Category: Connective Cities

AI-based Visualisation for Affordable Housing and Informal Settlement Upgrading

Posted on by Lennart Kreuzfeld

How can AI-generated visual scenarios help municipalities discuss affordable housing and informal settlement upgrading — without oversimplifying the complexity of implementation?

At the World Urban Forum 13 (WUF13) in Baku, Connective Cities will contribute to the official WUF Academy programme with an interactive event on AI-based visualisation for affordable housing and informal settlement upgrading. The event will take place on 21 May 2026, from 09:30 to 11:30 Baku time (UTC+4).

Organised by the Deutscher Städtetag / German Association of Cities in cooperation with Connective Cities and the participating municipalities, the event brings together urban practitioners from different regions to work with real urban cases and explore how digital visualisation can support dialogue, participation and peer learning.

About the event

The format builds on the recent Connective Cities working group exchange on affordable housing, including an AI-based visualisation exercise under the umbrella of the New European Bauhaus.

At its core is a practical city exchange: participating municipalities and institutions provide images of selected housing areas, informal settlements and urban transformation sites. WUF participants will work in groups with these prepared cases and use AI-generated visual scenarios as analytical and dialogue-oriented tools — not as final planning products or implementation promises.

The focus is not on the technology itself, but on the urban development questions that the images make visible. How are housing needs, affordability, density, land use, public space, infrastructure and social inclusion negotiated in different contexts? How can visual scenarios support communication between city administrations, communities, technical experts and decision-makers?

The event will also address the limits and risks of AI-supported visualisation. In the context of affordable housing and informal settlement upgrading, attractive images alone are not enough. They need to be linked to questions of financing, operation, maintenance, climate resilience, land ownership, social safeguards and clear implementation responsibilities.
The format was developed and coordinated by Jelena Karamatijevic, Connective Cities, as part of the Connective Cities peer-learning approach.

The event will be moderated by Prof. Hilmar von Lojewski, Association of German Cities. The practical AI exercise will be facilitated by Damiano Cerrone, co-founder of CoPlan AI.

In addition, the GIZ Sustainable Urban Development Programme in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, represented by Ruvi Suárez, will contribute a short methodological reflection on AI-supported scenario thinking and impact assessment.

City exercise examples

Selected examples from the city exercises show how real urban situations can be translated into AI-supported visual scenarios for discussion, reflection and peer learning.
The Academy event will include practical city examples from:

  • Nairobi City County / Kenya – Godfrey Ngugi, Director of Urban Renewal
  • Huye District / Rwanda – Richard Ndicunguye, Senior Advisor / Adaptation and Green Cities
  • Mariental Municipality / Namibia – Sunday Haimbodi, Building Inspector
  • Urban Development Fund Egypt / Cairo – Dr. Marwa Ahmed, General Manager, International Cooperation and Community Participation Department
  • Hebron Municipality / Palestine – Husam Shweiki, Head of the Architecture Department
  • Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing / Germany – Lars Loebner

 

City exercise example: Berlin © Connective Cities
City exercise example: Nairobi © Connective Cities
City exercise example: Hebron © Connective Cities
City exercise example: Huye © Connective Cities

 

Event details and registration

  • Date: 21 May 2026
  • Time: 09:30–11:30 Baku time (UTC+4)
  • Format: Hybrid WUF Academy event
  • Venue: WUF13, Baku, Room AE 11-03, Area A
  • Online participation: via the WUF13 App
  • Calendar entry: download

 

Further information is available on the official WUF13 event page: WUF13 event page

Please register via the official WUF13 platform and download the WUF13 App in advance to access the event and receive the latest information.

For further information, please contact:

Jelena Karamatijevic, Connective Cities – concept and content coordination jelena.karamatijevic@giz.de

Moses Munuve, Connective Cities – Regional Coordinator Sub-Saharan Africa, organisational coordination moses.munuve@giz.de

Climate Proofing the Built Environment: Technical Support for Climate Resilient Infrastructure

Posted on by burkhard

The second Africa Urban Forum (AUF), organized under the African Union framework with the support from UN-Habitat and UNECA, took place from 8 to10 April 2026 at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. AUF welcomed a diversity of participants, among them politicians, private sector, civil society, development partners and interested members of the public as well, to discuss the conferences’ topic: ‘Adequate Housing for All: Advancing Socio-economic and Environmental Transformation towards the Realization of Agenda 2063’.

