The author of the book, Swedish architect David Sim, who came to participate in the “Soft City” festival organized by the 20-Minute City National Committee, the Ministry of Urban Planning, Construction and Housing, and Meguun Media, was welcomed by the Head of the 20-Minute City National Committee’s Office Ts. Oyundary, the Minister of Mongolia, Advisor to the Head of the 20-Minute City National Committee B. Batbold, and the staff of the office, as well as architects and urban planners from the 20-Minute City Development Center.

David Sim shared his experience in making urban planning more citizen-friendly and improving the living environment, and exchanged ideas on how to incorporate the concept of a people-friendly city into the projects planned for implementation in Ulaanbaatar, and discussed solutions. He showed based on real examples that while large city projects can be carried out with mega-large budgets, many people-friendly things can be done for hundreds of times less, and David Sim emphasized that finding such solutions demonstrates the skills of architects and urban planners.

He is the author of the book “Soft City”, which proposes solutions for how to combine private space with public interests and rational planning of traffic in a time when urban density is increasing worldwide and civic space is shrinking due to housing development. The book has been translated into Mongolian by P. Mnganchimeg, a regional planner and expert in charge of the implementation of the 20-minute city National Committee. On the 19th of this month, the 20-minute city National Committee will organize a festival named after the book in the 20-minute city National Committee in cooperation with relevant organizations. At the festival, guest of honor David Sim will present a Soft City master class lecture based on his urban planning experience.