The post Mark Nieuwenhuijsen • Can Public Spaces like Barcelona’s Superblocks Make Cities Healthier? appeared first on Gil Penalosa.

The post Dr William Bird and Stephen McPeake • Tech and Games that Create Health appeared first on Gil Penalosa.

Presenter did not allow to share video

The post Jay Pitter • Black Public Joy: No Permit or Permission Required appeared first on Gil Penalosa.

The post Anna König Jerlmyr, (F) Mayor Stockholm • The Rise of 7000-step city appeared first on Gil Penalosa.

Key Takeaways

• Healthy Cities are built neighborhood by neighborhood. Urban planning needs to be strategic for housing, infrastructure, and risk management; however, that approach is incomplete without bottom-up neighborhood planning shaped by residents’ needs. The neighborhood revolution sits at the intersection of climate action, public health, and social inclusion.
• Daily exposures to heat, pollution, walking conditions, food access, and social contact are experienced more frequently at the local level than at the citywide scale.
• Neighborhood transformation can deepen inequality if benefits are concentrated in already advantaged areas or if upgrading leads to displacement.

Summary

1. Neighborhood improvements are more than just beautification processes:
   • • They should improve health, mobility, the local economy, and social inclusion at the same time.
     • Tactical urbanism should be used as a method, not an endpoint. Temporary interventions are useful because they allow cities and communities to test ideas cheaply, reveal hidden problems, and build evidence for more permanent investment.
     • Community participation should not be treated as consultation after the fact. Communities should be involved in diagnosis, co-design, implementation, and sometimes even maintenance.
2. Built form is directly linked to public health. More walking, better access to green space, reduced traffic danger, more shade, lower heat exposure, and better access to food and basic services can all improve health.
3. Neighborhood interventions are strongest when they combine physical design, social participation, and institutional continuity. A few examples include:
   • • Rio de Janeiro
       • The Oswaldo Cruz Urban Lab worked through a participatory process with schools, residents, neighborhood associations, quilombo communities, municipal actors, and university partners. 
       • The project moved through co-creation, design validation, implementation, evaluation, and activation. 
       • Its outputs were small-scale but multi-layered. Widened sidewalks, crosswalks, murals, community gardens, planting beds, new seating, and local fabrication of urban furniture were built through repeated community involvement and a strong link between municipal action and neighborhood knowledge.
     • Nairobi
       • The Dunga Road Renewal Project approached the street as a lived social space, not just a traffic corridor. 
       • The process began with women and girls assessing access, safety, comfort, and environmental conditions, which is important because their day-to-day experience of the street revealed issues that a purely technical traffic survey might miss. 
       • Young artists then translated those observations into temporary interventions like murals, seating around a tree, protections for exposed roots, and a bench integrated with the boda-boda environment. 
       • The project found that people were already creating informal pedestrian crossings because the formal street design did not serve them. That observation led to the creation of a formal crosswalk and related public realm improvements.
     • Buenos Aires
       • In Vicente López, the healthy food project used neighborhood scale to address access to nutritious food. 
       • The intervention was built around creating a network of local producers and healthy shops; generating demand through workshops in schools, kindergartens, and community centers; and activating the neighborhood through events that made the new supply visible and socially desirable.
       • The most important outcome was the durable commercial relationships that led to shops permanently carrying products from local producers.
       • The project shows how a health-oriented project can also rewire local supply chains.

How can Cities apply these learnings?

1. Run co-creation processes with residents, schools, local businesses, women, youth, and community organizations.
2. Pair design pilots with monitoring so cities can learn what changed in use, safety, comfort, and local commerce.
3. Involve multiple departments from the start: planning, mobility, public works, environment, health, education, and culture.
4. Use local procurement and local labor where possible, so neighborhood upgrades also support local economic activity.
5. Build scaling logic into the pilot. The goal should not be to produce one attractive site; it should be to create a repeatable method.

Ideas for future research

1. Study what makes pilots scale and measure how informal or unplanned behavior can change formal design.
2. Investigate the displacement risk of neighborhood upgrading, especially when successful interventions increase desirability in already pressured housing markets.

The post Hélène Chartier • The Neighborhood Revolution • Shaping Healthy Cities appeared first on Gil Penalosa.

Key Takeaways

• Communications for urban projects must be integrated from day one. Treat communications as a project process, not a last-minute add-on, and seat comms staff at the steering table.
• Tailor messages to segmented audiences such as residents, cyclists, businesses, and commuters. One umbrella slogan is useful, but content and channels must vary.
• Communication is not finished at ‘opening/project launch’. Sustained post-implementation presence and monitoring are necessary to observe how behaviours and uses evolve.

