Footsteps Through Thailand’s Cities and Rural Areas
   Jennifer Baljko, Barcelona

Urban Mining: A Sustainable Alternative to the Environmental Impacts and Social Injustices of Extractive Mining
   Graciela Arosemena, Panama City

Wouldn’t it be Better if Ecologists and Planners Talked to Each Other More?
   Diane Pataki, Salt Lake City    Sarah Hinners, Salt Lake City    Robin Rothfeder, Salt Lake City

Greening the Blues: Nature and Depression
   Yvonne Lynch, Riyadh

Innovations from the Post-COVID-19 City CoLab Challenge
   Amal al Balushi, Aachen    Georgia Bertagna, Parma    Thomas Beery, Kristianstad    Charlotte Britton, Munich    Jenna Cardinale, New York    Davide Geneletti, Trento    Eva Hoppmanns, Aachen    Dana Johnston, Munich    Vanessa Kucharski, Aachen    Audrey Leung, Munich    Mareeya Mitmana, Munich    Siân Moxon, London    Lea Schwab, Aachen    Colm O’Driscoll, Dublin    Anneliese Zausner-Mannes, New York

Cities FOR People
   Mary Rowe, Toronto

How is COVID-19 affecting caring for and researching urban ecology?
   Christina Breed, Pretoria    Mark Champion, Wigan    Joy Clancy, Twente    Ian Douglas, Manchester    Pete Frost, Cardiff    Lincoln Garland, Bath    David Haley, Walney Island    Jane Houghton, York    Yun Hye HWANG, Singapore    Christian Isendahl, Gothenburg    Philip James, Salford    Sarah Lindley, Manchester    Patrick M. Lydon, Daejeon    Nancy McIntyre, Lubbock    Camilo Ordóñez, Melbourne    Stephan Pauleit, Munich    Joe Ravetz, Manchester    Graham Rook, London    Richard Salisbury, Manchester    Alan Scott, London    Richard Scott, Liverpool    Monica Smith, Los Angeles    Marcelo Lopes de Souza, Rio de Janeiro    Miriam Stark, Honolulu    Katalin Szlavecz, Baltimore    Joanne Tippett, Manchester    Piotr Tryjanowski, Poznan    Tim Webb, London    Mike Wells, Bath    Phil Wheater, Manchester

Green Form and Function versus Green Nativism: In changing urban spaces full of novel ecosystems and natural assemblages, is native purity a viable option?
   Pippin Anderson, Cape Town    Erle Ellis, Baltimore    Leonie Fischer, Berlin    Mark Hostetler, Gainesville    Madhusudan Katti, Raleigh    Ingo Kowarik, Berlin    Mark McDonnell, Melbourne    Colin Meurk, Christchurch    Matt Palmer, New York City    Bill Toomey, Sandy Hook    Yolanda van Heezik, Dunedin    Paula Villagra, Valdivia
Many voices. Greener cities. Better cities.

TNOC’s Mission

We believe the route to cities and communities that are better for nature and all people is through transdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration. We combine art, science, and practice in innovative and publicly available engagements for knowledge-driven, imaginative, and just green city making.

ESSAYS | POINT OF VIEW

ROUNDTABLES

EVENTS

A wall with several house martin nests made up underneath the roofline
Soft Animal
Andreas Weber,  Berlin

Did you know that baby housemartins speak in their sleep? I did not ― until some nights ago in early July. I was walking down the deserted main road outside Varese Ligure, an old-fashioned Italian mountain town. It was the evening of the day I had arrived. Following the dimly lit street, I passed a 1950s building with single-storey flats...
A picture of a root bridge over a river
Granularity, Dynamism, and Embodiment at The Nature of Cities Festival 2024
Natalie Pierson,  New York City

I recently attended The Nature of Cities Festival (TNOC Festival) in Berlin, Germany, where I hosted a session with colleagues on the Global Roadmap for the Nature-based solutions for Urban Resilience in the Anthropocene (NATURA), a National Science Foundation research initiative co-led by the Urban Systems Lab. TNOC Festival uniquely blends elements of a conference, art exhibition, and retreat, all...
An aerial view of an oxbow river with many natural twists and turns
The goal is to mainstream Nature-based Solutions, by widening public acceptance and making it the standard and default practice of urban design. What will it take to get there?
James Bonner,  Glasgow |  Harriet Bulkeley,  Durham |  Tam Dean Burn,  Glasgow |  Stuart Connop,  London |  Bryce Corlett,  Norfolk |  Laura Costadone,  Norfolk |  Olukayode Daramola,  Surrey |  McKenna Davis,  Berlin |  Gillian Dick,  Glasgow |  Loan Diep,  New York City |  Niki Frantzeskaki,  Utrecht |  Zbigniew Grabowski,  Hartford |  Perrine Hamel,  Singapore |  Mariem EL Harrak,  Paris |  Cecilia Herzog,  Rio de Janeiro |  Nadja Kabisch,  Hannover |  Doris Knoblauch,  Berlin |  Frédéric Lemaître,  Paris |  Paola Lepori,  Brussels |  Patrick M. Lydon,  Daejeon |  David Maddox,  New York |  Israa Mahmoud,  Milan |  Timon McPhearson,  New York |  Seema Mundoli,  Bangalore |  Harini Nagendra,  Bangalore |  Caroline Nash,  London |  Neville Owen,  Melbourne |  Mitchell Pavao-Zuckerman,  College Park |  Eleanor Ratcliffe,  Surrey |  Kassia Rudd,  Freiburg |  Valentine Seymour,  Surrey |  David Simon,  London |  Takemi Sugiyama,  Melbourne |  Morro Touray,  Surrey |  Ibrahim Wallee,  Accra | 

THE NATURE OF CITIES FESTIVAL 2024

The Distance Between
Dreams and Reality
is Action

In 2024 we focus on translating knowledge to results. Join us.

EXHIBITS

PROJECTS

Reverberations

Reverberations An exhibition exploring the elements through art, science, and sound, Reverberations features more than 30 contributors from various disciplines in a multimedia experience. Produced by the USDA Forest Service and The Nature of Cities. This is an immersive sound-based exhibition. Headphones are recommended Enable Audio “Can you imagine listening to all that is sounding as if your body were...
Fiction

We asked people to imagine future cities, in the form of a flash or very short fiction. The series now includes two volumes: the latest is titled CITY IN A WILD GARDEN, a collection of 49 stories from 21 countries.
Poetry

With SPROUT, we are curating a space for trans- and multi-disciplinary collaborations between poets, researchers, and citizens with a focus on geographical diversity, polyvocality, and translation. We are a creative project of The Nature of Cities, specifically interested in the character of green cities from many ways of knowing.
The Just City Essays: 26 Visions for Urban Equity, Inclusion, and Opportunity

Today’s headlines—from Ferguson to Baltimore, Paris to Johannesburg—resound with the need for a frank conversation about the structures and processes that affect the quality of life and livelihoods of urban residents. Issues of equity, inclusion, race, participation, access and ownership remain unresolved in many communities around the world,  even as we begin to address the challenges of affordability, climate change adaptation and resilience.