CATEGORY

Sustainable Buildings

Six Steps to Decarbonising Buildings

This article was written for CityChangers.org by Irene Garcia, Built Environment Lead, and Michael Shank, Director of Engagement, both with the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance. In it, they outline a six-step plan – illustrated...

Are Public Festivals Damaging Urban Parks?

Because of the population density, cities are a concentration of the best and worst of everyday human behaviour. Nowhere is this more evident than at celebrations that infringe on urban parks. With the warmer weather of...

How Cities Can Build with Timber… Responsibly

Biobased materials can deliver buildings that are both low-carbon and fit residents’ needs: robust, resilient, and pleasant to be in. They can allow us to ‘partner’ with the natural world too, supporting the forest...

CityChanger Balin Koyunoglu: Creating Resilient Cities Through Rewilding

Humans and wildlife have much in common. Urban sprawl deprives both of the resources, protection, and environmental stability that the natural world offers. Rewilding cities can reverse these fortunes. We explore what’s to gain...

Green Finance Institute: Accelerating Retrofits Through Investment

Retrofitting Europe’s built environment would drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and position us closer to climate goals. It’s a tantalisingly tangible but costly outlook, and progress is slow. To change this, the Green Finance...

Challenges & Solutions for Migrant Housing in European Cities

In a hostile environment where migrants are denied access to the services and basic rights others enjoy, finding secure, quality, safe, and affordable long-term housing remains one of the biggest challenges. As where and...

CityChanger Max Schade: Building a Future of Straw, Wood & Clay

With public demand for sustainability snowballing, it’s inevitable every sector will undergo a green transformation. Construction, however, may not be as advanced as we thought. Max Schade from STROHBOID acts as our guide today,...

Young Leader Omar Zahran: Architecture as a Tool for People-Centred Cities

How does so much historic architecture endure the ravages of time? It’s because the architects of yore knew how to build cities to suit their environment, and they did so to meet the needs...

Building a Better Housing Model with the European Community Land Trust Network

Fulfilling the need for quality, affordable, future-proofed housing is one of our cities’ biggest challenges. Marginalised and low-income populations need the current system to change the most. Community Land Trusts offer an equitable and...

A Just Transition: Raising Workers’ Rights in the Built Environment’s Transformation

As the construction and manufacturing industries undergo a transformation to new and better ways of delivering the built spaces we need, a hidden majority is often overlooked: the sector’s workers. It’s right that we...

CityChanger Chris Kaiser: Putting the Elephant into Entrepreneurship

What links an elephant habitat and sustainable cities? Today we’re challenging the way we look at urban sustainability by standing at the vantage point of outwards looking in – from the forest to the...

How to Innovate Retrofitting

With so many properties failing to meet contemporary energy efficiency standards, much needs to be done to save occupants from needless discomfort and expense. There are plenty of mainstream retrofit concepts, but what about...

Barcelona’s Superblocks: Putting People at the Centre – Literally

A few weeks back, during an ECIU Challenge in Barcelona, I talked with the Office for Urban Ecology of Barcelona's municipality. They showed me the city's plan to win its war on cars. The plan is...

How to Excite People About Retrofitting

Energy Team and community leaders hosting a gamified training session in Dromiskin. Image Credit: Energy Team Big cities can learn a lot from smaller communities. Dunleer, a town in the northeast of the Republic of...

Lyon Confluence: How a District is Retrofitting Heritage Buildings

SPL Lyon Confluence is carrying out a stand-out urban renewal project in a once-deprived district of central Lyon. Project Manager Etienne Vignali describes how this offers a significantly chance to undertake a large-scale decarbonisation...

CityChanger Alice Haugh: A Just Transition Towards Decarbonisation

What does a city of the future look like? For Alice Haugh, it is a regenerative and inclusive built environment that supports wellbeing and equality. In her work with the global philanthropic institution, Laudes...

CityChanger Frances Bean: Helping Public Bodies Decarbonise

Frances Bean joined the Carbon Trust, a mission-led sustainability consultancy in the UK, in 2018. As Manager in the Cities and Regions team, she supports municipalities and public bodies to understand and achieve their...

The Social Benefits of Retrofitting

While marketing it as a decent money saver, we rarely focus on the social benefits of retrofitting. Does that mean that they’re so minute as to be obsolete or do we just need a...