September 1-6, 2012 · Naples, Italy
The participation of the Design and Development Program (D&D) at the VI World Urban Forum, organized by UN Habitat, includes:
- A panel presentation “Design and Development: Anticipating the Future of Bangkok, Buenos Aires, and New York”, by The New School, Chulongkorn University, and the University of Buenos Aires;
- A side event on the Global Urban Futures Program of the New School;
- A media event presenting Margarita Gutman’s book Buenos Aires: El Poder de la Anticipación;
- Daily seminar discussions in a booth organized by the New School in which the three universities will be represented with visual materials, projects, and publications;
- A workshop meeting on Urban Futures organized by the Research and Policy Branch of UN Habitat.
Panel presentation: Anticipating the Future of Bangkok, Buenos Aires and New York
This Networking Event featured cross-disciplinary speakers from each city was discussed the innovative process of developing new urban knowledge(s) to influence and build inclusive and resilient urban futures in the global North and South.
The D&D Program links three fields: design, social science, and history, in order to more fully understand urban contexts and to develop city-specific solutions for the future. It focuses on three central questions for urban planning: climate change, inclusion, and quality of urban life. Strengthening urban resilience requires new and inter-connected approaches to provision of urban infrastructures, renewable energy, and environmental management.
Each challenge to the urban future has deep historical roots in patterns of urban growth and forms of professional practice. They are reflected in cumulative inequalities, forms of rupture and differences, dividing spatial forms, economies, and social lives. The historical component must be understood as the foundation of dynamic patterns of transformation. Acknowledging the linkages between these forms of knowledge is a first step towards identifying new solutions.
The three cities are grappling with environmental threats and deep patterns of exclusion amidst efforts to improve knowledge, management, and the quality of life. Through comparative, cross-disciplinary analysis, the D&D identifies new approaches to building knowledge and identifying solutions.
The Design & Development Program
A collaborative, multi-disciplinary team of scholar-practitioners from The New School, NYC, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, and University of Buenos Aires, identify new ways of anticipating urban futures. Unconnected urban knowledge(s) from different disciplines contribute to unconnected policies and partial solutions. Design, social science, and history can be combined to develop city-specific innovative proposals for the future, focusing on climate change, inclusion, and quality of urban life.
Populations, economies, and environments of all countries are increasingly urban as cities are the loci of economic growth and productivity, as well as sites of poverty and inequality. Knowledge of the city has been rooted in different disciplines and forms of practice, from architecture to sociology to environmental science, with the many forms of urban knowledge built on different concepts and languages. Rarely brought together, unconnected urban knowledge(s) contribute to unconnected policies and partial solutions, undermining the reinforcement of sustainability.
The World Urban Forum
The World Urban Forum was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing problems facing the world today: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies.
In the space of a few short years, the Forum has turned into the world’s premier conference on cities. Since the first meeting in Nairobi, Kenya in 2002, the Forum has grown in size and stature as it travelled to Barcelona in 2004, Vancouver 2006, Nanjing in 2008 and Rio de Janeiro in 2010.
The Forum is one of the most open and inclusive gatherings of its kind on the international stage. It brings together government leaders, ministers, mayors, diplomats, members of national, regional and international associations of local governments, non-governmental and community organizations, professionals, academics, grassroots women’s organizations, youth and slum dwellers groups as partners working for better cities.
Participants at the panel presentation Design and Development:
Anticipating the Future of Bangkok, Buenos Aires and New York
Chair:
Margarita Gutman, Associate Professor, The New School, New York; Profesor Consulta Titular, Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
Panelists:
William Morrish, Dean, School of Constructed Environments, Parsons The New School for Design, New York
Preechaya Sittipunt, Dean, INDA, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
Adriana Clemente, Vice Dean of the Facultad de Sciencias Sociales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
Discussants:
Ariel Misuraca, Secretary General, Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
Robert Buckley, Senior Fellow, The New School for Public Engagement, New York; Former Managing Director, Rockefeller Foundation; Former World Bank Senior Advisor
Brian McGrath, Associate Professor of Architecture, Research Chair in Urban Design at Parsons The New School for Design. Founder and principal of Urban-Interface, LLC
The delegations to the World Urban Forum
Buenos Aires Delegation
Adriana Clemente, Vice Dean of the Facultad de Sciencias Sociales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
Javier Fernández Castro, Professor and Architect, FADU, UBA
Mónica Lacarrieu, Professor of Anthropology, FCS, UBA
Carolina Mera, Sociology, Professor, Director of Research of School of Social Science, FCS, UBA
Ariel Misuraca, Professor, Architect, Secretary General, FADU, UBA
Ariel Carlos Pradelli, Secretario Operatativo, FADU, UBA
Juan Pablo Scaglia, Associate Professor, Architect, FADU, UBA
Ileana Versace, Assistant Professor, FADU, UBA
Bangkok Delegation
Bundit Chulasai, Dean, School of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University
Scott Drake, INDA, Chulalongkorn University
Pirasri Poyatong, Professor, Chulalongkorn University
Preechaya Sittipunt, Director, INDA, Chulalongkorn University
New York Delegation
Robert Buckley, Senior Fellow, The New School for Public Engagement, New York; Former Managing Director, Rockefeller Foundation; Former World Bank Senior Advisor
Michael Cohen, Director of The Observatory on Latin America, Directory of the Graduate Program in International Affairs, The New School
Mandy Goodgoll, Coordinator, The Observatory on Latin America, The New School
Margarita Gutman, Professor, FADU UBA & Associate Professor, The New School
Brian McGrath, Associate Professor of Architecture, Research Chair in Urban Design at Parsons The New School for Design. Founder and principal of Urban-Interface, LLC
William Morrish, Dean of the School of Constructed Environments, Parsons The New School for Design
Read more about the Design and Development Program
