The AECOM Global Cities Institute looks at the bigger picture and the finer grain: from open space to green, grey and social infrastructure, environmental quality to public safety. All the components of what make a city work – and work better – are the subject of enquiry – in a unique urban laboratory, free from the constraints of a traditional client brief.The AECOM Global Cities Institute partners with a city and helps them answer a specific question or challenge they have facing their future. Work is usually pro bono or done at cost. City ‘partners’ are typically a publicagency or NGO consortium with an interestin a city’s development.Each city project generally runs according to the following steps:1. Understanding aspirationsA crossdisciplinary AECOM team conducts in depth analysis of contemporary urban issues within each target city, seeking input from partners and stakeholders within each city. This includes a factfinding exercise to define what areas of city life merit the Institute’s expertise.2. Framing successThe AECOM team challenges preconceptions that may be barriers to urban progress, exploring social, economic and environmental opportunities.3. City ambitions reportAECOM publishes a strategic vision that articulates opportunities for improving regional/city quality of life and a city’s competitive advantage.4. ForumAttended by city leaders, academics and businesses and representatives from civil society, to explore results and discuss progressive action.Each city project was taken as an opportunity to position the city’s challenges as opportunities, using creative visuals, graphic and informational design.Each city engagement brought together different disciplines to the table. In Phoenix-Tucson, what began as an enquiry into how to stem a sprawling region’s unsustainable land use resulted in a proposal to create America’s new inland port. In Beijing, the Chinese capital’s aspiration for ‘world city’ status was recast as an opportunity to embrace an ignored riverfront. In Auckland, the mayor’s desire to become the world’s most livable city led to concrete suggestions regarding governance, while in Bucharest, the desire to be at the top table in the EU led to the need for public realm guidelines.The next city on the agenda is Recife, Brazil.