At AUF, Connective cities alongside GIZ partner projects Covenant of Mayors Sub Sahara Africa (CoMSSA) and Resilience Initiatve Africa (RIA) organized and facilitated a side event on 9 April, titled Climate proofing the built environment: Integrated Technical Support for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure.

The events’ panel-discussion included international experts, development finance institutions, and local administrations. Thereby, participants could gain insights from local government representatives from Embu, Kenya, and eThekwini, South Africa on how to combine collaborative governance with technical expertise for climate resilient infrastructure. In this regard, the launch of the Embu Final Prefeasibility Technical Assistance Report on Solid Waste Management Infrastructure illustrated the need for comprehensive data gathering prior to project implementation.

Next to the case studies, panelists discussed institutional arrangements and policy approaches related to financing sustainable urban infrastructure. For example, a representative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development emphasized that cities must leverage on digitalization of revenue collection to meet ever-rising financial demands and also demonstrate to potential financiers built-in capacity to collect, allocate, and use financial means effectively.

Furthermore, a program manager from the European Investment Bank noted that for development projects to be implemented efficiently, the national and sub-national levels of government must enter into collaborative modes of governance, whereby they complement each other in sourcing funds from potential financiers. The program manager further advocated for a non-fragmented approach towards infrastructure development to avoid wastage and duplication of effort and resources.

In sum, the AUF side-event, by bringing together financial institutions and local government leaders, provided valuable insights into how to comprehensively think sustainable urban development as a basis to successfully build climate-resilient infrastructure in African cities and beyond.

Skilled Immigration and Migrant Entrepreneurship for Local Economic Development

Posted on by burkhard

Migration policy may be a national matter – however, its success or failure is also determined at the local level. Convinced by this, around 50 local government professionals came together for a virtual Insight Session organised by Connective Cities. The focus was on the question of what role municipalities can play in the immigration of skilled workers and in supporting migrant entrepreneurship.

In addition to a study by the German Institute for Employment Research IAB, practical examples from the German Pinneberg District, Mersin (Türkiye) and Oberhausen (Germany), Munich (Germany) and Gharb Irbid (Jordan) formed the basis of in-depth working group discussions. These clearly demonstrated that local governments can play a crucial role in realising the economic potential of migration at the local level.

The key findings are documented here.

Nature at the Heart of Municipal Resilience

Posted on by burkhard

Connective Cities invites municipal and regional authorities from Sub-Saharan Africa and Germany to participate in a new international Learning Process on Nature-Based Solutions (NbS).

Local and regional governments are increasingly at the forefront of addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. Intensifying floods, droughts, heatwaves, and land sealing are placing growing pressure on urban systems and governance capacities. Against this backdrop, Nature-Based Solutions offer a cost-effective, multi-benefit pathway to strengthen climate adaptation while also delivering mitigation co-benefits such as carbon sequestration, stormwater management, and urban heating and cooling regulation.

About the Learning Process

The one-year Learning Process will convene municipal practitioners, technical experts, and policymakers through three in-person workshops and continuous virtual collaboration. Participants will progress from problem identification to solution co-development and implementation readiness, supported by peer learning, technical input, and targeted coaching.

The process aims to:

  • Strengthen municipal and regional capacities to plan and implement NbS
  • Facilitate structured peer-to-peer learning between Sub-Saharan African and German authorities
  • Co-create actionable NbS project concepts ready for piloting, financing, or integration into planning frameworks
  • Generate knowledge products to support replication and scaling across city networks

 

Thematic Focus Areas

Participants will collaborate within demand-driven thematic working groups, including:

  1. Nature & Urban Ecosystems – Urban greening, biodiversity, de-sealing, urban forests, heat reduction
  2. Water & Sponge Cities – Flood management, river and wetland restoration, rainwater management
  3. Greening Municipal Infrastructure – Integration of green and grey infrastructure, ecological corridors, climate-adaptive mobility and energy systems

 

Timeline

  • March 2026: Virtual kick-off and insight session on Nature-Based Solutions
  • From 21 to 23 April 2026: First in-person workshop
  • October 2026: Second in-person workshop
  • January 2027: Final in-person workshop

 

 Who Can Apply

The call is open to:

  • Municipal and regional authorities from Sub-Saharan Africa
  • German municipalities and counties

Participation of two experts per authority is encouraged, with the option to involve partners from ministries, civil society, or the private sector.

