Jonathan – Page 2 – Institute for Urban Excellence

4th +CityxChange Consortium Meeting

October 18-27th, 2021

On the 18th of October, the +CityxChange project kicks off its fourth consortium meeting. This time, the consortium meeting will be held over 1.5 weeks with a series of smaller sessions to share project updates and hearing the challenges and key learnings from each city. The meeting brings together all project partners including Lighthouse and Follower Cities.

The project is heading into its fourth year of the five-year project and focusing on the finalization and replication phase. With over 69 deliverables submitted and a significant number of milestones achieved, the project team is proud of the ongoing dedication and commitment, especially under extra-ordinary conditions over the last year and a half.

ISOCARP Institute will be sharing their updates and progress on their role in various work packages and integrating storytelling events to support city partners in their sessions.

Stay tuned for more information on how the consortium week unfolds.

Online workshop and conference: Mass Housing and Climate Change, Challenges and Solutions (EUD, Strelka KB, ISOCARP Institute and WUC)

Online Workshop and Conference: Mass Housing and Climate Change, Challenges and Solutions, organized by the EU Delegation to Russia, Strelka KB, ISOCARP Institute and the World Urban Campaign (UN-Habitat).

September 18-20, 2021

In Russia, approximately 70 million people live in mass housing units, the vast majority of which was built during the Soviet time, with little consideration for climate change and sustainability. This housing stock is in dire need of refurbishment today. However, Russia is not an exception. Mass housing units were erected both in Western and Eastern Europe in the second half of the 20th century, as well as on all continents. The stock of mass housing worldwide is so huge that it cannot be replaced in the foreseeable future for ecological, economic and social reasons; and it keeps on growing today. Mass housing units should be considered an opportunity for developers, architects and planners, as good solutions bear the potential to be reproduced worldwide. Their modernization could have a significant impact in the fight against climate change.

The EU Delegation to Russia, together with urban consultancy Strelka KB, ISOCARP Institute and the World Urban Campaign, are organizing both an online workshop (18-19/10) and an online conference (20/10) on the theme of mass housing regeneration in the context of climate change.

The practical workshop is designed to bring forward solutions to regenerate mass housing units in the context of climate change. Participants will have the opportunity to work on a theoretical case study using the actual data from four locations in the world.

The conference will bring professionals from the EU, UN-Habitat, ISOCARP, Strelka KB and others, who will share their experience on the challenges and solutions to address the inadequacy of mass housing in a changing climate. It will feature, among others:

– Didier Vancutsem, Director at the ISOCARP Institute

– Christophe Lalande, head of the housing division at UN-Habitat

– Hilmar von Lojewski, councillor at the German Association of Cities (Städtetag)

– Christophe Hutin, architect

– Michaela Kauer, Director of the Brussels Liaison Office of the City of Vienna and coordinator of the EU Urban Agenda Housing Partnership

– Ekaterina Maleeva, project director at Strelka KB

– Alexandra Chechetkina, managing director at Strelka KB

The results of this event will be further presented online at the COP-26 on November 10th.

To participate to the workshop, please register here:

MASS HOUSING AND CLIMATE CHANGE ONLINE WORKSHOP REGISTRATION (typeform.com)

To participate to the conference, please register here:

MASS HOUSING AND CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE REGISTRATION (typeform.com)

For further information, please find the link to the official website of the event:

Strelka KB: Masshousing and climate change. Challenges and solutions — Homepage (strelka-kb.com)

The project has been supported by the European Union Delegation in Russia.

JUSTNature Kick-Off Meeting

September 15-16, 2021

On the 15th September 2021, the JUSTNature project was officially kicked-off! JUSTNature is an EU-funded project under the Horizon 2020 framework which aims to support a just transition towards low-carbon cities through Nature-based Solutions (NbS). More information about the project can be found here.

The Kick-Off Meeting took place online over two days and brought together 19 European partners, including the ISOCARP Institute as well as public administrations, universities, and field experts. Together, the partners introduced the various components of the project and laid out the steps ahead for the coming months. The Kick-Off Meeting was facilitated by the project’s coordinator: EURAC (IT), who ensured fruitful discussions and provided interactive breaks for partners. The meeting also offered a platform for the project team to exchange and become better acquainted with one another.

The ISOCARP Institute took part in the Kick-Off Meeting and presented its upcoming contribution for communication and dissemination. As a partner of JUSTNature, it will also be involved in other tasks related to research on co-governance and cross-learning activities.

