Pre-Congress Capacity Building Programme:
Global Professional Planning
The training sessions were interactive and the response from local professionals was more than encouraging. As a consequence, the Institute is motivated to organise capacity building programmes at future Congresses, as well as quarterly sessions at the international level in the future.
Day 1
The first session was delivered by Pedro B. Ortiz, Senior Consultant & Senior Fellow at NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management, who provided an overview of urban regional and metropolitan planning. He focused on the emergence and importance of the conglomeration of cities at the metropolitan dimension in the last decades that has led to a necessary shift in the planning paradigm to address the metropolitan scale. Furthermore, he presented the main features and components which structure the metropolis of the 21st century, highlighting the main challenges in terms of governance, expansion and finance, as well as reflecting on the principles and actions of an effective metropolitan management.
Moving to the Indonesian context, Bernardus Djonoputro, the President of Indonesian Association of Urban and Regional Planners, presented the Indonesia Most Livable City Index (MLCI), as result of a research to measure the state of liveability in Indonesian cities. Despite the strong diversity characterising the country, the study revealed how in general the largest Indonesian cities are still perceived as less liveable. The research was also the opportunity to present and discuss some challenges in the management of Indonesian cities, such as investing and financing gaps, the empowerment of local governments and the introduction of private public partnership.
The concluding lecture of the day was given by Dhiru A. Thadani, AIA, APA, FCNU, ISOCARP, on the topic of sustainable New Urbanism. The focus was on the centrality of the human dimension and public realm in cities. He illustrated examples of techniques and principles of New Urbanism, a human-scale urban design approach, where walkable blocks and streets, mixed land uses, proximity and accessible public spaces represent an alternative and sustainable model to the ‘placelessness’ of contemporary suburbia.
Day 2
The next day, Professor Ali A. Alraouf, Head of Research and Development at the Department of Urban Planning at Hamad Bin Kalifa University, Qatar delivered a lecture on urban waterfronts, presenting innovative case studies and suggesting different planning and urban design approaches. Specifically, he remarked the importance of shifting from the perception of waterfronts as edgy and pure visual landscape towards vibrant, resilient and inclusive urban spaces, where the dialogue between the city and the water is solidly reaffirmed.
The last presentation was delivered by Jens Aerts, the UNICEF Urban Planning Specialist, who also led an interactive workshop on child-responsive urban planning. The workshop aimed at providing knowledge and tools to put children in the centre of planning practice, highlighting how children-friendly cities are also healthier, safer and more sustainable. Nevertheless, it was also highlighted how planning for children still remains difficult to mainstream into the planning practice, and how further capacity building is required in order to design participatory processes with children.
The concluding session was organised as an interactive question and answer activity, were participants and instructors jointly discussed concerns and possible solutions to global planning challenges in light of impeding climate change. Judging from the positive response, the ISOCARP Institute Academy assesses that the first training in Jakarta was a success and we will certainly continue with this practice in future.