 How to Apply

Interested authorities are invited to submit an Expression of Interest via the Connective Cities Community Platform:

👉 Application link:
https://community.connective-cities.net/en/form/connective-cities-ssa-learning-p

Application deadline: 30 March 2026

Contact

Greater Climate Protection and Quality of Life: Green Corridors in the MENA Region

Posted on by burkhard

On April 7, 2026, the new Connective Cities learning process on “Green Corridors in the city and its surroundings” was officially launched. The event was organised by Connective Cities in cooperation with the GIZ project Capacity Building through Urban Infrastructure Development (CBUID II) and was offered simultaneously in Arabic, French and English

The workshop was attended by around 70 representatives from eight countries: Algeria, Egypt, Germany, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia. Municipalities and partner institutions from the MENA region as well as the German city of Erlangen were represented. In addition to the official participants of the learning process, an extended circle of municipal representatives was further involved in the virtual exchange.

The kick-off served as technical and methodological introduction to the learning process. The aim was to set initial thematic priorities, to make municipal challenges visible and to create a common basis for further cooperation. At the same time, the event served to prepare the next steps in the process, in particular the in-depth phase and the planned face-to-face conference in Egypt.

AI-supported Visualization as Innovative Tool for Urban Planning

A central element of the kick-off was the joint AI visualization exercise on green corridors and green neighborhoods, implemented via the CoPlan AI platform. Based on images from urban contexts in the participating cities, spatial development future scenarios for climate-resilient, greener and more usable urban spaces were developed.

Around 550 images were produced as part of the exercise. The visualisation served not only to illustrate spatial changes, but also as a methodological tool to stimulate discussion about the feasibility of green corridors. In this sense, the exercise proved to be a suitable introduction for bringing together perspectives from administration, planning and local government practice.

Key Workshop Findings

The kick-off showed that green corridors and green neighborhoods in the participating cities are envisioned predominantly in urban districts and less in the cities’ surroundings. The focus is accordingly not on planning in undeveloped areas, but on the gradual further development of existing urban spaces in which housing, mobility, public use and social functions are already closely intertwined.

In that sense, it also became clear that green corridors have to fulfil several functions at the same time. They contribute to climate adaptation, for example through shading, cooling, better air circulation and water absorption. But they also contribute to the upgrading of public spaces by improving the quality of life and encounters within the city. Especially in dense neighborhoods, green corridors must therefore always be considered as social spaces of mobility and connection.

Another central aspect was the importance of participation and local acceptance. Since identified spaces are usually already intensively used, the involvement of the population is an essential prerequisite for successful implementation. This applies to the usability for distinct groups such as children, families and residents as well as the question of how green measures can be integrated into the everyday urban life.

Contribution from the Urban Development Fund (UDF)

The Urban Development Fund (UDF) underlined the importance of institutional approaches for integrated and climate-resilient urban development in Egypt. The examples presented showed how strategic urban development, upgrading of existing districts, heat reduction and public space can be more closely linked. The UDF thus not only contributed concrete experience from Egyptian practice, but also an important perspective on scaling, institutional anchoring and long-term implementation capability.

Contribution of the City of Erlangen

The city of Erlangen’s contribution illustrated that green corridors must be implemented in conjunction with traffic, accessibility and conflicts over the use of urban space. In their presentation of the local project ‘From two quarters to one campus’, Erlangen representatives demonstrated how a green boulevard, tram, bicycle, pedestrian and motorised traffic, and an existing pedestrian bridge could be brought together within one coherent planning task. Thus, the contribution from Erlangen provided important impetus for an integrated planning approach to green corridors.

