Entrance of QUT Campus Gardens Point, Brisbane, Australia. Picture by Luisa Bravo.

.

We are extremely glad to announce that our President Luisa Bravo is the recipient of the 2018 Australia Award Endeavor Executive Fellowship, a prestigious grant fully funded by the Australian Government, Department of Education and Training. She is the only Italian among 93 awarded candidates from 25 countries. She will be working for the next four months at QUT (Queensland University of Technology) in Brisbane, developing a research-based professional development on 'public space, social entrepreneurship and smart communities' at the Urban Informatics Research Group, which is a pioneer institution on transdisciplinary research and practice, placed at the intersection of people, place and technology; she will explore how the digital dimension is facilitating people networks, and how it can effectively promote an human-centred approach in the design of public spaces.
The Urban Informatics Research Group is part of the QUT Design Lab, which supports transdisciplinary collaborations that result in tangible impact and engagement, acting as a hub and home for a diverse team of academics, research students, and industry professionals,  transferring knowledge and technology into beneficial applications for industry and society.

Our President received a congratulation letter from the Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham, Minister for Education and Training, Senator for South Australia, for being selected. In this letter the Senator wrote: "The Australia Award Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowsips is a prestigious program offered by the Australian government to support high-achieving individuals to undertake study, research and professional development overseas and gain international experience. Your selection for an Endeavour Fellowship recognises your commitment to outstanding achievement and role as an education ambassador for Australia. Congratulation on joining a selected group of exceptional individuals".

For us at City Space Architecture this Australia Award is a very important recognition of our efforts throughout the past 5 years of activities, in networking events, creative projects, academic conferences, research workshops and seminars, aimed at expanding the discussion on public space from academia to industry, professional practice and civil society, through a transdiciplinary approach involving art and architecture.

Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

.

City Space Architecture has been selected to be part of the upcoming Ninth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF9), taking place on 7-13 February 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, convened by UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. This ninth session has been recognized by the General Assembly resolution 70/210 as the first session to have a thematic focus on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) adopted at Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Development, held in Quito, Ecuador, in 2016.
City Space Architecture is among accredited stakeholders and will have an exhibition space at the main venue of the Forum, at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, besides the Petronas Towers. The title of our exhibition is 'We the people, We the public Space', promoted 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). The curators of the exhibition are our President Luisa Bravo and our Honorary Member Mirko Guaralda, in collaboration with our Honorary Members Hendrik Tieben and Manfredo Manfredini, and with Winyu Ardrugsa and Jarunee Pimonsathean from UDDI Thammasat University. The organizational manager of our exhibition space is our Founding Member Valerio Francia. We will showcase our international projects on public space, including our successful The Journal of Public Space, and we will spread information about our networking activities and events with global partners, engaging more people on our campaign 'Stand up for Public Space!', that we launched at the Habitat III conference in Quito. We are among 200 selected exhibitors from 50 countries!
We will also coordinate a networking event, the proposal we submitted last November in response to the WUF call, has been selected by the WUF Secretariat, entitled 'We the public space: strategies to deal with inequalities in order to achieve inclusive and sustainable urban environments', taking place at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, on Sunday 11 February 2018, 3.00-5.00pm, room 402.

Our President Luisa Bravo will be also engaged in multiple events at WUF9, including a side event promoted by IHC Global at Next City World Stage, a training event promoted by UCLG ASPAC, a networking event promoted by General Assembly of Partners (GAP) Older Persons, a side event promoted by Urban Synergies Group, a networking event promoted by University of Auckland, a side event promoted by KTH Centre for the Future of Places, a side event promoted by the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization (CSU) and a networking event promoted by Nagrika. 

Follow City Space Architecture's activities at WUF9 in Kuala Lumpur on our social media, follow the hashtag: #wethepeople #wethepublicspace #standupforpublicspace #jps
Daily updates also on Facebook, follow the event: City Space Architecture at WUF9 and open the tab 'About discussion' to see daily reports of our activities.
A full list of our events is available at: www.cityspacearchitecture.org/wuf9.

Official hashtags of WUF9: #wuf9 #cities2030 #cities4all #newurbanagenda #publicspaceKL

. 

A 46 segment × 3 exposure HDR panorama of the Hong Kong night skyline. Taken from Lugard Road at Victoria Peak, Hong Kong. Author Base64, retouched by CarolSpears.

.

