humankind

What is a good street for walking in Vila Nova de Gaia? And for cycling? What do the inhabitants of this municipality look for, when deciding how to travel around town? This week, researchers Pedro Gil Farias and Nuria Ribas Costa have been in Vila Nova de Gaia doing field research as part of the Citizen Engagement division of 2024 EIT Urban Mobility’s #RAPTOR pilot. Together with Câmara Municipal de Vila Nova de Gaia and Scottish start-up MARKED; Humankind is conducting a research to map the decision-making process of inhabitants of Vila Nova de Gaia when deciding whether to walk / cycle and where. This initial research, focusing on the city’s infrastructure for active mobility and if and how it is being used, will provide more insights for the city on the active mobility habits of its residents and support the development of Marked’s wayfinding system for walking and cycling in Gaia. If you’re interested in knowing more about our CX work on RAPTOR pilots, you can read about last year’s project here: https://lnkd.in/damsmSgi #CitizenEngagement #raptor2024

What could "humanizing cities" mean for Oman? How does thinking about human-centric places contribute to the evolution of Omani public spaces across the country? Last week, we facilitated a workshop at the Royal Academy of Management in Oman initiated by Dr. Neila Akrimi on how to think, design, and drive change in cities to make them accessible and responsive to people's needs. Creating cities that are good for humans is a catalyst for social, economic, and environmental progress, and we should unleash their potential. 25 governors from the whole of Oman took part in our four-hour workshop where we dived into our Good Public Space Model, the story of Rotterdam as a city of change and engaged in an interesting conversation about transitions, complex urban transformations and the need for empathy and citizen participation to advance change in our cities. Images by the Royal Academy of Management.

What if there were an open platform where any inhabitant of Helsinki could contribute information about the accessibility of the city’s public spaces? And what are the most pressing needs of citizens in terms of accessibility of public space? This week, researchers Marta Nosowicz and Irene Verde have been in #Helsinki doing field research as part of the Citizen Engagement division of 2024 EIT Urban Mobility’s #RAPTOR pilot. Together with the Helsingin kaupunki – Helsingfors stad – City of Helsinki and Austrian accessibility start-up Dreamwaves; Humankind is conducting a research study to better understand how citizens and public space users in Helsinki can be best involved in mapping accessibility information through Dreamwaves’ solution, as well as evaluating the start-up’s service. If you’re interested in knowing more about our CE work on RAPTOR pilots, you can read about last year’s project here: https://lnkd.in/damsmSgi #CitizenEngagement #raptor2024

Today we had the pleasure of welcoming 22 civil servants from across Europe who, under the guidance of Julienne Chen, Carolina Cominotti and Katarzyna Janusz, took part in EIT Urban Mobility’s Citizens on the Move, a 5-module training on #CitizenEngagement. As the course approaches its final phases, we’re now digesting the learnings from our module “Context is King”, about testing and evaluating urban mobility pilots. The response from participants was great – they not only took in and applied right away a set of new methodologies (including going out on the streets of Rotterdam and interviewing citizens themselves!); but they were also able to critically reflect on the much needed mix between quantitative and qualitative research when tackling urban mobility challenges (and solutions!) in their home cities. Thanks to all the participants for their enthusiasm, EIT Urban Mobility for the trust! #CitizensOnTheMove #CitizenEngagement #CX

Usually in the series of “Humankind Glossary” we give precise definitions to the words we use when navigating through projects and cities but today we wanted to speak about a layered concept that does not have a precise definition – the word "smooth" when applied to cities or urban environments. What is a smooth city? What do we mean by this word? Smooth can be referred to two very different dynamics where the scenario is not just the city but also the citizens who are actors within it. Before reading Rene Boer’s book “Smooth City - Against Urban Perfection Towards Collective Alternatives” we had one idea of what a smooth city could be. Sometimes we've seen the word “smooth” referred to a city, a street or a neighbourhood to convey that those spaces are transformative and fluid - a city that changes temporally its features based on the needs of the citizens. We can do an imaginative exercise for this concept and think about a day in the life of a plaza: in the morning we have a local market, in the afternoon some kids play together, later we can find a group of people doing sport and, maybe, during the night it transforms into the perfect hotspot for teens to hang out. On the opposite, though, the word smooth can also be used to refer to the concrete phenomenon of "washed spaces" where urban life was transformed into a seamless experience - everything is comforting and standardised, there is no space for experimentation, for appropriation out of the box. So, what do you think about when you hear the word “smooth” referring to a city?

