Thinking Big by Thinking Small

The project that launched Proformus as an urbanism practice.

A pathway beyond the megaproject era. In cities around the globe, megaprojects have become shorthand for ambition — and their track record tells a different story: exclusion, inefficiency, and sterile insta-neighborhoods that never quite become places. This study challenges that status quo through the lens of emergent urbanism and collective hyperlocalism, so that cities evolve as adaptable, inclusive systems — built not just for today's challenges, but for the uncertainties ahead.

Chicago already wrote the playbook. Its iconic neighborhoods grew incrementally on 25' × 125' parcels, subdivided and sold to a patchwork of small investors, builders, and homebuyers — each one adding a thread to the urban fabric. The study translates that lineage into a new development model — hyperlocal parcels and collective clusters that pair the economies of scale of modern development with the granular richness of traditional construction: a collective model that lets places go again. Read the full study here.