Summary

1. For communicating project proposals, changes, and approaches, use a two-layer approach simultaneously:
   • • Focus on service information related to operations, hyper-local, street-level changes. This makes people feel supported at all times.
     • Incorporate benefits in city-branding — long-horizon narrative that links projects into a coherent vision.
2. Successful urban change requires:
   • • an operationally rigorous communications process from day one; 
     • audience segmentation and service-level staffing on the street; 
     • a parallel narrative/branding campaign that explains long-term benefits; and 
     • creative use of partners when budgets are small.
3. Where opposition is intense, consider a targeted ‘silence + local accompaniment’ tactic. Withdraw noisy defence campaigns and invest in small-scale, hands-on problem-solving on the ground.
4. Budget limits require stakeholder mapping. Find trade channels through repair shops, associations, tax mailings, etc. and co-use them as distribution channels instead of buying mass media.

How can Cities apply these learnings?

1. Embed comms in governance: assign at least one communications specialist to the project steering group from the concept stage.
2. Use realistic renderings, quick before/after photo campaigns, and simple outcome metrics for visual proof & evaluation.
3. Create tailored messages and channels per stakeholder: residents, businesses, school parents, cyclists, drivers, utilities, and media.
4. Include field tests with neighbours in pre-launch preparations, along with advocacy/awareness tactics and audience-specific briefings.

Interesting resources

1. Barcelona Superblock program website https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/superilles/en 
2. Barcelona Superblock report https://bcnroc.ajuntament.barcelona.cat/jspui/bitstream/11703/132999/1/SUPERBLOCK.pdf

The post Maite Peris • Turning Conflict into Trust: Communication Strategies for Urban Transformation appeared first on Gil Penalosa.

Key Takeaways

• Globally, women have taken leading roles in several rapid and systemic changes ranging from tactical interventions and programmatic scaling to policy instruments and social provisioning. Their leadership patterns emphasize empathy, long-term vision, care, alliance-building and prioritizing impact over power.
• Female perspectives are not a niche addition. Diverse experiences, needs and leadership styles are fundamental to creating inclusive cities.

Summary

1. Key examples of urban transformation:
   • • Montreal, Canada: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the mayor initiated a seasonal pedestrianization program. 11 shopping and commercial streets were closed to cars for months to allow businesses to continue operating in a socially distanced way.
     • Paris, France: Mayoral leadership expanded a targeted school-streets program to over 200 sites in under five years and is now part of the mobility network. Similarly, the city advanced protected bike routes to reclaim curb space and reduce car dominance. 
     • Brussels, Belgium: Good move initiative that used traffic calming and circulation measures to filter out 40% of through traffic passing through the city centre by putting planter boxes to create a blanket 30 km/h speed limit and expanding pedestrianized networks. 
     • Barcelona, Spain: Superblock initiative that created outdoor living rooms, giving the public space back to people, creating space for play, and creating an environment that supports children’s independent mobility.
     • Sydney, Australia: The city had only 15km of protected bike lanes before COVID-19. But within one year after the pandemic, they built 150 km of protected lanes, and now the city is on its way to becoming a full-blown cycling city through the leadership of the mayor and the bicycle program managers.
     • Delhi, India: A city with immense challenges around the dominance of men in public spaces and restricted movement of women and girls, saw the rise of a social enterprise through the Safetipin initiative that uses technology and crowdsourced data to map safety scores and dark spots in the city, aiding urban planning and decision-making.
     • Bogota, Colombia: Expansion of the cycling network beyond affluent areas to make sure that everyone has more equitable transportation access. Additionally, the Care Blocks program paired mobility hubs with childcare, laundry and training to unlock carers’ (mostly women’s) labour-market access.
     • Manila, Philippines: When the city shut down its public transit, a woman activist initiated pop-up lanes that, through workshops and partnerships (including the Dutch Cycling Embassy and the World Bank), scaled to ~500 km of permanent cycling infrastructure.
     • Tirana, Albania: Given the high proportion of young people and families, city planners started looking at the city from a children’s perspective. Initiatives included the expansion of the school streets program, providing mobility options for people who don’t drive, creating all-ages playgrounds, and creating environments that welcome children and young girls to spend time in the city.
     • Kampala, Uganda: Persistent advocacy by a young woman produced pop-up bike lanes during COVID-19, which were later converted to permanent non-motorized corridors. She also self-funded a university bike-share system to seed demand and usage.
2. Scaling programs requires policy instruments such as speed defaults, parking/storage rules, budget allocation, coalition-building with businesses, caregivers, NGOs, etc., and reframing solutions through children-first and gender-inclusive narratives.

How can Cities apply these learnings?

