CATEGORY

Sustainable Buildings

Why We Need More Green Roofs. Porto Answers a Critical Question

Critical Concrete was formed in 2015. Since then, they have been combining sustainable constructions work, renovations, educational programmes, and research projects to enhance socially beneficial buildings that support community cohesion, accessibility, and equity. In the...

How to Make Energy Use More Efficient

Using fossil fuels emits a lot of carbon dioxide. This enters the atmosphere and traps heat, warming the climate. Unless we curb our energy use, temperatures will rise beyond the 1.5 degree-maximum we’ve set...

How to Make Water Use More Efficient

Showering, cleaning, drinking, flushing, and washing clothes all use water. A lot of water! As the climate changes and populations increase, supply is struggling to keep up with demand. Making our city’s buildings more...

Architectural Design and Climate Mitigation & Adaptation

“It’s not just about water, not just about heat. It’s about humans and nature and how our cities function holistically and work together.” - Jeremy Anterola With cities becoming more populated and the growing demand...

Guide to Natural Materials in Construction: More Than Hobbit Houses and Mud Huts

Deep in the depths of the construction world, among the steel, cement and concrete, there are materials hidden, just waiting to be utilised. We’ve put together this guide exhibiting some of the main natural...

How, When, and Where to Incorporate Participation into Urban Development

Constructing sustainable buildings in our cities is all well and good, but sometimes you’ve got to step back and look at the bigger picture: urban development. In order to create a city suitable for...

The Art of Persuasion: How to Involve Residents in Retrofitting

Why aren’t we retrofitting more? There’s an unarguable case in favour, after all. Something must be holding us back. The problem is that property owners are just not that engaged in the movement. It...

CityChanger Eugen Antalovsky: Participation, Inclusion, and Urban Development in Vienna

With an interest in architecture, cities, mobility, and society, it seemed like a natural step for Eugen Antalovsky to specialise in urban development, and for the last three and a half decades he’s been...

The Challenges of Psychology in Retrofitting

At CityChangers, we value the learning we can gain from bottlenecks, problems, and conundrums. Knowing the challenges and discovering the blockages provides a ground on which we can search for solutions. We’ve noticed a...

How to Incorporate Greenery into Architecture

According to the European Commission, we spend 90% of our lives in enclosed buildings. That’s quite a lot, considering how much vegetation and the outdoors positively affect us. So, why don’t we simply incorporate...

Greenery: Facts & Figures

The basis for every city-changing venture is to do your research and to know your facts and data. For this very purpose, we have gathered the most important, surprising, or even uplifting ones in...

Coliving – Saving, Sharing, Caring

Living in one apartment with 10 others – for some a nightmare but for many the perfect alternative living model in times of a housing affordability crisis, mass urbanisation, and increasing loneliness. This article...

Notable City: Decarbonising Vienna

Vienna is a pragmatic city, bursting with exuberance, diversity, and political action. In terms of decarbonising, it’s a place where people are making definite, positive urban change at the street and policy levels. We...

Micro-Gardening in Dakar: Fighting Food and Climate Insecurity

In lands where proper growing soil is scarce, water supply is low, and food shortage is prevailing, cities need to resort to innovative means of obtaining the needed resources. The city of Dakar managed...

Flora Robotica: The Future of Growing Your Own House?

Let’s talk hypothetically – what if we had the ability to grow our own houses? Out of plants? No greenhouse gas emissions, no grey concrete, no building-material waste, no heat island effects. Wouldn’t it...

From Architecture to Urban Planning: Shweta Gandhi

From a naïve 19-year-old architecture student to working on government projects and helping achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, Shweta Gandhi has already gathered a multitude of experiences. We spoke to this Young Leader...

Do It Yourself: How to Start Retrofitting

The decarbonising effects of retrofitting older buildings will do a lot to slow or even prevent the global heating process. But where do we start? How do we know what measures individual properties require,...

Decarbonising Cities to Reverse Climate Change

Cities emit seemingly endless cascades of greenhouse gasses. Carbon dioxide is the number one offender. Rectifying this is pivotal to halting global warming and preventing irreversible climate damage. But decarbonising cities at a mass...