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The Nature of Cities

@tnoc.bsky.social
499 followers 700 following 235 posts

Art, Science, Action, Activism: Cities Re-imagined What can we learn at frontiers where disciplines meet? Non-profit organisation www.thenatureofcities.com

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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
🌿 New #TNOCessay Descartes said "I think, therefore I am." Joseph Rabie's new essay begins somewhere else — a philosophical meditation on the Earth, the body, and the mind. 📷 buff.ly/lN6zjsI
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
🌊 September's #TNOCMostRead (2016). The future Josh Lewis was writing toward is now. buff.ly/Z51yqwe
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
#TNOCRoundtable What does beauty mean? The New European Bauhaus asks for sustainability, participation, and beauty. Only one arrives without a metric. 33 voices · 25 cities · 5 continents 🌿 buff.ly/Wd5elBa
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Every city hides more nature than it lets on. We found some in Dandora, Nairobi 🎬 buff.ly/JR9JrLx Where should we walk next? Propose your city: buff.ly/N052nju 🌿 #WalkingTNOC
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
🌱 New #TNOCessay Carly Ziter sat down to write about backyard trees. She couldn't. Not writing-block stuck. What-is-it-to-write-about-trees-as-the-world-burns stuck. 🍂 buff.ly/ja5RbiG
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This #TNOCRoundtable was our most-read piece of August, two months after publication. Which says something about the question itself: 27 voices from 18 cities across 4 continents. A conversation readers keep returning to. 🌱 📖 Read here: buff.ly/3jghU4z #TNOCMostRead #BotanicalGardens
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
🌍 New #TNOCessay A city will tell you who it is — if you slow down enough to hear it. By Ebony Walden. 200 cities, six continents. buff.ly/RHmhbV0
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
🌳 Is planting more trees always the answer? Our new #TNOCessay by Stephanie Pincetl asks us to rethink our pursuit of “green” solutions in a changing climate. What do you think? 📖 buff.ly/sFcE5YH #UrbanNature #ClimateChange
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
🌱 New #TNOCessay Three community gardens on one Philadelphia block in 2019. Five years later, one remained. What does it actually take for a garden to endure? buff.ly/DOtk00Q
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
🐢 New #TNOCessay On a morning run, Rob McDonald almost stepped on a box turtle. A fellow jogger stopped. His new essay begins there — and asks what urban nature becomes as AI grows more absorbing. buff.ly/PEfHHcY #UrbanNature #AI #UrbanEcology #NatureBasedSolutions #DigitalWellbeing
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
🌿 Two months on, this question is only getting sharper: Whose voices shape decisions in Nature-based Solutions — and who doesn't get included? 31 voices sat with it. Worth returning to. 🌱 buff.ly/TbBVPMA #TNOCRoundtable
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
🌳 #TNOCMostRead — JULY Some essays keep showing up in our archive because the questions they ask won't go away What happens when we conserve urban nature without accounting for the past, and what it might mean to be paying a bill we can't yet see? Join the conversation 📖 buff.ly/2qgKdc0
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
🌊 New #TNOCessay Istanbul's Northern Watersheds provide drinking water to 16 million people. Yet they are almost entirely absent from Urban Living Lab discussions. Özge Çelik Yılmaz asks why. 🌱 buff.ly/4C6KnnP
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
🌿 New #TNOCRoundtable What are ways to extend the values and benefits of botanical gardens beyond their walls? 27 voices, 18 cities, 4 continents. 🌱 Curated by Olivia Bina & Eric W. Sanderson. buff.ly/81RPOmh
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
🌿 Is there a nature-based solution in your city that no one outside your city has heard of? A small project. Something beautiful. Something working. That's the one. ✨ Contribute to our first-ever NbS exhibition: buff.ly/AcClc3b
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Three cities. Three ways of noticing what is already here. One question, asked in each place: who else is living here? 🌱 buff.ly/iRVA3F3
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Exciting news! This September we kick off HARVEST, our new #HorizonEurope project coordinated by @upf.edu At TNOC, we'll help tell new stories that reconnect farming, landscapes, and society—because thriving cities need thriving rural communities. More soon! 🌱 #HARVESTProject #Agriculture
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
We are building an exhibition where NbS come alive through visuals, stories, and genuine science. And it's being shaped by the people, places, and projects doing this work everywhere! Contribute here and be part of the first-ever NbS exhibition! → buff.ly/jGyzice #NbSExhibit #NatureWorks
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
🌳 New #TNOCessay One city. Three communities held together by trees. One of planting. One of harvest. One of healing. By Pickett, Murphy-Dunning & Grove. 🌱 buff.ly/Ibkv6cf
