The CityChangers Podcast

We sit down with Marco te Brömmelstroet and Adrian Fratila from the Just Streets project to talk about what justice has to do with city streets, how to deal with the naysayers, and whether the Dutch urban mobility model is really the one cities should be aspiring to. You can find out more about the project here: https://www.just-streets.eu/ Featuring: Marco te Brömmelstroet, Adrian Fratila

Urban Future's Karl Dickinson is in conversation with Adrian Hill, a social designer and lead researcher for the Cities of Making project, talking about the nature of production in the post-industrial city. They discuss why manufacturing still has a – maybe surprising – place in urban centres, what it really takes to kick off a circular economy, and how shrinking cities that transfer their manufacturing skills base into new productive industries just may get the social and economic boost they need. Featuring: Adrian Hill The Cities of Making pattern language is available in full at citiesofmaking.com. It's also available to order as a printed 50 card set.

How did Seoul turn a backed-up expressway into a tranquil urban stream? We take a look at the landmark Cheonggyecheon River Restoration project and ask why, almost 20 year later, this peaceful pocket in the middle of the city is still so beloved.   Featuring: Meggie Yu, Dr Soo Hong Noh 

Urban Future's Cornelia Forsthuber-Aumayr talks to Maral Koohestanian – former Young Leader and now the youngest ever Deputy Mayor for the city of Wiesbaden, Germany – about everything from why we need more young people in politics to what inspires her to keep going in difficult times. Featuring: Cornelia Forsthuber-Aumayr, Maral Koohestanian

How truly public are our public spaces? In this episode, we take a look at the rise of ‘defensive urbanism' in our cities and ask what it would take to stop designing people out of public space and start designing them back in.   Featuring: Cara Chellew, Rebecca Rutt, Kenneth Balfelt 

You've been pushing your city to make some changes for years. So, what happens when they suddenly reach across the aisle and give you the reins? We take a look at the Initiative Haus der Statistik – the unlikely story of how a group of activists and artists found themselves co-planning a multi-million Euro development with the Berlin government.    Featuring: Harry Sachs, Leona Lynen, Regula Lüscher, Urs Kumberger 

In our throwaway culture, binning a broken object and buying a replacement is often the easiest, and cheapest, solution. But the take-make-waste economy has serious costs – for the environment and also for the community. So, what would the alternative look like? We visit a repair café in Graz, Austria, to understand what it means to give an item a new lease of life, and why it often pays to repair rather than simply recycle. Featuring: Heimo Hartlieb, Andreas Höfler, Steven Toast

After centuries in charge, men have made a mess of our cities! Gender bias is present in almost every element of urban planning and design, from mobility networks right down to the way we build houses. So what does it take to dislodge gendered microaggressions from the built environment? How can we reimagine municipal processes so that women are fairly represented? And what does infrastructure that benefits everyone actually look like? With a focus on Umeå in Sweden, we eek out the often-surprising answers. Featuring: Nourhan Bassam and Linda Gustafsson

Life goes on after the sun goes on, so why should our cities stop? With more cities around the world creating night offices and appointing night mayors – we take a look at the potential (and the pitfalls) involved in government after dark, and ask who should the night-time really belong to? Featuring: Jess Reia, Mathieu Grondin *The interview with Mathieu Grondin that features in this episode was recorded before his appointment as Ottawa's Nightlife Commissioner.

‘Resilience' has become something of a buzzword these days – not just in terms of a desirable personality trait but also something companies and even cities can aspire to. But what does it look like in practice? We travel to Rotterdam to ask: What exactly makes a city resilient? How can you measure such a thing? And whose job is it to prepare our cities for the challenges on the horizon? Featuring: Arnoud Molenaar, Kinga Feenstra

Why do we fear failure? Sustainability is an iterative process. There are no shortcuts. But in a world focussed on success, we often hide from our mistakes. Recognising this, Gerald Babel-Sutter set out to unite urban change-makers in an environment where they could confidently share their pitfalls, problems, and brick walls. The idea caught on. What started out as a workshop for around 50 people quickly grew into a full-blown conference – and stories of prominent eff-ups are a real mainstay. Featuring: Gerald Babel-Sutter, Maria Vassilakou

Elected officials make decisions that affect millions of people, but beyond voting every few years, what say do citizens really have? Maybe democracy needs a tune-up. A citizens' assembly – a sort of lottery promising better representation – can bring diverse voices to the table. Copenhagen has already given it a go, and the change in perspectives it brought about have been… surprising. Featuring: Johan Galster, James Macdonald-Nelson

Moving an entire city? It's not science fiction. Faced with an existential crisis, the city of Kiruna, in Sweden, is being relocated approximately three kilometres away from where it was founded – brick by brick. The whole process raises some interesting questions: how exactly do you undertake such a massive task? What do you bring with you from the old city? What do you build from scratch? And what can other cities learn from the experience – the ones that are staying put?   Featuring: Brenda Cooper, Johanna Lindgren Ringholt, Peter Pääjärvi, Viktoria Walldin, Krister Lindstedt

How can we ensure that a ‘smart city' is also a fair, diverse and ethical one? We talk to Douwe Schmidt from the city of Amsterdam about the thorny issues cities face when implementing technological solutions, and why we can't leave ethical decision-making to the computers. Featuring: Douwe Schmidt

What would a city designed entirely by children look like? And what could it tell us about the cities we live in now – the good things and the bad? Academic Christina Ergler's research into pre-school aged children and the urban environment has some surprising insights for the experts (and the adults) who make the big decisions about our cities, as well as some instructive lessons in better listening.   Featuring: Christina Ergler

Turning big ideas into reality is what CityChangers do. But what happens when, against the odds, you finally achieve your goal? What next? Nicholas Marchesi, of charity Orange Sky, launched the world's first mobile laundry, helping Brisbane's homeless community to wash and dry their clothes. Then he discovered this served a very different purpose... In this episode, Nic explains how reaching your destination can sometimes take surprising turns along the way – and how leaning into these differences can take us on a very different, yet just as rewarding, journey to the one we originally set out on. Featuring: Nicholas Marchesi

With declining rates of civic engagement across cities around the world, Kiel, in Germany, is taking a unique approach to improving participation – by putting it on wheels! The Tiny Townhall is a world-first project that brings city government out of the stuffy buildings we're used to and back to the citizens. And, in a time when bigger is often better, this small solution is having an outsized impact, inside and outside city hall. Featuring: Sophie Mirpourian (formerly with Anscharcampus), Anne Czichowski, Annette Wiese-Krukowska

What links pedestrian crossings in Chicago, USA, with the Sydney Opera House in Australia? Sascha Haselmayer's surprising story provides an unexpected answer to this unusual question, and it's led to positive change in more than 130 cities around the world. In this episode, Sascha explains why we should embrace red tape and presents a case for taking a slow approach to sustainability because quick fixes consistently fail. Featuring: Sascha Haselmayer

Facing their fair share of challenges on the ground (from housing shortages to climate change) cities like Rotterdam are looking skywards for solutions – to the rooftops. There's plenty of opportunity but also headwinds on the horizon. For one thing: where most roofs are owned by private citizens, how do you convince more people to look up and see the potential? Featuring: Paul van Roosmalen, Claire Wolff, Jazlyn Bo, Anne Danielle Kissi, Lucille Lebret