We often talk about top-down or bottom-up approaches. But if cities today don't function as well as they could, it's not because there is a lack of strategy or participation. It is because the intermediate level that connects them is missing. What we call urban mediation. What does it mean? It is not a third "method" between the two. It's a different way to understand how cities work: • the central plane produces direction and context • the local level produces experience and