humankind

Did you hear? 👀 We're back with our newsletter filled with thoughts and interesting news from around the world, especially, from Humankind such as events, masterclasses and projects. Subscribe and share with whomever you like! 🚲 https://lnkd.in/dXqeZfC6

If you are passionate about urban mobility and cycling infrastructure you can’t miss the 2nd edition of our Masterclass "Designing the Cycling City", taking place in Rotterdam September 18 - 20! 🚲

Three weeks left for Urban Future. in Rotterdam! Will we see you there? We will have a booth, and a very fun one. Curious? Come find us on June 5 and 6 on the 3rd Floor, Rotterdam hall of Rotterdam Ahoy Convention Centre. And if you want to hear us speaking, here’s a sneak peak into where we are on the program: On June 5 at 14h, Mario Raimondi Pruss, our Academy Director and Urban Change specialist will be part of the panel ”The Yinyang of urban governance -How to balance top-down and bottom-up” discussing the importance of driving transition upwards; together with Maarit Kahila (Maptionnaire), Paul Depla (Gemeente Breda), Marco Pastors (NPRZ), Wietse Van Ransbeeck (CitizenLab) and Carine Saloff-Coste (Ville de Paris). The session will be moderated by Yasmin Ait Abderrahman (FNV Young & United). On June 6 at 11h, Jorn Wemmenhove, Humankind’s co-founder and Creative Strategist will be part of “Living your vision - Personal growth: How to manage passion”; together with Elena Doms (Earth Plus) and Claire Elizabeth Williams (she/her) (Imagine Canada, Foundations for Social Change). The session will be moderated by Katharina Moser. Want to know more about #UrbanFuture2024? Check the full program here: https://lnkd.in/dRKH-7n6 📸 Yes, that's a young Jorn in the link image!

15 May is the last day to register to this year’s edition of our Summer School #RemakingTheStreet! We will try to answer the question about transformative cities but, above all, give theoretical and practical tools to start doing it today. Join us in #Munich with TUM Accessibility Planning and #Rotterdam with our Humankind team between July 22 – August 3. All information is here: https://lnkd.in/dFykefGf

Recently, when it comes time to rethink our cities, we are beginning to take the sensory aspect into account, and it is no coincidence that we have begun to speak of “multi-sensory cities”. When assessing the quality of the public space and how it influences human health and well-being we shouldn’t forget about elements such as the soundscape, its cleanliness or smells. Certain smells or sounds can also evoke for example childhood memories and that’s why everybody’s connection with the public space is so different, it goes beyond just tangible design. In our Good Public Space Analysis method we try to consider what impact elements of public space such as sounds or smells could have on different people. If you want to know more about how we deal with this theme, here you can find everything you need to know about our #GoodPublicSpace Analysis: https://lnkd.in/d97pgPMv

As you can see, we’re putting together our creative brains to bring exciting things for this year’s Urban Futures Congress that will take place in our home city, Rotterdam, on 5-7 June. We’ll reveal more in the next weeks about where and how to find us. Will we see you in Rotterdam? Let us know and stay tuned! Urban Future.

If you happened to be in Amsterdam for #Koningsdag last Saturday, or have seen images of packed streets in the city’s central canals, you might have wondered about the busyness of the Dutch city also beyond this day. How does Amsterdam manage the thousands of visitors flooding its narrow streets? How do residents relate to their neighborhood being an attraction and a home, all at once? Last year we closely collaborated with the City of Amsterdam Amsterdam on a strategy project about De Wallen, also known as the #RedLightDistrict, to unpack what was behind the so-called “busyness” and understand possible ways forward as the municipality tries to find a different, better balance between hospitality and livability. Through a combination of qualitative and desk research with spatial analyses and process innovation, together with the department of Design & UX at the Gemeente we concluded that a bigger, integral approach is needed, and that a shared vision for the neighborhood needs to be developed together with a broader range of stakeholders. Want to know the specifics of the project? You can now read more on our website: https://lnkd.in/g62BH33X

Yesterday we ran a Good Public Space workshop in Zaandam, NL. Invited by Babel Zaans architectuurplatform, we shared with architects, planners, designers, and decision-makers the power of great public spaces and the ability to use UrbanistAI to unpack future designs. The case study for this workshop was the Spaghettiflat in Poelenburg, a social housing complex dating back to the 60's. The main challenge was to work together with professionals in the context of an already developed (architectural) plan for a redesign, using the #GoodPublicSpace Analysis and UrbanistAI’s technology to fill the gaps and help professionals make connections between building functions and the use of public space. Want a workshop as well? Want to collaborate with decision-makers and citizens, or learn about the power of AI in urbanism? Let us know. Thanks to Sarah Essbai and Merijn de Jong for organizing it, and for the openness of the participants. Want to know more? Head to our website: https://lnkd.in/ewATeMtZ

Back to our Books in the Office, and today we’re bringing you a recent ‘classic’, one of the works of our neighbors and friends Crimson Historians and Urbanists: “City of Comings and Goings” (nai010, 2019). Through almost 400 pages full of graphics, collages, drawings and interesting thoughts, several contributors weave together the learnings of six case-studies in different cities across Europe, looking at the effects of migration on contemporary European cities. How has this phenomenon shaped our urban life, and the faces of our cities? And how does urbanism respond to it, prevent it, tackle it, if at all? What does all this say about the way we conceive and think of our shared spaces today? “The classic dichotomies of public versus private spaces – or even the triad of public, collective and private – do not cover the complexity of the contemporary city, not even the complex needs of the contemporary citizen.” Curious to read more? Go find the book! #booksintheofficeHK

In just three months our #RemakingTheStreet #SummerSchool will be back! Join us in #Munich and #Rotterdam between July 22 – August 3 for this great experience. Two weeks of lectures, workshops, site visits and hands-on activities covering topics such as → proximity-centred accessibility → 15minuteCity → street experiments (planning and implementation) → citizen participation communication and long-term strategies. Visit our website to discover more: https://lnkd.in/dFykefGf TUM Accessibility Planning EIT Urban Mobility