URBAN SPACE 2: Via Villa Glori and ex Caffaro Adjacent Area

Caffaro in Brescia is synonymous with pollution. The Caffaro plant has been active since the beginning of the 20th century, producing chemical elements including PCB, which has contaminated vast tracts of land causing serious health problems such as a dramatic increase in cancer rates among the residents.

At the end of 2015, the plant will be definitively closed and with its closure the current occupants will stop performing certain procedures that prevent the pollution to reach the groundwater. Certainly, the closure of the plant and the future of the contaminated area will become yet again a highly debated topic in the local media. The group was asked to explore the possibility of redeveloping the site from a social point of view.

The students felt the need to explore how visible the issue of Caffaro is by investigating how much is known about the plant in its neighbourhood, where almost only migrants have settled.

Spatial Fragmentation

The group writes: “We engaged with the spatial experience of the site, noticing closed green parks, high-walled factory boundaries, unclear pollution warning signs as well as several community activity centres. We got a strong impression of fragmentation and a lack of a singular or coherent identity, spatially or socially. The large presence of migrants from multiple backgrounds, led us to wonder about their perception of Caffaro.

We believe engagement with local communities is essential to create common ground between actors involved. The key point of the interventions is to co-create knowledge of the factory to increase the sense of community by engaging local people in the development agenda.

Mapping Cultures and Languages

Sri adds “we mapped the languages spoken by those who live or work around the factory and we proposed to engage the migrants in co-producting knowledge about Caffaro.”

Rui: “we proposed a map that shows where native speakers willing to share information about the pollution are located.”

Group: “The map is made for visitors, existing residents and also new migrants. In cooperation with LDA, newly arrived refugees can find ambassadors of their language/culture to visit and hear stories about Caffaro. Not only does this allow them to be informed about the pollution from the beginning of their stay, but it also has the benefit of increasing their social network as it connects them with long-term residents that share their language.”

Having recognised that the existing multiple narratives – amongst which alarmism and denial, indifference and resilience – should be equally represented, a second proposal envisions the creation of ‘community wall paintings’; an activity in which existing residents are asked to decorate the brick walls that enclose Caffaro’s premises.

“Not only will this make the factory (and its story) visible to everyone who visits the area, but it will also bring different local groups and people together in collective activities”.

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Giulia Carabelli is the Graduate Teaching Assistant for the MSc BUDD programme. She joined the current MSc students on the BUDDcamp in February. Look out for reflections from the other 2 case studies on the blog tomorrow and Friday.

The BUDDCamp is a 3-day design workshop, part of the MSc Building and Urban Design for Development’s Urban Intervention Studio where students bring together theory and practice by working on the proposal of innovative design strategies for specific urban issues. For the fifth time, the BUDDCamp took place in Brescia (Italy) in collaboration with the Local Democracy Agency (LDA) Zavidovici, an organization working with refugees and asylum seekers in the city.

MSc Building and Urban Design for Development students have just returned from the annual BUDDCamp. Over the next four days we will be presenting a series of blogs that discuss what the students have been doing while away, alongside individual and collective reflections about their experiences and observations.

The BUDDCamp is a 3-day design workshop, part of the Urban Intervention Studio where students bring together theory and practice by working on the proposal of innovative design strategies for specific urban issues. For the fifth time, the BUDDCamp took place in Brescia (Italy) in collaboration with the Local Democracy Agency (LDA) Zavidovici, an organization working with refugees and asylum seekers in the city.

LDA proposed four different urban spaces to explore. Students worked in groups and had to develop small, low cost, ‘doable’ design strategies, paying special attention to the narrative, the understanding, the needs, and the aspirations of the refugees working with LDA and of the citizens living in the area where they intervened.

BRESCIA

Brescia is an extremely interesting urban laboratory. It is a small town with a population of less than 200,000 inhabitants where the effects of sudden economic transformations due to global and national crises have been accompanied by shifts in the makeup of the population.

In fact, an increasing number of immigrants have settled in the city, often creating various clashes and tensions. BUDD students were presented with a representative selection of these challenges in order to provide strategies and projects aimed to foster equality and social justice.

Surveys, interviews, focus groups, mapping and transect walks are few of the participatory activities that were undertaken to collectively understand and engage with the spatial and social experience of the sites.

The main outputs of this intensive action-research workshop were a range of design strategies aiming to maximise the potential of these places as catalysts of new social dynamics and development towards urban justice. Students had the opportunity to present their urban strategies to our hosts and to local practitioners and civil society groups thus creating a vibrant platform for sharing their visions and ideas.