Example Cities and Good Practices

During the kick-off, several municipal and institutional examples were presented that are of particular relevance for the further learning process:

  • Erlangen (Germany): integrated planning approach to green corridors in existing urban space, with a focus on Green Boulevard, multimodal mobility, land use and conflicts of use.
  • Aswan (Egypt): Development of the Heat Action Plan for El-Sail Elgadid, including cooling stations, shaded recreation areas and specific offers for children and women.
  • Port Said (Egypt): Approaches to climate-adapted urban development and the upgrading of urban spaces under the specific climatic conditions of a Mediterranean city.
  • Telal Al-Fustat Park, Cairo (Egypt): large-scale greening approach in historic Cairo with positive effects on cooling, air quality and biodiversity.
  • Reviving Historical Cairo (Egypt): Upgrading historic urban areas as a combination of urban renewal, public space and historical identity.
  • Al-Asmarat (Egypt): Participatory upgrading of public spaces in the residential environment as an example of the linking of green and social functions in existing neighbourhoods.

Outlook

Some of the participants at the launch event

The digital kick-off has created a reliable technical basis for the next steps of the MENA learning process. It became clear that the added value of the format lies particularly in synergy effects between concrete municipal examples, institutional perspectives, inter-municipal exchange and visual methods. In the coming phases, the identified topics will be further deepened, approaches between the cities will be further developed and jointly concretized during both online and face-to-face exchanges.

Online Kick-Off for Municipal Water Resilience

Posted on by burkhard

24 March 2026 was the big day! The in-depth learning process “Water Resilience: Strengthening Municipalities against Drought and Heavy Rainfall Events” kicked off shortly after the World Water Day. Droughts, heatwaves, heavy rainfall and flooding are on the rise, putting a strain on infrastructure, public health and municipal budgets. At the same time, urbanisation is intensifying competition for water.

Many major cities are already experiencing severe water stress, and the global demand for water could significantly exceed the available supply by 2030.
Water scarcity has long been an obstacle to development for countries in the Global South, but in the future, all regions worldwide will have to adapt to fluctuating water availability and growing conflicts over its use. Water is set to become the defining strategic resource of the 21st century.

Key solutions are emerging at a local level. Although the broader circumstances vary greatly, local authorities face similar structural challenges, making exchange and collaborative learning particularly valuable.

As part of our ‘Deep Dive’ on the topic of ‘Water-Resilient Municipalities’, we are bringing together experts from eight municipalities in Benin, Germany, Kenya, India, Serbia and Sri Lanka. Over a two-year period, they will discuss innovative approaches, such as sponge city concepts, blue corridors and integrated blue-green-red infrastructure, and develop and implement locally tailored solutions to their respective challenges.

During the initial virtual meeting, the municipalities presented their local challenges, identified initial similarities, and prepared for the first in-person working meeting in Wuppertal in early May. Further updates from our ‘Deep Dive’ project will follow from May 2026.

The participating cities are: Natitingou (Benin), Dresden, Wunstorf and Wuppertal (Germany), Homa Bay (Kenya), Hyderabad (India), Niš (Serbia) and Akkaraipattu (Sri Lanka).

Green Corridors in the city and its surroundings

Posted on by burkhard

Kick-off Event: 7th – 9th April 2026 (TBC) in Egypt

Local authorities in Germany, North Africa, and the Middle East face similar challenges in the face of climate change. They are called upon to translate general strategies for climate change adaptation and climate protection into concrete local measures. One option is to develop green corridors – e.g., as green walkways in city centers or as green corridors in the surrounding areas and new neighborhoods. These enable improved fresh air supply, quality of life, and more efficient water management. Green corridors can also be used for local recreation and heat protection in municipalities.

Against this backdrop, Connective Cities offers experts from local governments in Gemany, North Africa and Middle East the opportunity to develop concrete solutions for their own contexts and exchange ideas with each other as part of a one-year learning process.

Main areas of Work

The structured learning process will focus on:

  1. Green corridors as fresh air corridors between cities and their surrounding areas
  2. Green paths in cities and old city centers
  3. Green new and existing neighborhoods

 

The methodology

The learning process follows a modular approach with the following objectives:

  1. Supporting participating municipalities in developing solutions through peer learning and tailored technical advice to promote green corridor solutions.
  2. Developing the participants’ skills so that they are better able to implement organizational changes and improve procedures and methods in their own municipalities.
  3. Supporting participating municipalities in their methodological approach and the development of financially viable solutions.

 

As part of the learning process, best practices for green corridors and climate-friendly urban planning will be presented. Participating municipalities will engage in peer learning with others to develop concrete solutions for their individual contexts. These solutions can bring about organizational changes to improve procedures, methods, and data availability, as well as the concrete implementation of pilot measures.