The Institute is excited to be a part of yet another interesting Horizon 2020 project. We are looking forward to the development of JUSTNature and a productive collaboration with the other project partners.

Urban Design Charrette Weifang China

Urban Design Charrette in Weifang (China)

August 3, 2021

Urban Design Charrette in Weifang China

The Design Planning Workshop occurred from 4th to 10th July 2021. ISOCARP Institute selected a team of 5 (five) international member-experts to visit Weifang and work together with SEU team of planners, designers and students, and to achieve high-level results aimed to be published in China and abroad in 2021.

SEU invited ISOCARP Institute to select a team of experts that assisted the team from SEU in the organization of the design, contributed to knowledge on urban design of the International City of Peace of Weifang through an urban design workshop.

While the organization team and technical experts of SEU coordinated the workshop organization in Weifang with the international experts, including the Chinese technical experts, the involvement of the Chinese students of the SEU, the accommodation, and on-site activities, the ISOCARP expert team attended and visited the site with the local experts, worked and created urban design solutions for the City of Weifang, delivering innovative urban solutions and urban visions for the Weifang international centre of Peace.

Together with the SEU team, the ISOCARP international experts developed design goals for the Ledaoyuan historical and cultural area, such as building the Ledaoyuan historical and cultural area into an Asian pivot for international humanitarianism and improve the international humanitarian network, reshaping the historical features of Ledaoyuan, promoting the overall coordination of the Ledaoyuan historical and cultural area and its surrounding area, and realizing the harmonious coexistence of history and existing.

The international team successfully developed a renewal design and implementation path for the Ledaoyuan historical and cultural area that can be implemented. The findings were presented to the City of Weifang on the last day of the workshop, together with urban design solutions and recommendations.

We thank the ISOCARP team members Björn von Randow, Alex Camprubi, Christian Nolf, Thomas Fritzsche and Christian Hartmann for their attendance, contributions and highly appreciated ideas.

Click here to download and read the final report of the workshop.

Urban Thinkers Campus “Climate Adaptation in Challenging Environments in the MENA Region”

Urban Thinkers Campus “Climate Adaptation in Challenging Environments in the MENA Region”

UTC Objective: The main objective of this UTC is to discuss and explore solutions that are being tested to ameliorate the future of urban living conditions. The Campus explored and discussed solutions on how cities can better respond to changing climate conditions, using Dubai as an example of a city which due to its demanding climate conditions, has from the beginning had to plan in ways, which can offer valuable best practices to urban planners around the world.

The session lasted 3 hours and was via Zoom. We aimed to make this session as interactive and inclusive as it is possible.

Check out the agenda to learn more!

See the recording of the session here:

UTC Background: ISOCARP Institute together with Middle East Cities Center at the American University in Dubai University and other partners organized on the 22^nd of June 2021 the UTC on Hot Cities in the MENA region. According to the latest IPCC simulations, the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) has been identified as a hotspot for future temperature changes due to its arid environmental conditions. Heat extremes are expected to increase significantly in both frequency and intensity across the MENA region. Heatwaves will occur for 80 days of the year by 2050 and 118 days of the year by 2100. Combined with increased sandstorms associated with longer drought periods, predicted temperature rises would make large parts of the region uninhabitable. Extreme heat has been identified as a serious threat to human health, heightening an individuals’ susceptibility to exhaustion, heart attack and mortality.

Hot cities in the MENA region – with the reference to Dubai- are a current trend which will be highlighted and discussed during the UTC. Meanwhile we would like to expand the discussion on what other trends related to the Hot Cities trends are emerging? Among the main trends that we would like to touch upon and discuss possible solutions are: water scarcity, biodiversity loss, sea level rise, loss of coastal defence and storm surges.

Check out some screenshots from the session:

Final Session WAVE – Erasmus+ project on Water Areas Visions for Europe

The final session of the WAVE training took place last Friday 28th May 2021. The training, part of the Erasmus+ programme, aims at supporting and establishing partnerships with universities, NGOs, schools and other stakeholders to create integrated knowledge for sustainable landscapes in Europe.

The Erasmus+ program does not only encourages high education students to gain applied experience, but it also strengthens European universities’ collaboration, sharing knowledge, research, and education methods.

The final session was hosted by Ms. Ellen Fetzer from the School for Landscape Architecture, Environment, and Urban Planning at HfWU Nürtingen-Geislingen. With around 128 international participants, the last session concludes with the final presentation of goals and visions on water landscapes and visualizations on possible futures by the WAVE seminar participants.

