To enlarge our imagination and develop new tools for better streets, the Future Design of Streets platform organises various events to share design ideas and explore new ways for street spaces, bringing together experiences and knowledge from different cities and areas.

Streets are important spaces in urban areas and form resilient collective spaces for all of us. Streets are adaptable by their ability to integrate new uses and new technologies. Now and tomorrow. Within the balance of new societal, sustainable and technological challenges and demands, street design must be redefined. What are possible new strategies for street design? Who is using the street space? How can we design to improve streets? And, which questions are important to ask?

In the last three years, three international webinar series, two city editions and an international conference were organised bringing together more than 50 presentations from 15 countries and different fields. In these events, we reached a broad and diverse public from different areas as: designers (architecture, landscape architects, urban planners), engineers (mobility, infrastructure), researchers (sociology, economy, spatial disciplines) and specialist within the public sector (municipalities, governmental organisations, knowledge centres). We also reach many citizens, social organisations and politics. At the moment we count on more than 1000 persons that follow us.

Recently, due the Covid 19 pandemic, many cities showed creative and tactile street adaptations and interventions, provide space so that people could enjoin the street space to meet, to play, to stay. In some cities this could take place with a bit of tape and paint, in others it was a key moment to implement a long term planning into practice. Facing the challenges on climate adaptation and social cohesion it become also urgent how to learn and keep the positive experiences of the last years, and how to accelerate a real and fundamental change on street design and planning.

What is next? Having in mind the importance of good streets for all of us, in terms of social spaces and as part of the sustainable solutions (ecology, climate change, active mobility by walking and biking), we will continue to develop further our platform. The purpose of this is to organise and share experiences and knowledge on street design and planning – new and transformations – bringing practice and academia more closer together. Besides the reflection of the webinars – series and city editions – we would like to use the (international) network to build up a library of best practices and useful publications, and offer there where needed academic or professional workshops to municipalities and other entities that are related to street design and planning. This will have a double purpose: working on street project together with municipalities – and – developing further new models for future streets.

The Platform is organising activities within four pillars: events | library | tools | workshops

The Platform is led and initiated by Daniel Casas Valle and Ivo Oliveira, and counts with the support of three Portuguese universities: Universidade do Minho – Escola de Arquitetura, Arte e Design; Universidade Portucalense – Departamento de Arquitetura e Multimédia Gallaecia; Universidade do Porto – Faculdade de Arquitetura. Partners are: CCDRN, Ordem dos Arquitetos – Secção Regional Norte, International Federation of Pedestrians, Associação Portuguese de Urbanistas and Urban Dynamics.