Street vendors are struggling with rising temperatures

When a person is exposed to extreme heat, their body increases blood flow to the skin as it desperately tries to cool down. This attempt to cool creates more strain on internal organs and, if exposure is prolonged, serious organ failure is a possible outcome.

“The effects are particularly severe on the brain, although organs such as the heart and kidneys are where we have recorded chronic failures,” says Jonathan Lee, a researcher in environmental health who works on heat at Boston University in the United States.

Rethinking cities through global collaboration

Cities are more than skylines and subways — they are lived experiences shaped by the people who call them home. Recognising this, five world-leading institutions have launched the Global Alliance on Sustainable Urban Societies to reframe how cities are studied and shaped, with a human-centred focus that responds to today’s most pressing urban challenges.

Geography meets urgency: Manchester hosts international Spatialising Urban Crisis Workshop

Convened by Dr Cristina Temenos, a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow based at The University of Manchester, the event took place in June and served as a dynamic forum for exchange at the intersection of academic research and real-world practice. Participants shared innovative approaches and strategies cities are adopting to address challenges ranging from climate disruption and social inequality to care infrastructure under strain.

How tax incentives are exacerbating the housing market crisis

House prices in Luxembourg rose ninefold between 1975 and 2022, adjusted for inflation, as demand outstrips supply in the country, but government tax incentives to encourage construction have largely helped developers and investors instead of easing the crisis, says a team of researchers.

Art on the Underground: A Public Contradiction

Rudy Loewe’s commission at Brixton Underground Station is a case in point. Launching in November 2025, this work will form part of the now well established Brixton Mural Programme by seeking to build upon the area’s diverse narratives by highlighting the ways people gather together in this urban environment. The ‘bold, flat colours’ that characterise Loewe’s aesthetic will undoubtedly chime with Brixton’s own multicultural offering – providing Brixton’s community an opportunity to recognise, and even reclaim, their lived experiences in dialogue with the art. Certainly this is what Claudette Johnson’s current (2024) Brixton commission, Three Women, has sought to achieve.

Urban H: Housing, Heat and Health

In 2023, heat records were broken on all continents and the world saw the highest global temperatures in over 100,000 years. With buildings and roads retaining heat and creating urban heat islands, warmer cities have not only become increasingly uncomfortable but are also posing health risks such as heat exhaustion and respiratory disorders to their inhabitants. In the US, the 175 largest cities–which account for 65 percent of the total population–have seen a disproportionate number of heat-related deaths in the past 15 years.

Temporary accommodation nation

Temporary accommodation is the sharp end of England’s housing crisis. Official data shows that there are now more than 117,000 households in this unenviable situation— an increase of 23 per cent in the past three years—including 151,000 children under the age of 16. Together, they could occupy every home in Cambridge.