What happens when a city looks beneath its streets for answers to the climate crisis?

Bruges may be famous for its canals, but water did much more than create the city’s postcard views. It helped turn medieval Bruges into one of Europe’s largest and most internationally connected cities.

Beneath today’s streets, parts of that historic water system still survive. Ancient pipes continue to carry water. Medieval wells are rediscovered during construction work. One was found when the city tried to plant a tree.

Could this forgotten infrastructure help Bruges prepare for drought, heavy rainfall and a changing climate?

For this episode, I sit beside the canals with Ilse Vansevenant and city archaeologist Frederic Roelens from the City of Bruges. Tourist boats pass as we explore a water story spanning more than 700 years.

We talk about the network that once supplied “medieval Manhattan” with fresh water, why residents knew exactly which well provided the best water for peas or tea, and how one of these wells could soon help people water their plants again.

But this is not only a story about the past. Ilse explains how sensors are helping the city understand groundwater, water quality and the needs of individual trees. Together, we explore what happens when archaeology, climate adaptation and new technology meet.

In this episode:

• How can a seemingly water-rich city prepare for both drought and flooding?
• What can Bruges’ medieval water infrastructure teach us about climate resilience?
• Could ancient underground water pipes be brought back into use?
• How can sensors reveal when individual trees need water?
• How can archaeology become an opportunity for urban innovation?
• Why are citizen ownership and experimentation essential for living with water?

Find out more:

• Blue4Green on Portico
• Blue4Green and the City of Bruges on the European Urban Initiative website
• Read: A new chapter in Bruges’ water identity with Blue4Green
• Listen to the previous Cities Reimagined episode from Bruges
• Explore all Cities Reimagined episodes
• Subscribe to the anthropocene.city newsletter

Blue4Green is an Innovative Action funded by the European Urban Initiative.

What turns a space into a place?

Vivian is an urban planner, geographer and board member of Placemaking Europe. For her, placemaking is more than activating a square or adding colourful furniture. It is a mindset that brings communities, public authorities and professionals together to rethink how shared places are used, experienced and cared for.

What happens when a city turns back towards the water? And what do we lose when public space becomes too controlled, too polished or too predictable?

With Vivian, I talk about Thessaloniki’s rediscovered waterfront, hidden water beneath Athens and why a little friction and chaos might actually be good for urban life.

We also get into the bigger questions: climate change, privatisation, democracy and the pressure on the people trying to change cities. Because placemaking is not only about transforming places. It is also about how we relate to them, to each other and to ourselves.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Why placemaking is about more than attractive public spaces

• How cities can reconnect people with water and nature

• Why friction and messiness are part of healthy urban life

• How public space supports participation and democracy • Why placemakers also need places of care

Links

Learn more about Placemaking Europe

Connect with Vivian Doumpa on LinkedIn

Read Vivian’s profile at Placemaking Europe

CITIES REIMAGINED

Cities Reimagined explores the ideas, people and places reshaping urban life.

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Reimagining urban swimming

What does it take to transform a former industrial dock into a place where people can safely swim?

In this episode of Cities Reimagined, Johannes visits the Keerdok in Mechelen, Belgium. Once dominated by warehouses, parking and industrial activity, the area is being transformed into a new urban neighbourhood that opens the city towards the water as part of the 'Water as the Source of Urban Public Space' Innovative Action funded by the European Urban Initiatives.

He speaks with Sander Belmans from De Vlaamse Waterweg and An Schepers and Barbara Enckels from the City of Mechelen about the long process behind the city’s open-water swimming zone.

After five years of temporary experiments, Mechelen is now preparing a permanent swimming facility at the Keerdok. The new design will combine swimming infrastructure, public space, shade, greenery and floating habitats for animals and plants.

Listen to the episode here:

🎧 Spotify: [LINK]

🎧 Apple Podcasts: [LINK]

▶️ YouTube: [LINK]

In this episode:

● How can cities make open-water swimming possible when the rules are not yet ready?

● How can swimming, shipping, biodiversity and public space coexist in the same waterway?

● What does it take to transform an industrial dock into a place where people want to swim?

● How can cities build a culture of safe and inclusive open-water swimming?

● How can cities overcome cultural barriers to open-water swimming?

● How can swimming areas work for different ages, abilities and user groups?

Previous Cities Reimagined episodes from Mechelen

Reimagining Mechelen, Parts 1 and 2 Explore how Mechelen is reconnecting people, public space and nature along the River Dijle, including how the city is experimenting with giving nature a voice in urban development.

Nature’s comeback to Mechelen A conversation with city ecologist Michiel Van Mele and Maarten De Jonge about biodiversity, water quality and the return of nature to the Binnendijle.

Learn more

Discover WATSUPS on Portico Find articles, podcast episodes, project stories and lessons from Mechelen’s journey to reconnect people, animals and plants with the river.

Visit the WATSUPS project page on the European Urban Initiative website Learn more about the project, its partnership and its ambition to develop water as an accessible and inclusive form of public space.

WATSUPS, Water as the Source of Urban Public Space, is an Innovative Action supported by the European Urban Initiative and a New European Bauhaus demonstrator.