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young people

Urban Minded: Designing Cities that Support Mental Wellbeing

Poor city design correlates with poor mental health. Urban Minded sought to involve young women, among those worst affected, in determining how planning can support wellbeing. Even a small space can produce a lot of...

Targeted Participation: A Toolkit for Involving Disengaged Groups

From targeted participation to making it fun, the Urban Minded project shows what strategies and activities really work to involve people usually excluded from engagement processes. “One of the pitfalls of citizen participation is that...

Mums for Lungs: The Campaign for School Streets Powered by Coffee

The benefits of school streets are numerous. So too are the triggers that prompt people to set them up. For campaign group Mums for Lungs, it’s urban air pollution. We explore how their mission...

Taking Root: The Tale of London’s Transient Story Garden

London’s mobile Skip Garden was co-constructed by local communities from construction waste. Now named the Story Garden, it has finally found a permanent home. The Story Garden gives people in and around the busy King’s...

CityChanger Deborah Saunt: Decent City-making with Social Value

Co-founder of DSDHA, Deborah Saunt, explains how social value optimises the investment in public spaces, and why redevelopment projects are improved by random conversations. When Deborah Saunt was asked to design a landmark building for...

CityChanger Hanah Lahe: Healing Political Divides to Unite Citizens in Climate Action

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...

Dignity by Design: How Kitty’s Laundrette is Reviving Anfield’s High Street

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...

Kids’ Court: How Children & Traffic Police Are Making School Streets Safer

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...

Notable City: Tanga – Generating City-Wide Benefits by Boosting Youth Social Mobility

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...

Urban Design Lessons We Must Learn from Communities in the Global South

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...