Key insight: Most community tourism projects don’t fail because the idea was flawed. They fail because an outside agency builds the infrastructure, cuts the ribbon, and leaves — handing the community a project it never truly owned. That’s exactly where this roadmap begins. That honest starting point is what makes the document useful. Instead of...
In this episode of PodParks, we are joined by Erika Nikolai, Executive Director of Park People, a national Canadian charity working to activate and strengthen urban parks through community partnerships.
The conversation continues — and this time, it goes quieter, deeper, and closer to the ground. The first guide taught us to read the loud, visible behaviors: how people walk, sit, wait, and belong. This second volume tunes the ear to the subtle signals — the ones that shape how cities function, adapt, and endure...
The city is already talking. The question is whether we’re listening. Most urban design starts with a plan and hopes people will follow it. This guide flips that logic. It starts with people — how they actually walk, sit, wait, gather, and sometimes quietly rebel against the spaces we build — and turns those everyday...
The number that frames everything: globally, only 44% of urban residents live near an open public space — and in low- and middle-income countries that figure drops to 30%. As motorization, privatization, and sprawl erase child-friendly areas, a generation is growing up with fewer safe places to play, learn, and simply be children. What it...
In this episode of PodParks, Maria Burnett is joined by Ceylan Belek Ombregt, a registered landscape architect practicing across the United Kingdom, United States, and Turkey, and Studio Lead at Martha Schwartz Partners.
Can a machine help us design for the people a plan usually forgets? This guide makes an honest case that it can — as long as it never decides alone. When a park or plaza is first sketched, whose experience is actually in the room? Workshops and surveys are essential, but they tend to reach...
2026 Nominations Now Open
Two elected seats — a Young Leader and a Park/City Agency Representative —
are open ahead of the 2026 AGM. An invitation to help shape the strategic
direction of our international community of practice.
In this episode of PodParks, Maria Burnett is joined by Pawel Gradowski, a landscape architect with over 40 years of experience across Europe, Canada, and South Africa, and the founding director of LASquare, specializing in aquatic landscapes and water-sensitive design.
In this episode of PodParks, Maria Burnett is joined by Dr Fritz Lord and Erik Kaiser to explore how evolving practice, land use, and data-informed decision-making are shaping the future of parks and recreation.
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