The purpose of this playbook is to outline UN-Habitat’s approach to using Minecraft as an enabler to encourage community participation in urban design and governance. UN-Habitat has integrated the Block by Block methodology in its Global Public Space Programme, a programme launched in 2012 to develop local policies, pl…

Evidence and Insights from Luanda This paper aims to provide insight into the potential of urban revitalisation interventions for improved public space in the context of African cities. Based on a review and evidence of the history, perceptions, and use of public spaces in the capital city of Angola, Luanda, the…

The case of Freedom Park and Kitwe Zoo in Kitwe, Zambia The city of Kitwe experienced a surge in the construction of shopping malls between 2010 and 2020. Government’s deliberate efforts for city making and restructuring policy in the built environment has resulted in increased commercial and tourism infrastructu…

The Ludovico Quaroni's competition winner project for the urban park of the Tobacco Manufacturing and the Navile dockyard, although unrealised, still represents a sort of conclusive point of the search path (he died in 1987) of one of the most prominent characters of the Italian architectural scene – and not onl…

The Global Platform for the Right to the City (GPR2C) releases the Thematic Paper “Cities and Human Settlements with Quality Public Spaces”, on the occasion of the World Urban Forum 11. This thematic paper explores the complexity of public space across different dimensions: urban, cultural, artistic and performative, p…

A Global Perspective on Our Common Urban Future This article is a report on the work of our group, the Centre for the Future of Places at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and its role as an outgrowth of the Future of Places initiative – a partnership of UN-Habitat, the Ax:son Johnson Foundation, an…