1. Pair quick tactical wins with institutional partners such as city transport, NGOs, international partners, etc., to secure technical backing.
2. Mandate short evaluation windows with predefined success metrics (usage increase, speed reduction, perceived safety), then update design manuals and budgets when pilots pass thresholds, and create a cross-department steering group (transport, public health, parks, schools) for successful scaling.

Ideas for further reading

1. Women Changing Cities: Global Stories of Urban Transformation- Book by Chris Bruntlett and Melissa Bruntlett
2. Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives – Book by Chris Bruntlett and Melissa Bruntlett
3. Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality – Book by Chris Bruntlett and Melissa Bruntlett

Ideas for further research

1. Evaluate the Care Blocks program’s effect on women’s employment and time poverty in Latin American pilot sites.
2. Distil reproducible sequences that female leaders used to scale interventions in contexts with weak administrative capacity.

The post Chris & Melissa Bruntlett • Women Changing Cities: Global Stories of Urban Transformation appeared first on Gil Penalosa.

Key Takeaways

• Play is a fundamental part of human nature. It is not only for children. Older adults across the globe already play in diverse ways.
• Practitioners and decision-makers must reconsider social infrastructure to include play for older adults.
• ‘Play’ produces measurable benefits that directly address health, social and cognitive risks of later life.

Summary

1. Reframing Aging:
   • • Conversations around aging usually focus on health issues, healthcare costs, caregiving burdens, dementia, depression, etc. However, there is much more to later life than challenges.
     • Social constructions of age and play limit acceptable older adult play to stoic, passive, safe, and largely sedentary ‘leisure activities’.
     • Dr Hartt’s research shows that older adults across the globe already play in diverse ways, but the design, policy and research needed to amplify such activities are missing.
2. Benefits of incorporating ‘play’ in the city’s social and physical fabric:
   • • Play improves physical fitness, mental well-being, and community relations.
     • It decreases the risks of heart disease and diabetes.
     • For older adults, ‘play’ is not just an activity. It is an expression of self and freedom.
3. Design principles:
   • • Practical, low-cost, and spatial design tactics can make public and private environments more inviting for later-life play.
     • Design thresholds and edges between uses. People value the in-between spaces for watching activities and spontaneous interactions.
     • Play should be equitable. Removing structural barriers for low-income and underrepresented groups needs targeted research and programming.
     • Mainstreaming play into planning, health, and aging policy requires cross-sector coalitions.
     • Examples of playful interventions include:
     • • Purposeful, whimsical landmarks in the public realm, such as playful bollards, public pianos, book benches, big stair slides;
       • Expanding the ideas of playfulness to private space and making boundaries permeable;
       • Private / front-yard activation.

How can Cities apply these learnings?

1. Integrate play into age-friendly policy and health plans.
2. Require play considerations in public-realm design guidelines, health promotion strategies and community grants.
3. Install a pop-up playful feature for days/weeks. Pair with place activation and basic monitoring (observations, short intercept surveys). Use before-after results for scaling ideas.
4. Launch inclusive programming and outreach in low-income neighbourhoods to identify structural barriers and opportunities for equitable play.

Ideas for further reading

1. Aging Playfully: Reimagining the Possibilities of Age-Friendly Community Planning – Book by Maxwell D. Hartt
2. Global Aging Playfully Society. https://globalagingplayfullysociety.com/

Ideas for further research

1. Measure older adults’ physical activity, cognitive function, social connectedness and healthcare utilization pre/post implementation of ‘playful urban interventions’ in select neighbourhoods.
2. Measure benefits vs. adverse events related to ‘risky play’ and refine safety-risk tradeoffs for older adults.

The post Dr Maxwell Hartt • Aging Playfully: Reimagining the Possibilities appeared first on Gil Penalosa.

Key Takeaways

• Built environment, such as protected lanes, nearby shops, open schoolyards, tree canopy, etc., shapes human behaviour and daily choices.
• Good intentions, campaigns, policy advice, etc, fail unless the situation is changed to make living healthier an easy choice.
• Healthier diets, sufficient sleep, social connection, regular contact with nature, and everyday physical activity are the five top priorities that enable healthier outcomes at the neighborhood scale.

