WRLDCTY

🎧 PODCAST: After his WRLDCTY Fellows Residency in Copenhagen, Saravanan Sugumaran sat down with Helle Søholt to discuss how human-centred design shapes cities through a curiosity about "what a good life looks like." With the human experience in mind, they look at how this principle is being applied in cities today - and how citizens are reacting to it. Featuring: - Helle Søholt, CEO of the urban strategy and design consultancy Gehl - Making Cities for People and board chair of BLOXHUB. - Saravanan Sugumaran, managing director of global urban advisory firm MORROW Intelligence What Makes for a Human-Centric City is one of a 3-part series of conversations "The Urban Question" with WRLDCTY Fellows and design and urban visionaries in Copenhagen. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/gzEuUh75 Here, we explore Copenhagen's own transformation through a global lens and reflect on what other global cities are also getting right. Hosted by FORESIGHT Climate & Energy with leadership from BLOXHUB.

"Not planning with future generations risks creating cities that don't meet our needs. We bring energy, creativity, and fresh perspectives. Incorporating our voices fosters relevance." Gr. 11 student, Mila Khvadagiani from Vancouver, took to the stage to tell the WRLDCTY why we need to design cities not just FOR - but WITH - youth. Special thanks to our collaborators CityHive Vancouver and Happy Cities, and Cariboo Hill Secondary School.

PODCAST: What happens when cities run out of space? WRLDCTY Fellow, Steven Cornwell of ERA-co joined Lars Jensen, Copenhagen's Chief Architect, in conversation about the tensions of growth - and the strains on talent, livability, lovability, and authenticity of place. For many cities, it's crunch time... how do you design for a good urban life when feeling squeezed? https://lnkd.in/dgf8GMQa The Urban Question is a 3-part series of conversations with WRLDCTY Fellows and design and urban visionaries in Copenhagen - exploring that city's transformation through a global lens. Hosted by FORESIGHT Climate & Energy with leadership from BLOXHUB. Listen now! https://lnkd.in/dgf8GMQa

Iain Montgomery joined as a WRLDCTY Fellow in 2025 and has been hosting rich and candid conversations with peer Fellows - including this one with our co-founder, Anupam Yog about conscious cities, experience improvement districts (XIDs) and the need for empathy and connection for the urban world to make good on its promise of enhancing human potential.

The future of cities is not just built; it is cultivated through dialogue, imagination, and a shared commitment to transformation. Thank you to our 2025 WRLDCTY Fellows, speakers and friends who came together over dinner last week to share, inspire and challenge one another as we look to the world and our urban futures and ask ourselves what matters and what we do about it.

The Screen is Killing the City, said Greg Lindsay last week at WRLDCTY. People are spending 90 minutes more per day at home than they did in 2018. Much of that is on a screen 🖥️ . Add to that the otherworldly load of $$$ investment into Artificial Intelligence - and the augmented city we dreamt utopian dreams of is fast becoming a fallacy unless we do something human about it. What's the right balance and approach of augmented vs real? These are the critical and prickly conversations we dig into together at WRLDCTY.

Typically known for their international advocacy for urban cycling infrastructure, Melissa Bruntlett and Chris Bruntlett took to the WRLDCTY stage to share tales of profound change being led by women to make cities more livable, lovable, prosperous and equitable - from Delhi to Barcelona, and from Bogota to Brussels. The presentation scratched the surface, and we can't wait to dive into the book. You should too!

Whereas arenas and stadiums used to be on islands in the centre of endless parking lots on the outskirts of many cities, in his WRLDCTY keynote conversation, Populous' Jonathan Mallie shared how the rise of arena districts is unlocking a more integrated approach; anchoring arenas as centres in neighbourhoods, and injecting new life and local economic energy into cities around the world. When experience, belonging, pride, and resilience matter - one of the most competitive and compelling catalysts of urban change is proving to be sports and entertainment districts.

THAT'S A WRAP! It's a place of community. An exchange of perspectives. A peer forum where we stretch one another's ideas in a shared effort towards shaping better urban futures. THANK YOU to all who joined us at WRLDCTY 2025 in beautiful Vancouver, Canada! Special thank you to Resonance, Centre for Liveable Cities, World Cities Summit, Design Workshop, Populous, DIALOG, Lemay, Destination Vancouver, Downtown Van, Happy Cities, BLOXHUB, Arcadis, Hudson Pacific Properties, Bosa Properties , Pooni Group, hcma architecture + design, Arup, Calgary Municipal Land Corporation, NorthStar Development, British Properties

💡That’s a wrap for #WRLDCTY 2025, proudly presented by Resonance and our amazing partners in our home town of Vancouver. Watch this space for how we apply the dozens of topics and learnings in our insights for the year ahead. —- #Cities #Urbanism #Placemaking #CityMaking