The DNA of Cities

In our second episode on Vienna we explore the acquired traits in the city's DNA. We'll hear the stories of Viennese citizens, and explore enduring cultural highlights that have taken on new forms as the city has evolved. And we ask how and why Vienna's social democratic model of governance has proved so resilient and effective. We continue our conversation with Eugen (Zenja) Antalovsky, Shams Asa...

Vienna has been one of the Western Roman Empire's most easterly strategic strongholds, an imperial capital of the Habsburg Empire, and a melting pot for thinkers and creators from across Europe and the rest of the world. But Vienna was also altered, almost beyond recognition, by the First and Second World Wars. Today, the city's pendulum is swinging back towards some elements of the Vienna of old:...

In this second episode on Barcelona we hear why the city is the place for life's great ventures. Over the course of history, artists from all over the world have created some of their most influential work in Barcelona. Take Picasso, Miro and Dali for example; they came to Barcelona during the formative years of their careers and in this city they were able to do something extraordinary. But how,...

We begin our time in Barcelona by exploring its self-determining "do it yourself" approach to governance, the muse effect the city has in an individual's life, and its relationships to its region and beyond; all understood, of course, through its identity as a Catalan city in the northern-most point of Southern Europe and the southern-most point of Northern Europe. Part of what makes modern Barcel...

New York City captures the imagination like few other cities. In this second episode we explore the stories of urban life in the city's neighbourhoods and the New York City dream that draws people from all over the world to make themselves in the city.  We hear how New York has a history of openness because it was the primary gateway to the USA; the largest and fastest-growing economy in the 20th...

In the first part of our visit to New York, we reveal how the combination of money, diversity, creativity and density are the traits that make New York, New York. We explore the long history of the city and we discover that the entrepreneurial zeal that one so often associates with the city has very deep roots. We hear how the original raison d'etre for the settlement that became New York was in f...

In the second part of our exploration of Singapore we hear more about the individuals that have moulded and shaped Singapore over the last fifty to sixty years. We discover the distinctly Singaporean approach to governance that has emerged. Compared to some of the other cities we explore in this series, there is a very prominent set of 'acquired' traits that came with Singaporean leadership and th...

The second city on our voyage of discovery is Singapore: the little red dot in South East Asia that tells one of the world's most unusual and successful stories of modern nation building. Singapore's independence in 1965 unleashed five decades of innovation that have resulted in an unforeseeable transformation.  In this episode, we learn about the program of rapid problem-solving that was pursued...

In this episode we explore the identity of Istanbul through the myths and stories that people tell about the city. We also learn about the impact of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire on Istanbul's sense of itself as a cosmopolitan global city.  We reveal the characteristics the city has acquired as a temporary or permanent home to many different populations and cultures, and we hear from Ali Akay...

We now embark on a global voyage of discovery to decode the DNA of 12 cities, taking everything we have learnt in Episodes 1, 2 and 3 with us as we go.  We begin in Istanbul. This is the city of three names. It's the holy city of world religions. It's the meeting point of two continents. It's a city that has been the focal point of vast imperial networks, and it is a former capital that has, rathe...

In this episode, we find out where cities get their traits from by exploring the forces and events that cause them to accumulate their unique DNA. We hear from Abha Joshi-Ghani, Professor Edgar Pieterse, Professor Michele Acuto, Professor Ricky Burdett, Dr Karissa Sanbonmatsu, Shi Nan, Alice Charles and Alfonso Vergara. This conversation is packed with stories about how real cities are endowed wit...

In Episode 1, we learnt that thinking about cities as having DNA can help us all to participate in really important conversations about what makes each city so unique. This time, our fantastic panel of urban experts tell us what ​ingredients they would look for in the genetic code of a city. We are also introduced to the idea that all places share certain qualities as they go through the process o...

We begin this series with a simple question "Do cities have DNA?" We ask an expert panel of urban planners, economists and architects what The DNA of Cities means from their personal and disciplinary viewpoints. We also hear from an epigeneticist who helps us understand more about the science behind our endeavour to decode urban identity.  We wish to thank Prof Edgar Pieterse, Prof Mike Batty, Dr...

Welcome to The DNA of Cities. Subscribe and join us fortnightly from Thursday 24th November 2022 as we try to decode what makes our cities so unique.