Lior Steinberg: We built our cities around the car, and now it’s very difficult to reverse the trend. This is probably the biggest challenge in creating greener, more livable cities

Let's talk about the elephant in the city. Lior Steinberg, urban planner and co-founder of Humankind, a multidisciplinary agency for urban change, has an interesting metaphor describing the peaople's relationship with their surrounding spaces. In a poor zoo, where an elephant is locked to a small cage, the animal is ill and depressed. In contrast, elephants in their natural habitat thrive. It's the same for humans: we are heavily influenced by our environment.

"The key difference between humans and the elephant, though, is that we have the unique ability to create our own environments. While the elephant has no control over the zoo people build for him, we have the power to build our own cities, shaping the built environment to support our well-being", says Lior.

In his work, Lior Steinberg looks beyond functionality and want to create people-oriented cities. In 2022, Lior published The Car That Wanted To Be a Bike, a children’s book about the joy of cycling and the future of cities.

Lior will talk about his vision at Unfinished, which runs from September 27-29. This year's theme of the festival is Praxis: connecting theory with practice and how we can transform ourselves from receivers to creators. The only way to participate in UNFINISHED is by completing an application and a selection process carried out by the festival organizers.

We talk with Lior about how we can create spaces for people and not for cars, about friendly cities and happy elephants.

Important stages in your development

Before studying Urban Planning, I was a computer programmer. Despite loving technology, I’d always been more fascinated by how cities are built. As a child, I would walk with my father, wondering who designed the streets and spaces around us. We had no idea back then that urban planners existed.

In my early twenties, I stumbled upon Jane Jacobs work. Even though she wrote about cities in the 1960s, her critique of car-oriented urban urbanism felt painfully relevant. Seeing the same mistakes still being made sparked something in me. That’s when I knew I wanted to make a change and become an urban planner. I eventually pursued this path by enrolling in a master’s program at Stockholm University.

If your life were divided into chapters

There would be three.

The first chapter is Growing Up in the City. I grew up in Tel Aviv, and the city shaped who I was. It was a vibrant place full of experiences, people, and lessons that influenced me deeply. Over the years I also understood the way the never ending war shaped me and the people surrounding me.

The second chapter is Becoming a City Maker. This is when I realized I could actively shape cities. I moved to Europe, settled in Rotterdam, and co-founded Humankind with Jorn Wemmenhove. This was when my passion for urban planning truly took root.

The third chapter began this summer with the birth of my first son, Nuri. It's a significant change in my life and I’m excited to raise Nuri in Rotterdam. I'm eager to see how he experiences the city and how we can work together to make it a better place for children, families, and all residents.

Your perspective on urban planning

I believe that if your perspective doesn't change over time, you're either a complete genius from birth or, more likely, an absolute ignorant. So, naturally, my perspective has evolved as I've learned and grown in my profession. I have – and still am - making plenty of mistakes along the way.

When I first started, I had this idea that everyone wanted to live the kind of lifestyle that big cities offer. But I quickly realized that smaller cities have their own unique qualities. I learned it when I lived in Groningen, a Dutch city of about 200,000 people. I finally experienced the richness of smaller cities, as places where you can enjoy convenience, quietness, and a sense of familiarity that larger cities often lack.

Now, with this experience, I'm trying to bridge the gap between big cities and small cities, finding ways to bring the qualities of small towns — like accessibility and community — into larger urban areas or specific neighborhoods.

The story behind Humankind

Humankind is a response to a growing dissatisfaction with how our cities were being shaped. We actually started as Street Makers, a collaboration between me and Jorn. Our initial idea was to use tactical urbanism — temporary interventions in the streets — to make them more people-friendly. We wanted to create spaces where people could cycle, enjoy more greenery, and generally have a better experience.

As we evolved, we began to take on more projects, diving deeper into areas like cycling infrastructure and more permanent urban solutions. It became clear that we needed a name that reflected the broader vision we had, which is how Humankind was born. The name represents not just our vision for cities — places designed with humanity in mind — but also our mission: to create urban environments that truly support and nurture people.

