People and our ideas are constantly changing and so is the landscape in which we live. High-density cities provide for the ultimate interaction between people and ideas — that’s why cities are appealing to so many. In the next 40 years, 3.5 billion people will urbanise. As a result, we are challenged to transform the way we travel, manage water, cope with waste, use our land and produce energy. Such challenges cannot be dealt with in isolation and it requires more than just new technology or different rules. Sjoerd Louwaars shared his experience in tackling trans-disciplinary challenges through design thinking, which has proven to be effective for enabling transition due to its inclusive focus on connections and relations between people, their social constructs, organisations, environments and technologies.