Malmö Residency
One of three residents in the first edition, hosted by Media Evolution
October 2023
In the fall of 2023 I spent a month in Malmö, Sweden, as one of three residents in the first edition of the Malmö Residency, hosted by Media Evolution and its partners. 649 people from 74 countries applied. I was joined by Sami Angsthelm from Barcelona and Freya Pratty from London.
The residency offers a month away from home to focus on a project, meet new people, and see your own city from a new angle. I used the month to start work on The Urban World, an observatory of urban complexity that tells the story of global urbanization through data, inspired by Our World in Data and Gapminder's Factfulness. I didn't finish it in Malmö, but it's now released. I spent most of the month meeting the people who plan, build, and run Malmö, and I gave a talk on technology in the public realm at Coding Cities.
Press
Sydsvenskan wrote about the residency on 27 December 2023, under the headline Fransman vet varför många Malmöbor älskar sin stad ("Frenchman knows why so many Malmö residents love their city"). I told the paper: "When people feel they can make a mark quickly, it creates energy in a city."
