The Journal of Public Space

 

Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Marvin Ronsdorf on Unsplash

 

Future Safe and Sustainable Urbanization

Expert Group Discussion with the Audience

Thursday July 23, 4.30 - 6.00pm CET
Series 3 (July) - Webinar 4  

This webinar is part of the initiative '2020: A Year without Public Space under the COVID-19 Pandemic'.
>>> Read the summary of this webinar

 

This webinar is a follow up to the previous webinars included in Series 2 (June) and Series 3 (July). Speakers will answer to selected questions raised by the audience and will share reflections on the current situation of the pandemic related to their geographical areas, in regard of future safe and sustainable urbanization.

 

Event Managers

Ying Fen Chen & Stephanie Cheung, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

 

Hosts & Moderators

Luisa Bravo, City Space Architecture & The Journal of Public Space, Italy

Hendrik Tieben, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, School of Architecture, Hong Kong

 

Speakers

Charles R. Wolfe, Seeing Better Cities Group, London, United Kingdom

Dhanya Rajagopal, Design Trust for Public Space, New York, United States

Gregory Scruggs, Seattle, United States

Yasser Khalil, Ajman Municipality, Ajman, United Arab Emirates

Furaha G. Abwe, Urban Planning for Community Change, Arusha, Tanzania

 

Round Table Discussion

Q&A with the audience, moderated by Ying Fen Chen, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

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Charles R. Wolfe

Charles provides a unique perspective on cities as a London-based urbanist writer, photographer, land use consultant, and attorney. He is a Guest Affiliate Scholar at the Centre for the Future of Places at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and a long-time affiliate associate professor in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington in Seattle. During summer 2018, Wolfe was a Fulbright Specialist under the auspices of the Australian-American Fulbright Commission, based at the Cairns and Townsville campuses of James Cook University. Wolfe is the author of Seeing the Better City (Island Press, 2017; finalist for a 2018 UK National Urban Design Award) and Urbanism Without Effort (Island Press, 2013, 2019 rev. ed.) and has contributed regularly on urban development topics to several publications, including CityLab, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, CityMetric, Governing, and Planetizen. He was a practicing land use and environmental lawyer in the United States for 34 years.

Dhanya Rajagopal

Dhanya recently worked as Program Associate at Design Trust for Public Space, a non-profit based in NY and is currently a Placemaking consultant. She graduated with a Masters in Urban Placemaking and Management from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn NY. Prior to this she worked at Gehl Institute, NY as a Research Intern, involved in updating the Public Life Toolkit version 2.0. For her graduate thesis she received a grant from Pratt Institute for a participatory research on integrating cultural landscape framework with coastal commons in Chennai, India. In 2018, she participated in a semester-long travel studio in Havana, Cuba to study housing, public space and civic engagement models. In India, Dhanya worked as an architect in sustainable architecture firms, with a Bachelors Degree in Architecture from Meenakshi College of Engineering, Chennai, India. She co-founded Just Rehub, a non profit think-tank to engage citizens in city building and envisioning in Chennai.

Gregory Scruggs

Gregory is an Urban Journalist, he has published short- and long-form writing on all aspects of cities, including extensive reporting on public space, for specialized and general interest outlets including Bloomberg CityLab, Next City, Thomson Reuters Foundation, New York Times, Washington Post, US News & World Report, Americas Quarterly, and The Guardian (2015-Present). Gregory is also an Urban Consultant, he edited and wrote reports and case studies on cities, urban issues, and civic infrastructure - including public space - for UN-Habitat, UNESCAP, Cities of Service, Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation, Metropolis: World Association of Major Metropolises, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, and William Penn Foundation (2015-Present); he worked as an Urban Researcher, as well and participated in research projects on urban issues, including public space, for the Penn Institute for Urban Research, Fulbright Commission, American Planning Association, and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (2008-2013).
Gregory was educated at the Harvard University, AB (2008) and at Columbia University, MA (2015). He is Member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Yasser Khalil

Yasser is a Strategic Planner, Urban Planner and Urban Designer skilled in various fields of Urban Municipal Planning & Design, Regulations, Project Management, Development Projects follow-up, Infrastructure Projects Coordination and Implementation, in United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia andEgypt. He participated in various types of studies and research work leading to the development of all stages of Urban Master Plans (including detailed, local plans, Infrastructure Projects Coordination & Development Projects follow-up). He provided consultancy for private & public individuals and entities involved in planning, project initiation, physical location, property requirement, design requirements & development projects essentials. He is well acquainted with core planning controls; land use classification, zoning, area location & ratios, infrastructure & utility requirements, community facilities. He managed & coordinate several projects /plans/designs varying in scale & type (Implementation of Master Plan programs / utilities projects / community facilities projects).

Furaha G. Abwe

Furaha is trained as an Urban Planner, with proven and hands-on experience in engaging and organising local communities and stakeholders on matters that directly and/or indirectly affect their everyday life. He has 7 years of experience in coordinating and managing consultancy assignments and research projects. He has led or participated in consultancies and research projects commissioned by UNICEF, the United States Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the Government of Tanzania. Further, he has 8 years of university teaching experience and a Doctorate from the number one ranked university in Africa, the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He has a track record of successfully designing and delivering a range of research projects, securing funding and producing high quality academic and non-academic publications. His current focus is on developing a critical research agenda on tactical healthy urbanism as an expansion of his PhD research on urban environmental health in informal settlements of Tanzania, and inspirations from his research partner HealthBridge Foundation of Canada. In doing so he is bridging the gap between research and everyday urban planning practice by addressing real-world community challenges. He is currently interested in expanding such experiences in examining the nexus between urban built environment, physical activity, and public health in African cities.

 

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>>> Recorded video of the webinar

All our webinars are recorded and are available on the Youtube channel of our publisher City Space Architecture.
Watch this one and our future videos on City Space Architecture's Youtube playlist '2020: A Year without Public Space under the COVID-19 Pandemic'.