This week we’re celebrating World Environment Day which took place on Saturday 05 June with the theme Reimagine. Recreate. Restore. WED 2021 marks the start at the UN decade on...
This week we are celebrating Earth Day, the annual global event that involves more than a billion people in almost 200 countries demonstrating their support for the planet and protection of the environment. This year the theme is Restore Our Earth, and as part of a week-long programme of activities, Think City Institute has partnered with Finds of Bukit Kiara, Habitat Penang Fashion Revolution to present a series of virtual workshops and talk and film screenings. ...
To celebrate Earth Day, Think City Institute (TCI) is presenting a week-long programme of webinars and film screenings in collaboration with Friends of Bukit Kiara, Fashion Revolution Week 2021, Habitat Penang Hill and The Habitat Foundation, from 20 April to 27 April 2021. ...
In March, Think City published the results of a land surface which revealed marked increases in the peak land surface temperatures of five Malaysian cities over several decades. The links between increases in temperature, climate change and urban expansion are well established, as is the challenge they pose for the liveability of cities, human health and urban wildlife....
Continuing our coverage of inspiring women, this week we speak to Dr Ceelia Leong, the author of a new data visualisation study by Think City that illustrates the effects of...
The Penang State Government recently announced the top prize winners of the Penang Bay International Ideas Competition. Launched in August 2020, the competition was designed to invite innovative ideas from around the world to transform the Penang Bay area into a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) compliant city zone and economic area. ...
We're in the middle of an increasingly complicated and contentious conversation about data, its ownership and its uses. As individuals, we increasingly see the kind of data gathered by big technology firms as a threat to our privacy, especially as the commercialization and commodification of that data has given rise to new forms of governance and economic power, especially in cities, as outlined in the theory of surveillance capitalism devised by the social psychologist and Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff....
Matt and Maya begin to look forward to 2021 and outline the rising popularity of plant-based meat alternatives like the Impossible Burger as part of a healthier diet and as a more sustainable way for the global food industry to meet the world’s growing protein needs. On the flip side, they also discuss the emerging Ghost Kitchens phenomenon and how it can provide coworking food preparation spaces and entrepreneurial cultivation services for food startups, particularly within underprivileged communities. ...
The world has been tried and tested in 2020. What we do in 2021 may determine how we bounce back, and who will benefit the most....
It’s been a minute. If there’s one phrase that perfectly sums up 2020, that could be it. A year that has seemed both endless and fleeting. We’ve drifted through it in a blur of groundhog days punctuated by fear and uncertainty. For those of us fortunate enough to have kept our jobs, or found new ones, and have been able to work from home, the last vestiges of work-life balance have probably disappeared. ...
The Paris Agreement is a dynamic document with a developmental character. The multitude of issues embedded in this milestone agreement matter to every person living on this troubled planet, and will apply for generations to come. ...
For the past few weeks we’ve been focusing on sustainable urbanisation as outlined in the World Cities Report 2020, launched by UN-Habitat at the end of October. The Citymaker spoke to one of the report’s early contributors, Think City’s Programme Director, Dr Matt Benson, about the urgent need for cities to be more reflexive and to cope with the pandemics and shocks that are expected in the future. ...
Cities like Penang are creating their own nature-based climate action plans and programmes to deal with climate change and provide blueprints that other urban centres can adapt and adopt....
On this week’s Reflexive City we take a look at the contrasting forces fuelling city development: people and machines. We celebrate the launch of the UN Habitat’s World Cities Report...
Around the globe, over a million people per week move into urban areas. This level of growth presents enormous challenges for governing agencies who struggle with the capacity and finance to meet the growing demand for infrastructure and services. ...
On today’s episode of The Citymaker podcast we talk to Charles Landry, founder of the Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2020, about the social innovation, community and generation of trust that are...
We speak to Dr Matt Benson, Think City’s programme Director about the Penang Bay International Ideas Competition and take a look at Sällbo, a Swedish experiment in multigenerational living and...
Despite COVID-19, zombie fires and social upheaval, 2020 is shaping up to be a remarkable year. A year of change and choices; activism and pushback against the status quo. Hello....
Whilst COVID-19 continues to grip the world, storytelling through data has become increasingly important in helping people come to terms with the effects of the crisis. As part of Think...
India relies on rain for the vast share of its water. It is currently experiencing increasing heavy rain and prolonged dry spells between storms, a potentially ruinous combination. ‘Climate change...
Climate change will damage the health of an entire generation, with children being the worst affected, according to a new report from medical journal The Lancet. More than 90% of...