About Us

We have entered the century of cities: the scale and pace of 21st century urbanization is both staggering and unprecedented. The global urban population is growing at a rate of one million people each week and will reach about seven billion by the middle of the century. By 2030, new urban development will cover an area of land equivalent to South Africa or twice the size of France. In China alone, dozens of new cities are being built while all over the world, historic old cities need to be retrofitted to remain livable and competitive and reduce their impact on the environment.

This new urban era comes with a host of complex challenges: poverty, social exclusion and environmental degradation, among others. Yet opportunities for positive change abound: urbanization has the potential to correlate not only with sustainability but with wealth-creation, social tolerance, political inclusion and better living standards for all.

Created in 2010, the New Cities Foundation is a non-profit institution. Our mission is to create more dynamic, sustainable, just and creative cities around the world. We aim to become the leading global platform for innovation and exchange on 21st century urbanization, fostering urban solutions through new partnerships between the public, private, non-profit and academic sectors.

To implement our mission, we conduct two main activities:

• We host high-level events, including the annual New Cities Summit, bringing together thought-leaders and decision-makers that will shape the urban future.
• We conduct applied research, through the work of our successful and widely recognized Urban (co)LAB on the most pressing urban challenges of our time.

The Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors. Our Board of Trustees provides strategic guidance to the Foundation. We are financed entirely by our Members. We are based in Geneva, with offices in Paris, New York and Rio.