Urban Maestro Networking Event: Tenth World Urban Forum

Good urban design is a crucial ingredient to promote quality of life in cities, economic prosperity, social cohesion, environmental responsibility and cultural values.

This session will explore innovative ways of generating urban spatial quality by focusing on the "soft power" modalities of urban design governance: those approaches where public authorities act in a semi-formal or informal capacity as enablers or brokers rather than through regulatory or direct investment powers.

Engaging a structured dialogue with the audience and activating co-learning mechanisms, the session ambitions to conduct a first exploration of informal urban design governance tools in developing, emerging and crisis contexts, questioning both their relevance and transferability across cultural divides.

2.00 pm: Welcome
Urban Maestro: new governance strategies for urban design in Europe
How do cities generate urban spatial quality by using the “soft power” modalities of urban design governance?
Kristiaan Borret, Brussels bouwmeester maitre architecte (BMA) - BE
Matthew Carmona, University College of London (UCL) - UK
Tommaso Gabrieli, University College of London (UCL) - UK

2.30 pm: Exploring urban design governance approach in other contexts
Evolving public space in South Africa, Karina Landman, University of Pretoria, South Africa
The Green Kigali experience, Liliane Uwanziga Mupende, Kigali, Ruanda
The Medellin model, Alejandro Restrepo Montoya, former City Architect, Medellín, Colombia
The SDG project assessment tool in Asian cities, Pinar Caglin, UN-Habitat

3.10 pm: Panel debate with speakers and audience
How relevant is urban design governance to emerging economies, developing countries and humanitarian crisis areas, with which tools (formal or informal) and which means of finance?
Moderated by Frédéric Saliez UN-Habitat

3.45 pm: Urban Design Governance from the perspective of the European Commission
Arnoldas Milukas, Head of Unit “Horizon 2020 Environment & Resources” Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), European Commission
Philippe Froissard, deputy head of Unit, European Commission, DG Research & Innovation, Unit RTD D2. “Future urban and mobility systems”