International Forum on Urbanism 2016

Studio ROSA contributed a paper to the 9th Conference of the International Forum on Urbanism (IFoU) had the title “From Knowledge to Development: New university challenges for a contemporary urban development.” The event was organized by the School of Architecture, Design and Urbanism of Buenos Aires University (FADU/UBA) at Buenos Aires, Argentina, from October 26th to 28th, 2016. The aim of this scientific conference is to contribute and discuss new ways to integrate academic knowledge and governmental practice.

For universities, this relationship is crucial because it extends their educational role to a new one -as urban policy decision makers’ key reference. This is why universities have, within and beyond their abilities to recognize new urban questions and to theorize on them, the power to elaborate paradigmatic development strategies. The opportunity for our schools is then to recognize this new challenge and to understand and discuss ways to promote their proficiency to define socioterritorial empowerment initiatives.

The event focused on opportunities to improve, from academic approaches, alternative models for urban and territorial development and management. Five parallel sessions were organized that, on  multidisciplinary discussions, surveyed university/government collaborative models on:

  • INTEGRATION – think the marginal/integrate the marginal
  • EFFICIENCY and EQUITY – think the infrastructural/manage the infrastructural
  • COMPACTNESS – think density/manage density
  • BELONGING – think identity/support identity
  • SCALES – think territory/manage territory

Conferences and dialogues between professionals, politicians and researchers will be held in order to present paradigmatic cases of urban transformation/development, defined on an academic/public management collaborative basis. On comparable urban challenges, the aim will be to promote tactics and strategies that integrate research concepts and management actions, including those referred to migration processes, violence, labor, and environmental risk.

Studio ROSA was part of the ‘INTEGRATION’ sessions, the report can be downloaded here: https://www.academia.edu/29662836/Slumfighters_International_-_Towards_participation_in_both_urban_design_and_strategic_urban_planning_in_Rwanda_p._63_