Curitiba is located in southern Brazil and is the capital of the state of Parana. In the industrial age, Curitiba was a trading and processing Centre for agricultural and livestock products such as tea, coffee, tobacco, corn and soybeans. After World War II, Curitiba's industry and economy developed rapidly, and the size of the city expanded. However, various social and environmental problems such as congestion, transportation, unemployment and environmental pollution seriously showed up and hindered the modernization of the city.

To solve the city's problems, Curitiba, led by the third mayor, Jaime Lerner, embarked on a comprehensive urban reform. The social and environmental problems hindering urban development have been solved by rational urban development planing, construction and improvement of public transportation system, improvement of infrastructure and the comprehensive management of the environment and some other measures. Curitiba was the only city in a developing country that was named by the United Nations as the "Best City for Living" (the other four cities were Vancouver, Paris, Rome, and Sydney). In 1994, it was recommended as a model city for public transport by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. In 2012, Curitiba won the Global Green City Award at the Rio Earth Summit. Good ecological environment and social order provide a good support for Curitiba's development of the creative economy, and in 2014 it was awarded "City of Design" by UNESCO and became a member of the Creative Cities Network. 

1. First-class Urban Planning and Powerful Leadership

Alfred Agache, a French expert, formulated the first City Master Plan for Curitiba in 1943. Based on the problem that Curitiba's transportation will be plagued by cars in the future, the Plan applied the plan model of Paris, took the old downtown at the core, used a combination of ring roads and radial roads to deal with problems in urban traffic in order to keep pace with the city's expanding pace. However, it requires large-scale urban infrastructure construction and even the demolition of large numbers of ancient and precious historic buildings. Moreover, Curitiba is not a developed city and does not have the financial resources to implement the plan. In that case, what Curitiba really implemented was the 1965 Master Plan selected through a competition. The idea of this plan was that urban transportation should meet the needs of people to travel rather than cars. So, the core of the plan was to strengthen the central and radiation axis of the central urban, and the central urban area was taken as a transportation hub and terminal, and motor vehicles were partially prohibited in the city core area and historical building blocks which were changed into pedestrian blocks. And the convenience of car travel is reduced to a secondary location. 

The key to the implementation of Curitiba's urban planning was Jaime Lerner, who was elected mayor in 1971. Lerner was an architect who served as the dean of the Curitiba Research and Urban Plan Institute. After being elected mayor, he challenged traditional thinking and ventured into new experiments in urban planning. At that time, most Brazilian cities were building expressways and flyovers to facilitate cars. The idea of "bigger is better" was so prevalent that proposals to limit the development of cars were seen as leftist, while Lerner insisted on putting car travel on the back burner in urban planning practices, and his decision was proved farsighted. During his tenure, Lerner led the city reform in all aspects, and urban progress and development were highly recognized by citizens. In 2010, Time magazine named the mayor "one of the most influential thinkers in the world".

2. Build an Efficient and Perfect Urban Transportation System

Efficient transport systems are critical to the development of cities.

Therefore, Curitiba's public transport system was the main reason why it can be the best city for living. Curitiba's public transport system, similar to the surface metro, is a very complete and diversified network and service system. Lerner proposed the Integrated Transit Network concept to solve urban traffic problems. From 1974 to 1994, the average annual passenger flow rate of the integrated public transport system was 15%, which was three to four times of the population growth rate, and the proportion of public transport in commuter travel increased from 8% to 70%. At present, the Integrated Bus Network in Curitiba consists of 390 routes and 2,000 vehicles, with more than 2.1 million passengers per day, of which 490,000 are from vicinities of Grand Curitiba. The 390 routes cover 1,100km of roads in Curitiba and have a daily mileage of 38,000km.

The key to Curitiba's integrated bus network system is its original Trinary Road System, which consists of three parallel roads leading to the city centre and three parallel roads leaving the city centre, namely,the BRT dedicated lane, the auxiliary lane, and the high-capacity oneway lane. The three roads are parallel to each other, with the BRT dedicated lanes located in the middle, connecting the city centre and outlyingareas. The auxiliary lane is near high-rise buildings on the right side, which travels in the same direction as the BRT lane, allowing different vehicles to pass through. The high-capacity one-way lane is located one block away at the boundary of the structural axis line with a direct express line, with an average operating speed of 32 km/h. Buses on the BRT dedicated lane stop at each bus stop, with an average operating speed of only 20 km/h. This unique Curitiba innovation embodies the essence of the integration of public transport, urban roads and land use.

