The Sidewalk Ballet Field Guide

The Sidewalk Ballet Field Guide is a growing collection of people, organizations, projects, books, ideas and ongoing conversations about cities and the people who shape them. It grows out of the podcast, but extends well beyond it—connecting the people doing the work, the places where it’s happening, and the ideas, experiments and resources worth carrying forward. Think of it as part reference library, part trail of breadcrumbs: a way to follow the conversation wherever it leads.

Explore by type, browse alphabetically or by date, or search for something specific. Follow the tags to discover connections—or explore the map to see where the people, projects and ideas in the Field Guide take us.

Chip Chip 8/18/26 Chip Chip 8/18/26

Rahul Kadri

Rahul Kadri is an architect and urbanist whose work explores the relationship between cities, landscape, and public life. As Partner and Principal Architect at IMK Architects, he led the creation of Mumbai’s Malabar Hill Forest Trail, transforming an overlooked hillside into an elevated walk through the city’s urban forest.

Chip Chip 8/18/26 Chip Chip 8/18/26

Christopher Alexander

Christopher Alexander was an architect, designer, and theorist whose work explored a deceptively simple question: why do some places feel alive while others don’t? Best known for A Pattern Language, Alexander developed an approach to architecture and city-making centered on the recurring patterns through which people inhabit, shape, and give life to places.

Chip Chip 8/18/26 Chip Chip 8/18/26

Malabar Hill Forest Trail

The Malabar Hill Forest Trail is an elevated nature trail winding through a wooded hillside in one of Mumbai’s densest neighborhoods. Designed by IMK Architects, the project creates public access to an overlooked urban ecosystem while minimizing disturbance to the forest floor.

Chip Chip 8/18/26 Chip Chip 8/18/26

IMK Architects

IMK Architects is a Mumbai-based architecture and urban design practice with a long history of work across institutional, residential, civic, and public-space projects. Led by Rahul Kadri, the firm’s work includes the Malabar Hill Forest Trail, an elevated public path through one of Mumbai’s urban forests.

Chip Chip 6/30/26 Chip Chip 6/30/26

James Rouse

Developer and planner James Rouse helped reshape American thinking about downtowns, public markets, and urban gathering places. His vision of city life as a kind of ongoing festival—animated by people, food, culture, performance, and encounter—helped inspire projects including Baltimore’s revitalized Inner Harbor.

Chip Chip 4/28/26 Chip Chip 4/28/26

Anastasia Sukhoroslova

Anastasia Sukhoroslova is a Berlin-based urbanist, community builder, and founder and CEO of All Things Urban, a global platform connecting urban professionals with ideas, opportunities, organizations, and one another. What began as an effort to connect a highly interdisciplinary field has grown into a community approaching 100,000 people around the world, spanning planning, mobility, sustainability, technology, design, and other forms of citymaking.

Chip Chip 3/23/26 Chip Chip 3/23/26

Jaime Izurieta

Jaime Izurieta is an architect, designer, urban development consultant, and founder of Storefront Mastery, where he works with downtown organizations and small businesses to rethink the relationship between storefronts, sidewalks, and thriving local economies.