What would it take to build neighborhoods with the highest quality of life in the US?
The Nordic countries take the top three places in the World Happiness Report 2026, and Copenhagen ranks first in the EIU Global Liveability Index 2026. We take apart successes, failures, proven approaches and new technologies from around the world to help make new and existing neighborhoods better.
Real places, taken apart.
Each teardown ends on one question: would you live here?
They bought land for a garage. It's a park.
Vauban, 1992 to 2014
33 towers, and only rent to keep them up.
Pruitt-Igoe, 1950 to 1976
Copenhagen's furnace is a power plant.
District heating in Copenhagen, 1925 to 2026
Four acts and a scorecard.
Every teardown follows the four phases of our approach, then scores the place on the six outcomes: mobility, carbon, health, economy, resilience and property value. Every number carries its source, its scope and its year.
Act 1: Read
The land, the systems and the people before anything was built. What the place could carry.
Act 2: Design
What was built, layer by layer: buildings, green infrastructure, the public realm, and finance.
Act 3: Price
What it cost, who paid, and how the money was raised.
Act 4: Build and tend
How it was delivered, how it is run, and how it has aged.
Get the teardowns by email
A real place, project or technology, what worked, what did not, and the numbers. By email.
Know a place, project or technology worth a teardown? Write to [email protected]. To apply the same method to your own site, see Now City Labs.
Get in touch.
Landholders, cities, partners and press can reach the team directly. For news of the neighborhoods themselves, follow Now City Neighborhoods at nowcity.life.