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What is The Future for Cities?: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Fanni Melles
WTF for Cities? is a platform to introduce and connect people who are actively and consciously working on the future of cities and to introduce research about the future of cities.
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- Today1 min
Urban freight designed to leave space for people - Anne Goodchild (466I trailer 2)
Are you interested in urban freight as the movement of gods across scales? What do you think about the trust needed for expert vision creation? How can we accommodate for more people through infrastructure efficiency? Trailer for episode 466 - interview with Dr Anne Goodchild, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington and Founding Director at Urban Freight Lab. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, urban freight, vision creation, the role of engineers, travel as a choice, and many more.Find out more in the episode.If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our Patreon!Episode generated with Descript assistance (affiliate link).Music by Lesfm from Pixabay
- Yesterday2 min
The importance of leaders setting the urban vision - Anne Goodchild (466I trailer 1)
Are you interested in urban freight as the movement of gods across scales? What do you think about the trust needed for expert vision creation? How can we accommodate for more people through infrastructure efficiency? Trailer for episode 466 - interview with Dr Anne Goodchild, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington and Founding Director at Urban Freight Lab. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, urban freight, vision creation, the role of engineers, travel as a choice, and many more.Find out more in the episode.If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our Patreon!Episode generated with Descript assistance (affiliate link).Music by Lesfm from Pixabay
- 4 days ago46 min
464I_Laura Reupke, CEO of BABLE
"We do have solutions already today. We do see already what works today. We do know what is causing the problem. We do have it all."Are you interested in liveable cities designed for everyone? What do you think about having conversations about the future of cities with strangers? How can we design the future of our cities with everyone in mind? Interview with Laura Reupke, CEO of BABLE. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, the superblock model, 15-minute cities, bottom-up initiatives, and many more. Laura Reupke is CEO of BABLE, leading a mission-driven company that empowers cities worldwide to thrive in the digital era while tackling urgent sustainability challenges. With experience from McKinsey strategy consulting and ioki’s sustainable mobility solutions across Europe, she champions smarter, greener, and more human-centered urban futures. A Superblock creator in her own neighbourhood, Laura focuses on scaling innovation, building partnerships, and enabling transformative change.Find out more about Laura through these links:Laura Reupke on LinkedInBABLE websiteBABLE on LinkedInBABLE on YoutubeBABLE Smart Cities podcast on SpotifyConnected episodes you might be interested in:No.069 - Interview with Éva Kereszty about urban healthNo.434 - Interview with Keith Cooke about affordable housingNo.456 - Interview with Caroline Howell about healthy local livingNo.463R - Environmental and health effects of the Barcelona superblocksWhat was the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on Twitter @WTF4Cities or on the wtf4cities.com website where the shownotes are also available.I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our Patreon!Episode generated with Descript assistance (affiliate link).Music by Lesfm from Pixabay
- 5 days ago1 min
Why do we still need to be optimistic? Laura Reupke (464I trailer 3)
Are you interested in liveable cities designed for everyone? What do you think about having conversations about the future of cities with strangers? How can we design the future of our cities with everyone in mind? Trailer for episode 464 - interview with Laura Reupke, CEO of BABLE. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, the superblock model, 15-minute cities, bottom-up initiatives, and many more.Find out more in the episode.If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our Patreon!Episode generated with Descript assistance (affiliate link).Music by Lesfm from Pixabay
- 6 days ago11 min
463R_Environmental and health effects of the Barcelona superblocks
Are you interested in the superblock model’s effects of health and the environment? Our debate today works with the article titled Environmental and health effects of the Barcelona superblocks from 2025, by Katherine Perez, Laia Palencia, Maria Jose Lopez, Brenda Biaani Leon‑Gomez, Anna Puig‑Ribera, Anna Gomez‑Gutierrez, Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, Gloria Carrasco‑Turigas, and Carme Borrell, published in the BMC Public Health journal. This is a great preparation to our next interview with Laura Reupke in episode 464 talking about the opportunities within the Superblock model. Since we are investigating the future of cities, I thought it would be interesting to see how the Barcelona superblock model actually impacts urban life. This article suggests that this urban design could be a vital strategy for mitigating climate change impacts and improving public health.Find the article through this link.Abstract: The superblocks model of Barcelona (Spain) seeks to reorganize the city based on reversing the distribution of public space between vehicles and people by prioritizing citizens, thus improving their environmental conditions and quality of life. The objective of this paper was to describe the effects on environmental, health and quality of life of the first three superblocks implemented, discuss the lessons learned, and provide recommendations for the future. The evaluation included different approaches