Fig. 28 Curitiba's Bus System

3. Promote the Concept of Urban Greening and Sustainable Development all around

Curitiba is one of the cities with highest green space in the world, with several times the amount of green space per capita recommended by the United Nations, and there are three of the most effective measures implemented in the process of promoting urban greening and sustainable development.

First, increase the area of urban greening. Curitiba has nine forest areas and more than 200 free parks which were built under the support of government. At that time, the city government introduced a policy of providing free green space for conservation development by immigrant communities from different countries, which attracted many designers to participate in the process. In addition to parks, both sides of streets, neighborhoods and other urban public spaces were also covered with green plants and grass.

Second, raise the awareness of environmental protection of the residents and carry out ecological literacy education and related activities all round. For example, popularize environmental protection concepts to children through school and textbooks, vigorously advocate environmental protection concepts, low-carbon travel and low-carbon life with full use of television, radio, newspapers, the Internet and other media, and introduce prescribes that taxi drivers can get license only if they finish environmental protectionrelated courses and obtain a certificate of completion. Now, the concept of environmental protection has penetrated into every aspect of people's lives, and the whole city’s environmental protection atmosphere is very strong.

Third, carry out social welfare environmental protection projects. Curitiba has hundreds of social welfare projects, and the most representative one was a garbage purchase project called "garbage that it is not garbage". Its main content was that the municipal government used bus coupons to buy classified recyclable garbage and attracted people to initiatively take their garbage to the nearest place to the garbage truck. This measure not only increased citizen’s participation and allowed poor residents to use convenient public transportation, but also contributed to reducing urban garbage and increasing garbage collection and reuse. Later, in response to the problem of a plethora of cabbages in urban area, Curitiba upgraded the "garbage purchase project" and launched the Green Exchange Programme, in which citizens traded recyclable garbage for food. This initiative has continued to this day because of its combination of protection of the environment, the fight against hunger and the eradication of poverty.

Fig. 29 Urban greening in Curitiba

4. Cultural Collision Inspires the Prosperity of Creative IndustryIn the 19th century, immigrants from Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Italy began to settle in Curitiba, making it an inclusive and multicultural city. Rich culture and resources and the collision of different cultures stimulated the development and prosperity of local music, food, drama, design and other creative industries. Currently, Curitiba has 98 museums, 55 higher education institutions and 15 cultural training centres26.

The Fundação Cultural de Curitiba (FCC) plays a huge role in the field of artistic development. Founded in 1973, the Foundation managed the development of the city's various arts industries, including film, dance, literature, music, cultural heritage, theatre, etc., and formulated cultural development plans and policies, carried out artistic activities and cultural popularization activities, and established cultural awards. In addition, Curitiba encourages to apply the idea in all aspects. In 2016, Curitiba launched the "Concurso Curitiba Economia Criativa", including creative areas such as video games and design; in 2017, it established the Centro de Agricultura Urbana e Economia Criativa which encouraged to apply the creative thinking to agriculture and sustainable urban development; and in 2019, the Smart City Expo Curitiba was held to explore how to use creative measures to solve urban development problems.

Curitiba has a pool of artists and creative talents, with outstanding urban innovation and creativity. During the urban renewal process, designers created a number of new and distinctive buildings and characterized blocks in the city. For example, Rua das Flores was a crowded street previously, but was transformed into a stylish and avantgarde commercial pedestrian street within 72 hours. And the Teatro Paiol, which mainly promotes traditional Brazilian music, was transformed from an abandoned arsenal. At the same time, Curitiba hosts many major cultural and creative events each year, including Latin America's most influential "Bienal de Curitiba", the Street of Styles - Encontro Internacional de Graffiti em Curitiba which facing the whole world, etc.

Because of the influence of geography, population, religion and other elements, each city has faced different development dilemmas in the development. Many cities that had suffered development stagnation because of declining industries manage to transform industrial structure through developing creative economy and ultimately promote urban renewal. For a city with a long history and rich cultural heritage, the creative economy of tourism, art and so on has also gradually become an effective means to promote urban development and protect cultural heritage. In backward areas, the creative economy based on handicrafts can effectively address gender inequality, social employment and other problems. In multi-ethnic areas, the creative economy, because of its tolerance and absorption of multiculturalism, can invisibly promote racial understanding and social equity. At the same time, the creative economy has the characteristics of energy saving and pollution-free, so the development of creative economy can improve the ecological environment, reduce waste of resources, and build a livable city. Developing rapidly around the world, the creative economy’s influence on the city is becoming more and more extensive, and different economic forms can use creativity to promote industrial upgrading and sustainable development of the city.