The Life Size City is a set of documentaries exploring what can make big places fit us and our lives. Made by Danish urbanist Mikael Colville-Andersen, each programme focuses on one city and what has shaped it. They explore the processes and challenges and linger on the initiatives which make the place liveable – often those initiated or driven by local people and communities.

We screened the first series during the My York Central public engagement and YoCo ran a series of online Screenings and Discussions using the second series during the pandemic. That series of events brought participants from all over the world and was successful in creating discussion about what “good” means in city-making. With York Central starting to take shape, and YoCo pushing to be part of the development, this conversation needs to continue and engage with everyone who cares about York.

Join us on Zoom where we’ll stream the film, share your thoughts in the Chat on the way through and then help unpick what we should take away from the experience of Istanbul. Sat between Asia and Europe it’s a huge, complex place which carries the further weight of traffic chaos, homelessness and the breakdown of democratic process. But like all of these visits, there is human scale goodness to be found and to bring hope for the future – a fitting threshold to 2026.