The last issue of the year appears at a time when everyday life is becoming normalised, the 2030 Agenda is on everyone's lips and the need to fulfil the SDGs is permeating our society, a good way to face the new year.

On the other hand, urban regeneration is consolidating in the face of new actions, improving the existing fabric, completing urbanisation and facilities, with a clear improvement in the quality of the neighbourhoods and incorporating good design which, at a time of great growth, not yet so distant, had been left to one side.

In contrast to these actions considered to be positive, new city projects continue to appear from more than debatable approaches, such as the Neon project from the administration in Saudi Arabia, a futuristic megaproject for 9 billion inhabitants in the middle of the sand, a gigantic linear city, 170 km long, supported by rapid transport and technology to guarantee its sustainability and alibis such as proximity to work (5 minutes), with a design totally isolated from its surroundings and with an impact on it, an action from the state. Or actions such as the Busan-Oceanix floating city, a prototype for 12,000 inhabitants. It is a sustainable and resilient action in the face of climate change. On this occasion the project is supported by UN-Habitat, apparently with a serious danger of gentrification in its formalisation, which clearly recalls actions in Dubai. There are also actions such as Cancún Smart Forest City, a project by Stefano Boeri, far from the city of Cancún, which will occupy what should be a shopping centre. Its intention is to be fully circular and self-sufficient, minimising impacts, and it is planned for 130,000 inhabitants. A careful design plays with vegetation and water, a seemingly closed and well-protected performance for a tourism that is increasingly demanding in terms of quality and security. The aim is to strike a balance between mass tourism and nature. As can be seen, these are very varied proposals. All of them, to date, are still only projects, like the administrative city to decongest Cairo, announced in 2015 and which is progressing slowly.

These are actions which require a large economic investment and which will undoubtedly be in the spotlight of professionals, far removed as they are from the justification of other new cities of which they are a reflection and which we saw in the last century, in times of decolonisation or necessary territorial rebalancing for political, economic or social reasons, and which gave rise to new capital cities such as Canberra, Islamabad, Astana, Brasilia or Chandigarh. These are cities planned by renowned architects such as Le Corbusier, Lucio Costa or Dioxiadis with very different results from the social point of view of city creation beyond their iconic formalisation.

Focusing on the subject of this issue, we come across a small-scale project that is representative of the processes that are taking place to improve our cities. In this case it is Onda, in which through four careful gestures of powerful design, based on knowledge of the city's history, they give new life and continuity to the public space, recognising the different strata that have been deposited in the evolution of the city and with the protagonism of water as a nexus of union. Along the same lines, but from a planning point of view, the urban improvement of the medieval village of Mas de Bondia is presented. This is not a design project, but rather the creation of a strategic framework for social revitalisation and economic dynamisation. A very topical work as a means of avoiding the depopulation that stalks so many places, not only in Spain.

On a territorial scale, the NUTs of Valladolid are presented, a parallel work to that presented in the previous issue in Zamora. Both are an example of the administration's concern for the planning of the small municipalities of Castilla-León which, due to their characteristics, do not require general planning but rather the creation of intervention frameworks for their evolution and enhancement. We believe that this opportunity to have access to two methodologies created to face the same professional challenge in nearby territories is of interest.

On this occasion, we have an important plan at city level, such as the one carried out in Lima for the Rimac River, the backbone of the city and very degraded at its edges. With the introduction of the railway, its canalisation in part and the uncontrolled growth of the city without planning, it lost its status as a green corridor. The aim is to restore the Rimac River to its role as a water, historical, environmental and landscape resource with nature-based solutions that make the Rimac River Special Landscape Plan (PEPRR) a provider of ecosystem services, while helping to mitigate risks.

Also at the city scale, at a more comprehensive level, Santander, Habitat Futuro, a city model with a broad horizon, the year 2055, proposes the transformation of the city through a proposal for regenerative urban planning that makes environmental limits and social needs compatible and at the same time aims to be a guide to direct the commitment of the different social, political and economic agents with the common objective of achieving a sustainable and structured city.

A project in Vienna is also presented on this occasion, in development of Europan 12. It offers an example of good practice in this city, from the beginning of the process with the competition, to the current moment when the Siemensäcker neighbourhood is inhabited. A cooperative practice of urban planning is presented as a tool for a more complex and democratically legitimised city. The project becomes the result of a process leading to a flexible masterplan and the final construction of the residential buildings, with special emphasis on public space and the use of ground floor space for communal uses.

As urban design work we continue to disseminate the important work being done in the Eixample district of Barcelona, in the line of working towards achieving a more walkable and healthy city. In this case, through the appropriation of the street to obtain new green spaces, with a greater presence of vegetation in favour of biodiversity, creating an environmental infrastructure. The other has a different condition: it is a park on the Cali river, a project that, according to its drafters, was born with a specific narrative intention: "the creation of a space in which nature, context and architecture merge to represent the spirit of a territory", they contribute to a space with a vocation for entertainment, the assumption of different functions in which diversity becomes the incentive for its use, taking up common practices in the life of the city.

We end this editorial with the wish that 2023 will allow us to continue presenting new practices for the transformation and improvement of our cities and territories that will be increasingly circular, sustainable and resilient.