City

Making cities human and kind

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 10:49:28 +0000

Making cities human and kind

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City

Sustainable City

Urban Planning

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Sustainable City

"Cities are hubs for change, places where we dream, discuss, live, grow, and work." Lior Steinberg, urban planner, shares insights on how to transform city life to be more human and kind.

Expert opinion by Lior Steinberg,

co-founder of Humankind, an agency for urban change based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

I believe that places that encourage positive connections between people and the environment are humane and kind.

For example, streets prioritising car movement are not human and kind since they do not allow residents and visitors to interact, relax, and socialise.

Additionally, it excludes many groups who cannot or will not own a car. On the other hand, a street designed with space for pedestrians, cyclists, transit, benches, trees, interesting shops, and meeting places is human and kind.

Lior Steinberg, urban planner and co-founder of Humankind agency

I co-founded Humankind, an agency for urban change based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, to make cities more human and kind to ourselves, others and our planet. If we create human and kind cities, we create sustainable presents and better futures where we can live a good life together.

We provide cities, organisations and changemakers with human-powered data and insights to make sense of the present, creative tools to start shaping the future today and share our knowledge so anyone can be a city maker.

Cities are complex systems created and experienced by equally complex beings.

To make them better, we need better insights. Although we have the data, the real challenge is the lack of connections and interpretation. Local governments and municipalities collect and store a lot of data about their cities. In practice, they often struggle to translate this data into meaningful, actionable insights for improving quality of life.

The idea behind our human-powered data approach is to rethink how we collect and analyse data about our cities. The most important thing is to make sure that we are asking the right questions.

For instance, instead of measuring the number of cars passing in a street, maybe we can measure the comfort of street users?

Instead of mapping all playgrounds in the city, could we measure the playfulness of streets and public spaces, regardless of whether they are defined as an official playgrounds?

We strive to create better public spaces by combining spatial analysis with system and trend research. Our Good Public Space concept is a humble attempt to capture all the great qualities of public spaces in a simple, affordable, and scalable way.

We acknowledge that "Good" can mean different things to different people, but research shows that most people view pleasant interactions with other humans and nature as positive. Therefore, there is a need to analyse whether places are designed to encourage such interactions. Additionally, we observe how people behave in the space.

Many companies are often too focused on one discipline, whether they are architects, urban planners, or engineers. In order to create great cities for people, you must approach the city from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Cities can spend years discussing possible changes with residents, or they can try it and see if it works.

One of our unique projects is offering a ‘Daytrip to the Future’, allowing participants to imagine a better future. Instead of forecasting or trying to predict the future, we translate future possibilities into present-day choices.

Using tactical urbanism - low-cost, temporary changes to the built environment - we help cities try different designs and schemes. For instance, making a street pedestrian-only for the summer or installing a pop-up bike lane instead of a parking lane.

Having an authentic experience and not just theoretical ideas can be more powerful, leading to better decisions. You can do something as simple as finding the perfect place to set up a bench or as complex as rethinking an entire traffic circulation plan.

To me, it is all about improving our public spaces and streets and creating places that make people smile.

Headline image: Ronald Cuyan, Unsplash

This content was originally published in the Profit with Purpose Magazine.

Read more insights on making cities sustainable and inclusive in the Summer 2022 edition of the magazine >>>

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June 2022

Building the largest community of 'City Changers'

Business Spirit News reporting — Fri, 27 May 2022 12:47:24 +0000

Building the largest community of 'City Changers'

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Gerald-Babel Sutter, Founder of Urban Future, the largest gathering for ‘City Changers’ shares how to bring together thinkers and doers to shape our cities.

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May 2022

Call for entrepreneurs driving circular city transformations

Business Spirit News reporting — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 12:47:33 +0000

Call for entrepreneurs driving circular city transformations

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Start-up teams with innovative circular economy solutions in urban areas are invited to apply to the Circular Cities accelerator program.

The Circular Cities ClimAccelerator public-private initiative offers an extensive programme and funding for entrepreneurs driving the transformation of cities to become more sustainable and climate-resilient.

Start-ups are invited to submit their projects focusing on a circular solution in the textile, food, tourism, mobility, construction sectors and other relevant areas.

“The Circular Cities ClimAccelerator helped us not only to connect to other leaders in this area, but also to connect to relevant stakeholders such as cities to create valuable partnerships,”

says Dominik Campanella, Co-Founder of Concular, and participant of the previous Circular Cities program.

Proposed business solutions need to be scalable in urban areas, particularly to the markets of the partner cities of the program, which includes Dublin, Berlin and potentially other large cities.

Selected teams will go through three stages: working on their business strategy, market validation, and investment readiness.

At the first stage, 25 teams will be supported with €3.000 per team, then 15 teams will continue the next phase when they will each receive up to €15.000 grant.

The final module will be an invite-only option for the best ten projects to present their ideas to investors.

Application is open until 10 April to enterprises with an advanced business model and minimum viable product with a legal entity registered no longer than five years in Europe.

The duration of the program is eight months, starting on 25 April and closing with a demo day on 02 December 2022.

The Circular Cities ClimAccelerator program is managed by Climate-KIC, Luvent Consulting GmbH, DTU - Technical University of Denmark, UPS, Trinity College Dublin, Trinity's Ideas Workspace, Veolia and primeCROWD investment group.

Headline image: CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

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March 2022

Cities to stand together in solidarity for Ukraine

Business Spirit News reporting — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 19:15:16 +0000

Cities to stand together in solidarity for Ukraine

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Cities across Europe are called to organise gatherings in front of city halls to unite people in sharing moments of solidarity for Ukraine.

Eurocities, a network of larger European cities with over 200 members representing 38 countries and its people, is launching an initiative that invites cities to share a moment of solidarity on Saturday, 12 March.

Organisers are calling on cities to organise small or big gatherings in front of city halls across Europe on that day to express their support to those suffering due to the Russian military offensive targeting Ukraine.

President of Eurocities and Mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, appeals to all mayors and cities to ‘link arms, or share a moment in front of or around our city halls.’

Addressing Eurocities members, Nardella added:

“City diplomacy breaks borders. Through networks like Eurocities, and through our city twinnings, we have built strong relationships. We know and trust each other. We have respect. When we offer solidarity, it is genuine and heartfelt.”

The cities of Bologna, Braga, Florence, Milan, Marseille, Nice, Rotterdam, as well as Rome have already answered the call and joined the movement.

One of the frontrunners to express solidarity is Dublin city. They are putting up lamppost banners and using digital panels across the city in the colour of blue and yellow of the Ukraine national flag as part of their preparation for the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day Festival on 17 March.

To unify the voices of European cities, the ‘shared moment of solidarity for Ukraine’ campaign asks everyone participating or wanting to join in any format to share their pictures on social media channels using the #CitiesWithUkraine hashtag.

“We can do this at the time that works best for each of us on Saturday 12 March, and I ask you to share your images on social media,”

says Nardella.

Digital panels across Dublin city expressing solidarity for Ukraine; Image: Mary Mac Sweeney

Both cities and people are invited to join regardless of whether or not the city is a Eurocities member and encouraged to use visuals provided by organisers on their website.

To boost the impact of each action, Eurocities will collect and share all city actions from their network in the week of 14 March.

Headline image: Simone Hutsch on Unsplash

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March 2022