Two weeks ago Placemaking Europe Week took place in our home city: Rotterdam. Several of us attended different sessions and panels, and our Communications Officer and Researcher Nuria Ribas Costa took part in the evening plenary on Thursday, Bridges to be Built. While placemaking is a term that has received significant and increasing attention over the last years, we find that often we lack spaces to talk critically and openly about what it really means for citizens to feel ownership of the places they inhabit. Alongside Nuria were Mustafa Sherif, and rita marascalchi, both experienced practitioners in breaking silos and shifting narratives about otherness, diversity and coexistence. Their conversation felt like the perfect follow up to the first part of this two-fold panel where Gregorio Lucena Scarpella, Guillermo Bernal and Giselle Sebag, MPH, LEED AP ND Sebag discussed the role of organisations in building bridges – all spiced up with Creative Bureaucracy founder Charles Landry. Placemaking is to us a fantastic opportunity to connect with old friends and colleagues but also to meet new professionals and like-minded city-makers. These days help discover realities different from our own and learn new approaches that trigger us – which resulted in our big bag of ongoing questions getting just a little bit bigger. Below is just a taste of the ones that we keep ruminating about: – Could gentrification be a possible outcome of a placemaking process? – What do we mean by “inclusivity”? – Are we being truly empathetic during placemaking processes? – How do we balance power dynamics during spatial interventions? – What if we, spatial practitioners, consultants, urbanists, are not needed any more? If we define our role as connectors between public administration and citizens – isn’t there a moment when we should disappear? – Should we monetise our skills? – How do we create spaces that are just for all, especially for minorities? Those are just a few of the questions that we ended up with, perhaps some feel uncomfortable, others confusing, but we believe we need to ask these (and many more) in order to critically assess the future of our cities. Did you end up with an endless list of questions too? Share them with us! See you next year in the Italian city of Reggio Emilia for Placemaking Week Europe 2025! Photos by Maria Blau

Today's newsletter focuses on how children inhabit (or not) our cities, would you call yourself a good example for the children in your neighbourhood? Head to the link and discover our takes 💡 https://lnkd.in/d4mDNUXS

Yesterday, September 25, we led our workshop Good Public Space for the Gemeente Almere with 18 participants from the municipality, specifically from the departments of sport and culture and Stadsbeheer. Our workshop was part of the wider program called “Week van de Strategie” running September 13-27 in Almere, during which the municipality focuses on a specific theme. This year, the week focused on the topic “feeling at home”: the city of Almere asked itself how to create a space that is appropriate for every different citizen and how to make them feel that they belong to the city. With our co-design workshop focusing on empathy and analysis of public space, we saw with the various municipality workers how the streets of Almere could increase the sense of belonging of all their citizens – also those new ones to come. Do you want to discover more about Good Public Space? Check here https://lnkd.in/dM9kgg6r

Posters, magazines, glossy pamphlets, handmade zines… We research, learn and read in diverse formats and want to bring you along as we do so. Now it's time for the Rotterdam-based magazine MONU - Magazine on Urbanism, an annual international niche publication for architects, urbanists, designers and theorists who work in the field of urbanism founded by architect and editor Bernd Upmeyer and published with the support of managing and contributing editor Beatriz Ramo - STAR strategies architecture. MONU is notorious for the depth and sharpness of the analyses it features, distancing itself from a solely architectural way of looking at cities and encompassing, as well, nuances and layers of different phenomena taking place in our urban habitats. Politics, economy, geography, ecology, art, communities, sociology and many more lenses have found a home in MONU over the years. The latest issue of the magazine, on “New Social Urbanism”, features a contribution of our Communications Officer and Researcher Nuria Ribas Costa, titled “New Rights, New Needs, New Rules - Commoning as a Way to Reclaim Collective Governance of Cities" where she unpacks collective governance of València (Spain). She argues new forms of governance are a response to the failures of local governments to truly understand the needs of their communities, specifically in the Spanish context.

All is ready for Placemaking Europe Week 2024, which is kicking off tomorrow in #Rotterdam, our home city! Three days of keynotes, workshops, plenaries, site visits and many, many talks in-between bits and pieces of a well-loaded program. You’ll find us attending several sessions, and if you’re looking for a Thursday plan, come check out the evening plenary Bridges to Be Built, where our Communications Officer and Researcher Nuria Ribas Costa will speak about ownership, change and breaking silos alongside Mustafa Sherif, rita marascalchi, Gregorio Lucena Scarpella, Guillermo Bernal and Giselle Sebag, MPH, LEED AP ND in a two-fold panel moderated by Charles Landry. Will you be around? Want to meet? Drop us a message and see you around the city! https://lnkd.in/dYcD2p5G