While we assume cities will continue to face rapid growth, the COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced a trend which counters linear population projections: qualified professionals no longer move where work is, but work from where they want to live. If, before the pandemic, cities competed to attract head offices or multinational corporations, today they have to compete for each qualified individual.
Making cities liveable for all remains one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. By Ingolf Dietrich, Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany.
Grzegorz Puda, Polish Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy, writes on how Polish cities have managed to transform into friendly metropolises bustling with city life. What were the development paths, how did they learn to capitalise on their advantages? Those questions will certainly be among topics that Poland will be presenting at the World Urban Forum (WUF) in Katowice.
Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), invites you to the 11th edition of the most important global conference on sustainable urbanisation.
Sumaya Saluja from The Asia Foundation on inclusion, equality and participatory governance for liveable cities.
How to rebuild a city after a devastating war? Dalia Mokayed emphasises the crucial role of cultural heritage.
The Friendship Bench is a community-based mental health counselling programme in Zimbabwe. Dr Ruth Verhey reflects on the contributions of such programmes to liveable communities for all.
Bogotá's Bronx used to be an area infamous for crime and violence. Gabriel Ortiz van Meerbeke outlines how the arts and the cultural industry are transforming the area into a liveable district.
Shyam Khandekar explains how cities can be built with humans as the focus of attention.
The question of scale in urban space is one of the most discussed in recent urban discourse. In the framework of multi-scale approaches, the development of ongoing discourse on small-scale urban design, and its application in practice, Igor Kuvač presents examples of small-scale urban interventions in Banja Luka.
Traditional, top-down urban planning has failed to meet the needs of urban dwellers in Thailand. Pongpisit Huyakorn, director of Bangkok-based Urban Studies Lab, makes a case for urban living labs as a more people-centred approach.
A strategy for planning that ensures to include citizens and addresses several challenges at once, urban labs can be found in many cities in Latin America. Simone Sandholz, Lucas de Carvalho Turmena, Jorgelina Hardoy, and Florencia Almansi with some examples from urban labs in Latin America.
Education and learning are key to empowering women, says Damietta's Mayor Manal Awad in an interview with URBANET.
The demand for infrastructure has recently gained prominence in the global political sphere. Felicity Kitchin, Giulia Maci and Arne Janssen on inclusive infrastructure for inclusive cities.
Citizens everywhere are increasingly demanding that their cities become more ‘intelligent’ and intuitive. Michal Lakomski, Director of Digitalisation and Cybersecurity of the City of Poznań, on building the smart city of tomorrow.