depending on the superblock analyzed: A pre-post-intervention health survey, environmental measures of air quality, the Microscale Audit of Urban Landscapes for Pedestrians (MAPS), an observational study on target areas of physical activity (SOPARC), ethnographic guerrilla studies, and focus groups. Residents and workers in all three of the evaluated superblocks reported a perceived improvement in well-being, tranquillity and quality of sleep, some reduction in noise and pollution and an increase in social interaction. The built environment of the superblocks clearly influenced walkability, and the lower car traffic volume improved air quality measures. In one of the superblocks, the same intervention calmed traffic in one of the areas but not in another. Although on a small scale, this evaluation of the environmental, and health effects of the superblocks provides support for expanding the model to other areas of the city.Connected episodes you might be interested in:No.193R - Transforming our cities: Best practices towards clean air and active transportationNo.423R - Scaling the superblock model to city level in Barcelona? Learning from recent policy impact evaluationsNo.424 - Interview with Ben Wolf about redesigning one specific street in New York CityYou can find the transcript through this link.What was the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on Twitter @WTF4Cities or on the wtf4cities.com website where the shownotes are also availableI hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our <a href="https://patreon.com/WTF4CitiesPodcast?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_ca
- 1 weeks ago1 min
We do have solutions today for the urban challenges - Laura Reupke (464I trailer 2)
Are you interested in liveable cities designed for everyone? What do you think about having conversations about the future of cities with strangers? How can we design the future of our cities with everyone in mind? Trailer for episode 464 - interview with Laura Reupke, CEO of BABLE. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, the superblock model, 15-minute cities, bottom-up initiatives, and many more.Find out more in the episode.If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our Patreon!Episode generated with Descript assistance (affiliate link).Music by Lesfm from Pixabay
- 1 weeks ago2 min
What healthy liveability means - Laura Reupke (464I trailer 1)
Are you interested in liveable cities designed for everyone? What do you think about having conversations about the future of cities with strangers? How can we design the future of our cities with everyone in mind? Trailer for episode 464 - interview with Laura Reupke, CEO of BABLE. We will talk about her vision for the future of cities, the superblock model, 15-minute cities, bottom-up initiatives, and many more.Find out more in the episode.If you would like to support the podcast, check out the Building Better Cities book or our Patreon!Episode generated with Descript assistance (affiliate link).Music by Lesfm from Pixabay
- 1 weeks ago38 min
462B_Reflections with Ben Vass and Fanni Melles
"The future is here, just not evenly distributed."Are you interested in urban conscious evolution and a hopeful future? What do you think about the saying: the future is here just not evenly distributed? How can we move towards better urban futures? Special reflective episode with Ben Vass, senior research engineer and yours truly, Fanni Melles, future of cities researcher, discussing what the last five years of the podcast and the world have taught us. We will talk about energy abundance, not evenly distributed but already present futures, antifragility and residuality theory, human progress and hope, and many more. Ben Vass is a senior research engineer, graph shaman and data magician who wants to build a Dyson swarm, explore the stars and understand consciousness. Standing between two worlds, he sees everything as a network of networks. He works on upgrading the world’s financial infrastructure for transparency and verifiability. And his voice might be familiar because he voiced the podcast intro. Ben is also my partner in crime in every sense.My name is Fanni Melles, PhD and I am an architect, future of cities researcher and creator of the What is The Future for Cities? podcast. Hungarian-born and Melbourne-based, my PhD argued that generic solutions fail because every city is unique. I see cities as emergent properties of their people and want to help people shape places more consciously, creating urban conscious evolution.And with Ben, we are expecting 2 new urban agents, thus, this seemed a good time to stop and reflect on the last five years of the podcast and look into the future before a major paradigm shift in our thinking.Check out the Building Better Cities book which synthesises the last five years of the podcast, written by Fanni Melles.Find out more about Ben through these links:Ben Vass on LinkedInTokCast by Brett HallThe beginning of infinity by David DeutschFind out more about Fanni through these links:Fanni Melles on LinkedInFanni Melles website@fannimelles as Fanni Melles on X@fannimelles as Fanni Melles on InstagramVitruvian Solutions websiteVitruvian Solutions on LinkedInFanni Melles on RTRFM On Record program;Fanni Melles on RRR ByteIntoIT radio;Find out more about the podcast through these links:WTF4Cities on LinkedInWTF4Cities website@WTF4Cities as WTF4Cities on X@w.t.f.4cities as WTF4Cities on InstagramWTF4Cities on YoutubeConnected episodes you might be interested in:No.154R - Smart city, smarter city, smarter approachesNo.156 - Interview with Fanni Melles about urban conscious evolutionNo.180 - Interview with Ben Vass about knowledge and knowledge-creationNo.461R - Building Bette
About What is The Future for Cities?
WTF for Cities? is a platform to introduce and connect people who are actively and consciously working on the future of cities and to introduce research about the future of cities.
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