URBAN SPACE 1: Abandoned Carabinieri Station in Flero Municipality

The group working on this case was confronted with the specificity of the periferia diffusa (sprawled periphery) and asked to work in the small municipality of Flero, just outside Brescia. Participants had to provide a vision for the decaying and unused “Carabinieri” station; an impressive concrete skeleton of a military station that remains unfinished and derelict.

There were two main challenges: the large scale of the abandoned structure and the fact that the building is partially immersed in a swamp, which has a negative effect on the wellbeing of the inhabitants (such as the invasion of rats and mosquitos).

Is it possible to look at these problems as opportunities?

Ana: “The shared impression among our group was that the municipality workers were very open and flexible for an input to create a vision for the structure that could provide for the well-being of the residents. However, the municipality didn’t seem to be very engaged in a dialogue with the residents themselves in discussing that vision.”

“So” – adds Jiaqi – “we started this program by initiating a dialogue with the local community to actively engage people in the process and to produce a portfolio of ideas”.

“As a result” – add Miro – “we came up with the concept of mixed-use. We developed the idea of creating a strategy that was demand-driven rather than supply-driven, which means that we encourage all kinds of private sectors, small businesses, and flexible activities to happen here in small units of the building”.

Principles for Regeneration

The group developed a set of principles for the regeneration of the area, the use of the building and its social activation. These include: a programmatic diversification of functions and investments; an incremental occupation/appropriation of the available space and the self-sustainment of the reclamation/remediation.

Although simple, the combination of these three principles constitutes a viable and realistic proposal to mediate between the scale of the building and the lack of resources.

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Giulia Carabelli is the Graduate Teaching Assistant for the MSc BUDD programme. She joined the current MSc students on the BUDDcamp in February. Look out for reflections from the other 3 case studies on the blog later this week.

This post and the project exploring place in Kilburn has been undertaken in collaboration with Kamna Patel.

In the old days school level students saw universities as the most mysterious of places – where and what were they, what do they teach and how? They were rarely told anything much in answer – except that it was a very good idea to try and get in. But how did people know where to apply, and what subjects to choose? Little guidance was available.

Today, much has changed. It’s common for prospective university undergraduates, to attend ‘open days’ available throughout the year from all and sundry higher education establishments. At them, potential applicants can hear from academic staff what to expect if they go university, and learn briefly what different subjects have to offer.

All very useful, but now, academics from Development Planing Unit in University College London are going one step further. We are offering some school students the chance to become undergrads for a time and join us in a research project exploring urban citizenship and place-making.

This is what students at St Augustine’s School in Kilburn have recently done. We have collaborated with Helen Allsopp, their teacher, to run a series of workshops on a favourite theme amongst geographers and planners; a ‘sense of place’

First, the workshops explored the students’ own perception of Kilburn, where they live – what is it like for them, and how much have they noticed recent changes in the area. And they explored how the changes going on reflect the broader processes of globalisation that we are constantly hearing about (e.g. big new developments funded by foreign capital, soaring house prices fuelled by demand from people wanting to work in London, changing ethnic mixes, and so forth).

Then the students used techniques from the social sciences to analyse different portrayals, or ‘representations’ of Kilburn, coming from diverse sources such as websites, films, written texts in books, magazines, music, social media and so on.

Besides these workshops, the students conducted fieldwork in the area. There, intriguingly, they made maps of how people, including themselves, feel about different parts of Kilburn – identifying, for example, ‘spaces of fear’ where it might be dangerous to go at particular times of day or places where they feel more at home. In such exercises they applied different research methods (such as transects walks through their neighbourhood) as used by social scientists and Town Planners amongst others.

In all this, the students were getting much more than just an ‘open day’ afternoon. Theirs was an in-depth experience, sustained over time, of the kinds of things they might expect to be doing at university, including an up to date view of the sorts of research methods and analysis that planners and geographers might apply in their work. And here, the St Augustine’s students were actually sharing in such work.

The workshops and fieldwork ran over several months, culminating in the students producing their own representations of Kilburn shown at a roving expedition running throughout 2015 – at UCL, at St Augustine’s and at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn. The exhibition’s centrepiece is a series of 3D maps of Kilburn produced by the students themselves. These are not a ‘conventional’, accurate-to-scale representations. Instead they incorporate their different perceptions of, and concerns and aspirations for this busy, dynamic and multi-faceted place.

The exhibition opened in January 2015, and at that opening visitors were guided through by some of the students themselves, explaining the maps and models, and recounting how they were produced. They also had to explain to the audience the practical usefulness of such cultural geography work, in developing peoples’ sensitivity to place and encouraging them to think about how they can help to shape places for themselves and help to give them meaning.

