Introduction This piece describes my vision for urban health and wellbeing in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) cities. It advocates for two radical changes: Active Mobility and Access to Nature. Each of these brings multiple layers of physical and mental health benefits for the individual and the community. Moreover, they are both essential ingredients for a […]
Vision for Healthy Cities in GCC Read More »
What is your favorite sound? Mine is the sound of stereotypes crashing down. I was asked to give a short reflection at this year’s ISOCARP World Planning Congress as part of a ‘Women in Planning’ event. I was the last to speak. As I listened to the other speakers before me, I couldn\’t stop writing
Showing up as yourself Read More »
I had the pleasure of visiting Barcelona a few weeks ago as part of an urban planning field trip organised by UCL. That translated into many, many hours of walking around the less-touristy areas of the city, and the opportunity to hear firsthand from local planning experts from academia, government, and civil society. There is so
Best of Barcelona Public Realm Read More »
I have often been on the receiving end of this question, and I usually end up providing a long-winded response with several examples to make the point that we do lots of very exciting things that are constantly evolving! Since the last post was a view on planning in general, I thought it would be interesting
What do environmental and sustainability planners do anyway? Read More »
A lot, particularly about successful planning of mega projects, argues Roger Allport. Not only did Allport complete a PhD on this topic, but he also published a book on it: Planning Major Projects. Rather than undertake a review of the work, which is well worth reading, I will highlight some of the concepts and quotes which particularly drew my attention and which help
What can we learn from 9 metro projects? Read More »
If you’ve engaged in the thinking around sustainability even from afar, then you’ve probably come across the energy hierarchy, water hierarchy, and waste hierarchy. These are simple models (often illustrated as pyramids or inverted pyramids) which help designers, planners, policymakers, and the rest of us make sensible decisions about managing energy, water, and waste. They do so
The Missing Hierarchy Read More »