The surge of smart city technology, thinking, publications and consultancy offerings is significant. This implies there is something seriously developing. But to what extent is this a new development? In this paper the case will be made that urban design has always had to include new technologies and …

The crossroads of living in cities on the one hand and ageing of the population on the other is studied in an interdisciplinary field of research called urban ageing (van Hoof and Kazak 2018, van Hoof et al. 2018). People live longer and in better health than ever before in Europe. Despite all the positive …

Large cities in the West respond to an ever-increasing shortage of affordable housing by accelerating the process of urban densification. Amsterdam, for instance, aims to increase its housing stock by 10 percent in the next 15 years as its population is expected to grow by 20 percent. As in other cities, …

This article explores how the combination of research approaches in Research Through Design (RTD) can contribute to generating applicable urban design knowledge. The article is based on learnings from the ‘Really cooling water bodies in cities’ project, a pragmatist RTD combining post-positivist, constructivist …

The emergence of collaborative workspaces is a remarkable feature of contemporary cities. These spaces have appeared rapidly, catering for the locational needs of self-employed workers, start-ups and small-size companies. The objective of this paper is to provide an analysis of four categories of collaborative …

The accelerated densification of Western European cities driven by economic growth has major spatial implications for their overall livability. Often, new homes must be built within an existing urban fabric, creating higher density environments. However, the impact on the experience of these high-density …

People in western countries spend approximately 90% of their time indoors. This severely affects their health (WHO 2013; Klepeis et al. 2001). The health risks are exacerbated if people travel between indoor spaces by car or public transport. Buildings on streets specifically designed to create a human …

Many cities are facing challenges in finding an equilibrium in the use of urban consumption spaces. Urban consumption spaces comprise different sociospatial relationships, bringing together work, consumption, recreation and habitation in a delimited area within the city. This mixed character is a potential …

Cities are confronted with more frequent heatwaves of increasing intensity discouraging people from using urban open spaces that are part of their daily lives. Climate proofing cities is an incremental process that should begin where it is needed using the most cost-efficient solutions to mitigate heat …

With the lens of the hackable city, we want to highlight a vision of the city as a site of both collaboration as well as struggle and conflicts of interests. In this account, new media technologies enable citizens to organise, mobilise, innovate and collaborate towards commonly defined goals. As a lens, …