We are extremely proud to be among partner organizations of the 10th IFoU - International Forum on Urbanism conference “The Entrepreneurial City”, that will take place at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, at the Yasumoto International Academic Park, on December 14-16, 2017. Our President Luisa Bravo is part of the Conference Committee and she will deliver a keynote speech on December 16 in the afternoon, before the closing ceremony, on the social entrepreneuralism of City Space Architecture and the impact our work is having at the global level through a series of projects and events, with a particular reference to The Journal of Public Space, that we jointly established with the Queensland University of Technology, in partnership with UN-Habitat, the United Nations Programme on Cities and Human Settlements.
IFoU is a network of universities, research institutes and knowledge centers with the task to strengthen the international collaboration in the field of Urbanism. Members of IFoU are academic institutions that are involved in research and education in the field of planning, design and management of the built environment. IFoU was established in 2004 and today encompasses twenty-three distinguished universities in Asia, Europe and South America.
After nine successful conferences, in Beijing (2006), Delft (2007), Taipei (2008), Delft (2009), Singapore (2011), Barcelona (2012), Tainan (2013), Incheon (2015) and Buenos Aires (2016), the 10th conference is inviting international planners and designers to deliberate on theories, design and practices related to “The Entrepreneurial City”. This theme evolved in discussions during the run-up to the United Nations Habitat III Conference in Quito (2016). One year after nearly 170 countries adopted the UN-Habitat New Urban Agenda. The question remains how its ambitious goals can be implemented. One of the key goals of the New Urban Agenda is to achieve a fairer share of the prosperity, which is brought by urbanization. For this to happen, urban design, planning and policies need to find ways how in the current socio-political and economic environment opportunities for socially minded and innovative entrepreneurs can be created. At the conference, speakers from 21 countries will investigate these and related questions. We are confident that presentations and following discussions will motivate new initiatives to make our cities more inclusive and prosperous.

United Nations Headquarters in New York City, view from Roosevelt Island. Picture by Neptuul, Wikimedia Commons.

..

After the Habitat III Conference on Housing and Sustainable Development in Quito (Ecuador, October 2016) and the 26th Governing Council of UN-Habitat in Nairobi (Kenya, May 2017) City Space Architecture will be among stakholders engaged in the upcoming High Level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly at the Headquarters in New York City, that will take place on September 5-6. Our President Dr Luisa Bravo has been selected to attend this meeting by a Committee appointed by UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS).
At the Habitat III Conference UN Member States adopted the New Urban Agenda, setting a new global standard for sustainable urban development, intended to rethink how we plan, manage and live in cities. To maintain momentum around the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and to reflect on the positioning of UN-Habitat in that regard, the President of the UN General Assembly H.E. Mr. Peter Thomson convenes in New York City a two-day high-level meeting to discuss best practices and success stories in relation to the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. It will also address the measures contained in the Report from the Secretary General’s Independent Panel to Assess, Enhance Effectiveness of UN-Habitat after Adoption of New Urban Agenda, which was published at the beginning of August 2017.

.
The meeting will consist of an opening segment, panel discussions and a plenary debate. Member states will have an opportunity to engage with members of the Secretary General’s Independent Assessment Panel as well as representatives of local and municipal authorities, mayors, civil society, academia, members of the UN system.
City Space Architecture will address the importance of public space as a key element in sustainable urban development and will interact with other global stakeholders and UN bodies to engage them in the promotion of public space culture.

.
The program of the event is available at this link.

.

.

At the Habitat III Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development held in Quito, Ecuador (2016), our President Luisa Bravo was selected among several scholars all over the world to give a lecture, to be included in the season 4 of UN Habitat Global Urban Lectures, a free resource of video lectures open to use for academic, professional or personal purposes.
The lecture is finally published! This is a great opportunity for us to address public space as one of the most relevant, yet somehow still neglected, topics for sustainable urban development.
City Space Architecture wants to spread awareness on the importance of public space in cities. Join us, join our global campaign, Stand up for Public Space! - www.standupforpublicspace.org

The synopsis of the lecture and a list of reading materials are available here: https://unhabitat.org/stand-up-for-public-space-luisa-bravo/

With over 100,000 views, UN Habitat Global Urban Lectures are the most viewed videos of UN Habitat. Every 15 min video lecture documents sustainable urban development knowledge of urban experts associated with UN Habitat and shares it across UN Habitat’s wide partner base across the globe. These lectures are part of Habitat UNI, which is UN Habitat’s partnership with universities worldwide. UNI (previously HPUI – Habitat Partner University Initiative) was introduced as a means of promoting cooperation between UN Habitat and institutions of higher education, as well as facilitating exchange and cooperation among universities globally. UNI promotes universities becoming closer partners of cities, actively engaged in problem solving, thus closing the gap between academia and practice and encouraging collaborative learning. UNI promotes and facilitates the dissemination of educational and research products of its members and involve scholars, researchers and students in a number of activities. The collaborations aspire to create the next generation of urban leaders, managers, researchers and practitioners. UN Habitat acts as a catalyst, facilitating partnerships between universities and other agenda partners.

For more info regarding UNI Habitat: http://uni.unhabitat.org/