Urban Conflict Resolution through Planning and Design
Day / Time Friday, June 23rd / 08:30 - 10:30
Event Description
A 30 minutes PowerPoint presentation will focus on urban design and planning cases in Brazil, Cuba, India, Kenya, Kosovo, Morocco, Pakistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. The presentation, followed by comments by invited respondents, will stimulate an open debate on the potential of space as a resource, register, negotiating mechanism and generator of development. This presentation will highlight the importance of properly designed and projected space in relation to post-disaster and conflict reconstruction, poverty reduction and sustainable development. Questions to be debated include: How is space a major resource in urban contexts? How does the shape of the city contribute to urban sustainability? Can natural and/or human disasters be seen as an opportunity for urban redevelopment? How does the way cities are planned influence the local economy? What is the role of urban planners in a context of slum upgrading? And how can urban projects mobilize urban stakeholders around a common objective?
Session Language
English
Speakers
Prof. André Loeckx, Bruno De Meulder, Kelly Shannon
Respondents: Raquel Rolnik (Ministry of Cities, Brazil ); Arif Hasan ( Karachi, Pakistan )
Respondents: Anna Rubbo ( University of Sydney ); Modjeh Baratloo ( Columbia University )
Host Organization
Department of Architecture, Urban Design and Planning, Catholic University of Leuven
Host Organization Description
The Post Graduate Center for Human Settlements, Urbanism and Strategic Planning is within the Department of Architecture, Urbanism and Regional Planning of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium . Within the scope of education, the center offers a one-year Master of Human Settlements) which addresses rapid urbanization in the developing world and contemporary urban transformation within the scope of sustainable development and a two-year Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning) which focuses on a critical understanding of contemporary conditions of cities and urban regions. Both programs develop innovative concepts and strategies for qualitative interventions through design, planning and policy-making. In terms of research, through projects such as LA21 with UN-Habitat(work in Essaouira, Morocco; Nakuru, Kenya; Vinh, Vietnam; Bayamo, Cuba)and EU Asia-Urbs/Link (work in Matara, Sri Lanka and Karachi, Pakistan), the center develops its unremitting interest in processes of development and modernization and the specific conditions and cultures that foster them. Its research centers upon how urbanism and urbanization affect one another. The exploration is always design-oriented - design as a tool of analysis and of sustainable development.
Website
Report
Title of Event:
Date and time of the session: |
Urban Conflict Resolution through Planning and Design Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium Friday June 23 rd 2006, 8.30-10.30 |
|
|
2. What were the core issues identified in your event as they relate to the theme and sub-themes of WUFIII? The network session focused on the city itself - its streets, fabrics, spaces, infrastructures, neighbourhoods, wastelands - and the numerous conflicts that arise from crisis situations to everyday life contexts. The session stressed the spatial dimension of cities - where built space is a resource that can be cultivated or wasted, is a register of development, is a core issue of sustainability. Urban places, urban life, urban history, urban development, urban sustainability are areas of contestation, conflict and contradiction. Urbanism and urban design can offer concepts, methods and practices to identify, reformulate and overcome these conflicts. |
|
3. What were the main points raised by panellists and participants in relation to these different issues? What new ideas have been generated as a result of the discussion? M. Balbo: How to bridge the gap from project to implementation? What can we identify as sustainability is various cultural contexts? T. Boddy: appreciated conviction of spatial strategies A Hasan: Types of project presented are becoming less common in today's world. In the South, there is powerful mix of politicians and developers whom overwhelm the needs of the poor. How to react as designers to this? Cities in Asia are anti-street, anti-mixed land use - how to reinstate such ideas? The nature of education of design professionals is megalomaniac - this has to be challenged. Paradigm of planning has changed not through projects, but through networks. |
|
4. What process steps have been identified in your event that could help turn ideas into operational reality? There is an urgent need to educate more qualified professionals planners that work with methods of design and have a high awareness of their political role. Academia plays an important role in developing concepts and projects through research that can then be brought to the table and turned into 'real' projects. |
|