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...
Inefficient building envelopes are huge carbon emitters. Retrofitting promises results but the time left to attain climate targets is narrowing. This calls for urgent, scaled-up action. With an abundance of social housing, city authorities...
Widescale social housing retrofit projects led by local authorities are not uncommon. Yet many energy refits still tend to focus on changes at the microscale – in single buildings. Does it have to be...
Space in cities is limited. Urban farming signals better times for food security but if there’s a future in it, we need to find ways to make it fit around existing land uses. When...
The French capital’s ambitious vision for urban agriculture is in full bloom. We take a look at the city’s signature Parisculteurs programme to understand why its unique approach is receiving world-wide attention.
From ‘the city...
What would it take to create the first truly circular food economy? In Southwestern Ontario, Canada, the small city of Guelph and the surrounding county of Wellington have set themselves the goal of finding...
In 2021, the city of Haarlem, in the Netherlands, submitted a draft to became the first city in the world to ban meat advertising in public spaces. The move was a lightning rod for...
What will the farms of the future look like in an increasingly urbanised world? We take a trip to the Zukunftshof, a pioneering initiative in Austria that wants to model a more sustainable approach...
From farming fish in high-tech warehouses to growing mushrooms under city streets, interest in urban agriculture is well and truly coming into season. But producing food in urban areas is nothing new, and there’s...
The importance of good waste management is no secret, but how to do it can sometimes allude us. This is where the city of Tampere comes in. So, if you’re lacking innovative ideas and...
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...
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...
Giving the streets back to the people: The Spanish idea of creating city blocks where cars are only allowed as guests is spreading across Europe. But what’s the story behind the superblocks, and how...
Vancouver has undergone a blue-green infrastructure revolution. Its Rain City Strategy integrated nature making the city more resilient to fluctuations in rainfall. Behind it all is Melina Scholefield, a CityChanger with an impressive portfolio...
For the 10th consecutive time, Vienna was named the world's most liveable city in the Mercer Rankings of 2020. But does that also mean that the city is particularly pedestrian-friendly? We talked to Petra...
Day Zero: the moment a city’s water dries up completely. For Cape Town, this deadly scenario came too close, but it was averted thanks to collective action and decisive leadership. This story serves as...
Our cities have been constructed almost entirely around private cars. But what's happening now? Cities are realising that infrastructure for motor vehicles in urban areas often leaves them looking grey, industrial and not very...
It’s a long way from one person having an idea to a city fully implementing it on policy-level – Rotterdam’s story shows that it can be done, and how. We sat down with José...