
New ways of thinking and doing


The current urban challenges require new ways of thinking and doing. Humankind's creative, multidisciplinary approach combines urban planning, social innovation and urban change strategies to turn visions into actions.
With the majority of people living in urban areas and transitions happening at an incredible speed, determining a course direction is needed more than ever before. Human beings are clearly in need of 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. We believe that the city of the future is human and kind to ourselves, others and our planet.

Vision
Cities are dynamic, complex, multilayered and perceived differently by everybody.
They are in a constant transition towards a future envisioned by its municipality but pushed/realized/lived by its resident. Steering this transition is faced by complex ‘wicked problems’. This problems are multi-stakeholder and often interconnected with other problems with no singular solution which makes them hard/difficult to solve. These cities’ issues and corresponding solutions are constantly moving, dynamic and subjective; rustling in a so-called co-evolution of problem and solution over time.

City Complexity
How we work
Determining the course but also keeping track in a transition is a complex task. Humankind will lead you through the fuzziness using systemic thinking and instruments derived from transition management and urban planning tools. Collaboratively we will reframe the situation, create a long-term vision using speculative design techniques that fits your transition and determine a strategy towards this envisioned future. But more importantly we turn visions into actions, we help you setting a first step in the direction of the solution. Using tactical urbanism and creating small, short-term, temporary interventions we aim to quickly test, proof and convince involved parties. Creating a strong fundament for your transition rendering you future ready.
It is our passion to find creative ways to do things differently, creating new connections and collaborations. We work with a holistic approach with a multidisciplinary team of urban planners, creatives, transition theorists, communication specialists, social entrepreneurs, psychoanalysts, etc. We analyze all factors that drive or slow down urban change. We design places, programs, products and processes that make a real impact in the lives of people.
We will help you with:
Situation/problem framing
Future vision creation
Interest mapping and aligning
Research and analyzation
Strategy creation
Conceptualization & experimentation
Prototype testing
(Implementation and scalability)

Transition Management
Our Theory of Change is based on the ‘transition management’ approach developed by our partner DRIFT (Dutch Research Institute for Transitions, part of the Erasmus University Rotterdam).
Central to the approach is not focusing on incremental improvements and small updates, but aiming to contribute to a systemic shift in thinking and acting. Change can’t be completely managed, but with new instruments, strategies and actions it is possible to influence the speed and development of sustainability transitions.
Using a systemic approach we co-create collective problem structuring and vision development, taking into consideration a city’s hardware, software and orgware. Building change-agents networks in cities we work together in innovative collaborations to shape and strengthen visionary projects, through experiments, closely monitoring our impact.

We manage and accelerate urban change in a human and kind manner.
Our team
Our network partners
Join us
Want to join Humankind? We currently don't have any open positions. However, 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 join@humankind.city.