ABOUT HUMANKIND
People make the city
Humankind is specialized in accelerating urban change towards cities that are human and kind to ourselves, others and our planet.
Rooted in the social, at home in the physical
A city on a human scale
Humankind was founded by Jorn Wemmenhove and Lior Steinberg. They each came from a different direction to the same question: how do you build a city on a human scale?
For Lior, it started with Jane Jacobs, who looked at the city from the pavement and took action against plans that threatened to wipe out neighbourhoods. From her he took the human scale as the starting point for every design, and the drive to act on it.
Jorn was twenty when he and Mario Raimondi started El Desafío Foundation in Rosario, Argentina, in 2005. For years they worked there with young people and their neighbourhoods. They learned that a neighbourhood only truly changes when the people who live there can actively contribute to it. That starts with understanding what their lives look like. This knowledge from the ground up underlies everything Humankind does.
Our non-profit partner
El Desafío Foundation
El Desafío is still active today. As a non-profit, it runs youth programmes and works on citizen engagement, in Argentina and in Europe. Mario is now also part of Humankind, and the two organisations still work closely together.
“Our mission is to unleash the potential of young people and communities to build an inclusive society with equal opportunities and a sustainable, fair and happy future.”
The challenge
This is our opportunity. For the first time in history, the majority of people are living in urban areas. A transition that happened at an incredible speed, never seen before. Human beings clearly need each other, but we could do so much better at living and working together. Our cities are facing significant challenges due to rapid urbanization, and besides amazing architecture and infrastructure, we created a life-threatening climate crisis.
Only when the physical and the social domain work together radically can today’s social challenges find a place in the city and be truly solved. That is what we work towards.
We know the system, we start with people
We’re all human after all
We know how the system works. We understand the political reality, the policy cycle and the pressure that teams within ministries and municipalities work under. We use transition management as a practical tool, from a shared vision that gets people moving to a coalition that lasts beyond the project.
Still, we always start with people. We go out onto the street, talk with residents and users, and observe how places are actually used. What we learn there, we bring to the tables where decisions are made.
System and lifeworld are often seen as two separate worlds. They aren’t. Behind every policy are people: civil servants, politicians, residents, entrepreneurs. Change happens where they find each other. We don’t promise a ready-made solution. We make sure the right people move with it.
Our team
We work in a holistic approach with a multidisciplinary team of urban planners, creatives, transition theorists, communication specialists, social entrepreneurs, psychoanalysts, etc.
Lior Steinberg
Co-founder & Urban Planner
Mario Raimondi Pruss
Partner & Urban Change Specialist
Pedro Gil Farias
Design Research & Speculative Design
Jorn Wemmenhove
Co-founder & Creative Strategist
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Nuria Ribas Costa
Communications Officer & Researcher
Join us
Want to join Humankind?
We are always happy to meet people that want to make human and kind cities. If you are interested in a collaboration or you are a student looking for an internship, you can send us an email at joinus@humankind.city.
Get in touch and let's change your city together.
