Blog
Empty Homes, Crowded Cities:
Exploring the Global Housing Paradox
Key Takeaways The global housing paradox: millions of empty homes coexist with an acute affordability and housing-quality crisis. Practical innovations such as market intermediaries and startups; vacant-space registries; adaptive use models such as room-sharing...
Biidaasige Park:
Connecting Nature and the City.
Key Takeaways Flood protection and ecological restoration can be integrated at a large scale. The Port Lands project is a seven-year, $1.4B effort that renaturalizes the mouth of the Don River while lifting land out of a regional floodplain. Indigenous engagement and...
Streetfight:
Handbook for an Urban Revolution.
Key Takeaways Streets must be reclaimed as vibrant public places, where urban life happens, rather than car conduits or parking lots. Tactical, temporary pilots (such as paint, barrels, and beach chairs) demonstrate possibilities quickly, build political will, and...
Going for Zero:
Decarbonizing the Built Environment on the Path to Our Urban Future.
Key Takeaways Climate action and urban imperatives require a fundamental shift from acquiring new objects to the reintegration and healing of existing cities and infrastructure. Architects, planners and citizens have the agency to steer decarbonization toward...
Rethinking Smart Cities.
Leaving no-one behind.
Key Takeaways Co-governance, legal frameworks, and regulations must evolve alongside technology to leave no one behind. Any smart initiative must improve quality of life, equity and inclusion, not merely gather data or cut costs. All city sizes and budgets can get...
Nature Based Solutions for Managing Stormwater:
Creating Parks & Urban Resilience.
Key Takeaways ⇢ Public parks offer scalable sites for stormwater capture, flood mitigation, heat buffering and biodiversity gains. ⇢ Aligning parks, stormwater, and planning departments can enable the creation of larger capital and operational funds, unlocking...
Building Civic Trust and Economic Recovery through Public Space.
Case: Detroit, USA
Key Takeaways ⇢ Well‑designed, co‑created parks and streetscapes can reverse decades‑long declines in social cohesion and faith in government. ⇢ Embedding public space investments within broader neighbourhood stabilization and mixed-use infill yields synergistic gains...
The Challenge of Sustainable Urban Tourism.
Case: San Sebastian, Spain
Key Takeaways ⇢ Both natural and urban destinations suffer degradation when visitor numbers exceed the capacity of their core assets, i.e., ecosystems in nature and local way of life in cities. ⇢ Overtourism leads to housing displacement (Airbnb conversion),...
Why Mobility Transitions Do Not Start with Mobility
Key Takeaways ⇢ Cycling symbolizes autonomy, health and sustainability, but its rise depended on systemic shifts in street design and social norms—not on bikes alone. ⇢ Transitions demand holistic, multi‑level strategies that integrate infrastructure, behaviour...