Summary

1. We need cities that are fun. The library, the sidewalks, the parks – everything that is free should be joyful to attract and retain citizens.
2. Situation modification delivers behaviour change:
   • Well-being is achieved when city design and policy choices remove friction for healthy routines and lifestyles.
   • A few examples of situational modifications include proximity to necessities; safe, slow streets; programmed public spaces; tree equity; and multipurpose uses for communities.
   • Irrespective of the city size, when you start thinking at the neighborhood scale, the same solutions can be applied and scaled.
3. Examples of strong political will and strategic decisions:
   • Bogota’s Open streets / Ciclovia- an open streets program that grew through repeated programming and rapid cultural change.
   • Paris’s cycling culture – rapid rollout of protected bike lanes during the COVID-19 pandemic after a mayoral directive.
   • Seoul’s Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project – removal of a 5.6-kilometer (3.5-mile) elevated highway built over the buried Cheonggyecheon stream, and creating a new open space.
   • Mexico’s ban on junk food in schools – schools were asked to adapt their kitchens within six months to serve healthier foods and make chips, sodas, and sugary snacks off-limits on campus.
4. Practical solutions:
   • 30km/h as the maximum speed limit in urban areas
   • 3-30-300 tree rule – park within 300 meters, 30% canopy target in neighborhoods, and a minimum of 3 trees visible from homes.
   • Open schoolyards as a community space after school hours and on weekends
   • Flexible work hours to reduce congestion, better work-life balance, and increase productivity.
   • Noise level limitations in neighborhoods
   • Design cities that work for an eight-year-old and an eight-year-old.

How can Cities apply these learnings?

1. Aim to plan for neighborhood-level proximity that reduces car trips, increases physical activity, and incentivizes the local economy.
2. Design an inclusive, connected network of protected lanes that serves all ages and abilities to promote mode-shift to walking and cycling.
3. Slow streets pilot for residential and school areas.

Ideas for further reading

1. The 3-30-300 Rule for Urban Forestry and Greener Cities by Cecil Konijnendijk. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353571108_The_3-30-300_Rule_for_Urban_Forestry_and_Greener_Cities 
2. Best practice in boosting cycling modal share and creating safe, sustainable cities. https://urban-mobility-observatory.transport.ec.europa.eu/resources/case-studies/best-practice-boosting-cycling-modal-share-and-creating-safe-sustainable-cities_en

Ideas for further research

1. Experiment situation-change: Deploy tactical interventions in a neighborhood and measure change in modal share, physical activity, social contact, etc.
2. Pilot a school-yard program opening it as a community space after school hours and on weekends, and measure physical activity in the community, social interactions, and elders’ participation in social life.

The post Gil Penalosa • Well+Being: Good Intentions are Not Enough appeared first on Gil Penalosa.

Key Takeaways

• Public space can be framed as a public-health tool and investment to promote well-being.
• Pilots including lighting, murals, intersection experiments should be paired with long-term standards for wayfinding, consistent streetscape, lighting.

Summary

1. The Bentway:
   • Transformed the empty space (1 km stretch in phase 1) under Toronto’s Gardener Expressway into a tested model for converting elevated highway underdecks into civic, cultural and ecological infrastructure while the highway remains operational.
   • The pilot included heavy programming and temporary activations, including, winter skating, recreational activities, large-scale murals, festivals, and commissioned artworks.
   • Environmental measures such as bioswales, porous surfaces, and expanded canopy were integrated to manage deck runoff and improve thermal comfort.
2. Programming Approach:
   • Engage neighbours, communities, and the general public as active, primary participants in city-building.
   • Co-create with communities and champion diverse voices, perspectives, and expertise.
   • Include artists and creatives in dialogue with, and about the city.
3. Outcomes:
   • Artist-led installations produced evidence and public narratives that informed guidelines and policy recommendations.
   • Thousands of people use the skating trail in winter and drive social connections.
   • The city council approved a 7km public realm plan for the full corridor.
   • The pilot shaped municipal policy and offers a replicable playbook for retrofitting large linear infrastructure for multifunctionality.

How can Cities apply these learnings?

1. Treat public space beneath linear infrastructure as strategic civic land and public health tool.
2. Engage artists and Indigenous designers early to surface cultural narratives and site-specific data.
3. Public-realm pilots can be paired with rigorous evaluation to measure social outcomes such as impact of loneliness, neighbour interactions, frequency of use, etc.
4. Create a multi-source revenue model with a city operating budget, philanthropy, earned income, and sponsorship and assign clear maintenance responsibilities for long-term viability and success.

Ideas for further reading

1. RX for social connection — report by The Bentway with partners Gehl (New York) and researchers from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (U of T). https://thebentway.ca/publication/rx-for-social-connection/ 
2. Cool by Design: The Power of Shade in Public Space by the Bentway. https://thebentway.ca/publication/cool-by-design/ 
3. Under Gardiner – Public Realm Plan by The Bentway and the City of Toronto. https://undergardinerprp.ca/ 
4. The Highline case study (NY). https://www.thehighline.org/about/

Ideas for further research

1. Map who benefits from corridor transformations and design measures to prevent displacement or access inequities.

The post Ilana Altman • The Bentway: Unlocking Unexpected Public Spaces appeared first on Gil Penalosa.