Do you know the 3-30-300 rule? 🌳
It is a simple yet powerful concept by Cecil Konijnendijk:
𝟯 – 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻
Everyone should be able to see at least three large trees from where they live, work, learn, or receive care. This promotes psychological well-being and connection to nature, and also enhances mental recovery, concentration, learning, and creativity.
𝟯𝟬 – 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗿𝗲𝗮 𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻
Neighbourhoods – defined based on local definitions and needs – should have at least 30% tree canopy cover. This provides environmental benefits, such as cooling and improved air quality, while also enhancing our wellbeing and physical health, and fostering more social interactions.
𝟯𝟬𝟬 – 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻
We should all have a high-quality, publicly accessible green space of at least 0.5–1.0 hectares no more than 300 metres walk or bike ride away, ensuring accessibility for recreation and fostering healthier lifestyles.
Interested in the topic? There's a new handbook created by the Yggdrasil - The Living Nordic City project, supported by the Nature-based solutions in the Nordic region. It's a great step by step guide to implement the idea!
Link in the comments.
When Zohran Mamdani proposed free buses during his New York City mayoral campaign, skeptics dismissed it as a frivolous fantasy—a few dollars saved, a tiny gesture in a city drowning in unaffordability. But evidence from Boston, Kansas City, and even New York's own pilot program shows that free transit brings a cascade of public goods that make cities safer and more functional.
Boarding times drop by nearly a quarter, traffic eases, and air pollution decreases.
Ridership surges, meaning fewer cars, faster trips, and a transit system that actually works.
And then there is the benefit no one talks about: free buses mean our tax dollars go to the public good instead of to the harm of policing and surveillance.
In this fantastic piece by Emily Galvin Almanza, a former public defender, she shares how she watched women cycle through arraignments not for robbery or assault, but for failing to pay a simple bus fare—their poverty criminalized, their time wasted, their records scarred, all for the loss of a few bucks.
When we eliminate fares, we redirect public dollars out of police, prosecutors, judges, and the daily business of punishing everyday people for being broke.
We stop flooding transit with armed officers—$155 million in overtime last year alone—and start seeing results like a 39 percent drop in assaults on bus operators.
Free buses are a reminder that our public dollars—our hard-earned taxes—can be put to work to make our lives better.
Yes, we CAN have nice things.
And YES, the people’s money can build parks and libraries and update our public schools: a gift to everyone, paid for by everyone, that makes our communities work better.
https://lnkd.in/eXF7Jtnn
The Coming Explosion of “Golden Girls Housing”
Remember The Golden Girls—four older women famously sharing a Miami home? That sitcom setup isn’t just TV fiction anymore—it’s increasingly a savvy real-life model. Since 2006, the number of Americans over 65 sharing housing with unrelated roommates has grown 88%, from about 470,000 to 1 million.
Driven by rising retirement costs (11 million older households—up from 8.8 million in 2011—spend at least 30% of their income on housing), shared housing is a smart way for older people, especially women, to regain autonomy while staying economically afloat. Given nearly 70% of single Americans over 50 are women, it’s not a surprise that older women are choosing to live together. In fact, half of women 65 and older are single.
But it’s more than savings. Loneliness is real—one in three adults over 45 reports feeling isolated—and shared living can reduce that in a big way. Senior cohousing communities cut isolation rates from 25% to less than 10% by rebooting everyday social life—shared meals, mutual care, and built-in support systems. From chopped housing bills to warm companionship (and a growing need for non-acute caretaking as we age), Golden Girls–style living answers both pocketbook and soul needs. It’s not nostalgia—it’s becoming a modern model for aging vibrantly, together.
And, this recent New York Times’ article, 11 Women, 9 Dogs, Not Much Drama (and No Guys) (https://nyti.ms/4oS3FQ5), captures the zeitgeist of this new housing movement. The article, which profiles a Texan tiny-house village (called The Bird’s Nest) of women ages 60-80, starts with these two sentences:
“These retired women in Texas have been through infertility, illness, layoffs, addiction and disappointing marriages. Now they are trying to create a utopia just for themselves.”
