ClairCity set out to ask citizens across Europe a simple but profound question: how do you want to live, work and travel in the future? Their goal was to understand public priorities and co-design pathways towards cleaner air and lower carbon emissions.
A future with clean air
Air pollution contributes to one in eight premature deaths globally. It disproportionately affects children and older people, and remains one of the most urgent urban health challenges. As part of the €5.2m Horizon 2020 programme, ClairCity brought together researchers, policymakers and thousands of citizens across six European regions to identify local actions for a sustainable, low-pollution future.
A multilingual website
Working with the research team at the University of the West of England (UWE), we designed and developed a multilingual website capable of supporting the project’s ambitious scientific, civic and communications goals.
Our role was not simply to build a website, but to create a flexible digital platform that could:
- Communicate complex research to diverse audiences
- Operate seamlessly across multiple languages and regions
- Support ongoing data collection and public engagement
- Present findings in an accessible, visually coherent way
To achieve this, we worked closely with UWE to streamline content architecture, structuring information so both policymakers and the public could easily navigate research outputs, tools and activities. The platform supports contributions from six city regions — Bristol, Amsterdam, Aveiro, Ljubljana, Sosnowiec and Liguria — each with distinct cultural and linguistic needs.
From a technical perspective, we implemented a robust multilingual framework with language-specific content management, region-based routing and scalable page templates to accommodate the evolving nature of Horizon 2020 research outputs. The system was engineered to be easily maintained by a distributed team of academics and outreach coordinators, despite varied levels of digital experience.
We also developed a bespoke illustrative style and a suite of regionally inspired illustrations to give the project a cohesive visual identity. These assets helped translate abstract air-quality concepts into engaging, human-centred storytelling.
