"We do not inherit
the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
- Native American saying -
Domains
We design and manage new projects for urban sustainable cities, building facilities, EU projects, grant writing proposals and management. We also have an extensive knowledge in policy talking applied to air quality in urban contexts, research and innovation in architecture and engineering solutions.
Our knowledge is applicable to work and convey the UN Sustainable Development Goal agenda, EU energy transition agenda, and translate and fit them to support local municipialities in introducing urban innovations. Our experience stems from urban data anlaysis, researches, and is conveyed through ad hoc scientific communication services.
Gender Diversity
and Inclusion
in Urban Planning
Urban planning and building design have long responded to existing users, rather than creating opportunities for entirely new behaviours, this means design cities and spaces has never been gender neutral, neither minority friendly.
Cities have historically been designed by middle age fit men, for mid age fit men.
Men, women, gender minorities and people of different abilities tend to use the public space in different ways: all have different needs and routines, however, if these needs are not reflected in the design rooms, and through inclusive co participatory processes, the needs of the less represented will always be neglected.
UniverCities leverages its team of (mostly) women, and its very diverse network to support cities in creating healthy, safe, and inclusive living environments for everyone in a fair way.
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The ambition is to shift the existing paradigm of inequality reinforced by design, but to enable cities and costumers to have spaces that are:
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Accessible
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Safe
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Affordable
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Climate neutral
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Easy and pleasant to live in
Univercities works towards creating urban spaces that should provide all the circumstances for a healthy, wealthy and satisfying life, regardless of the differences in ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, social class, etc.
Inclusive
Urban Data
The existing bias in data is often un unspoken territory. Data sets, data frameworks, Big Data in the modern world are the hidden places where inequality still resides. Examples of how data have been used to design things for one gender or age group or ability are in our everyday life.
Diversity-blindness in tech and data culture produces what Criado Perez calls the “one-size-fits-gender” approach and what the UN Women organisation has many times defined as a massive problem in gender discrimination, and even more so during crisis such as pandemic, economic crisis ore even worst …wars.
Data not only describes the world, but it is used to shape it.
This is the reason why the approach to data management within UniverCities is always considered the first step to inclusive solutions. Our teams of experts often focus more on the data we don’t see than the ones we have. For this reason, we develop, together with behavioural scientists and data experts, systemic thinking methodologies to identify hidden insights, latent needs and gaps in data sets.
We help cities to access the right and complete information to make decisions for all.
UniverCities' Data Management approach is:
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Representative – data will be identified and selected to represent all diverse communities
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Fair – measurements and metrics are build towards equity not only equality
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Inclusive– people and environment are central in developing any design
Diverse and
Inclusive Citizen
Engagement
The social environmental and economic costs of inequity in the built environment and cities are at a critical point.
Studies demonstrate clearly that when design processes become more inclusive, cities and the built environment more accessible, connected, safe, healthy, climate resilient, and secure, then the entire community makes significant economic, environmental and social gains.
In order to reach this result, co participatory processes need to be accessible to all citizens, independent of their age, race, gender, economical or educational status, ability and sexual or religious orientation.
This is easier said then done.
UniverCities works closely with cities to bring theory into action and to ensure that co design processes are effectively inclusive, and all voices can have a platform to be heard.
In practical terms, there are many co design methodologies, but no one fits all.
We support organisations and cities to be creative in setting their citizens engagement programmes so that every opportunity of dialogue can be:
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Healthy and Safe: defining locations and times for people to feel comfortable and open to share their ideas
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Attractive: creating enough incentive mechanisms (not economic) set to engage with communities that are often left out, in order for them to reposition priorities and contribute to the city-citizens dialogue
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Participatory: enabling actively and practically all voices to join and to have an equal weight in the conversation
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Integrated: adopting a holistic, cross-cutting approach that centres gender and minorities and promotes the citizen- city partnership development
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Viable: identifying economically sustainable models for the cities to engage with citizens
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Power-building: limiting traditional power levels and growing the capacity and influence of under- represented groups in key decisions
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Flexible: setting spaces with limited fix rules in order to people to find their own way of contributing​
Overall, we aim at reaching a universal access to citizens engagement …. for universal cities….
Environmental
Friendly Building Design
An eco-friendly building is a building that uses fewer natural resources and produces fewer emissions and waste. Some green buildings even create a positive impact on the environment around them and contribute to improving the global climate.
Eco-friendly buildings are also designed to be beneficial to the people within those spaces. Improved ventilation, insulation, and natural lighting have a positive effect on the occupants of the building and lead to improved health, productivity, and overall quality of life.
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Here are some of the features that define a building as eco-friendly:
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Energy efficiency and conservation measures to reduce energy consumption and maximize the efficiency of the energy used;
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Renewable energy technologies like solar and wind power to meet the needs of the building;
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Efficient use of water and greywater recycling;
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Effective waste and emissions management measures to reduce waste generation and facilitate reuse and recycling. Implementation of measures to minimize or offset emissions and pollution, especially air and water pollution;
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Sustainable construction materials by adopting building materials that are non-toxic, ethically, and sustainably sourced from suppliers with the least environmental impact;
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Environmentally conscious construction methods that adopt techniques which focus on reducing the impact of construction on the surrounding natural environment, by reducing noise and light pollution and protecting local flora and fauna from harm during the building phase;
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Socially responsible designed buildings which are beneficial to human occupants and improve their health and well-being;
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Circular life-cycle design for buildings takes into count their full life-cycle, from conception to operation, and from renovation and adaptation to possible demolition.