Our streets have an enormous impact on our lives: How are they designed and for whom? Cars or people?. Choosing the latter increases the autonomy of children; improves sociability among citizens; and creates more gender, age, and ability-equitable places.

Weespergilde addresses the demand for characterful new homes that combine low-car living with accessibility, aesthetics, and community. It should serve as inspiration for cities that urgently need to grow their housing stock without sacrificing liveability, and sustainability.🔚

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The woonerf has been given a contemporary spin, with the common areas kept completely car-free; maintaining a pleasant, human scale environment that stimulates movement, play and socialisation. The curbless corridors are punctuated with green, seating, lighting and bike parking.

Considerable attention is paid to the variety of facades: beautiful materials, warm colours, and subtle height differences create a playful and attractive streetscape. The homes vary from 54 to 144 m², making them suitable for groups like singles, couples, families and seniors.

Housing built after the advent of the car doesn't need to be designed around the car. Consider the Weespergilde in Weesp—a suburb 20km outside Amsterdam—which consists of seven car-free blocks and 42 homes including single family, starter apartments, maisonettes and townhouses.🧵

Maijweg is a glimpse at a city where streets are shaped by the values and aspirations of residents, instead of whims and demands of traffic engineers. On the former, there's a growing consensus: a welcoming and attractive public realm that isn't monopolised by private vehicles.🔚

In 2024, Maijweg was named the most equitable street in the Netherlands, noting the participatory design process that resulted in a space that is welcoming to all ages and backgrounds; one that fosters social cohesion and engagement, like community gardening and waste collection.

Acting as an extension of the living room, the woonerf privileges pedestrians, minimises on-street parking, filters out through traffic, and calms local traffic to 15 km/hr using methods like chicanes. The curb is removed, and texture, green, seating, and bike parking are added.

What happens when you ask residents what they want from the space outside their front door? It would probably look a lot like Maijweg in 's-Hertogenbosch, which in 2020 was turned into a woonerf; going from car-heavy to car-lite, from conflict to peace, and from grey to green.🧵

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Puccini doesn’t chase spectacle. Its power lies in repeated decisions that add up to a city that feels legible, durable and unique. In an eye-catching era, Amsterdam’s approach is refreshingly modest: design the everyday well, and do it the same way everywhere that makes sense.🔚

That sustainable spine is reinforced by “Green Puccini”: citywide agreements for the quality and management of planting. It details tree species, ground covers, soils, and maintenance, aligning biodiversity and climate resilience with the same rigour given to bricks and lighting.

It also hardwires sustainability into everyday decisions; tying procurement and design to environmental criteria, encouraging durable materials, repairable components and circular approaches: Longlife surfaces, robust furniture and planting that can thrive as the climate changes.

In practice, Puccini produces "self-evident" streets. The palette favours restrained forms and finishes, with familiar Amsterdam cues. This quiet consistency reduces visual noise, helps people navigate, and simplifies upkeep for crews who know exactly which component goes where.

Puccini fixes two chronic problems: visual clutter and procurement patchwork. Previously, boroughs sourced their own elements, leaving a jumble of styles and standards. A single method delivers economies of scale, easier maintenance and—crucially—calmer more legible urban spaces.

Adopted as citywide policy in 2018, it defines how the public realm is designed: from pavers to lighting, furniture, trees; even details like gullies and edging. The aim is streets that are functional, durable, safe and visually consistent, without tipping into fussy over-design.

Walk anywhere in Amsterdam and you’ll sense a calm coherence: bricks, curbs, fixtures, benches, bollards and drains that look related. This isn’t accidental. It’s a product of the Puccini Method, the city’s standards—part design language, part playbook—for shaping every street.🧵

Great day of filming the @EITUrbanMob Explained series, this time in Brussels to interview Agathe Daudibon, @ECFEuroVelo and Tourism Director at @EuCyclistsFed about how these routes support the growth and development for cycling in Europe. Stay tuned for this and future videos!

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By combining climate resilience, community involvement, and place-based design, Alkmaar has resurrected a dying thoroughfare into a lively destination. As retail districts wrestle with making themselves relevant in a digital age, they should consider many lessons learned here.🔚

Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with new life observed on the street, with greater footfall and renewed vibrancy. Alderman Christiaan Peetoom noted a shift: “Residents and visitors are super happy. There’s more life, more shopping", signaling economic and social return.

With a national subsidy for future-proofing shopping streets, participatory models worked with residents, entrepreneurs and stakeholders on a shared vision for its future. They unanimously agreed on three principles: climate resilience, abundant greening, and pedestrian priority.

In recent years, the historic street was hampered by high vacancy and a monolithic, heavily-paved streetscape. By 2021 weekend foot traffic had plummeted from 21,500 a decade earlier to just 7,900. Its limited permeability and aging drainage system made it vulnerable to flooding.