The latter was one of our main aims of the project. In our on going action research on this project we plan to reflect upon the extent to which the participating students, through their involvement, were provided with a sense of how they themselves might be able to shape their own urban environment and ask whether this contributed to a nascent sense of citizenship.

The project is impressive – partly because of the impression which the students make on the visitors as they are guided round. Here is a group of enthusiastic, smart and articulate young people, with a dynamism that will undoubtedly make them an asset to whatever university they eventually choose if they seek to continue their studies. And hopefully they will have a flying start through their experience of doing some university level work with the academics who will teach them.

 

Liza Griffin is a Lecturer and Co-Director of the MSc Environment and Sustainable Development at the DPU. Kamna Patel is a Lecturer and Co-Director of the MSc Development Administration and Planning. Both have lived in the Kilburn area.

Here at the DPU we’re bouncing out of what has been a very exciting year, celebrating our 60^th anniversary, and into a particularly important one in our collective thinking about urban futures.

We’re going to see international discussions taking place on cities and human settlements, disaster risk reduction, development finance, the post-2015 development agenda and climate change.

Habitat III

Something I have seen dominating a lot of our conversations in the last year has been the road to the Habitat III conference. Although this won’t be held until October 2016 (in Quito, Ecuador if you already want to start planning your trip), the lobbying and agenda-building has already begun. We saw this at the 7^th World Urban Forum in Medellin, and from numerous speakers at our DPU60 conference in July, including Joan Clos, the Director of UN Habitat.

Habitat III will have a profound impact on the way cities are planned, designed and governed. Given the title of this post, however, perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.

 

The Launch of the Sustainable Development Goals and the post-2015 development agenda; September 2015

2015 will be notable for the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), announcing a post-2015 development agenda that will supersede the Millennium Development Goals.

There are currently 17 Goals in total, which have Ban Ki-Moon’s support, but the numerous targets are yet to be finalised. Indeed nothing is set in stone, and much could yet change in the months ahead.

An Urban SDG

Several staff at the DPU have been busy working as part of the lobby for ‘Goal 11: Make Cities and Human Settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.’

Goal 11 is the essence of the ‘urban opportunity’ – the title of the position paper produced by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

As urbanisation continues globally so does urban poverty. Urban economic output will grow, meanwhile new ways of providing infrastructure and services are required to cater for demand. These concentrated populations represent a vital opportunity that cannot be put off for another 15 years, and this must not become one of those Goals that ‘should have been there all along’. It is in cities that many solutions can, and will need to be found, and therefore this is the optimum moment of ‘urban opportunity’.

I’m looking forward to sharing two blog posts in the next couple of weeks that give greater insights into formulation of Goal 11 and what it sets out to achieve.

 

The Post-2015 framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR); March 2015

The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) was the first international framework for the creation of DRR policies and plans when it was conceived to cover a 10-year period in 2005. There won’t be a stand-alone DRR goal in the SDGs, but of particular note to us is the proposed Target 4 within Goal 11 for cities to “incorporate climate and disaster risk considerations in their zoning, building codes, and infrastructure investment decisions”.

DPU staff have been very active in UN-ISDR discussions on updating the HFA, look out for more on this soon. I’m sure that many of us will be following the World Conference on DRR in Sendai closely to see how it relates to discussions on urban resilience.

 

The Third International Conference on Financing for Development; July 2015

While this isn’t a topic I can claim much familiarity with, it is pretty clear that the post-2015 development agenda is going to require a renegotiation of financing commitments. When we look at the unconfirmed SDGs as they stand, the 17 Goals and 169 targets are necessarily ambitious if they truly hope to “end poverty, transform all lives, and protect the planet.” But how these will be implemented is far less easy to understand, and I’ll be looking for a few clues in July.

 

COP21 in Paris; December 2015

COP20 in Lima might be quite fresh in many of your minds. Personally I couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu – it seems we’re always told that we’re on the cusp of an epoch-defining agreement, but it slips away.

So could this year really be the year where a global climate deal is finally agreed? And if it is, then so what? We’ve been seeing climate responses increasingly happening at the local level. Let us not forget that the Kyoto Protocol expired in 2012, and if global agreements are the way to go, then the international community has been stalling for too long.

 

Communications in 2015

This year I’m looking forward to seeing DPU communications give you greater insights into the key moments above. Staff here have been shaping the debates and will be responding to the outcomes. Ultimately we will continue to work with governments, community groups and other organisations on the ground to support them in implementing these agendas.

We also have an exciting schedule planned for the DPU blog over the next few months where staff, alumni and other contributors from around the world will share their experiences in development practice.

Stay tuned in 2015!

 

Matthew Wood-Hill is the Media and Communications Officer at The Bartlett Development Planning Unit.