The course introduced the Living Labs that will serve as a knowledge base for students and stakeholder engagement. The Living Labs are located in the partner cities in Constanta (RO), Bucharest (RO), Naples (IT), Tartu (EE), Brussels (BE), Freising (DE), and Nürtingen (GE).

The WAVE Erasmus+ project catalyzed the creation of a wide range of diverse perspectives on water landscapes. With the support of the ISOCARP Institute over the last two months, the project served as an insightful exercise to visualize and engage with the complexity of natural river patterns and water systems toward integrated nature-conscious strategies on the territory.

The Institute is eager and looking forward to the second generation of this project in the fall and hopes to build on the findings and research that emerged over the course of the last two months with the WAVE Erasmus+ Project.

ISOCARP Institute is now a proud partner of the New European Bauhaus initiative!

ISOCARP Institute is a proud partner of the New European Bauhaus initiative.

The New European Bauhaus initiative connects the European Green Deal to our living spaces. It calls on all Europeans to imagine and build together a sustainable and inclusive future that is beautiful for our eyes, minds, and souls.

The New European Bauhaus will:

Bring citizens, experts, businesses, and Institutions together and facilitate conversations about making tomorrow’s living spaces more affordable and accessible.

Mobilize designers, architects, engineers, scientists, students, and creative minds across disciplines to reimagine sustainable living in Europe and beyond.

Strive to improve the quality of our living experience. It will highlight the value of simplicity, functionality, and circularity of materials without compromising the need for comfort and attractiveness in our daily lives.

Provide financial support to innovative ideas and products through ad-hoc calls for proposals and through coordinated programs included in the Multi-Annual Financial Framework.

As a partner, ISOCARP Institute intends to enrich the activities of the NEB by deploying our leveraging capacity through capitalization, dissemination, and co-creation activities on a global level through the following:

Communicate, disseminate, share and amplify key messages of New European Bauhaus.

Co-creation with a wide range of global stakeholders across public, private, and civil society.

Mobilizing the vast network of ISOCARP.

Check out the New European Bauhaus website for more information

https://europa.eu/new-european-bauhaus/index_en

ISOCARP Institute cooperates with Maastricht University within the PREMIUM Honours Programme

Project Duration: January – May 2021

ISOCARP Institute is cooperating with Maastricht University within the PREMIUM Honours Programme project framework.

PREMIUM is Maastricht University’s Honours programme for high-performing, motivated master’s students. Once selected, students are grouped together in interdisciplinary teams and given a project to complete for a client from the (local) business or government sector under the guidance of a project mentor. Alongside their project, students receive individual coaching focused on personal competence development. Lastly, students attend several workshops to help cultivate valuable skills and knowledge to prepare them for the job market.

Within this framework ISOCARP Institute has provided a learning environment where students interact with a professional group at our office on the projects that are ran by the Institute, specifically +CityxChange.

Within +CityxChange, ISOCARP Institute is supporting 5 Follower Cities – Alba Iulia, Sestao, Smolyan, Písek and Võru in the development of their Bold CityVvision with fully integrated planning process, implementation roadmap, and guidelines for deployment, monitoring and continuous improvement of the process. Evidence-based data and insights will be used to make informed decisions on urban, technical, financial, and social aspects of its future, guided by the overarching goals and ethical standards as set in the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. The FCs will create well-integrated innovative strategies with realistic implementation roadmaps that support each other, use open innovation, avoid duplication of effort and costs and a reduction in the resources used for implementation.

The objective of the PREMIUM students for ISOCARP Institute is to develop a strategy for the analysis and interpretation of EU Urban Data, under the umbrella of +CityxChange project. The PREMIUM students are seeking to develop and if possible implement a strategy around citizen engagement, that would help Follower Cities kick start their Bold City Vision (Local strategy for Urban Sustainable Development). This strategy will reflect sustainable urban development and the inclusion of SDGs.

The end goal would be to provide ISOCARP with a communication platform to facilitate their communication with the municipal staff, as well as, the city-to-city communication. This project has a large design component, in which the PREMIUM students to engage in creative activities such as creating infographics and storytelling events for citizen engagement.

Five
students have been selected to participate in this cooperative programme
between ISOCARP Institute and Maastricht University: Norberto
Zamora, Monika
Mikolasjka, Sebastian
Meyer, Ane
Corrales Rodriguez and Justus
Langer.

Want to get
to know the student and the work that they are doing for ISOCARP Institute more
closely? Keep yourself updated through their Tumblr PREMIUM page! https://isocarp-premium.tumblr.com/