What if cities were planned around time, not just space? That is the question at the heart of SPATIOTEMPO, a new EU-funded research project bringing together Barcelona, Vienna and Bolzano to transform the way cities are designed and governed.

The project introduces a groundbreaking premise: integrating the temporal dimension into urban planning to build fairer, more inclusive environments — ones where care work, social life and the everyday routines of residents are finally placed at the centre of urban decision-making. Moving beyond traditional models that prioritise land use and economic flows, SPATIOTEMPO proposes that the rhythms of people's daily lives become a fundamental criterion in how cities are shaped.

Among the research teams involved are members of the JHU-UPF Public Policy Center, the joint public policy research centre of Johns Hopkins University and Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona — reinforcing the city's position as an international reference in urban governance innovation.

Framed within the EU's cohesion and social well-being agenda, the initiative aims to develop new planning models and tools that can be adopted by local governments across Europe, with particular attention to reducing gender inequalities in the use of urban time and space.

For more information, visit: dutpartnership.eu/projects/spatiotempo