Like many students in the Development Planning Unit, I realized that this year’s field trip would be a great opportunity to take pictures. However, I felt I wanted to do more than just going on a solitary mission to capture whatever crossed my path. I decided to launch a project that pushes the photographer to reflect during the process of taking pictures and that gives coherence in the way work is seized and presented.

The final concept took shape as I spoke about my intentions to fellow students. We decided to create a photo-blog with a collection of pictures taken by students in Peru, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania where we would be conducting research as part of our respective MSc programs. As a collective we then agreed on 9 different photographic themes that would work as our creative lens. The final blog works as a mosaic of moments and motives that will hopefully capture the viewers’ attention. The project is entirely voluntary and student run, and all pictures were taken between April and May 2014.

We believe that the appeal of the project resides in the diversity of photographic styles of students, the varying interpretations of the selected topics and the diverse locations and experiences that DPU students were exposed to. We hope that it is conducive of real insight into people’s work and day-to-day experiences, allowing viewers to emotionally engage with different realities as depicted in the pictures and giving food for thought.

For us photographers, the project was a great opportunity to use our skills with a concrete purpose in mind, and also resulted in the creation of a temporary platform to experiment and explore the potential of photography. The project was a challenge, yet it allowed us to make the most of the experience and we are now happy to be able to share our vision with fellow students, alumni and curious minds alike.

The selection of pictures below has a photojournalistic quality to them and triggers reflection, as they seized some of the tensions that we witnessed in the field. There is a story behind each picture, as told by the photographers.

 

‘This picture was taken from the third floor of the hotel in which we stayed during our work as UDP students in Dar es Salaam. With this panorama surrounding us, it was not necessary going to slums to have a taste of how inequality expresses itself in urban contexts. It was actually not completely comfortable (in ethical terms) to swim there after a day of work with the communities, where people were completely open to talk with us about their inaccessibility to certain environmental goods, like potable water. In my opinion, the fieldtrip to Tanzania was helpful for getting or strengthening that ethical fiber that any development professional should have.’ – Jorge Ortiz

 

‘Lima’s rapid urbanisation, fragmented planning and conflictual land issues have led the city to expand beyond its territorial boundaries. An increasing amount of the population is now occupying the slopes of the Andes Mountains surrounding Lima, where exposure to disasters is considerable, and upon which mobility is particularly limited. This picture has been taken in Jose Carlos Mariátegui, Lima’s largest and poorest municipal district. When approached, people living in the area state: ‘we live in the air’. Beyond a simple reference to the high altitude in which the informal settlement is located, it also metaphorically reflects on the marginalising impact of Lima’s development plans on a vulnerable segment of the population.’ – Loan Diep

 

‘The picture represents a little girl standing in front of her house and simply eating some dried berries… a simple act. The grid behind her is a sort of a fence constructed by the family in order to protect their house. The family has appropriated several materials in order to build their “home”: bamboo, wood, corrugated metal sheet… as part of an informal settlement, the issue of privacy is always critical, one can easily break this tessellated surface, pass his hand through it or look behind it so what did it serve other than delimiting a space?’ – Joana Dabaj

 

‘Some people say that Black and White photography is good at capturing the soul of an image. As it is, colours tend to distract the viewer from shapes, textures and raw emotions that it might contain. There is little soul left in this ill horse, however… it was abandoned in the middle of the city by its owner, where it is more likely to be run over by an inattentive driver than being saved by a caring soul. The skeleton of a building in the backdrop completes the picture, and reminds us of the fragility of the urban environment, where hope and despair cohabite.’ – David Hoffmann

 

‘An image out of focus: shot just with a stretch of the arm outside the window. A need to get some fresh air while spending 3 ½ hours inside an air-conditioned mini-bus was the reason for a split opening of my side window. The view at that point: vehicles stuck in traffic lines due to flooding on the streets of Dar es Salaam. During rush hour and when the tropic clouds pour the city with rain the transportation system paralyzes. Commuting in the city of Dar is always an adventure: dala-dala buses, private taxis, public transportation, whichever the vehicle the ride is going to be probably a frustrating experience. And even though infrastructure improvements are planned and already under construction, with the BRT system being at the center of attention, it seems that the advertisement’s quote in the background “DREAM, FLY, SAVE” is the ‘only’ solution!’ – Asimina Paraskevopoulou

View images from the DPU Student Photography Project on Flickr or read more on the DPU website.

 

Day two of the conference provoked a series of interesting talking points, among which were: informality as a way of contesting the city; calls for counter-narratives to prevalent practices in urban design; the need to separate a one-project approach from a more integrated and systematic approach to city planning; the differential merits of applying overly pragmatic approaches to planning and urban development discourses; and why we need to think of cities as urban planners and not simply as as development experts if we are to enact real change at the local level beyond the SDGs in 2015.