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Be part of the first-ever co-created NbS exhibition! 🌍 The Nature of Cities is gathering photos, stories & findings from urban nature projects worldwide. Contribute → buff.ly/jGyzice Deadline: 31 July #NatureBasedSolutions #NbSExhibit #UrbanNature
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
🔥 #TNOCMostRead As heat waves grip Europe, Asia & the American South, June's most-read essay couldn't be more timely. "The Two Planets of Urban Heat" by Rob McDonald One planet has air conditioning. The other doesn't. 🌳 buff.ly/DcmgIMI
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
🌿 New #TNOCRoundtable When we talk about greening cities, we usually talk about adding. Trees, wetlands, corridors. Rarely about *what would have to give*. This roundtable insisted we do. 🌱 Join the conversation: buff.ly/ik9oIpf
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
New #TNOCessay Why Do Humans Need Darkness? by Felipe Camolesi Modesto "A society that cannot tolerate darkness may struggle to coexist with anything it cannot fully control." 🌙 buff.ly/wvxigik
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
⏰ Reminder — deadline is July 31! 🌿 Be part of the first-ever travelling NbS exhibition across European cities. 👉 Submit by 31 July 2026: buff.ly/EgIQUpE Questions? Reach out to Bettina Wilk at bettina.wilk@thenatureofcities.eu
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Earlier this year our founder David Maddox taught at the Master in Urban Resilience at UIC Barcelona. Student Ella Matsdotter just published her reflections — on cities as living systems, creativity as resilience, and justice as non-negotiable in NbS work. So glad she shared it. 🌿 📖 buff.ly/pBPL3aI
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
🐟 New #TNOCessay They named her Bubbles. An ancient fish — swam alongside dinosaurs, now at 1% of her abundance — raised for nine months by middle schoolers, then released into the Detroit River. By John Hartig 🌿 buff.ly/1V9EZd5
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
You've heard of Dandora. But not like this A hidden waterfall, a community-led park, and a neighbourhood quietly shaping Nairobi's climate future. We walk through it on June 27 Register: buff.ly/gACufa7 Can't join in person? A virtual fieldtrip drops after — follow #TheNatureOfNairobi. #WalkingTNOC
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
🌿 New #TNOCessay The World is a Garden of Edges by Loan Diep — NYC A São Paulo favela presses against a luxury tower with private pools curling from its balconies. Loan asks us to look again. "Margins contain. Edges connect." 🌿 www.thenatureofcities.com/TNOC/2026/06...
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
🌿 #TNOCMostRead — last 30 days Why does a wildflower meadow look "messy" while a mowed lawn looks "cared for"? Not ecology. #Culture. A 2018 essay still pulling readers — Cues to Care by Mark Hostetler, building on Joan Nassauer's foundational work. 🌱 www.thenatureofcities.com/TNOC/2018/08...
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
5/ Read the full essay ↓ www.thenatureofcities.com/TNOC/2026/06...
thenatureofcities.com
Sharing Space: People and Wildlife in Bengaluru’s Home Gardens – The Nature of Cities
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
4/ Varsha Bhaskaran calls it *principled tolerance* — coexistence rooted not in policy but in culture, memory, and the long act of paying attention. Most conservation assumes people need to be taught to care. This study suggests many already do. What's needed isn't persuasion. It's support.
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
3/ Bengaluru is home to 4 of India's most venomous snake species. When residents found a cobra in the garden, most didn't call a snake catcher. They warned their neighbours and gave the snake time to move on. One simply avoided that part of the garden for a few days.
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
2/ The average apartment dweller in Bengaluru recognises 5 bird species. The home gardeners in this study reported over 20. These gardens aren't hobbies. They're wildlife refuges — the last green stepping stones in an increasingly concrete city.
thenatureofcities.com
Sharing Space: People and Wildlife in Bengaluru’s Home Gardens – The Nature of Cities
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
1/ 🌿 New #TNOCessay Sharing Space: People and Wildlife in Bengaluru's Home Gardens by Varsha Bhaskaran Bengaluru has lost ~90% of its green cover. But behind compound walls and on rooftops, something quiet and remarkable is happening — and the cobra story is unforgettable. 🧵
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
🌍 New #TNOCRoundtable Whose voices shape — and don't shape — Nature-based Solutions? What could real inclusion look like in practice? 📖 Join the conversation: www.thenatureofcities.com/TNOC/2026/05... #NatureBasedSolutions #NbS #UrbanNature #EnvironmentalJustice #CoCreation #Biodiversity
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
4/ In an age of "nature deficit disorder," a register of the African tulips, rat snakes & rock agamas you share a campus with becomes a quiet act of care — and a blueprint any university could borrow. Which tree near you do you know by name? Read ↓ www.thenatureofcities.com/TNOC/2026/05...
