The Nature of Cities—Europe is an independent partner organization to TNOC—Global. TNOC-Europe is a Registered Charity in Ireland, formed in 2018 to work on European projects and partnerships.
The Nature of Cities—Europe co-publishes at our partner site: www.thenatureofcities.com.
Stay in touch: write us at: [email protected]
What We Do
We support the creation and use of knowledge-based solutions that make cities better for all people and nature.
The mission of The Nature of Cities-Europe is to curate joined conversations about urbanism across ways of knowing and modes of action. We create transdisciplinary, publicly available, and widely disseminated programs, events, knowledge, and engagements for green city-making.
European Projects. TNOC-Europe (a registered charity in Ireland) participates in and occasionally leads projects with European consortia (PIC 907105007), including Horizon projects and others. We welcome collaborations of all sorts in Europe. Our roles in European projects are diverse, but here are some examples: arts integration in science, policy, and community engagement (e.g., comics, Science2Story, fiction, theatre, murals, artist residencies); productive and inclusive participatory methods with professionals and communities; innovative events; social science methods in evaluation, surveys, and community building; communications, dissemination, publishing.
We strive for cities worldwide that are resilient, sustainable, livable, and just. We work to achieve this in several ways:
- Publish an open-access “magazine”: web-based articles, essays, and discussion forums by writers, thinkers, creators, and activists, focusing on ideas that are transdisciplinary and at the frontiers where science, design, planning, and art meet. We crave creativity in all forms and from all sources. If you would like to be a contributor, write us.
- Create public symposia and transdisciplinary engagements designed to increase knowledge and citizen engagement in creative cultures, urban nature, planning, design, and placemaking. Recent major events include TNOC Summit in Paris (June 2019) and the Food-Water-Energy public event in Sao José dos Campos, Brazil (September 2019), a series of virtual Festivals, and TNOC Festival Berlin in 2024. The next in-person TNOC Festival will be in Barcelona in 2027.
- Conduct place- and knowledge-based projects with partner organizations in Europe and on a global scale, integrating ways of knowing and modes of action. For example, TNOC-Europe is in three Horizon projects: NetworkNaturePlus , HARVEST (for which we are a co-lead), and RELATE4NATURE.
- Design outreach, educational, and research materials for urban communities, city managers, practitioners, and researchers on urban ecosystems, green infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and biodiversity.
- Create programs that engage arts, culture, science, and action together in joined spaces. NBS (nature-based solutions) Comics is a project of TNOC-Europe, in collaboration with NetworkNature. But there are others, including poetry, fiction, and artist residencies. As part of this project, we offer artist-led workshops on visual storytelling.
- Social science methods, including surveys and interview analysis.
Our Directors
TNOC—Europe is a Registered Charity in Ireland (No. 621611).
TNOC-Europe Directors (2018-2026):
- Marcus Collier, Dublin
- David Maddox, New York
- Siobhán McQuaid, Dublin
Members (governing board of TNOC, 2026):
- Marcus Collier, Dublin
- Martha Fajardo, Bogotá
- David Haley, Whaley Island (Scotland)
- Oliver Hillel, Montreal
- Mike Houck, Portland
- Robin Lasser, San Jose (California)
- David Maddox, New York
- Siobhán McQuaid, Dublin
- Chantal van Ham, Brussels