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CITY STREET4 CONFERENCE – LJUBLJANA 2020

 

CITY STREET4 CONFERENCE WAS AN ONLINE EVENT

 

In the programme below you can access the recordings of the presentations and discussions and the author’s presentations. You can also access the pdf Book of proceedings from mid October 2020 by clicking thelink in the Links box.

 

 

Day 1 – WEDNESDAY 23 September 2020

all hours are in CEST – Central European Summer Time

 

09:00 AM Welcome by Organisers /Fikfak, Blenkuš, Nikšič, Bizjak, Mady/    
09:15 AM KEYNOTES 1 and 2  
  Bernard Khoury: Toxic Grounds.    

Bernard Khoury studied architecture at the Rhode Island school of Design (BFA 1990 / B.Arch 1991). He received Masters in Architectural Studies from Harvard University (M.Arch 1993). In 2001, he was awarded by the municipality of Rome the honorable mention of the Borromini Prize given to architects under forty years of age. In 2004, he was awarded the Architecture + Award. He was a visiting professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, L’Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris and the American University of Beirut. He has lectured and exhibited his work in over one-hundred-twenty prestigious academic institutions in Europe and the U.S. including a solo show of his work given by the International Forum for Contemporary Architecture at the Aedes gallery in Berlin (2003) and numerous group shows including YOUprison at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin (2008) and Spazio at the opening show of the MAXXI museum in Rome (2010). He was the co-curator and architect of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s national pavilion at the Venice Biennale’s 14th International Architecture Exhibition in 2014. His work has been extensively published by the professional press. Khoury started an independent practice in 1993. Over the past twenty years, his office has developed an international reputation and a significant diverse portfolio of projects both locally and in over fifteen countries abroad.

Keynote Speech: TOXIC GROUNDS.

As a practitioner, I have been drawn to problematic territories. Most of the grounds I have operated on were either highly sensitive zones, cities undergoing convalescence or regions in which the state and its institutions have failed to regulate or control the growth of the urban tissue. Beirut is a striking example that I often call “a wonderful catastrophe”, a city that, over the last few decades, witnessed a rapid and chaotic development. In the absence of federating and consensual political projects, our neighborhoods are shaped by individualistic and distinct gestures that do not compose with each other. These are often driven by defensive postures that are the result of the inability to predict the future of the surrounding context and the danger of what can be coming right around the corner. In such conditions, you have to be extremely alert. Engaging in any kind of speculation or assertive stance over the future settings of a project could be lethal. We have taken that risk in many of our schemes that I would describe as voluntarily masochistic and sometimes suicidal propositions. There is no comfort zone on the unstable grounds where the most fundamental rules of urban planning don’t apply. This is the result of the total bankruptcy, the incompetence and the corruption of our state institutions. In such conditions, architecture has to be a political act. What could be at the outset an ordinary program can take on a whole other dimension. When the state does not build parks, memorials, museums, opera houses, social housing… The most ordinary programs such as a residential development, a night club, a corporate office tower or a commercial building have to be considered as projects that can hold a political charge. These private undertakings, which initially do not bear any heavy social or political accountability, can be the grounds for another kind of radicalism. This is where architecture should take on another kind of political responsibility, in formulating a history that is nonconsensual and not necessarily affirmative. I did not choose my battle fields. I chose to take action on distressed grounds where meaningful and generous efforts are much more needed. In a nation that failed to structure its grounds around consensual political symbols that would inscribe its history on its territory.

  Luka Skansi: Fiume Fantastika. Monuments of a City of Five Capitals.  

Luka Skansi is an architectural historian, associate professor at Politecnico di Milano. He holds a Master of Science in Architecture from IUAV (Venice), and a doctoral degree from the School for Advanced Studies in Venice. His research interests include Italian Architecture and Engineering of the 20th century, Russian and Soviet Architecture, the Architecture in Socialist Jugoslavija. Recently he curated the exhibition Streets and Neighbourhoods, on Slovenian architect and Harvard Scholar Vladimir Braco Mušič (MAO Ljubljana, 2016) and participated to the 2014 Venice Biennale (section “MondoItalia”) with the installation The Remnants of a Miracle. As a member of the curatorial staff of the exhibition Toward a Concrete Utopia. Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948-1980, held at MoMA – the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2018, he completed a research on the structural architecture of the 1960s and 1970s in Yugoslavia. He was a visiting scholar at the CCA (Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal) and a visiting professor at Ca Foscari University in Venice and the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade and Ljubljana.

As a member of Datalab Rijeka, he participated in a collective research called Fiume Fantastika: Phenomena of the City: a central exhibition of the Sweet&Salt programme flagship, realized within the Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture project. Based on recent research by DeltaLab – Centre for Urban Transition, Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Rijeka, the exhibition follows the last hundred and fifty years of Rijeka’s urban history, during which the city experienced radical growth and became a global transport and industrial centre.

Keynote Speech: FIUME FANTASTIKA. MONUMENTS OF A CITY OF FIVE CAPITALS.

Fiume - Rijeka - Reka - Sankt Veit am Flukt: four toponyms that during the 19th and 20th centuries signified the main seaport of the eastern Adriatic coast. In just a few decades, Rijeka developed from a small and geopolitically insignificant coastal town (1870) to the fifth largest port in the Mediterranean (1910), after Marseilles, Genoa, Venice, and Trieste. She was a city that suffered a contested and divided condition after WWI, between the Kingdom of Jugoslavia and Italy (1919-41), and that experienced a second rapid process of growth after WWII as the main commercial and shipyard port of Socialist Yugoslavia (1945-91).

