Urban development agency · Zagreb
Urban Factory helps cities change together with the people who live in them — from research and strategy to public spaces, transport and built results.
Directions
Festivals, forums and participatory processes that bring residents, experts, business and city teams to one table.
More about this direction: Engagement & EventsCity and territorial strategies, public transport and cycling networks, housing programmes — built to fit real budgets and real operators.
More about this direction: Strategic Planning & MobilityStreets, parks and public spaces designed together with the people who will use them — from concept to competition brief.
More about this direction: Urban Design & ArchitecturePublic sector
Urban Factory prepares strategic and analytical groundwork for cities, municipalities and regions — from work with residents and stakeholders to a project brief and an application for EU funds.
Public sector experienceSelected work
Rostov-on-Don · 2014–2023
How cycling became part of the transport system of Rostov-on-Don — from a city request and Urban Factory’s research with cyclists to a design tender, a city cycle network scheme and cycle lanes built in phases from 2021.
Projects
Rostov-on-Don · 2013–2023
A tram network concept — new lines and reconstruction of existing track — that informed the city’s tender documents and the 2023 programme of 119 km.
Projects
Zverevo · 2018–2019
A 3.1 ha boulevard designed together with residents: from first workshops to a complete design package handed over to the city.
Projects
Rostov-on-Don · 2017–2019
Bringing a neglected city river back into public life — a non-profit, an international partnership with INCITI / UFPE (Recife) and the First Mile of a linear park, opened in 2023.
Projects
Zverevo · 2018
A development strategy for a small mining town, written together with residents and adopted by the city council in December 2018.
Projects
Rostov-on-Don · 2013–2015
A city festival about public space, held from 2013 to 2015. It brought Rostov’s urban initiatives together for the first time, left behind a new public square and gave birth to Urban Factory.
ProjectsApproach
Urban Factory is an international urban development agency, founded in Rostov-on-Don in 2013 and based in Zagreb, Croatia, since 2020.
Urban Factory takes a project from research to a tender-ready brief and remains available as an adviser during implementation. The tram and cycling concepts for Rostov-on-Don went from first sketches to tender documents, and both projects went on to construction: cycle lanes have been built, and new tram track has been partly built.
Every project starts with the city as it is: data, history, people and the real resources at hand.
A clear idea that can be explained on one page and defended in any room.
Festivals, forums, workshops and media turn a concept into a goal the city shares.
The project is developed in detail — design, documentation and briefs for competitions and tenders — so it survives the hand-over.
After the brief is handed over, Urban Factory remains available as an adviser to the city and the contractors through construction and launch.
Every project starts and ends with the people who live in the place. Their knowledge is the main source.
Solutions that fit the real budget and the real operator. For Rostov-on-Don, Urban Factory proposed developing the existing tram network instead of a metro the city could not afford.
Urban Factory speaks the languages of city administrations, business, experts and residents — and helps them understand each other.
International experience goes into local projects, and local experience into international ones — from Rostov-on-Don to Recife and Zagreb.
Founder & CEO
Mihail founded Urban Factory in Rostov-on-Don in 2013, after more than a decade in real estate and development.
He initiated and led the agency’s key transport and planning projects — the Rostov tram network concept, the cycling programme for Rostov-on-Don, the Great Rostov agglomeration rail concept and the Socio-economic Development Strategy of the town of Zverevo to 2030 — and co-founded ANO Park Temernik and Urban Festival Rostov, where Urban Factory was born.
He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Urban Studies from The University of Manchester (joint programme with MSSES) and is enrolled in the postgraduate specialist study in Urban Transport (in progress) at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences in Zagreb.
Since 2020 he has led the agency from Zagreb, Croatia.
13+ years in urban and transport planning; before that 10+ years in real estate development
For projects that require it, Urban Factory works with a licensed transport engineer and with other specialists as the project needs.
Urban Factory began at Urban Festival Rostov — a city festival about public space in Rostov-on-Don, where the name and the idea of the agency first appeared.
Festivals and public-space projects grew into long-term work: a concept for the city tram network, a cycling concept, a modular micro-park and a bridge proposal for cyclists and pedestrians.
A development strategy adopted by a city council, a participatory boulevard design, an agglomeration rail concept and the revival of a city river — and a steady exchange with partners in Recife, Brazil.
The Rostov 300 expert platform was the agency’s last major project in Rostov-on-Don. In the same year it moved its headquarters to Zagreb, Croatia.
Urban Factory by MAVEK design works from Zagreb on urban strategy, mobility and public space with partners across Europe and beyond.
Geography
Founded in Rostov-on-Don in 2013, headquartered in Zagreb since 2020, with projects and partners from Recife to Yerevan.
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