UN-HABITAT

UN-HABITAT UN-Habitat is the UN entity for urban policies and actions for sustainable cities and towns.
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Facing recurring floods, water scarcity, heat stress, and rapid urban growth, Chennai has increasingly shifted toward a ...
12/05/2026

Facing recurring floods, water scarcity, heat stress, and rapid urban growth, Chennai has increasingly shifted toward a more resilience-oriented urban agenda - combining climate adaptation with social inclusion.

Some notable initiatives include:

- restoration of wetlands and urban water bodies,
- expanded stormwater drainage systems after the 2015 floods,
- mandatory rainwater harvesting,
- investments in metro and multimodal public transport,
- pedestrian-friendly “Complete Streets” programmes,
- community-based disaster preparedness,
- and growing use of nature-based solutions for climate resilience.

What stands out is the city’s gradual move toward viewing infrastructure, ecology, mobility, housing, and inclusion as interconnected systems rather than separate sectors.

At the same time, Chennai also highlights the ongoing challenges many fast-growing cities face:

- balancing resilience with affordability,
- avoiding displacement linked to infrastructure projects,
- protecting informal settlements,
- and coordinating across fragmented urban governance systems.

Many of these lessons strongly align with the principles promoted in recent UN-Habitat work on climate action, inclusive planning, and resilient urban development.

As climate risks intensify globally, Chennai reminds us that the future of urban sustainability will depend not only on technical infrastructure, but on equitable, locally grounded, and people-centred planning.

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Heading to the World Urban Forum next week?

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With so many great sessions happening at once, the app is the easiest way to stay organized and not miss the conversations that matter most to you.

Image: Karl Janisse / Unsplash

11/05/2026

🏠 Introducing Dialogue 5 at : “Housing at the centre of crisis recovery and reconstruction”

When a crisis strikes, the loss of a home goes far beyond physical damage. It disrupts livelihoods, safety, and the social fabric of entire communities.

Today, over 123 million people are forcibly displaced, many of them seeking refuge in urban areas. Disasters alone continue to drive millions from their homes each year.

This growing reality highlights a critical need: housing must be placed at the centre of recovery and reconstruction efforts.

💬 At the thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum, Dialogue 5 will explore how cities can move beyond temporary responses by protecting housing, land and property rights, supporting self-recovery, and enabling inclusive, long-term resilience.

👉 Join us at the World Urban Forum next month to discuss solutions to the largest urban challenges: https://wuf.unhabitat.org/wuf13

Modern architecture assumes that intelligence must be added, rather than inherited.For thousands of years, humans built ...
08/05/2026

Modern architecture assumes that intelligence must be added, rather than inherited.

For thousands of years, humans built homes that worked with physics:

- Thick walls that stored heat like a battery
- Courtyards that breathed
- Windows that shaded themselves
- And water that quietly cooled the air without a single line of code

Then, somewhere along the way, we decided to replace all of that with glass and concrete boxes… and fix the consequences using machines.

We’ve designed buildings that fail by default, and were then forced to engineer elaborate systems to compensate for that failure.

Traditional architecture isn’t “old-fashioned”. It encodes centuries of local trial and error, tuned to climate, materials, and human behaviour. It's a form of “passive genius”, where solutions don’t rely on constant energy input or user compliance.

Modern architecture, by contrast, often suffers from an overconfidence bias in technology: the belief that active systems (air con, heating, automation) are inherently superior to passive ones.

They’re not. They’re just more visible and therefore more marketable. And in doing so, we’ve confused “expensive” with “advanced.”

Perhaps the real innovation isn’t inventing smarter buildings, but rediscovering how to make buildings that don’t need to be smart in the first place.

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Join us at the 13th World Urban Forum (WUF13)- where global leaders, urban planners, and communities converge to co-create inclusive, safe, and resilient cities for everyone.

To register, search "World Urban Forum" or visit www.wuf.unhabitat.org

Before thermostats, buildings could breathe.Courtyards and chhatris create natural air circulation: hot air rises, cool ...
07/05/2026

Before thermostats, buildings could breathe.

Courtyards and chhatris create natural air circulation: hot air rises, cool air flows, and the building regulates itself like a living organism.

It certainly is beautiful architecture, but it also showcases an elegant understanding of physics.

But today, we replaced this elegant system with machines that fight nature… instead of working with it. Progress, occasionally, is just forgetting something that worked perfectly well.

👉 Join us at the World Urban Forum to discuss the solutions to the biggest urban challenges: https://wuf.unhabitat.org/wuf13

🌍 Just launched! ​What does it take to shape inclusive, resilient, and sustainable cities? ​The UN-Habitat Catalogue of ...
06/05/2026

🌍 Just launched!

​What does it take to shape inclusive, resilient, and sustainable cities?

​The UN-Habitat Catalogue of Solutions 2026 - 2029 brings together tested tools, proven methodologies and global expertise to help governments, communities and partners tackle today’s most pressing urban challenges.

