We think

about

urban

thinkers

We work on the complexity of urban challenges with creativity, design and innovation. We go one step further with a team that is diverse and passionate for cities who implements sustainable urban solutions from the idea to their execution.

Natives of the public sector, we work on cities from urban planning, environment, technology and economy with a people-centered focus.

What do we do?

Urban Analytics

We capture urban reality by integrating urban, demographic, economic and environmental dimensions from a systemic and human perspective. We combine the study of spatial data and available statistics with more intuitive techniques based on citizen needs, allowing us to discover other perspectives on urban challenges and the unique potentialities of the city.

We rely on collective intelligence available, allowing us to be more agile than others. By incorporating novel techniques and disciplines into our analytics, we discover weak signals that hid the true nature of the problems and potentialities of the city or neighborhood.

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City Strategy

Urban narrative
Sustainability strategies / Urban Agenda 2030
Participation in supralocal networks
Digital transition
Urban-rural connection
Financing roadmap (2021-2027 / Horizon Europe)

Together with the city we co-design an aspirational vision of the future based on its unique DNA with a realistic roadmap and a coherent narrative. We build the way for radical and executable changes, therefore we do it looking at possible financing opportunities and searching for collaboration ecosystems between the city’s key stakeholders.

We have designed successfully urban sustainable development strategies, roadmaps to attract funding, unique digital transition strategies based on urban challenges, and sustainability and climate change plans to make cities more livable.

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Innovative Solutions

Design of urban innovative actions
Integrated urban interventions
Pilot projects and prototypes of innovative ideas
Drafting of projects for European / national funding
Building of multidimensional consortia

We apply our Creative Flow to complex urban challenges with solutions that are not direct and that require approaches based on design and innovation techniques. Starting from a challenge, we are able to come up with a tangible idea and collaboratively co-design an innovative project that fits the city’s needs with financing opportunities we know.

We have designed winning projects around challenges such as urban poverty, public spaces reactivation, local economy dynamization, social integration, re-naturalization of spaces, promotion of cultural heritage, sustainable urban mobility and housing with technology as a key ally of our ideas.

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Implementation

On many occasions ideas and projects are there, but the execution fails, which requires innovation, collective intelligence, creativity and generosity. We know the obstacles that arise in the execution of complex urban projects which are marked by uncertainty, the interdependence of events and the involvement of a many different agents.

We manage to improve collaboration between areas and apply a transversal approach in project execution. We are working on the implementation of urban innovative actions designed by Khora, sustainable urban development strategies with implementation difficulties and different plans (mobility, ecological transition, digitization).

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How we work

Today’s urban challenges are characterized by their high complexity. Traditional linear methods have not been able to provide an effective response because they require more creative and systemic approaches. At Khora we love challenges and we apply on them our own method, based on collaboration, imagination, listening and creative exploration. This leads us to a different way of designing urban projects, more agile and innovative.

We have applied our creative flow to urban challenges of different nature, arriving in an agile way to transformational, tangible and executable solutions.

Exploration

We ask ourselves the right questions to develop a comprehensive analysis of the urban challenge, we collect citizen perceptions and combine rational analysis techniques with others based on intuition and creativity. Through an original look, we find unexpected solutions that focus on the citizen and that open the door to an aspirational idea to respond to the challenge.

Aspiration

Starting from the previous exploration and in a continuous iteration of divergent and convergent reflection, intervention alternatives to the urban challenge are analyzed. The preliminary ideas are combined in an exercise of collective intelligence and collaboration between agents and areas of the city to arrive at a normally unexpected solution. This stage will end with an idea of an urban solution that is iconic and ambitious enough to be prototyped.

Test

It is almost impossible for the first project idea to work perfectly and that is why we test it with a concept pilot. We design a prototype that allows us to show others the answer to the solution. In this process we learn by involving citizen users / beneficiaries and refine the concept (intervention, program, application or solution) that we are going to implement on a real scale, including the operational strategy, the appropriate partners and financing.

Scaling

Finally, the urban solution is designed to guarantee its exponential impact. This requires an attractive narrative, clear use cases to attract participants and collaborators, citizen involvement and the building of ecosystems around the project to expand its effects. Scaling a project involves deciding on its execution, its financing, its sustainability and the proportional increase in its positive effects on the city and the City Council.