IN DEVELOPMENT

“It is ironic that we know more about the habitat of mountain gorillas than we do about the habitat of people. We have programmes for smart cities, green cities, healthy cities, cities of culture but people are rarely centre-stage. Cities are primarily a lived emotional experience.” Jan Gehl, Danish Architect and Urban Designer Bridging architecture with biology and neuroscience, we peel back the layers of history from different cities and ask what shapes their identity and civic DNA. Through personal stories and biographies of their past and present residents we discover the marks they left in architecture, literature, film, music and culture – and how it influenced the city’s character.

“Berlin is a city of fragments and ghosts, a laboratory of ideas. Paris is about romantic love. New York means energy. London is forever trendy. And Berlin? Berlin is never established. It’s identity is that it has no identity.“