Later in the article, the journalist explains why she researched this story:
“I traveled to The Bird’s Nest in mid-July because I had been searching for real-life examples of a fantasy I have had since my 20s. After child-rearing and a career, my friends and I would buy a big house somewhere affordable and cohabitate the way we had done in college: cooking and laughing and hanging out, chipping in for accessibility ramps and health-help as needed. This fantasy, or versions of it — aging among female friends — is rampant among the women I know. It circulates on Facebook groups.”
As some of you know, my MEA cofounder Jeff Hamaoui developed Baja Sage (with me as the other investor), 26 homes around a regenerative farm just a mile from the MEA Mexican beachfront campus. We’re intending to do the same in Santa Fe with possibly a series of regenerative communities (not retirement communities) in the area. Stay tuned for more info on our Golden Girls homes which are more likely to be 4- and 5-bedroom homes than tiny houses. No doubt, there’s a growing need for this kind of housing.
People said nobody would ever give up their car.
Paris proved them wrong. 🚲🇫🇷
For years, we were told that cycling would always be a niche activity.
The data now tells a different story.
In central Paris:
🚲 Bikes account for 11.2% of trips
🚗 Cars have fallen to just 4.3%
During rush hour, the gap gets even bigger:
🚲 Bikes: nearly 19% of journeys
🚗 Cars: just 6.6%
And the biggest winner of all?
🚶 Walking, with more than half of all trips.
This didn’t happen because people suddenly became more environmentally conscious.
It happened because the city changed the system.
Over the past decade, Paris:
🌳 Replaced parking spaces with trees and public spaces
🚴 Built more than 300 km of protected bike lanes
🌊 Turned major roads along the Seine into pedestrian areas
The lesson is bigger than cycling.
People rarely change because they’re told to.
They change because infrastructure makes a better choice easier, safer, and more convenient.
Behavior follows design.
The climate conversation often focuses on individual responsibility.
But maybe the bigger question is this 👇
What if the fastest way to change behavior is simply to redesign the environment around it?
📌PS: Found this helpful?
Join 18,000+ founders and investors leveling up their game to fix this climate mess.
👉 Subscribe to my newsletter and get actionable insights delivered weekly! 🌍🚀
https://lnkd.in/ektv3C_s#UrbanPlanning#Sustainability#ClimateAction#ActiveMobility#Cycling#Cities#BehaviorDesign
Our century will be judged by how we choose to build, not only our cities, but the quality of life they offer and our capacity to balance progress with the planet’s limits. The built environment shapes how billions live, work, and thrive. It stands at the crossroads of challenge and opportunity, and the decisions we make today will define the legacy we leave behind.
At COP30 Brazil in Belém, the message could not be clearer : ambition is no longer enough, action must follow. And we will not be able to do it without putting people’s wellbeing at the heart of sustainable transformation.
The construction sector has a unique responsibility to lead this transition, together. That’s why Saint-Gobain created the "Sustainable Construction Observatory" in 2023: to turn collective insight into collective impact.
Today, we take a new step forward. Our "Action Paper", just released at COP30, presents 13 concrete priority actions built through a global consultation with experts, policymakers, and industry leaders. These actions target six transformative levers that can accelerate the shift toward sustainable construction worldwide, from reducing environmental impact to improving comfort, health, and resilience for all.
Among key actions to take:
➡️ Share a common and comprehensive language so decisions on health,wellbeing, footprint, resilience, and value are comparable and scalable.
➡️ Fully integrate adaptation and resilience into planning, design, and procurement from the start -to protect both people and places.
➡️ Strengthen governance, data sharing, and skills across stakeholders.
At Saint-Gobain, our commitment is clear: to make the world a better home, one that enhances lives as much as it protects the planet.