Using a co-creative approach, participants will be involved in a structured creative problem-solving process. This includes

  1. observing and understanding current municipal practices to identify challenges and gaps,
  2. brainstorming and developing concrete solutions, and
  3. testing the solutions with a group of stakeholders, including citizens and experts, to obtain feedback.

 

Duration

The learning process will span a period of one year, beginning with a kick-off workshop in Egypt in April 2026. A total of two German and approximately 10 municipalities from the MENA region will participate in the learning process.

Participation and contact

We are looking for experts from local governments in Gemany, North Africa and Middle East (district offices, city administrations, municipal companies, etc.) who can contribute a project or idea for a solution for green corridors to the learning process. Ideally, two experts from one municipality will apply and be able to anchor the change process in the administration in the long term. The participation costs (accommodation and board) are covered. The conference language is English and French.

If you are interested in the learning process, please apply by February 20, 2026, via this link: Learning process MENA Green Corridors 2026/2027 | Connective Cities Network stating your municipality, position, and the project/challenge in the area of green corridors.

If you have any questions, please contact jelena.karamatijevic@giz.de

Further information about: Connective Cities’ learning processes

Reuse Instead of Demolition: 2nd Hands on Public Buildings

Posted on by burkhard

Author: Dr. Susanne Reiff

Publisher: Connective Cities

For over a year, more than 30 experts from six countries worked as part of Connective Cities‘ learning process ‘2nd Hands on Public Buildings. Repurposing Modernist Public Buildings from the 1960s and 1970s ’ on solutions for aging public buildings from the 1960s and 1970s. How can they be sustainably reused or repurposed instead of being demolished? At four events and two working meetings between September 2024 and September 2025, they learned about current trends in this area, deepened their knowledge, heard details about possible solutions from external experts, and inspired each other with their respective experiences, approaches, and ideas.

But the participants didn‘t just exchange ideas, they also took action. They further developed the project ideas they presented at the dialogue event in Berlin in September 2024 or, in some cases, implemented them directly, taking up suggestions from the other participants. The innovative and very diverse projects impressively demonstrate the potential of the paradigm shift away from rapid demolition toward well-thought-out reuse and conversion.

The documentation provides insights into the key findings.

7 pages

Year of publishing: 2025

From Vision to Reality

Posted on by burkhard

Working Group: Sustainable & Affordable Housing – Connective Cities

Affordable and sustainable housing remains one of the most pressing challenges for cities worldwide. In the next phase of the Connective Cities Sustainable & Affordable Housing Working Group, this online workshop introduces visualisation methods as a practical tool to support planning, communication, and peer learning among cities.

Building on previous working group exchanges, the session integrates principles of the New European Bauhaus and explores how AI-based visualisation can help cities translate strategic housing goals into tangible spatial concepts.

 

An old high-rise building in Bucharest. In front of it, a paved square filled with parked cars.
Photo: Connective Cities
The same building, but now there is a park with benches in front of it where people can sit and relax.
Square in Bucharest redesigned with the help of AI

The workshop combines hands-on visualisation with a mini peer-learning format, allowing participating cities to reflect on concrete cases related to building rehabilitation, public spaces, infill development, and neighbourhood upgrading.

Objectives

  • Introduce AI-supported visualisation approaches for affordable and sustainable housing
  • Apply NEB principles (sustainability, inclusion, aesthetics) to real city cases
  • Strengthen peer consultation and collective learning among Connective Cities alumni
  • Bridge the gap between visual concepts and implementation planning

 

Format

  • Short expert inputs
  • Live AI-based visualisation session using selected city cases
  • City-led peer consultation with feedback from peers, experts, and the Connective Cities team

 

The same image now with an additional cycle path through the park
Alternative visualisation models

The same image, now with an additional lane for buses

Practical information

  • Date: 22 January 2026
  • Time: 10:00–13:00 CET
  • Location: Online (Connective Cities Platform)
  • Language: English
  • Participation: Free of charge, register here


The workshop is open to the public. Active participation in the AI-based visualisation (including uploading own photos) is reserved for members of the Connective Cities Sustainable & Low-Cost Housing Alumni Group.

In case of questions, please contact:

Moses Munuve – moses.munuve@giz.de or Jelena Karamatijevic – jelena.karamatijevic@giz.de