Approaches to urban equality and informality in the cities of the global south

The opening session of day two focused on issues of urban equality and informality in the global south. With a focus on different regions, speakers discussed urban circumstances in Egypt, India and Ecuador. An overarching theme of the session was in reconstituting the relationship between people and the city in different ways. This was reflected in Omar Nagati’s talk which discussed the changing nature of the public spaces appropriated by street vendors, and how activists have contested and reoccupied certain parts of the city in Cairo.

Sheela Patel particularly talked about informality and how to incorporate exiting ‘informal’ practices into formal regulatory frameworks. Emphasising the importance of a strategic approach to planning that addresses long term goals, not by simply resolving immediate concerns in a step-by-step process, Diego Carrion talked us through several infrastructure projects at different scales in Quite, Ecuador. Discussant Pushpa Arabindoo stressed the importance of forging better links between pedagogy and practice especially when theorising an understanding of informality – something very central to the vision of the DPU.

Participation and contested practices in urban design and planning: Rights, needs and urban imaginaries

A fascinating discussion about urban design followed in Session 3 that ranged from very grounded case studies to more theoretical articulations of urban design as a disciplinary practice. Soomsook Boonyabacha advocated people-led development solutions at the city-wide scale as an alternative to simply isolated urban projects. She drew on her experience with ACHR and CODI to suggest how this could be done, but she sees a need for new financial mechanisms to support these alternatives. Focusing on a specific city case study, Jane Weru presented the challenges faced by many urban dwellers in Kenya in fighting against land speculation and the dominance of wealthy landholders, but also the inflexibility of the statutory legal system.

‘Practicing Dissensus’ was the title of Camillo Boano’s presentation. He spoke of the need to rediscover the potential of urban design, which has been ‘capitulated to the developer’ in many circumstances. Jane Rendell, the discussant for the session echoed Camillo’s calls for subversive urban practices and counter-narratives, where dialogue at these points of disagreement can foster productive outcomes. The plenary discussion continued to unpack these issues, and particularly ‘unlearning’ as a means of breaking away from the dominant discourses that define the boundaries that need to be crossed.

Forging New Relationships in Governance and Planning: State, Market and Society in a Post-Economic Crisis World

A common theme from speakers in Session 4 was that urban projects cannot be thought of one by one, but must be packaged or conceived in relation to one-another. Antonio Estache opened the session with an analysis of lessons from Public Private Partnerships. With infrastructure demands still huge and urbanisation rates higher than they were 25 years ago, he suggested that PPPs have not done as well as many expected, and that greater realism is required in fitting PPPs in with urban strategies. Peter Brand drew comparisons between Bogota and Medellin, contrasting Bogota as a socially just and multicultural city, versus Medellin as a spectacle city – a government export project. The critique of Medellin suggested that as such it shows off poverty, rather than necessarily addressing it in a holistic way. He finished by asking if, as planners, we standing on the glossy surface of capitalism, or the foundations of ethical and social concerns.

Lawrie Robertson presented the challenge of the ‘strategic planning equation’: meeting the rising social aspirations of urban residents. He sees three present themes in urban development, from the perspective of city managers: to ‘grow faster’ in order to remain internationally competitive; to ‘spend now’ through the involvement of private sector in development; and ‘localise’ through the decentralisation of responsibilities. He finished with a call for us to seek out pragmatic and effective solutions, which echoed the other speakers. This was picked up by discussant Mike Raco, who sees the term as devoid of substance as it claims to remove ideology and politics from the equation. He went on to question where social movements and the democratic voice fit into this call for pragmatism in urban governance, asking ‘do you have to be a technical expert to be political?’

Urban Development and Development Assistance

In the final presentation of the day Dr Joan Clos, the Director of UN Habitat, looked ahead to Habitat III. He identifies the event as coming at a critical time: post-SDGs; responding to the latest conversations on climate change; and to the continuing challenges posed by urbanisation. It will therefore be the role of the Habitat conference to discuss how to incorporate this broader thinking in cities at the local level. Part of the agenda is UN Habitat’s proposal for National Urban Policies and related Local Urban Policies.

David Satterthwaite followed, asking how can we make aid work better for the poor? He bemoaned the fact that fewer international agencies and development banks have urban sections than 30 or 40 years ago, in spite of the widely understood importance of combating urban poverty. If ‘the urban’ features prominently on the post-2015 agenda, he sees this as representing a sea change. This would have important knock on effects for local governance working with urban poor groups in the co-production of knowledge and service delivery in support of better city planning. He stressed that at present this remains an ‘if’.

