In the run-up to #URBACTfest, sit back and enjoy this musical tour of urban Europe, from Daniele Terzariol, URBACT ad-hoc expert and Deputy Mayor of San Donà di Piave (IT).   The cities URBACT supports are complex realities and a source of design inspiration. They’re also often the starting point or the landing place for many artists. On the eve of URBACT’s first community appointment in person after two years of forced stop – the URBACT City Festival, in Pantin, Greater Paris, from 14 to 16 June 2022 – here below, we offer you a sound journey to discover some songs inspired by the cities ..read more

Cities across Europe are looking for solutions to develop fairer housing models. In 2020, URBACT and Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) developed a common ‘Right2Housing’ platform to exchange ‘housing as a right’ practices among cities. Although the debate on affordable housing in Europe has recently sent out important messages for policy-makers, the housing context of the formerly socialist countries in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries seems to be largely missing from these discussions. It is estimated that about 40% of the urban population in European post-socialist countries li ..read more

Within the framework of its Recovery and Resilience Facility to mitigate the economic and social impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the European Union is making EUR 723.8 billion available to support reforms and investments undertaken by Member States – EUR 385.8 billion in loans and EUR 338 billion in grants. In my previous blog from November 2020, I gave an overview of the planning phase of the national Recovery and Resilience Programmes (RRP), showing that in most countries, subnational actors were just informed, but not at all involved in the planning of this extraordinary and large ..read more

What did we learn from the responses of urban areas to the Covid-19 pandemic? At the end of 2020, I wanted to take stock… Immediate ‘tactical interventions’ in the use of public space The pandemic turned the world upside down. Local municipalities suddenly found themselves in a peculiar and difficult situation: facing unprecedented levels and new forms of social and economic problems at local level; but ever more subordinated to the higher levels of their national administration. Many changes that took place in spring 2020 were therefore introduced under exceptional conditions, labelled in ma ..read more

© Schuman Associates Since March, we have almost forgotten what personal meetings mean – almost everything went online. It was only between June and August that the pandemic seemed to soften, thus even larger meetings could be organised. So it happened that the leaders of the 27 EU Member States could meet in Brussels. To be more precise: they spent five days together, in a series of large plenaries and small multi-lateral meetings, until they managed to reach a very important agreement – not only on the 2021-2027 EU budget (Multi-Annual Financial Framework), but also on the additional extraor ..read more

Do you remember how you travelled to school? In the past, most children walked to school and modern neighbourhoods were designed around schools. A short and safe walk to school was understood as an indicator of the quality of life, social equality and cohesion. Cities throughout Europe are fully engaged in promoting active mobility. The way children travel to school has become a hot topic again. Working with schools gives quick and wide-reaching results affecting children as well as adults. It gives children a voice in urban planning for walkability. As experienced in Slovenia, children happen ..read more

Out of the frying pan; into the fire… In the recent months, much has changed and quickly. For many of us, the move to wholly remote and digital working methods has been rapid and all-encompassing. “A baptism of fire” would be a reasonable description for the experience of being thrown suddenly into lockdown and a rapid shift to remote working, often without the right kit or set-up at home. Working on your iPad mini on an ironing board isn’t exactly the ideal home office! This shift has not been a breeze for everyone, not by a long shot. Still, for many, we have changed our working habits and w ..read more

How will digital innovation help cities navigate these uncharted waters? Johannes Plenio on Unsplash Digital Innovation in cities has been an area of focus for years. Over time, how we understand the term has also gradually evolved, with the pace of change accelerating notably as we sped towards the 2020s. Where previously the cutting edge was about online forms and e-documents, now it’s big data analytics, AI, blockchain and autonomous vehicles that are the themes being explored by public and private sectors alike. The applications of new technologies is different in cities compared with busi ..read more

These last few months the Covid-19 crisis has implied remote working and social distancing measures, putting most of the ‘’frequent flyers’’ – European citizens and professionals in the position to thinks back at the time, when planning and implementing a physical meeting in the frame of a transnational project could be a two-months’ process. From the moment we received the agenda from the organiser, one month could be considered more than enough to arrange the logistics and the even get well prepared technically, for a project meeting. Nowadays, apart from the uncertainty of the timing that ..read more

In its fruitful 130 years of operation, the Tobacco factory in Ljubljana (Tobačna) was like a city within a city. It offered employment to many workers, especially women, as well as good conditions and above-average services. Its cast-iron construction was exemplary for many industrial buildings in this part of Europe. Even though the factory was closed and sold as real estate, the spirit of innovation and creativity survived in the buildings. The creative sector that arose as a grassroots movement and found its home in these buildings saved the Tobacco factory from decay during the years of t ..read more