People’s relationship with their surrounding spaces 

I often compare people’s relationship with their surrounding to elephants in a zoo. In a poor zoo, where an elephant is locked to a small cage, deprived of proper food, and isolated from other elephants, you can see the toll it takes. He's ill, depressed and has a much shorter lifespan. In contrast, elephants in their natural habitat, with plenty of space, companionship, and abundant food, thrive.

The same goes for humans. We are heavily influenced by our environment. A person living in a city with bike lanes is far more likely to bike. While the decision to bike or drive is personal, it's significantly shaped by the surrounding infrastructure. Similarly, people living in green areas are more likely to engage in outdoor activities simply because those spaces are available.

People in green, walkable, low-car-traffic places tend to live longer. They healthier, have happier lives with greater life satisfaction. The key difference between humans and the elephant, though, is that we have the unique ability to create our own environments. While the elephant has no control over the zoo people build for him, we have the power to build our own cities, shaping the built environment to support our well-being.

People’s needs in 2024

Whoever has answer to this question, should probably receive a Nobel prize. When it comes to cities, I believe that our needs haven't changed in the past century. People need to be able to get to places safely, to be able to provide for their families, and be able to meet, learn and create experiences with other people. As more people more to cities, providing such places becomes a bigger challenge, but it doesn't mean we should stop trying.

Public spaces in the future

It’s pretty simple: places where people of all ages and abilities can come together safely. It can be as small as a street corner with a bench and a tree or as big as Central Park. And more importantly, great public spaces are also about the way people can get to them: by walking, cycling, or public transportation. This means that we need to improve not only our plazas and parks but also our streets.

A city that comes closest to the ideal 

It's hard to pinpoint a single city that embodies the ideal in 2024. Instead, I believe we have so much to learn from various cities around the world, each offering unique approaches and solutions. In Europe alone, cities continually exchange ideas and practices to improve urban living. Dutch cities like Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Groningen, are a great example of making cycling easier than driving a car. Barcelona’s squares are a world example for inclusive public spaces. Warsaw shows how urban parks can be a green oasis in a busy city.

The key is to learn from each other and adopt the best practices that suit our specific

Unfinished. Thoughts and Expectations

I like the concept of multidisciplinary events. The solutions for our society don’t just lie in the hands of specialists. Our cities need more than architects and planners. They need artists, thinkers, teachers, accountants, cleaners, farmers, and more. The idea of a festival that approaches social issues through a multidisciplinary approach, is incredibly exciting to me.

Your definition of #Praxis

Praxis is a type of action that is public, political, and grounded in the shared experiences of individuals within a community, according Hannah Arendt. In this way, Urban life, with its opportunities for personal expression, social interaction, and political engagement, embodies this idea. As an urban planner, the opportunity to explore the concepts within the urban environment is very interesting, especially as it’s not a given: some cities are doing this better than others, and it’s interesting to explore this during the festival.

The biggest challenges in 2024

We still struggle with living with so many people in a very small space. Bucharest, for instance, has around 9,000 people per square kilometer. It leaves very little space per person, which we all need to share. But we use the space very inefficiently. Take, for instance, our transportation systems: in most of the world, they are based around the automobile. It’s an incredible waste of space: a car can carry five people, but most of the time it is either parked or moving one person. We built our cities around the car, and now it’s very difficult to reverse the trend, as people—and politicians—are addicted to the automotive lifestyle. This is probably the biggest challenge in creating greener, more livable cities.

Your fears. And your hope

Look at the war in Gaza. Millions of people are suffering, and tens of thousands have been killed.  Since October, every day I hear terrible news: children are losing their families, parents are burying their babies, people are losing everything they have. It’s scary as it leads to another generation of children that hate the other side. But there’s hope. Despite all these horrors, there are people on both sides who keep choosing reconciliation over revenge. 

Take, for instance, Palestinian peacemaker Aziz Abu Sarah and Israeli peacemaker Maoz Inon, who discussed this topic on TED. These are the leaders of the future. 

A name for this period we’re living

The time we completely messed up – and then figured out together how to fix it. At least, I hope that the second part will be true.