The City of Thousand Trees

People-Driven Adaptive Cities for Tomorrow

The City of Thousand Trees is a collective exploration of how cities can evolve into living, adaptive ecosystems through collaboration, imagination, and care. Developed within a four-year, European-funded project, the book brings together researchers, designers, institutions, and communities to critically rethink urban life in the context of climate change.

Focusing on small, situated urban interventions-such as schoolyards, residential streets, and care facilities- the project foregrounds the social dimension of urban transformation by engaging non-conventional actors, including children and the elderly. Moving beyond conventional nature-based solutions, it integrates perspectives from science, art, policy, and civic practices, combining ecological design approaches with post-occupancy monitoring and sensor-based evaluation. Understood as interconnected interventions, these small-scale pilots can collectively contribute to more resilient, inclusive, and biodiverse urban systems.

With contributions from
Eva Beele, Antonella Broglia, Alicia Carvajal Rowan, Valerie Dewaelheyns, Equipo.exe, Saúl Flores, Cecil Konijnendijk, Juan López-Aranguren, Lise Neirinckx, Miguel Núñez Peiró, Manuel Pascual García, Manuel Polanco, Pieter Raymaekers, Sara Romero, Katrien Rycken, Carmen Sánchez, Ben Somers, Trui Steen, Janne Teerlinck, Luis Tejero Encinas, Chloe Treger, Herman Vereycken, and Kelly Wittemans.

This publication was made possible thanks to the financial support of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, City of Madrid, City of Leuven, Dark Mater Labs, KU Leuven, Leuven 2030.

The Life PACT project (LIFE20 CCA/BE/001710) received funding from the Life program of the European Union. The information and views set out in this book are those of the Life PACT consortium authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for these views nor any use that may be made of the information here contained.