Achieving this will take courage, alignment, and speed. But if we act with purpose and unity, the built environment can become one of the greatest forces for positive change in the world.
Read the Action Paper: https://lnkd.in/d7AP3Nmx
🗑️ This might look like an ordinary street corner — but it’s one of the smartest waste systems in the world.
I find this fascinating, across the Netherlands, cities are quietly reinventing waste management.
Trash bins are hidden underground, storing waste several meters below the surface. When full, trucks with hydraulic cranes lift, empty, and replace them — seamlessly, with no noise, no clutter, and no odor.
Why it works so well:
🗑️ Holds up to 5× more waste than traditional bins
🐀 Prevents pests and bad smells
🌿 Fewer collections = lower emissions
🏙️ Frees up valuable urban space
🔇 Quieter, cleaner neighborhoods
I love how this innovation blends engineering, design, and sustainability — solving big problems so elegantly that you barely notice it.
Smart design doesn’t need to be loud to change the world.
Could this be the model for the next generation of smart, livable cities?
#AI#Innovation#Technology#Sustainability#SmartCities#Engineering#UrbanPlanning#CleanTech#Design#FutureOfWork
Every time I travel across China, Japan, or South Korea, I’m reminded how smart infrastructure quietly saves lives. Have you seen this one?
Even something as simple as a train crossing is powered by advanced tech:
smart sliding fences that activate the moment a train is detected.
But the real shift comes when AI enters the system:
🚆 Predictive detection that calculates train speed, distance, and arrival with high accuracy
🎥 Computer vision spotting pedestrians, cyclists, or vehicles on the tracks
🧠 Behavioral risk analysis to identify people trying to rush across
🌐 Integration with smart traffic lights to stop cars before they reach the crossing
⚠️ Real-time alerts to operators when something feels “off”
This is what modern safety looks like—intelligent, proactive, and deeply human-centred.
As cities grow, these kinds of AI-driven systems won’t just prevent accidents…
they’ll shape how we build safer, smarter, more efficient communities.
Infrastructure may be silent.
But with AI, it becomes alive.
#AI#SmartCities#Infrastructure#RailwaySafety#Transportation#Innovation#UrbanTech#FutureOfMobility#PublicSafety#ArtificialIntelligence#SmartInfrastructure
I’m excited to share our new @Nature paper 📝, which provides strong evidence that the walkability of our built environment matters a great deal to our physical activity and health. Details below.🧵
Paper link: https://lnkd.in/gsaySAs8
8 years ago, we published a study using smartphone data to understand people's activity globally 🗺️. We found huge differences in daily steps across cities. https://lnkd.in/gv9KNPZA
The big question we couldn’t yet answer at the time: is it the city that makes people walk more, or do active people just choose to live there? 🤔
To solve this, we ran a massive "natural experiment." We studied smartphone data from 2 million people 🤳, including ~5,000 who moved between 1,609 U.S. cities. This gave us a unique before-and-after picture 📸 of how their physical activity changed with their environment.
The key finding: your city can make you healthier. 🏙️➡️🚶♀️ People who moved from a less walkable city to a more walkable one increased their walking by ~1,100 steps a day, on average. That's about 11 minutes of extra walking without even thinking about it! 👟
This effect is symmetric. People moving to NYC from less walkable places gained ~1,400 steps 🗽. People who moved away from NYC lost ~1,400 steps. This "before and after" picture is powerful evidence that the environment is the key driver of physical activity. 🔄
This isn't just about more steps—it’s about the right kind of steps. Our study shows this additional activity is mostly brisk walking, which is the moderate-to-vigorous exercise (MVPA) recommended by doctors to prevent disease. A move to a highly walkable city can add an hour of this health-boosting activity to a person's week. 💪📈
In fact, moving to a much more walkable city nearly doubled the chances that a person would meet the national guidelines for physical activity (150 mins of MVPA/week), jumping from 21.5% to 42.5%. This is great news! 🎉
So, is it just that active people choose walkable cities? Our data says no. People who moved between similarly walkable cities saw no change in their activity. This suggests that the built environment, not just personal choice, is a central driver. ✅
The big takeaway: city planning is a powerful public health tool 🛠️. Investing in sidewalks, parks, and mixed-use zoning is a direct investment in the health of citizens. Our work shows that creating activity-friendly environments is a powerful way to make entire populations healthier. 💚
Huge thanks to my amazing co-authors Boris Ivanovic, Abby King, Jennifer Hicks, Scott Delp, and Jure Leskovec.