​Aligned with the 2030 Agenda, the New Urban Agenda, and UN-Habitat’s Strategic Plan 2026–2029, the Catalogue is designed as a practical resource for:

​Member States, national and local governments
Technical departments and city leaders
Funding partners and donors
UN agencies and Resident Coordinators

​Structured around three pillars: Strategic Focus, Our Impact Areas, and Our Means of Implementation, the catalogue offers concrete solutions spanning:

​🏘 Housing and land
🛖Informal settlements
🚰 Urban basic services
📈 Preparedness, response, recovery and reconstruction
🌱 Environment and climate action
🏗 Integrated urban and territorial planning, management, investment and finance
📊 Participatory multilevel governance and the localization of SDGs
🧑‍🏫 Knowledge, data, digitalization and capacity development
🤝 Partnerships, coalitions, advocacy and communication

​https://unhabitat.org/un-habitat-catalogue-of-solutions-2026-2029

06/05/2026

"You shouldn't have to travel long distances to get your daily, basic everyday needs met - and that's it." - Reena Mahajan, urban planner

The 15min city is not complicated, it's about quality of life and people-centred design. Not designing for cars or for only a part of the population that rely on them.

And at the core of 15min cities, we need to invest in affordable, resilient housing to keep communities strong and cities functioning.

👉 Join us at the upcoming World Urban Forum (WUF13)- where global leaders, urban planners, and communities converge to co-create inclusive, safe, and resilient cities for everyone.

To register, search "World Urban Forum" or visit wuf.unhabitat.org

05/05/2026

“Without a safe home, there is no health. No education. No stable employment.” – Richard Gere

At , UN-Habitat brings together partners from around the world — including The Gere Foundation, through HOGAR SÍ — with a shared purpose: to place homelessness where it has always belonged — at the heart of the global agenda.

Today, 3 billion people lack access to adequate housing.
This is not just a number. These are lives on hold. Stories waiting to begin.

It’s time to act. Join us. World Urban Forum

https://youtu.be/OUgxcGAdqFY

05/05/2026

🏠 Introducing Dialogue 4 at : “The climate–housing nexus”

Climate change is already reshaping where and how we live.

From floods to extreme heat, millions of people, especially the most vulnerable, are increasingly exposed to climate risks.

At the same time, the built environment is responsible for over a third of global energy-related CO₂ emissions, placing housing at the centre of both the problem and the solution.

This growing tension highlights a critical reality: the way we build today will define both climate resilience and future emissions.

💬 At the thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum, Dialogue 4 will explore how to align housing with climate action, through low-carbon construction, nature-based solutions, and inclusive approaches that protect communities without locking in future risks.

👉 Join us at the World Urban Forum this month to discuss solutions to the largest urban challenges: https://wuf.unhabitat.org/wuf13

Affordable housing is not negotiable. We need it for our communities to thrive 🌇 It is the foundation of strong, resilie...
04/05/2026

Affordable housing is not negotiable. We need it for our communities to thrive 🌇

It is the foundation of strong, resilient communities. Here’s what it makes possible:

✔️ Better health & well-being
✔️ Protection from climate risks
✔️ Greater economic stability
✔️ Stronger, more connected communities
✔️ Access to essential services (water, transport, education)
✔️ Safer, more secure living environments

When housing is inclusive and well-planned, cities become more equitable, resilient, and sustainable for all.

🔜 Join us at the 13th World Urban Forum (WUF13)- where global leaders, urban planners, and communities converge to co-create inclusive, safe, and resilient cities for everyone.

To register, search "World Urban Forum" or visit wuf.unhabitat.org.

Lights, camera, urbanism! 🎬 Urban planners have long turned to film to explore the future of cities, understand complex ...
01/05/2026

Lights, camera, urbanism! 🎬

Urban planners have long turned to film to explore the future of cities, understand complex urban dynamics, and spark conversations about equitable urban development.

Here are some cinematic gems that keep appearing in planning discussions:

- Blade Runner continues to be the go-to reference when exploring dense, vertical futures and how cities can become increasingly unequal. Its dystopian vision remains remarkably relevant today.

- City of God offers powerful insights into informal settlement patterns and urban inequality, showing how communities develop organically in challenging circumstances.

- Her (2013) provides thoughtful contemplation of density, public transit, and what cities feel like when they're calm and walkable - a perfect counterpoint to high-density narratives.

- The Truman Show (1998) remains surprisingly useful for discussions about planned environments and controlled suburban form, raising questions about intentional design versus organic growth.

- Children of Men (2006) showcases layered, lived-in urban space, infrastructure stress, and social inequality - a masterclass in depicting how urban systems can break under pressure.

- Parasite (2019) has become brilliant for conversations about class, housing, terrain, and how architecture shapes social life and opportunity.

What films would you add to this list? 👀

Come and discuss how cities are represented across the media at the World Urban Forum's Urban Cinema and contribute to solutions too

▶️ Register by searching "World Urban Forum" or by visiting wuf.unhabitat.org

Modern buildings react to heat. Traditional materials work with it.Sun-baked bricks, lime plaster, or laterite stone are...
30/04/2026

Modern buildings react to heat. Traditional materials work with it.

Sun-baked bricks, lime plaster, or laterite stone are not primitive choices. They’re thermal batteries, absorbing heat slowly and releasing it when temperatures drop.

In other words, they smooth out extremes before you ever feel them.

We now spend vast amounts of energy correcting temperature swings… that older buildings simply prevented.

Which raises an awkward question: have we engineered a problem we now pay to solve?

It’s time to re-learn traditional building methods, because there is nothing modern about our current unsustainable, cookie-cutter, and expensive building methods.

👉 Join us at the World Urban Forum to discuss the solutions to the biggest urban challenges: https://wuf.unhabitat.org/wuf13

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