Urban sTREEts: Stefano Mancuso’s Idea Among the Most Influential of 2026 According to Forbes
A city that gives up part of its asphalt to make room for trees—not as a symbolic gesture, but as true climate infrastructure. Urban sTREEts is the new vision proposed by Stefano Mancuso, recently recognized by Forbes as one of the 26 most important ideas shaping 2026.
The principle is as radical as it is concrete: removing at least 20% of paved urban roads and replacing them with trees and continuous green corridors. This represents a structural transformation of the road network, reimagining certain streets not as surfaces dedicated exclusively to cars, but as linear green spaces capable of reconnecting nature with the urban fabric.
Such a conversion would deliver clear benefits in a relatively short time: lower urban temperatures, increased biodiversity, improved air quality, positive impacts on public health and psychological well-being, as well as more beautiful and livable cities. In other words, replacing one fifth of urban asphalt with trees would significantly enhance cities’ climate resilience.
Urban sTREEts is not a green utopia, but a systemic response to structural challenges: urban heat islands, soil sealing, ecological fragmentation, and growing climate stress. Streets—currently among the main contributors to heat accumulation—become ecological corridors, capable of providing shade, cooling the city, absorbing CO₂, managing rainwater, and supporting biodiversity.
The strength of this idea also lies in its paradigm shift: not adding greenery to the margins of the city, but transforming the city itself into a living organism, where plants are not decorative elements but essential infrastructure.
Stefano Mancuso, Professor at the University of Florence and co-founder of PNAT, is internationally recognized as one of the leading voices on the relationship between plants, intelligence, and complex systems. Author of more than 300 scientific publications and books translated into 27 languages, he has long advocated rethinking plants as fundamental allies in shaping the future of cities.
At PNAT, this vision is part of an ongoing process of research and design. We collaborate with public administrations and institutions to study and develop Nature-Based Solutions capable of addressing climate challenges in a structural way, integrating them into Green Plans, urban masterplans, and strategic planning tools. Green corridors, vegetated infrastructure, adaptive urban forestry, and environmental monitoring systems thus become active components of the city—designed to evolve over time and deliver measurable benefits.
“In essence, replacing one fifth of a city’s asphalt with trees could significantly increase its resilience to climate change.”
Stefano Mancuso
scientist
At PNAT, this vision is part of an ongoing process of research and design. We collaborate with public administrations and institutions to study and develop Nature-Based Solutions capable of addressing climate challenges in a structural way, integrating them into Green Plans, urban masterplans, and strategic planning tools. Green corridors, vegetated infrastructure, adaptive urban forestry, and environmental monitoring systems thus become active components of the city—designed to evolve over time and deliver measurable benefits.
Urban sTREEts fully embodies this approach: a shift in perspective that transforms public space into a climatic, ecological, and social resource, requiring integrated scientific, design, and operational expertise.
With Urban sTREEts, this vision officially enters the global debate on urban transformation. And the fact that Forbesidentifies it as one of the key ideas of 2026 confirms one thing: the future of cities lies in trees—and in the streets we are willing to give back to them.
