World Cities Day – Can we develop urban areas better than in the past?

World Cities Day will attract global representatives to Fuzhou, China, on 31 October. Urban regeneration is the focus of this year’s event, due to ever-present worldwide climate shocks, combined with the fact that 3.4 billion people lack access to adequate housing[1]. Climate resilience, adaptation and inclusive urban development are, therefore, at the top of the agenda. Important measures to address these challenges are affordable housing, public space improvements, seamless connectivity and infrastructure tailored to withstand increasingly severe heatwaves, storms, floods and droughts.

Cities are regenerated in an ongoing process, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, not suddenly overnight. Solid urban planning could, however, provide the general direction and address the backbone of infrastructure needed to connect neighbourhoods together, providing job opportunities and reducing social inequality. 

Cities built on historical iterations

Most cities have been developed over decades of improvement, destruction and rebuilding, dating back to the early days of civilisations built in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Rome. “Towards Tomorrow: Super-City?" originally broadcast on BBC One, 29 October 1968, and now available in the BBC Archives, features the legendary writer, sociologist and urban planning historian Lewis Mumford[2] and other experts, who envisioned a future of floating cities, skyscraper cities and high-density settlements that still felt friendly. 

Cities worldwide have showcased that linking urban efficiency with access to basic services can lead to positive social impact. Digital urban planning tools were already valuable around 60 years ago, with the example of Boyd Auger, an architect who used a computer to optimise housing and public transport in a small, confined space on an island. Today’s powerful AI tools make it far easier to test and refine designs at scale before building. Over the past decades, did elements of the visions from 1968 materialise in urban construction, and have we utilised the new tools well?

Company contributions to community building

Are there any companies that build their business around improving urban environments? Some firms operate at the centre of solutions necessary to regenerate cities. 

One example is Skanska, a Swedish company in the Solutions portfolio that helps create entire urban communities anchored in the science of sustainable cities. Skanska targets a 70 percent reduction in direct emissions by 2030 and net-zero carbon across the entire value chain by 2045[3]. With operations across Europe and the U.S., the firm has four main business segments: Construction, Residential Development, Commercial Development and Investment Properties. 

Skanska has extensive experience in the principles behind urban planning that many modern cities rely on, namely connecting urban infrastructure like water distribution, public transport, green spaces and renewable energy production with housing, offices, schools and hospitals. This approach has likely helped the company win several contracts over recent years, with a particular uptick so far in 2026. The company’s strategy aligns neatly with World Cities Day's focus on urban regeneration and inclusive neighbourhoods. Its focus on climate adaptation and nature-based solutions can help improve the resiliency of the areas where its projects are located. 

Booking value in rail and the AI infrastructure surge

After a choppy start to the year, Skanska’s share price recovered in Q3 after record Q2 order intake of SEK 68 billion. Meanwhile, a book-to-bill ratio of 114 percent on a rolling 12-month basis and a record order backlog close to SEK 300 billion have supported expectations for the full year. A major contract win for contributions to New York City's Penn Station Transformation Project has provided earnings visibility on an estimated value of SEK 40 billion for the full project. 

Furthermore, Skanska’s reputation for energy-efficient buildings has helped the firm participate in the AI buildout, with revenues from data centres forecast to increase by 46 percent year-on-year by the end of 2026. Notable contracts have been won in Georgia and elsewhere in the southeast of the U.S., as well as European countries like Poland and Finland. So far in 2026, Skanska has contracts worth SEK 25 billion in the U.S. alone to construct energy-efficient buildings for data centres.

Greening New York’s waterfront

On October 21st, Skanska took a further step in making urban environments greener by signing a SEK 1.5 billion contract to build a new esplanade along New York City's East River waterside area[4] in Manhattan. The esplanade's pedestrian and bicycle pathway will include improved landscaping, recycled materials, 24-hour energy-efficient lighting, sports facilities, rainwater harvesting for green spaces and seating areas. With these features, the planners aim to encourage the development of a convenient urban lifestyle, centred around active travel such as walking, cycling or using electric bikes as the preferred means of transportation. The sustainable urban development project is central to a broader effort by local authorities in New York to improve public urban liveability. 

Diversification boosts business stability

Despite solid leasing figures and completion of several properties, headwinds have hit Skanska’s commercial and residential property development due to macroeconomic uncertainties, high inflation and rising interest rates in important markets worldwide. A well-diversified product portfolio underscores Skanska's robustness, however, and has helped stabilise its performance in a challenging environment. It appears that Skanska has built its strategy on many of the core principles addressed by architects, engineers and urban planners of the past – making robust urban infrastructure with a goal of minimising environmental footprint while maximising human wellbeing. 

Returning to the question of how we built cities over the past decades, there will always be room for improvement. The wave of recent demonstrations across Europe and the U.S. underscores that quality of life remains insufficiently high for a large share of people within our societies. At World Cities Day, regional authorities, researchers and business leaders will come together to discuss solutions that are suitable for coming years. Creating equal opportunities with reasonable house prices, education and job prospects needs to be balanced with minimising climate risks like extreme heat, storms, water shortages or flooding. Adaptable companies that can deliver on societal needs, and convert earnings into stable cash flows and healthy profit margins, are likely to play an important role for our economies and successful urban regeneration in the decades ahead. 

 
[1] UN, World Cities Day | United Nations
[2] BBC Archive, YouTube, 1968: The Super Cities of Tomorrow | Towards Tomorrow | BBC Archive
[3] Skanska website (www.skanska.com) 
[4] Skanska press release, 21.10.2026