Be Inspired

Armed with illuminated traffic cones and clear signage, activists in Mexico City are changing the shape of their city’s streets. Mexico City, like many cities around the world, has lost its walkable scale. Long distances and fast traffic have made walking less attractive, and streetscapes have been built to move cars, not people. To fix this, city officials and activists alike are making efforts to reshape the way roads throughout the city prioritize people walking.

In Athens, Greece, NGO Atenistas reacted to the city’s distinct lack of seating at bus stations by creating self-made seating areas. Local activists got together to install and paint attractive bus stops guerilla style, with bold colours and artistic benches.

The EU sponsored initiative levers behavioural change in local communities using an innovative approach to improve urban mobility: changing citizens’ habits through a game that mixes digital and physical experiences. Rather than focus on costly and rapidly ageing urban infrastructures, MUV promotes a shift towards more sustainable and healthy mobility choices by engaging in a positive way local communities, local businesses, policymakers and Open Data enthusiasts.

The Day Labor Station was an innovative design and advocacy campaign that worked with day labourers across the country as clients and seeks to address critical issues of space, dignity, and community. The structure is adaptable, based on the realities of the ways in which the day labor system operates. It provides a sheltered space for the day labourers to wait for work as well as community resources such as a meeting space and classroom.

A co-operative of patients, doctors, nurses and Lambeth residents who grow food together. Since 2013 they have built gardens in GP surgeries designed to support patients with long-term health conditions to learn how to grow food and, by doing so, improve their health and wellbeing. Their aim is to make a significant contribution to improving the lives of local people living with multiple long-term conditions and the sustainability of the health and social care system.

Yume was founded in 2016 by food waste expert, Katy Barfield, after she witnessed the enormous amount of edible food wasted in the commercial food sector and resolved to do something about it. Yume works with leading food suppliers and farmers to sell surplus stock, that may otherwise have been wasted, to smart hospitality and retail businesses – and their happy customers.

Arborea’s team developed a breakthrough cultivation system, the BioSolar Leaf, which harnesses natural photosynthesis in a radicle new way. Thanks to sunlight, Arborea’s technology facilitates the growth of microscopic plants to produce healthy food ingredients, all while generating breathable oxygen and sequestrating large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2), a major contributor to climate change.

The report offers a vision for a healthy food system fit for the 21st century and beyond, underpinned by the circular economy principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. In this vision, food production improves rather than degrades the environment, and all people have access to healthy and nutritious food.

Meristem are a group of designers, horticulturalists and ecologists who have a shared passion; to turn the grey into the green. Their award winning Parklets are intended to provide space for people to sit, relax and enjoy the city around them, providing aesthetic enhancement to the overall streetscape. By not requiring a permanent concrete base, Parklets are a much faster and less expensive way for the City to bring improvements to a neighbourhood.

Following the devastating closure of the Wansbrough paper mill in 2015, Onion Collective is pursuing a new, circular and inclusive 21st Century industrial future for the town. This project will be delivered in a ground breaking partnership between a leading bio-tech company (Biohm), a community anchor organisation (Onion), and the Watchet community. It is conceived as a direct response to both the critical local economic context and the climate emergency.

The Pallet Pavilion was a transitional architecture project that functioned as a community space and venue for events. It was built by volunteer power over 6 weeks in late 2012. It was a fully consented built structure and unlike anything else in Christchurch at the time.

The Bevy is a community-run pub in the heart of Moulsecoomb in East Brighton. They are the only community pub on a housing estate in the whole of the UK. Open for over five years they provide a place for people to come together – for lunch clubs, dementia cafes, cooking lessons, arts and crafts sessions, family fun days, breakfast, music nights, pub quizzes and much, much more, or simply for a pint.

HandUp was created to use technology and the power of human relationships to fight poverty and is now part of Lighthouse’s mission to build communities that end homelessness. HandUp’s charitable giving platform provides nonprofits and donors in the community with a new, simple, and direct way to make an impact on poverty.

Located in rural Cheshire, Ashton Hayes is a well knit community of about 1000 people that is aiming to become England's first carbon neutral community. Their journey started in January 2006 and since then have already cut carbon dioxide emissions significantly - by working together, sharing ideas and through behavioural change. They now have a community owned renewable energy company.

Homebaked Community Land Trust lies on the boundary of Everton and Anfield, just opposite Liverpool Football Club. They are a growing group of local residents who have been working together since 2012 to shape the place where they live and work in community ownership.

Civic Square is a Public Square / Neighbourhood Economics Lab / Creative + Participatory Ecosystem.

A bold approach to visioning, building and investing in civic infrastructure for neighbourhoods of the future.