The ISOCARP Institute at the ISOCARP World Planning Congress 2024
This October 2024, the ISOCARP Institute went to Siena, Italy, to attend to the 60th ISOCARP World Planning Congress. Our team held a number of sessions, both pertaining to the congress’ thematic tracks, as well as special events.
On October 9th, we moderated the special session Urban Storytelling for Participatory Exchange, where we presented the ISOCARP Institute storytelling methodology, and shared insights on how city experiences can be used to build inclusive and resilient futures. During this interactive session, our team focused on both the power and value of storytelling as an urban participatory process, building on our research and past experiences with co-creation processes in complex settings. The workshop included the presentation of our AI-powered tool, which participants used during the group work section of the workshop: they were given a space to collectively create possible planning scenarios and tell their own story with the help of artificial intelligence. Afterwards, participants were invited to share the results of their experimentation and engage in discussions about the diverse perspectives and positionalities of storytellers. We were thrilled to witness the session’s outcomes, including very interesting reflections of some of the attendees.
On the following day, the ISOCARP Institute team held three case study presentations. In the morning, our colleague Samir Amin presented Regional Inclusivity through Shared Futures: Lessons from the DUST Project, and in turn Taliah Dommerholt introduced Creative Arts Methodologies for Inclusive Land Use Planning, where she offered insights into the PLUS Change project. In the afternoon, Alice Jelmini held the presentation Spaziamo: Revitalizing Locarno through Tactical Urbanism. In it, she gave an overview of her research on the case of the Collettivo Urbano collective, and had the opportunity to discuss about tactical urbanism with other speakers.
It was also the occasion for the special session Urban Regeneration of our Urban Environments, where Yoann Clouet, ISOCARP Institute project manager, moderated an urban conversation with four speakers from European countries, who discussed different aspects related to urban regeneration. Each of the speakers presented a case study, which served as the foundation for identifying common challenges and strategies for successful urban regeneration, namely collaborative governance, capacity building, inclusivity and gentrification, intersectoral coordination, power dynamics, and community engagement. The members of the audience actively engaged in the conversation, contributing to a dynamic exchange of ideas and experiences.
On October 11th, our colleague Tannya Pico moderated the special session Nature-based Solutions for Urban Regeneration, where she discussed nature-based solutions in urban contexts with planning professionals from diverse contexts. The event included case studies from India, Ireland, Ecuador and Italy, providing an inspiring space for collective exchange and identification of common challenges in the implementation of nature-based solutions in cities.
We are happy to have been part of these conversations and have contributed to the exchange and generation of knowledge in the context of an essential planning conference involving practitioners from the whole world.