(representing University of Washington, Stanford University, Stanford University School of Medicine and NVIDIA) 🙏
Sometimes, the best ideas come from construction waste.
I’ve always believed that design is less about inventing — and more about reimagining.
Take these oversized concrete pipes. Once destined for drainage systems, they now serve as intimate dining pods — raw, industrial, and surprisingly cozy.
● This isn’t just recycling. It’s redefining value.
● Each pipe becomes a capsule of connection and conversation.
● The neon trims? A touch of futurism on brutalist bones.
● It’s modular, memorable, and makes you think twice about "waste."
I've seen luxurious materials fail to create emotion. But here? Even concrete feels warm when used with intent.
Maybe the future of spatial design isn’t always about what we build — but what we rescue, rethink, and repurpose.
Would you eat in a concrete pipe if it looked like this?
👇 Let me know what you feel about turning industrial leftovers into design experiences.
— Mishul Gupta
#AdaptiveReuse#ArchitecturalThinking#DesignMatters#CreativeSpaces#SustainableDesign#BrutalistBeauty#MishulGupta#RestaurantDesign#CircularArchitecture#LinkedInDesign
Forgotten Groups in Urban Development: How Teenage Girls Experience the City
Sometimes you encounter research that provides new insights into urban development. The 'Urban Minded' project by Henning Larsen and the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southern Denmark, conducted by Yalda Pilehchian and Dorte Buchardt Westergaard, is such an eye-opener. It focuses on an often overlooked group in urban planning: teenage girls between 14 and 16 years old. The research setup (also recommended!) can be found here: https://lnkd.in/eRj7tS_w
An Overlooked Group
There are 'forgotten groups' in urban development. Teenage girls find themselves in a unique life phase - between childhood and adulthood. This 'in-between period' makes them particularly vulnerable to being overlooked in urban design, while their mental health has already been under pressure for some time.
The Urban Minded research identified three essential concepts that determine how teenage girls experience and use the city:
To Flow
This concept revolves around freedom of movement through the city. Teenage girls want to be able to move safely and freely. This requires:
- Well-lit routes
- Clear connections
- Places that invite discovery
- Safe cycling and walking paths
To Be
'To Be' is about having places where teenage girls can be themselves:
- Spaces for rest and reflection
- Places to gather with friends
- Sheltered areas that provide privacy
- Comfortable seating areas where they feel welcome
To Play
The playful element remains important but takes on a different form than for young children:
- Spaces for creative expression
- Places for spontaneous activities
- Flexible areas that allow different forms of use
- Elements that invite interaction and movement
These three concepts lead to concrete recommendations for urban development:
For Designers and Planners:
- Create connecting routes that combine safety and discovery
- Design multifunctional spaces that enable both privacy and social interaction
- Integrate age-appropriate playful elements
For Policy Makers:
- Actively involve teenage girls in planning processes
- Develop policies that take their specific needs into account
- Ensure a balanced distribution of facilities
Conclusion
The Urban Minded research shows that successful urban development requires understanding how different groups experience the city. By considering teenage girls' needs for 'flow', 'being', and 'play', we create not just a better city for them, but for everyone.
#UrbanDevelopment#InclusiveDesign#UrbanPlanning#SpatialPlanning