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
3/ But the method is the message. Before documenting anything, students were told to leave their phones behind and simply observe. Notice patterns. See small things. Stewardship isn't lectured. It's grown through attention.
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
2/ On 90 acres at the edge of Bengaluru, students at Azim Premji University built a Campus Biodiversity Register. 436 trees · 25 species · 44 snake sightings · 263 observations logged by students in 2 days.
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
1/ New #TNOCessay 🌿 Students and Stewardship: Connecting with Nature in a Peri-urban University Campus by Aswathy Arun, Seema Mundoli & Harini Nagendra — Bengaluru 🇮🇳 The first rule of their campus BioBlitz? Put your phone away. 🧵↓
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
#TNOCGazette lands in inboxes around the world — bringing essays, roundtables, and stories from the frontier where disciplines meet to re-imagine our cities. Join thousands of readers, thinkers, and doers across the globe. 📩 Subscribe — thenatureofcities.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe/?u...
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
🌿 BOTANICAL TURN — call open! Int'l competition reimagining botanical gardens as active urban infrastructures. 📍Lisbon · Cagliari · Lima 🏆3 winners · 🖼️exhibition · 📖booklet ✅Free · deadline Sept 18 Brief 👇 www.non-a.com/botanical-tu... #BotanicalTurn #Naturescapes
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Sacred groves outlast bulldozers. Funeral trees host migratory birds. Temple ficus reroute highways. Hussain Ebrahim's #TNOCEssay Plant Journal makes the case that ritual and reverence are some of the most resilient urban conservation tools we have. www.thenatureofcities.com/TNOC/2026/05... 🌳
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Who really gets to feel at home in "green space for all"? A new TNOC essay on queer intimacy, biodiversity, and the quiet politics of pruning. 🌿 Read it. Join the conversation. 🔗 www.thenatureofcities.com/TNOC/2026/05... #TNOCessay #QueerEcology #UrbanNature
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
🌱 Got an idea, project, or vision for a future where people and nature thrive together? The open call "Futures with Nature" is live for #NetworkNature Week at the Nature-based Solutions Congress 2026 in Paris. Join us. Deadline: 30.06. 2026 iucnbrussels.typeform.com/NetworkNature
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
#TNOCRountableRevisit Science is under siege. So is the ground we stand on. 25+ voices, one question: what now, when autocracy is strangling sustainability science? Join the conversation 🔗 www.thenatureofcities.com/TNOC/2026/03...
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Have you been reading #TNOCMagazine? No single discipline holds the answers to what cities can become. So TNOC invites them all in. thenatureofcities.com TNOC is independent and freely shared with the world. If our work resonates, consider supporting it 💚 www.thenatureofcities.com/TNOC/support...
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
#TNOCEssay What if The Cherry Orchard sparked debate on land use? Or An Enemy of the People became a lesson in environmental whistleblowing? Classic plays are living labs for ecology, power, and civic dialogue. 🔗 www.thenatureofcities.com/TNOC/2026/04... #EnvironmentalCommunication
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
🌿 What if the way forward is also a way back— to sensing, to listening, to remembering, we are part of the living world? 🔗 Read this 3-part #TNOCessay www.thenatureofcities.com/TNOC/categor... #NatureOfCities #Ryuiki #RegenerativeFutures
Japan Author
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
#TNOCEssayRevisit What if the “messy edges” of your city are actually its most alive spaces? Back in 2018, Jay Valgora explored how forgotten urban corners became hubs for making, living, and community. 7 years later: Still happening? What does a truly mixed city feel like to you? bit.ly/4sBmtE1
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The Nature of Cities @tnoc.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
#TNOCessay Mini-Forests: Rewilding the contemporary schoolyard Ana Pinheira & Daniel Ferreira — Guimarães What if a child’s first forest grew in their schoolyard? 🌿 Read more: www.thenatureofcities.com/TNOC/2026/04... #NatureBasedSolutions #UrbanNature #Rewilding #EnvironmentalEducation
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