan Burger explains how to achieve that with social design – and how she infiltrated decision-making circles...

When we as citizens feel helpless to interject in the questionable actions of decision-makers, the cracks in democracy are laid clear. But what if there was a way to put power back in the hands of the electorate? Citizens’ assemblies are designed to give people a stronger voice, says...