Giulia Zappa

Florence-born and parisian-adopted today, she is into design communication, seamlessly fond of great classics, as of speculative research or scalable projects. She wrote for many publications as Domus, Icon Design and Artribune. Besides journalism, she is engaged with United Nations in developing plans related with creative industry and renewables.

Mobility | Cities Interview

"Ideas and Participation: our Strategy for an Innovative City"

Engaging, envisioning, and planning: Fondazione IU Rusconi Ghigi supports the administration and citizens of Bologna in the challenges of our time. With a focus on digital and green innovation

06/2025 - By Giulia Zappa

Mobility | Cities Transports

The 15-minute city, and then what? How Paris is changing mobility, in practice

Parking spaces sacrificed and converted into flowerbeds, as well as extensive bicycle lanes and car parking spaces. Chronicles from the French capital, where soft mobility is a record achieved over the years

05/2025 - By Giulia Zappa

Infrastructure | Cities Sustainability

How to establish a clear air zone in your city: here is the guide of the mayors

From data to policy choices, through citizen participation: low emission zones are an urban planning tool against pollution and traffic. Here is the 'toolbox' that the C40 Cities group makes available to administrators, associations and public stakeholders to create 'lung-friendly' neighbourhoods

11/2024 - By Giulia Zappa

Infrastructure | Mobility Cities

"The new century of the Aerotropolis": the urban shape with the airport at its centre

The airport should be placed at the centre of careful urban planning at regional level, as a catalyst for economic activity and a new form of metropolis development, towards the new ‘Aerotropolis’ model. The airport should therefore not be located in the suburbs, but in the heart of the city space, according to John Kasarda, an academic and expert in aviation infrastructure

05/2024 - By Giulia Zappa

Mobility | Focus On Cities

Zone 30: if the new city idea has a limit

The 30 kilometre per hour speed limit is spreading rapidly in urban areas. There is no shortage of detractors, but the model is increasingly being adopted to prevent accidents, reduce environmental impact and promote a more inclusive use of public space

03/2024 - By Giulia Zappa

Green | Sustainability Cities

The city? It is a living organism: the ecological design of biourbanism

Adapting urban space to climate change, rethinking cities in the face of the gradual abandonment of fossil fuels, mitigating heat waves are some of the challenges considered by biourbanism, a model that approaches design through the lens of life science

11/2023 - By Giulia Zappa

Mobility | Cities Mobility

“Less cars, more pedestrians”: the American story of New Urbanism

Urban development has always accompanied changes in society in the United States, in offering solutions for the city and for living. New Urbanism is a school of thought that is still vital in offering solutions that aim to protect a sense of community and limit the consumption of environmental resources, opposing the 'sprawl' of American suburbs

06/2023 - By Giulia Zappa

Mobility | Interview Mobility

“People first: changing the streets to change the world”

An end to car-centric vision: Fabrizio Prati, director of design at the Global Designing Cities Initiative, explains. Not only mobility and transport, the new idea of a multimodal and multi-use street is built around people, as an open place for greater safety and liveability

04/2023 - By Giulia Zappa

Mobility | Cities Mobility

What it means to move in the "15-Minute City"

Mobility is a key to the hyper-local dimension of metropolises, which has come back into focus. Increased sociality, economic development in neighbourhoods, and reduced environmental impact are the results in cities experimenting with this multipolar model for greater liveability

06/2022 - By Giulia Zappa

Green | Sustainability Cities

Urban reforestation as a resilience strategy

A primary mode of adaptation to global warming, the planting of tens of thousands of trees in the urban fabric should be considered as an inevitable infrastructure for the 21st century. Examples of this around the world are multiplying at all levels

04/2022 - By Giulia Zappa

Green | Sustainability Cities

Cities take on the climate crisis: three stories from the Anthropocene

Urban centres do not necessarily have a destructive impact on nature and biodiversity. Cities like Shanghai, Stockholm and Prato are attempting to reverse this paradigm, demonstrating how green infrastructures can help in facing environmental challenges, such as flood management, pollution reduction, climate resilience and public health

01/2022 - By Giulia Zappa

Green | Focus On

The Vertical Forest: a concrete utopia for the world, from Milan

An archetype of multispecies architecture, Stefano Boeri Architetti’s iconic Bosco Verticale building is the first Vertical Forest, designed from an inclusive perspective focusing on coexistence of humans, flora and fauna as a new paradigm for sustainable urban development

12/2021 - By Giulia Zappa

Infrastructure | Interview

Carlo Ratti: a look at the progress in innovation

The Italian architect and engineer ramps up international collaboration, never skimping on his ability to elaborate optimistic visions of the future, where technology and sustainability will profoundly change the way we live

11/2021 - By Giulia Zappa