A garden bridge that works: how Seoul succeeded where London failed

A pop-up public space was installed in Gothenburg, the latest in a Swedish experiment that’s looking at how to transform parking spaces on city streets into community areas. Previous installations of the experiment, known as the “one-minute city,” in Stockholm were received positively and other cities have expressed interest in the project.

As London starts to implement its plan for boroughs to implement sustainable urban greening strategies, officials look to Malmö as a guide after the Swedish city used a green space factor (GSF) as a way of calculating green space requirements for new developments. The GSF system allows governments to integrate biodiversity-focused incentives into their urban planning, while allowing designers and architects to respond to local needs.

The Street Moves initiative in Sweden is pushing local communities to become the designers of their own streets’ layouts and look at urban planning through the lens of the “one-minute city.” Through a public-private partnership, residents in four sites in Stockholm can help determine how much street space is used for parking, outdoor dining, and children’s play spaces. The goal is to increase participation in the community, address climate resilience, and create a more livable city.

Mulhouse, a small city in France, brushed off its negative reputation and used community networking, clever financing, and urban renewal as tools to become a bustling center once again. The town relied on many community associations and local voices to grow their economy; now, the city has more shops opening than closing.

Artists around Detroit take steps to preserve historic landmarks and incorporate community input into the urban planning process. While the city is drastically changing, activists are slowly preserving places like music venues and speakeasies, as well as creating organizations for artists to actively take part in updating the landscape of their changing communities.

How do you make a public space inviting so people will gather, but also safe from the growing danger of attackers using vehicles to ram large numbers of people? Many cities have responded to such attacks with concrete bollards and other barriers. But designers and architects are increasingly innovating other options that protect people via planters, fountains, trees, bike racks, steps and traffic calming designs to stop or slow down vehicles.

In an effort to brainstorm ideas to revitalize Detroit's West Riverfront Park, the city sent community members around the country to see what's working in other cities. After coming back with ideas, the community members worked with world-class architects to draw up plans for community improvement in the riverfront development.

Mount Vernon’s Ariel-Foundation Park is largely a success story of balancing historical preservation with recreational growth. The park sits where there used to be a glass manufacturing plant. Rather than hide this, the design of the 250-acre park maintains the identity of the industrial past while still creating a beautiful green space. Through individual leadership, donations from private institutions, and support from the local government, the park is thriving today. (This is the fourth article in a four part series).

A Dallas urban neighborhood was dilapidated with abandoned storefronts and offered no vitality for pedestrians. A group of artists and community members created Build a Better Block, in which local artisans and small businesses took over a vacant block and transformed it for a limited time to encourage the ingredients for more permanent urban renewal.

Medellin, Colombia has looked to architecture to help combat its high homicide rate and other problems. Over the past few decades there have been massive public architecture development, transit improvements, creation of public spaces that have all contributed to renewing this city.