City Space Architecture meets the 10th World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi
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City Space Architecture has been selected to be an exhibitor at the 10th World Urban Forum that will take place on 8-13 February 2020 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, convened by UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. The World Urban Forum (WUF) was established in 2001 by the United Nations to address one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies. The Forum is a high level, open and inclusive platform. This is the first time that an Arab country hosts the world’s most important conference on cities and human settlements. The theme of WUF10 in Abu Dhabi is 'Cities of Opportunities: Connecting Culture and Innovation'.
City Space Architecture is partnering with 16 global institutions to promote the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, with a specific interest on target 11.7 - By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities.
Our participation at the 10th World Urban Forum is the result of the global campaign we started in August 2019 to support public space, inviting global stakeholders to join forces and work together.
Our partner organizations at WUF10 are: The Chinese University of Hong Kong / Healthbridge Foundation of Canada / Block by Block / Project for Public Spaces / University of Auckland / Columbia University / Federal University of Rio de Janeiro / Auckland City Council / KTH Centre for the the Future of Places / IHC Global / Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization / Sustasis Foundation / Global Utmaning / Public Space Research Group (PSRG) / Ukrainian City and Regional Planning Research Center / General Assembly of Partners (GAP) Older Persons.
The title of our exhibition is: PUBLIC SPACE IS VITAL FOR AN EQUITABLE FUTURE. We are highlighting the following keywords, in regard to public space: care, belonging, inclusion, diversity, innovation, culture, safety, prosperity, health, well-being, universal accessibility, entrepreneurship.
With our exhibition we want to have an impact on local governments and policy makers, we want to push them to include public space as a priority in their urban agenda.
The official opening of our exhibition space is on Saturday February 8 at 12pm.
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Follow daily updates of activities at our exhibition space on our Facebook event.
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In addition, our President Luisa Bravo will coordinate a side event at the Urban Library, promoted in collaboration with UN-Habitat, RMIT University and KTH Center for the Future of Places, to present our successful The Journal of Public Space. In less than five years, and with more than ten already published issues, The Journal of Public Space has attracted global interest, engaging more than 200 authors from more than 30 countries, selected after a highly qualified double blind peer review process. The side event is intended to discuss the complexity of public space by presenting several published special issues and to give an overview on future directions, in terms of planned strategies to improve quality, inclusivity and impact, together with partnerships with Universities and Institutions for special issues. Follow the side event on Facebook.
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In 2018 at the 9th World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur we were selected as exhibitors in order to promote contents on public space. In our exhibition space we promoted the exhibition 'We the people, We the pubic space', that was curated by our President Luisa Bravo, and developed in collaboration with the Queensland University of Technology (Australia), The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Auckland (New Zealand) and Thammasat University (Thailand).
We interviewed a significant number of academic scholars, professionals and activists, actively engaged in the process of implementation of the New Urban Agenda adopted at the Habitat III conference in Quito in 2016. They were asked to explain why public space matters.
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INTERVIEWS at WUF9. In order of appearance:
- the curator Luisa Bravo, City Space Architecture, Italy
- Mirko Guaralda, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
- Valerio Francia, City Space Architecture, Italy
- Anna Erlandson, Block by Block, Sweden
- Circe Gama Monteiro, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil
- Costanza Pera, Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation, Italy
- David A. Sagita, UCLG - United Cities and Local Governments, Asia Pacific
- Ethan Kent, Project for Public Spaces, USA
- Francesco Rossini, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- Gini Lee, University of Melbourne, Australia
- Gregory John Budworth, Compass Housing, Australia
- Greg M Ews, Urban Synergies Group, Australia
- Hendrik Tieben, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- Jarunee Pimonsathean, Thammasat University, Thailand
- Judith Hermanson, IHC Global, USA
- Katherine Kline, GAP - General Assembly of Partners, Older Persons, USA
- Kevin Hsu, Stanford University, USA
- Lance Jay Brown, Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization, USA
- Laura Petrella Kitio, UN-Habitat, Kenya
- Lorenzo Petrillo, LOPELAB, Singapore
- Małgorzata Hanzl, ISOCARP - International Society of City and Regional Planners
- Margarita Greene, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile
- Michael West Mehaffy, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
- Nor Hayati, University of Malaya, Malaysia
- Pietro Garau, National Institute of Urbanism, Italy
- Robert Wong, Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council, Hong Kong
- Setha Low, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA
- Simone d'Antonio, ANCI - Italian Association of Cities and Municipalities, Italy
- Tarun Sharma, Nagrika, India
- Teresa Boccia, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
- Thozamile Botha, Housing Development Agency, South Africa
- Vincent Kitio, UN-Habitat, Kenya
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