Cities
We put genius loci and (g)local knowledge at the heart of each of our project. Over the years, we have developed a sense of deep understanding of local challenges in several key urban regions.
Our Network of Cities
Here you find the cities we spend most of our time in working, living, and improving.
Brussels
We are based in Brussels, the heart of Europe and one of the most diverse world cities, combining different realities and speeds, where urbanism meets institutional complexity, human scale and a unique architectural heritage. From Brussels, we create synergies between architects, planners and mobility experts to work on European cities. We look together at the city and the urban fabric as a daily lab of ideas and innovation. The current densification process of Brussels, following a period of deindustrialization and increasing traffic congestion, is accompanied with a diversity of population never met before that requires more of our attention on public spaces and housing.
Shanghai & the Yangzi River Delta
Citilinks started in Shanghai, one of the largest and most global megacities, but also a complex patchwork of urban villages and communities that have taught us a lot about how liveability and walkability can be achieved at the micro-scale in intense urban environments. The booming Yangzi River Delta and its 200 million people provide us a unique ground of experimentation of the city of tomorrow, with a dense network of local partners based in Nanjing, Suzhou, Ningbo, Hangzhou and Jiaxing. We work on digital and spatial green belts, port requalification and industry 4.0, multimodal hubs and complete streets integrating shared used mobility services and we accumulate knowledge about the digital transition of the Chinese urban society.
Chengdu
Chengdu, the garden city of the East and a key megacity in Western China, is where Citilinks has grown and got inspiration since 2012 with talents in landscape urbanism, GIS and data-informed urban planning. Chengdu is the cradle of our LinkLab, linking computational tools and creative projects. Together with Chongqing, the city has reinvented itself as one of the most dynamic urban regions of China, connecting nature, rural areas and urban development through innovation. From Chengdu, we designed the new town of Hechuan Yulong, 300 km away and now under construction, a project mixing Sichuanese rural micro-landscapes, urban density and water sensitive communities.
Pearl River Delta
From Hong Kong to Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the Pearl River Delta illustrates the capacity of transformation and innovation of China. Citilinks has found there a precious ground of collaborations and synergies with the sector of new energies, transportation, digitization and international cooperation along the Belt and Road and in Africa. Shenzhen itself is the most advanced city in the transition to the electric and shared mobility, including multimodal integration through digital platforms.
Athens
One of the largest and most compact agglomerations of Europe, Athens is not only the cradle of ancient and modern Greece but also an essential new hub and growing port along the One Belt One Road, connecting Asia and Europe. The current transformation of the seafronts of Athens and Piraeus shows how complex is the interface between ports and cities. From Athens, we develop expertise and knowledge on maritime and coastal development and resilience, including port development and regeneration, urban waterfronts and a circular approach of islands.
West African Coast
Since 2017, Citilinks has been active in West African cities, from Dakar to Conakry, Cotonou and Bamako, facing the challenges of vast and informal urban agglomerations looking for new approaches in sanitation, housing, mobility, governance, social and economic sustainability and decentralized spatial development. We bring holistic and integrated solutions to every ‘sectorial’ project we are involved in, such as urban mobility plans, special economic zones, new urban mixed-used centres and logistic hubs. We are softening the traditional and technical approaches of infrastructure planning in the region, together with partners sharing the same vision of how developing cities should evolve and improve people’s liveability.
Kinshasa
Kinshasa will be soon one of the largest world megacities, facing a severe lack of planning, resilience to floods, public transport, housing and infrastructure. Citilinks focuses on the Congolese capital since 2010 on the planning and implementation of metropolitan polycentrism and transit oriented development (TOD), combining BRT and railway, to reach a decent accessibility for the 26 million people projected to live in the city by 2035. Kinshasa also needs to change its relation to its rivers and streams, where a diversity of solutions can be found to improve the resilience of communities to flash floods, waste treatment and soft mobility.
Belt and Road Cities
Over the years, Citilinks has built a network of city making professionals along the Belt and Road, from coastal Chinese cities to the heart of Europe, with partners based in Central Asia and Russia, Eastern Europe, South and Southeast Asia. The vast amount of infrastructure projects planned to link and connect Eurasia will not only transform connectivity and accessibility at the global scale, it will also transform the cities along those axes and let emerge new forms of development and modernity.
