The Best Articles in Future Cities
The most useful articles and videos in Future Cities from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Future Cities Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved in Future Cities by Refind users in 2023 so far.
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
8 Sustainability ideas that will change the world
Diving into some of the most innovative ideas across retail, city planning, policy, technology and construction. Ideas that will truly change the way we thin...
Shenzhen: The Silicon Valley of Hardware (Full Documentary)
Future Cities, a full-length documentary strand from WIRED Video, takes us inside the bustling Chinese city of Shenzhen. Subscribe to WIRED►► http://po.st/Su...
How Dubai is building roads in the sky
The Jetsons taught us to dream of futuristic cities. Now, Dubai is building one. Subscribe to Freethink on YouTube ► https://freeth.ink/youtube-subscribe So...
How Amsterdam Is Becoming A New City
Maps are provided by the wonderful Maptiler, and the overlays come from the Amsterdam map website, where the government provides really nice data.This is a v...
These 8 cities are putting their focus on biking and walking — not cars
Even though cities have been centers of culture, ideas and industry since the Neolithic Revolution 12,000 years ago (!), today’s urban-centric global civilization is just a couple of hundred years …
What is ...?
New to Future Cities? These articles make an excellent introduction.
What Is Trauma-Informed Design?
Shared by 117, including Greater Greater Washington
«The growing awareness of the impact of the built environment on our health is one reason for the growth of trauma-informed design»
What Is The Future Of Cities?
As COVID-19 makes density a danger, we look at what's in store for cities.
How to ...?
How to build the city of the future, according to Ikea’s innovation lab
‘The Ideal City’ collects the most successful urban ideas from around the world, to serve as a sort of cookbook of best practices for city leaders.
Trending
These links are currently making the rounds in Future Cities on Refind.
"Cities should not just build green transport but actively dismantle car infrastructure"
Instead of desperately trying to reduce road congestion in the short term, politicians should be using traffic as a tool for making urban transport more sustainable, writes Phineas Harper.
‘We need trees’: green vision struggles to take root in Europe’s cities
Planners want to plant trees to tackle climate crisis but often face a hostile urban environment
‘Our beautiful mission’: VanMoof boss on changing cities with e-bikes
In the 13 years since Ties Carlier and his brother started their e-bike company, it has grown to over 1,000 employees but, he says, there is a lot more to do to improve urban environments
How ‘sponge cities’ are redesigning themselves for extreme rain
In California, and around the world, climate change is making extreme rain more likely. Here's how some cities are adapting.
The Cities Keeping Their Car-Free Spaces
The open streets of the pandemic reclaimed public space for pedestrians and bicyclists. From Bogotá to New York to Stockholm, some of those changes have become permanent.
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles in Future Cities—all under 10 minutes.
Will we ever… live in city-sized buildings?
The cities of science fiction are frequently portrayed as all-encompassing and self-contained structures, but how feasible is it build a colossal city in a building?
Cooling the tube – Engineering heat out of the Underground
On a summer's day a trip in a hot tube train is a dreadful experience, but how did we end up with such hot tube trains, and what's being done about it?
How Japan Built Cities Where You Could Send Your Toddler on an Errand
The Netflix show Old Enough! offers a glimpse of an alternate reality.
The promise of the 15-minute city
Politicians and urban planners are betting on hyper-local living. But is it a path to urban utopia or just a fad?
9 cities that could be underwater by 2030
Proof that we need to take action to fight the climate crisis now.
«1. Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2. Basra, Iraq 3. New Orleans, USA 4. Venice, Italy 5. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 6. Kolkata, India 7. Bangkok, Thailand 8. Georgetown, Guyana 9. Savannah, USA»
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles in Future Cities.
Future Cities
Urban planning is becoming ever more data-driven. Architecture expert Davina Jackson shares five books explaining the technology behind future cities.
«This was in 1995, when we had only just begun using email. The internet was being described as an ‘infobahn’.»
Ranked: The World’s Fastest Growing Cities
By 2025, the world’s population will reach over 8.1 billion people. Most of that population growth will be concentrated in cities across Africa and Asia. To help paint a detailed picture, this map
«The majority of the world’s fastest growing cities are located in Africa—in fact, 17 of the 20 are located on the continent, with four of the 20 cities being located in Nigeria specifically.»
Why Is Everything So Ugly?
Dodging huge grilles we walk on, pulled by ugliness toward a gentrified retail strip. Here the violence of the new ugliness comes more fully into focus. The ruling class seized cities and chose to…
Why Some Cities Thrive
The hidden forces behind the success of some cities and not others
Why skyscrapers are so short
The height of skyscrapers is limited by physical, economic and regulatory barriers, but we should want to overcome them and build taller. Here's how we can do it.
Thought Leaders
We monitor hundreds of thought leaders, influencers, and newsletters in Future Cities, including:
World Economic Forum
The international organization for public private cooperation.

LSE Cities
LSE Cities is an international centre carrying out research, education, outreach + advisory activities in the urban field at @LSEnews. Tweets for @UrbanAge_.

UCL Urban Laboratory
Crossdisciplinary centre for critical and creative urban research, teaching, practice and participation @ucl. Conference Tickets - https://linktr.ee/UCLurbanlab

Smart City Expo World Congress
The world’s leading event for cities. Next edition 7-9 Nov 2023 #SCEWC23. @Fira_Barcelona

Future of Places
The global forum about public space
Publications
We monitor hundreds of publications, blogs, newsletters, and news sources in Future Cities, including:
Visual Capitalist
Data-driven visual content focused on global trends, investing, technology, and the economy.
Next City
Next City’s journalism centers marginalized voices while amplifying solutions to the problems that oppress people in cities.
grist
We're a nonprofit news org dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Get our journalism in your inbox: https://grist.org/subscribe/
MIT Technology Review
Our in-depth reporting on innovation reveals and explains what’s really happening now to help you know what’s coming next. http://technologyreview.com/newsletters
Fast Company
Inspiring readers to think beyond traditional boundaries & create the future of business. Subscribe to our daily newsletter: http://fastcompany.com/newsletters
What is Refind?
Every day Refind picks 5 links from around the web for every user, tailored to the user’s interests. Picking only a handful of links means focusing on what’s relevant and useful. We favor timeless pieces—links with long shelf-lives, articles that are still relevant one month, one year, or even ten years from now. These lists of the best resources on any topic are the result of years of careful curation.
How does Refind curate?
It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
- We monitor 10k+ sources and 1k+ thought leaders on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
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How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Which sources does Refind monitor in Future Cities?
We monitor hundreds of sources in Future Cities, including Visual Capitalist, Next City, grist, MIT Technology Review, Fast Company, and many more.
Who are the thought leaders in Future Cities?
We follow dozens of thought leaders in Future Cities, including World Economic Forum, LSE Cities, UCL Urban Laboratory, Smart City Expo World Congress, Future of Places.
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