Karolina Taczalska was appalled by the density of traffic outside her son’s school, so she and Mateusz Cyganek started a project that aims to make the street child friendly by implementing small but effective...
There has been a lot of talk about school streets in the sustainable cities sphere of late, but what does the term really mean, and why are school streets necessary? We gen up on...
When drivers don’t observe – or know! – traffic laws, people can get hurt. A quirky idea expanding through Africa is making streets safer by educating motor users about courteous driving. It’s called the...
Diversifying cultural representation in architecture extends a sense of belonging to communities that have long been hidden. Reanna McKay tells us how Indigenous urban design and place markers are rolling back centuries of exclusion...
Create a more equal world is a lot of work. We not only have to build inclusive cities, but first dismantle the long-established and accepted systems that stand in our way. It can be...
Understanding children’s experiences of cities exposes new opportunities for inclusive design. The trick is knowing how to properly engage them. Gold Coast transport planner Luisina Perassi has made it easy – even collating a...
Engaging children in urban design and planning activities can increase interest in these professions in later years. It also provides perspectives infrequently considered in architecture, which are fundamental to building inclusive, sustainable cities.
The municipal...
In ageing societies like Europe, young people have little of the political power needed to influence decisions that impact their lives. As a group for whom sustainability is a prominent concern, futureproofing cities relies...
How truly public are our public spaces? In this episode, we take a look at the rise of ‘defensive urbanism’ in our cities and ask what it would take to stop designing people out...
This article was written for CityChangers.org by Dr. Michael Shank, Director of Engagement with the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance. In it, he argues that it’s high time that creatives be brought in as a...
If the design of urban spaces does not make us feel safe, it limits how we move around, engage with, and enjoy the city. This impacts women disproportionately, and even spaces that seem welcoming...
Through population growth and in-migration, cities are only going to increase in number and size. This presents a challenge: how do we ensure citizens’ needs are addressed adequately as urban environments sprawl at an...
This article is part of a paid collaboration between Urban Future and Pop Up City Amsterdam, implemented in the run-up to UF24 in Rotterdam. The featured "recipe", the Open Air Kitchen, is one of...
Implementing spatial changes that benefit citizens isn’t a straightforward process. In many cities, there’s not a process for it at all! Or is there? The case of Muscat, in Oman, shows us that it...
This article was written for CityChangers.org by Eliza Barnea, Policy and Government Affairs Coordinator for IntreVecini, a Bucharest-based non-profit that empowers citizens to lead their own urban improvements. Using residents of urban condominiums as...
What would a city designed entirely by children look like? And what could it tell us about the cities we live in now – the good things and the bad?
Academic Christina Ergler’s research into...
The challenges for migrants arriving in a new country seem endless. The more vulnerable their situation, and precarious their legal status, the deeper these problems run. Social and structural barriers and discrimination prevent newcomers...
It’s a fact! Cities are designed by men for men. This skews power relations in the built environment and the systems that govern them, curtailing women’s social and economic mobility. Added to this, intersectional...