The discussion continues tomorrow!

For bios of all of the speakers taking part in the conference, please visit: https://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/dpu/dpu60/dpu60-conference/speakers

You can read more about the conference via our website

The DPU’s 60^th Anniversary has begun! The conversation quickly got going yesterday evening, laying down some of the key challenges we are going to confront over the next two days in thinking about, and across boundaries in development planning.

Professor Julio D. Davila, Director of the DPU, introduced the conference and chaired the session. He laid the gauntlet down to the conference participants by discussing Otto Koenigsberger and Patrick’s Wakely’s comments on ‘the job’ of the DPU and development practitioners. ‘The job’ is never complete, it simply changes, and therefore elaborating the different and changing boundaries we face in the present and future is paramount.

This first session featured speakers coming from the very different geographies of Asian, Africa and Latin America.

Aromar Revi (Indian Institute of Human Settlements) reflected on the challenges of urbanisation in Asian cities, and particularly his recent visits to China. He concluded by presenting his thoughts on the development of the Sustainable Development Goals. These include the importance of seeing the intrinsic links between the rural and the urban but appreciating that an urban goal is absolutely necessary. He questioned why there are not separate infrastructure or industrialisation goals, and some of the tensions between universal and local indicators. The latter is an important consideration in light of ‘global planning’ and the local impacts of such decisions.

In his presentation on the ‘mosaic of urban planning’ in Tanzania, Wilbard Kombe (Ardhi University, Tanzania) dug into some of the reasons behind this fragmentation. He pointed out how Asian countries appear to show a correlation between urbanisation and economic growth, but that this is not true for Africa. In examining the drivers of these mosaics he focused on governance and regulation – one of the most salient point being that urban development and planning is simply not a local governance priority in many contexts, as he called for a new paradigm for planning in African cities.

The final presentation, by Enrique Ortiz (National School of Architecture, Mexico), observed a trend of citizens without cities, with reference to self-enclosure away from the city through gated communities; and cities without citizens – the millions of informal urban dwellers without rights. His concerns are that prevailing models of urban development see change as dangerous and maintaining the status quo as conducive to opportunity, whereas the reverse must be understood as the way forward. This led into a discussion on the right to the city as a fundamental human right and a normative framework for assessing this vision of a just city.

Tying up some of the key issues raised, Sue Parnell (African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, SA) brought our present imperative into sharp focus. We stand at a vital moment in discussing the future of cities and of planning, and this conference marks another step in invoking a process of intellectual leadership to confront ‘the urban challenge’.

Blog Authors: Liza Griffin and Kamna Patel

The place in question is Kilburn in northwest London, and it’s a place that means a great deal to both of us. At different moments in our lives, Kilburn has been a place that we have called ‘home’. The ways in which we both interact with Kilburn are strongly influenced by the kinds of shops, restaurants, entertainment venues and bars found there, the desirability and affordability of property, and rents which enable our network of friends and relatives to live in and around Kilburn, and the density of transport linkages that allow easy movement in, out and through the area. In all these influences we experience processes of globalisation and urbanisation at work. This idea was first discussed by geographer, Doreen Massey in her seminal paper on ‘a global sense of place’ (1991). This paper countered dominant narratives of globalisation which were around at the time, explaining that globalisation was not some disembodied juggernaut homogenising space as it spread across the globe, but a process actively made in real places and often via the agency of ‘local’ people in urban regions. Massey’s frame of reference in this important work was the Kilburn High Road.

Kilburn, thought of as a place created by and simultaneously creating globalisation and urbanisation, contextualises and informs our relationship to place. Reflecting on this spurred us to think about how the processes of globalisation and urbanisation that create contemporary Kilburn are understood through other sets of eyes and how place is made through other bodies. Looking at literature on place-making and urban transformation in London we can see really thoughtful class-based and even race-based analyses (e.g. Butler and Hamnett, 2011), but what struck us was a consistently overlooked demographic: young people. We wanted to understand how young people in Kilburn made sense of the globalising and urbanising processes that were going on around them.

On March 17-18 we held a two day workshop with 20 A-level students from St. Augustine’s High School, Kilburn; the workshop was titled ‘Exploring Urbanisation and Globalisation in Place: A study of Kilburn’ supported by UCL’s widening participation scheme. Over the two sessions we worked with the students to examine these related concepts not only as abstract ideas, but also as very real processes that affect and help to create places. We looked at how Kilburn has become urbanised over time and how it not only reflects globalisation, but also helps to reproduce it. We encouraged the students to think about how they are not simply the passive consumers of ‘global culture’ but how they are active participants in the time-space compression of the globe through their activity on social media or in sending remunerations to relatives abroad. We explored how global commodities for sale on the Kilburn High Road were packaged to appeal to local idiosyncrasies. We examined the ways that local and global are enmeshed at the city scale. And we asked the students to reflect upon the divergent interpretations of these important words, global and local, which feature in their A Level textbooks, asking what purpose difference definitions might serve and for whom.

