Sess. 1. 1. – Torben Klitgaard , CEO, BLOXHUB
Focus: Cross-disciplinary collaboration for regenerative urban futures.
BLOXHUB bridges architecture, engineering, design, construction and digitization to develop and scale sustainable urbanization initiatives. Torben Klitgaard is a driving force behind the BLOXHUB activities, facilitations and programmes.
Torben Klitgaard introduced BLOXHUB as a civic innovation ecosystem founded by the City of Copenhagen, Realdania, and the Danish government.
Its mission is to unite architects, researchers, companies, and public institutions around the challenge of aligning urban growth with planetary boundaries.
By 2050, 84% of Europe’s population will live in cities, intensifying the need for sustainable and health-oriented planning.
Torben Klitgaard identified the exponential rise in climate-related economic losses as both a risk and a call to collective action.
BLOXHUB’s approach dismantles silos, creating an environment where over 400 organizations collaborate daily to test and exchange solutions.
The platform embodies a new model of urban innovation, where dialogue becomes infrastructure.
Health, climate, and economy are treated as inseparable dimensions of the same challenge.
In conclusion, Bloxhub aims to be a catalyst for innovation and knowledge-sharing, helping cities become healthier, more resilient, and environmentally responsible through collective action and new models of collaboration.
Sess. 1. 2. – Ingvar Svein Hansen – Director of Development and Sales – Copenhagen City & Port – By & Havn
Focus: Infrastructure, community, and the healthy evolution of Copenhagen.
Ingvar Svein Hansen presented the development model of By & Havn, where land value finances infrastructure such as Copenhagen’s metro system.
Nordhavn stands as the city’s flagship for combining sustainable mobility, proximity to water, and social inclusion.
The district’s urban plan favours walking and cycling while minimizing car use, translating health into spatial logic.
Public spaces and parks are designed through participatory processes, particularly addressing the needs of women and youth.
Beyond planning, By & Havn invests in temporary events and sports initiatives to stimulate civic life in emerging neighbourhoods.
Communal housing typologies further integrate social engagement into the city’s physical framework.
The transformation of Copenhagen’s harbour into a clean, recreational landscape embodies this holistic approach.
For
Ingvar Svein Hansen, resilient urbanism depends as much on social infrastructure as on physical form.
The city’s evolution reflects an ongoing negotiation between growth, ecology, and collective well-being.
Sess. 1. 3. – Kira Fortune – Coordinator – WHO European Healthy Cities Network
Focus: Equity, participation, and the local engines of public health.
Regional Advisor Healthy Cities, Health Promotion and Well-being within the World Health Organization (WHO) with extensive experience elevating results of global partnerships committed to equity and leaving no one behind, multi-sectoral collaboration, policies, programs, and resources.
The WHO Healthy Cities Network links over 1,900 municipalities across Europe and Central Asia, reaching more than 200 million people.
Its core mission is to place health at the centre of local governance and everyday urban life.
Disparities in life expectancy—sometimes spanning decades between neighbourhoods—demonstrate that place is a determinant of health.
The network operates through five-year cycles structured around six principles: people, participation, peace, planning, prosperity, and place.
Initiatives such as the Place Standard Tool translate these values into practical, participatory methods for improving neighbourhoods.
Kira Fortune positioned the city as the most effective scale for innovation and measurable impact, where governance meets lived reality.
Copenhagen’s “10-minute city” concept exemplifies how access and community foster both physical and mental well-being.
The network’s longevity rests on collaboration, data-sharing, and a shared commitment to inclusive urbanism.
Health, understood as the ability to thrive rather than merely survive, becomes the ethical horizon for urban development.
Sess. 1. 4. – Sabina Mujkić – Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia – Vice President of INTA
Focus: Humanising cities across geographies of prosperity and crisis.
Dr. Sabina Mujkić is an urban and spatial planner and researcher. Holding a PhD in Architecture and a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Spatial and Urban Planning, she contributes to a wide range of innovative, cross-disciplinary projects and serves as a guest lecturer, speaker, reviewer, and jury member.
Sabina Mujkić’s contribution traversed three contexts—Ljubljana, Medina, and Gaza—to explore how urban health reflects both design and morality.
Ljubljana’s transformation through pedestrianisation, river revitalisation, and cultural heritage restoration demonstrates the power of long-term vision.
In contrast, Medina integrates faith, technology, and environmental adaptation, cooling public plazas for millions of visitors while sustaining local quality of life.
Both cities reveal that health is not only physical but social, spiritual, and spatial.
Her final case, Gaza, exposed the total collapse of these conditions: a city stripped of nature, infrastructure, and dignity.
By juxtaposing renewal and devastation, Mujkić reframed health as an ethical measure of civilization.
Urban transformation, in her view, must align material progress with compassion and cultural continuity.
Cities are instruments of both healing and harm—tools through which humanity defines its values.
The presentation left an open call to rethink health as a human right embedded in every layer of the urban environment.
Sess. 1. PANEL DISCUSSION – How can cities operationalize urban health across sectors?
Modérateur : Mark Isitt
All speakers + Hanna Dunning, Special Consultant, Danish Healthy City Networks.
Experts from urban planning, public health, and city development discussed how cities can promote health and well-being.
They emphasized the importance of collaboration across sectors and levels of government, especially in response to challenges like COVID-19 and climate change. The pandemic highlighted the value of public spaces and green areas for mental health, while climate change has made healthy urban environments a priority.
Panelists noted that economic growth and urban attractiveness often drive city development, but health should be integrated into planning.
Examples from Denmark and other cities showed efforts to measure and improve residents’ health through urban design and community engagement.
The discussion also addressed issues of inequality, stressing the need for inclusive policies so that all citizens benefit from healthier cities.
Audience questions focused on encouraging children to spend time outdoors and the impact of screens, with panelists agreeing that safe, accessible spaces are key.
The session concluded with a call for holistic approaches that put people at the center of urban health strategies.