Small steps that bring great joy to everyone involved
We are a non-profit organisation based in Brno, Czechia, dedicated to improving the quality of public space in towns and cities. We help local governments — mayors, city architects and municipal administrations — find a shared language and common goals in making their cities better places to live.
Behind every cultivated city stand people who have learned to understand one another. We have already supported more than 35 towns and cities, and we believe our work helps to improve everyday life for around 2.60 million people who live in them. We focus on small steps that bring great joy to everyone involved — and that help sustain the long, complex projects which require continuity. The name "Our Cultivated Cities" reflects our focus on identity — on finding what is truly ours and what defines the unique character of each place.
What We Do
Bureaucratic therapy
We guide cities through the legislative maze and help them improve public space within one election term. We also build bridges between public administration and local business, ensuring that improvements in public space support both local identity and economic vitality.
Small steps
Our approach is comprehensive — from advertising banners to greenery, from street furniture to urban design detail.
Always local, tailored to place, and driven by a genuine love for city life.
Local context and processes
We walk the streets, listen to people, and analyse what works and what doesn’t — from benches and greenery to signage and advertising. We develop service design and processes that lead to fast, sensible improvements in urban public space. We create strategic documents, cultivation manuals and concepts that help towns make clear, practical and locally sensitive decisions.
Networking
We run educational events — workshops, lectures and conferences — to connect designers, officials, and citizens around the shared goal of cultivating our cities.
Why We Do It
Cities are living organisms — they reflect how we care about each other. Visual clutter, neglected details and incoherent spaces weaken that connection. We believe that cultivating a city — step by step, project by project — strengthens its identity, supports wellbeing, and builds trust between citizens, professionals and politicians.
Our Impact
35+
municipal clients
We work with enlightened politicians and skilled city architects to make practical improvements within one election term — realistic, visible, and meaningful.
40+
lectures from Košice to Karlovy Vary
We popularise the topic of cultivated public space across Czechia and Slovakia, speaking at universities, professional forums and local community events.
30
field analyses
We know our cities from billboard to bench. We identify opportunities for quick wins, participation and identity-building, and recommend experts in greenery, signage, and other fields.
41+
cultivation strategies and manuals
We understand how public administration really works — and how businesses operate within it. That allows us to prepare actionable materials for city halls and politicians, sensitive to the needs of local entrepreneurs.
Results & Recognition
- We published the Cookbook for the Cultivation of Czech Towns — the first nationwide guide to cultivating public space within Czech legislation. The book is listed by the European Commission as educational material.
- We cooperate with more than three dozen Czech cities and professional bodies including the Ministry for Regional Development.
- Our annual conference People Who Change Our Cities brings together leaders and experts across disciplines.
- We ran a pilot innovative project involving more than 18 cities across Czechia to save public money and develop a strategic approach to managing parcel lockers in public space.
- We helped the state organisation Správa železnic cultivate the environment of train stations across Czechia. The strategy will be gradually adopted at over 1,500 train stations in the coming decades, improving daily experience for millions of passengers.
- We understand business to its core — we helped Plzeňský Prazdroj as a market leader find a more sensible and sensitive approach for its six brands across Czechia and Slovakia. The improvement was implemented in 8,000 pubs, restaurants and bars, cultivating the environment in which the famous beer is enjoyed.
- We designed a tactical urbanism project as a collaboration between five local businesses and the municipality of Brno. The result was calmer traffic, greater comfort for people, and higher profits for the local businesses. The project received the Smart City Innovation Award 2024.
Our Values
Non-profit approach
We reinvest everything into developing better tools and shared know-how for municipalities. We take no commissions from suppliers.
Humanity and Locality
We design everything sensitively and tailor-made to local context.
Rationality
We propose both investment and non-investment steps. We believe in continuous care, not revolutions.
We are changing the conversation about what makes a good city — through daily work as public space quality advocates, negotiators and facilitators. Cities can give us strength — or take it away. We make sure our cities make us stronger.
Jsme oporou starostům i městským architektům, kteří chtějí pro svá města to nejlepší. Prostředí, ve kterém žijeme, nám může sílu dodávat – nebo ji brát. My se staráme o to, aby nás města posilovala. Rádi se Vám budeme věnovat, neváhejte se ozvat!
