Barcelona, New York City, San Francisco, Birmingham, and Helsinki, among many other cities, are looking for ways to reclaim space from cars and repurpose it into plazas, pedestrian streets, parks, and outdoor sitting for businesses. And doesn’t this picture look familiar? Photographs and movies from decades ago paint a scene where streets are not only a means to reach a destination but rather a destination in itself.

Climate change is forcing many to reevaluate their urban plans for people-focused approaches and based on how cities can best respond to the impacts of global warming. The human-centered design provides an ideal roadmap because it helps design cities to be more interactive with their environments by employing stakeholders at all levels of society to design solutions that address the core problems they face.