The Urbanist

We recap our series on urban heroes, looking at four real characters in the community who are actively working to make our cities better places. Join us as we meet a preservationist in Lisbon, a civic leader in Dallas, food activists in Istanbul and a media collective in Brazil.

We look back over the past 12 months at some of the most colourful and fascinating moments on ‘The Urbanist’. We hop on a houseboat in San Francisco, learn the craft of bell-ringing, chat with Daniel Libeskind and party with a cycling orchestra in Rio. Plus: we stroll up and down Embassy Row in Washington, get naked on Brighton’s nudist beach and chat with the mayor of Athens about the difficulties of managing his city this year.

As people head out to get last-minute gifts, we bring you a festive episode looking at how Christmas affects our cities. We visit Strasbourg’s 400-year-old market, discover how things got a bit out of hand with lightning decorations in Colombia and head to Madrid for a diplomatic Christmas fair. Plus: a lesson in festive window dressing in New York.

It’s the most dangerous species out there: the hipster. We look at how one of the most popular subcultures has become the scapegoat for the problems of a city, from gentrification to expensive cold brew. Join us as we explore the great hipster reshuffling in Vancouver, discover how London’s tech hipsters are helping the community and head to Israel to meet its “haifsters”. Plus: a lesson in hipster history, dating back to 1901 in Vienna.

From cycle messengers in Lisbon to a family-owned company that delivers Scottish Christmas trees all around London, we discover how people around the world are getting their logistics sorted and how new demands transform our cities. Plus: we wrap up our series on the battle for New York’s public spaces.

As the world remains on edge following the events in Paris on 13 November, we decided to take a step back to see how continuing with the Parisian way of life is the best way to fight terrorism. In the end Paris will remain just as it is – a testimony to freedom, culture and passion.

Would a city planned or managed by a woman look different to any other? And who are the female urban leaders and architects making a difference in the community? This week is not about adapting the city for women but looking at those women who are changing our cities for the better, from Lisbon to Niterói and Vancouver. Plus: we bring you part three of our series on the battle for New York’s public space.

More often than not you don’t get to pick your neighbours. But while some argue about fences, noisy parties and bushy trees, we decided to take a look at the diversity in our cities and pick out some unusual but rather harmonious relationships all round. Plus: we continue our series on the battle for New York’s public space.

Acoustics and music can help shape the way people interact with their cities. But how aware are we of the sounds that surround us and are there places that are more musical than others? We discover how the music industry and city planning can be brought together and explore acoustic ecology and making music with the sounds of the city. Plus we bring you the first part of our series on the battle for public space in New York.

We report from CityLab, a two-and-a-half-day summit that gathered the world’s top mayors and urban leaders for a series of chats on how to to make our cities a better place. We explore the vision for London’s transport infrastructure, discover how Rio de Janeiro is gearing up its digital strategy ahead of the Olympics and find out how to create a smart city through data. Plus: we talk millennials in Washington and sit down for a very honest chat with the mayor of Athens.