At the end of the workshop students were asked to identify and evaluate urbanisation and globalisation in relation to their locale: that is, amidst lively discussion, students explained that they discerned the effects of globalisation in their own school: the ethnic make-up of classmates had changed dramatically over their years there, reflecting changes to residential demographics in the area and affecting friendship groups. Residential spaces were also dramatically changing with the construction of new estates targeting middle income earners lured by the appeal of living in zone 2 London. St. Augustine’s student Eden Steenkamp thoughtfully reflected upon how Kilburn’s growing appeal has increased land prices in the region and that this “was a worry”.

Eden’s thoughtful assessment of London’s property market is matched by her reflection on how contemporary processes of urbanisation and gentrification in Kilburn affect everyday life and behaviour. She writes, “If people look different, then they are treated differently… For instance you either eat in a boutique café to show how sophisticated you are or at one of the many Chicken Cottages, like the average Londoner”. Eden sees herself as an “average Londoner” and through her eyes and body we are afforded an insight into how she understands and makes sense of Kilburn and her relationship to that place. And through her engagement in the workshop she was able to connect up some of the academic narratives of uneven development we discussed in class with examples of real injustice she saw around her.

For us, the themes of place and positionality underlie the workshop. It was insightful to explore the perspectives of these young people on how they make meaning and create place, and to contrast those views with our own relationships to that same place. It raises a broader and interesting question that carries through to our own research: does place matter in research? That is, what does it mean if researchers are personally vested in a place that is also the subject of their research? And does it matter if they are not? Can we meaningfully conduct nuanced social science in places that we do not have some lived experience of? Sadly we do not have answers, but through our engagement with these bright and brilliant young people we have a deeper understanding of the importance of the question.

The workshop was organised and run by Kamna Patel, Co-director of the MSc Development Administration and Planning, and Liza Griffin, Co-director of the MSc Environment and Sustainable Development at The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL.

• Butler, T. and Hamnett, C (2011) Ethnicity, Class and Aspiration: Understanding London’s New East End, Bristol: Policy Press
• Massey, D (1991) A Global Sense of Place. Marxism Today 38.

Monday April 7^th was my first day at the 7^th UN-Habitat World Urban Forum in Medellin. This is quite a special edition of WUF, as it is building up to the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, Habitat III. But instead of heading to the conference centre, I ended up going to the Habitat International Coalition general assembly at the department of Architecture of the National University of Colombia. And it was totally worth it!

The day started with reporting by representatives from representatives from different regions and working groups updating HIC members and participants of the various activities of the network. This included the launch of the impressive book called ‘La vivienda, entre el derecho y la mercancia: las formas de propiedad en América Latina’ (http://www.hic-al.org/noticias.cfm?noticia=1532&id_categoria=8), which reflects on the model of housing production of Federación Uruguaya de Cooperativas de Vivienda por Ayuda Mutua (FUCVAM) and its applicability in other Latin American countries.

Then the various activities that HIC will take part inside and outside the World Urban Forum were introduced. The event closed with a discussion of future projects and alliances, which turned into a really interesting debate on the ‘social production of habitat’ and the need to continue documenting and learning from the activities of HIC members in this field.

Apart from great discussions, HIC also produced a powerful document on its expectations of Habitat III. Among other things, the document highlights that ‘urbanization is not inevitable’, calling for ‘equitable, ethical and people-centered development planning’ which supports for ‘social production of habitat’ and recognizes the ‘social function of property, prioritizing commons and collective goods over private interests’. These are crucial issues to bring to the discussions around the Habitat III agenda, which show a clear and constructive mode of engagement of HIC in this process (some of these points are articulated in the following statement at the HIC website: http://www.hic-net.org/news.php?pid=5397).

Some of the other DPU highlight of this first day of WUF includes the televised one-hour panel discussion in which Julio Davila shared the floor with Architect Martín Pérez and scholar Fernando Viviescas.  They discussed the principles of a sustainable and equitable city using examples from Medellin, Singapore, Bangalore, Accra and Nairobi. The panel will be aired at Canal UNE you tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/televidentescanalune

Cover of special edition of Arkitektur DK for the IFHP Centenary Congress 2013 in London

The Centennial Congress of the International Federation of Housing and Planning (IFHP) recently brought together a stimulating and highly qualified crowd of international planners for a conversation closely aligned to the DPU’s focus on global urban growth. Yet, as DPU students might have come to expect, the messages the speakers presented were as diverse as their backgrounds and veered from the highly technical to the bluntly political and everything inbetween.

The first to take the plenary podium was Mitchell Silver, Past President of the American Planning Association and Chief Planner, City of Raleigh, North Carolina. In a perhaps unlikely combination, Silver doubles up as an inspirational speaker. He called for us to ‘fall in love with planning again,’ thanked planners and asked us to find purpose, be proud of the planner’s role in and assert the planners role in ‘making a difference.’ Silver argued strongly for big ideas and courage in planning for new trends. His message was that we need to plan more for sustainability, for people and for people’s consumer preferences – and the key difference he highlighted is generational change. According to him, new approaches are needed to cater for increased mobility, urban living, quality transport, easy access to entertainment, shops and high quality public spaces.

The suburban dream is becoming outdated, both for mobile young professionals and for aging baby boomers, increasingly isolated in car dependent suburbs as age curtails mobility. In Raleigh they are responding with a ‘new’ urbanism approach – increased density, transport orientated development (TOD) and investment with a nod to environmental consideration and equity. Another good news story: density = higher tax revenues. For all the big ideas and motivation here we might have been left wondering: where are the people in this? Even further, where are the politicians? Silver’s message was one of the planner as hero, empowering enlightened planners to help people, not the other way around – politicians were peripheral, people were objects to be planned for.

Following Silver’s heavily planning orientated speech, six influential figures took to the stage, including Charles Landry, whose backgrounds and responsibilities stretched tensions between the technical and political planning to the limit. The discussion was unmistakably political, with only two ‘professional planners’ – one of them representing a multinational technology firm. Next, the event divided into sessions around themes. On the agenda were broad discussions around responding to urban growth, a case study of East London regeneration and the Olympics, smart cities, climate resilience and social justice.

I followed the seminar track on the East London case study – the subject of my dissertation and one where planning and politics are tricky to unpick. This deprived area of London is the subject of unprecedented regeneration attempts linked to Olympic ‘legacies’ but while the legacy narrative is of social development, the investment model is dominated by massive real estate development, led by financial industries and a mega event. What would be the effect on the local populations? There were three comparable and sizable interventions to look at – all heralded as part of the solution to the ‘East End problem’. Jo Negrini, Newham’s Director of Strategic Regeneration proudly announced a deal with a Chinese financial conglomerate to redevelop the Royal Docks as a third financial centre for London. The Royal Docks are currently a bleak and windswept site, isolated from the rest of London by the river, major trunk roads (the A13) and sprawling estates of suburban council housing but they are seen as a strategic growth area by the council. It was too early for detailed questions, but the sales pitch was clear – new jobs and investment in an underutilised site.

As the conference progressed, speakers included Eric Sorenson, former CEO of the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC), responsible for the Canary Wharf development and Paul Bricknell, head of planning for the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC). Sorenson was quick to admit that Canary Wharf remains starkly isolated from the surrounding communities and has done little to alleviate poverty and deprivation. This he said was down to physical barriers such as the (very same) A13 and a ‘needs based’ government housing policy that concentrates poverty. But would the Olympics and the Royal Docks go the same way: would economic and spatial improvements cater for the local populations or create new divisions? Bricknell, from the LLDC said no – local jobs and clear physical links are a key part of the Olympic plans; ‘Legacy’ is key. But can we really learn all the lessons of the past simply through ‘comprehensive strategic planning’? And what does ‘Legacy’ really mean?

Mike Raco, a Planning Lecturer at UCL’s Bartlett remained dubious. In his summary of the two-day seminar session, Raco asked: “If we were serious about Legacy, why were £9 bn invested in mega sports stadiums in an area of deprivation when budgets are being cut for key services?”. He invited us to imagine a planning approach for people that invested £9 bn in nursing homes for the ageing population. It went unspoken but it appeared as if Raco’s question quietly asked whether a new financial hotspot is really what Newham needs.

The conference ended as it had begun; highlighting generational change and calling the next generation of planners to step up, to use new approaches to bridge the tough social urban questions. Urbego, the new IFHP initiative for young ‘multi-disciplinary’ planners rejected the old ways but weren’t sure what to offer instead. We had to find something new, different, radical: something akin to the ‘Fosbury Flop’. So how could planning be re-imagined? Well, it seemed to depend on who you asked, but something that didn’t feature much – at least in the debates I attended – was planning with people (or by people) for people…..

Jamie is currently a student of the MSc Urban Development Planning at the DPU