Every political entity that ruled the city (the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Fascist Italy, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Socialist Yugoslavia, the Republic of Croatia) left indelible and incredible marks, both material and immaterial, that today still characterize the image and spirit of Rijeka: dialects, cuisine, infrastructure, urbanism, architecture, monuments.

The relationship between Rijeka and its monuments – monumental public sculptures that commemorate important events and figures from the past – has always been problematic and conflictual. In the affirmation and legitimation of the various political entities that followed the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, monuments in Rijeka were subject to cyclical erasure, manipulation, and exhumation due to their prominent symbolic significance. This fragmentary and at times illegible legacy stands in contrast to the city's other material heritage, primarily architecture (whether civil, industrial, or private), whose languages, dimensions, and typologies in a much more evident and integral way reflect the historical, political, and ethnic stratification that characterized this city, at least from the mid-19th century onwards.

The lecture will explore – through specific case-studies – the memorialization practices of different political entities, and the fate of memory in the city today, in the period of the lowest rate of ethnic diversity in 150 years of Rijeka's history.

11:15 AM Short Coffee & Stretching Break
11:30 AM SESSION 1 - (parallel)
  Track 1  

Integrated and Universal Mobility: Whose Streets?

Track Chairs: Matej Nikšič, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia and Paola Somma, Freelancer, Venice, Italy

Around the world, “the street” is the object of design competitions, academic courses, and concrete transformative operations. Most of these exercises propose scenarios that focus on the needs and requests of specific categories and groups of citizens and intentionally select the public for which the streets are intended. As a result, integration and universality become synonymous of all modes of transportation or, in the best case, of all ages and abilities.

The track focuses on how the dominant narrative is translated into concrete action and addresses a series of questions: Who can use the street? For what purpose? Under what conditions? With what entitlement and responsibility? In other words, whom the street belongs? Are the owners the ones who own the properties that front it? The ones who use the ground floor for a variety of economic activities? The city council that regulates its modes of use and design standards? The citizens in general? The international investors?

These questions are relevant both from a theoretical point of view and for their arising operative implications as they prompt us to turn the attention from unpopulated blueprints to the actual spatial practices that are changing our cities. Different disciplinary approaches are contributing to the track, provided they highlight the contradiction between the catchy slogans that advertise “streets for all” and the extreme categorization of the citizens that are addressed to, and engage with, proposing alternative and less unequal modes of using the public space.

Participants:

  1.     Matej Nikšič: From Everyone's to No-one's Streets – and Back?: Approaches to Public Space Design amid Privatisation Processes (Introductory Lecture)
  2.     Elena Marchigiani, Ilaria Garofolo, Barbara Chiarelli: Rethinking Public Spaces: Accessibility For All as a Driver to Integrate Mobility, Health and Ecological Issues
  3.     Raphael David Saalmann, Wolfgang Fischer, Sabrina Reinbacher: E-Scooters in Urban Areas – A Viable Innovation or Source of New Conflict Potential?
  4.          Zala Bokal: City Transport and Social Inclusion, a Case Study of Student Dormitories’ Community in Ljubljana
  5.     Sara Bafaro, Sabine Oberrauter: The ”Pop-up Piazza”-project: How temporary changes in public space might help opening streets for everyone
  6.          Q & A
  Track 2  

Dense, Diverse and Designed Urban Development

Track Chairs: Branislav Folić, University of Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia and Saja Kosanović, University of Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia

The physical component of a developed city system is changing more slowly than the ecological and social ones. This is evidenced by the appearance of many cities of the world at the end of the 20th century, namely busy city streets, large air pollution due to the over-use of cars, high levels of traffic noise, usurpation of the open parking spaces, etc. Initiated transformation of this negative picture is considered a complex and long-lasting process as well as the integral segment of sustainable urban development. Track 2 contributions identify concrete challenges and present corresponding solutions regarding:

  • Urban policy for mobility infrastructure (re)development;
  • Sustainable mobility solutions for dense urban areas;
  • (Re)design of the urban space along transport corridors;
  • Spatial, social and ecological interrelations between pedestrian, singular and group (public) mobility corridors in urban environment;
  • Car-free cities;
  • Alternative mobility viewed from the perspective of social and health sciences;
  • Design of slow-mobility streets;
  • Open urban spaces as sustainable mobility nodes;
  • Integration of sustainable mobility schemes into new urban development projects.
 

Participants:

  1.     Branislav Folić, Milena Vukmirović, Saja Kosanović, Milena Ivanović: Sustainable Transformation of Historic Transport Corridor in the City of Belgrade, Serbia (Introductory Lecture)
  2.          Sérgio Barreiros Proença: From Urban Porosity Decoding to Material Urbanity Design
  3.   Oula Aoun: Roads In Introverted Megaprojects from Dubai to Lebanon, A walkability Analysis: Urban Design or Engineering Approach
  4.     Jernej Červek: Role of Accessibility in a Sustainable Town as Applied to Murska Sobota
  5.   Dina Nashar Baroud: Striated and Smooth Identities: Mapping Tripoli’s Varying Political Intensities
  6.          Q & A
01:00 PM Lunch break
01:45 PM SESSION 2 - (parallel)
  Track 3  

Mitigating Traffic Congestion with Urban Development

Track Chairs: Ilka Čerpes, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture, Ljubljana, Slovenia and Mia Crnič, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture, Ljubljana, Slovenia

The fact that the sustainable mobility policy is the right way to reduce the harmful effects of motorized traffic on the environment has become a widely accepted fact. Less explored and considered are more detailed meaningful measures to achieve the goals and the consequences of their implementation for the development of urban environments. In the light of the experience of many European cities, the well-known measures for implementing a sustainable mobility policy are measures to reduce daily migration to urban centres and measures to introduce economically efficient public transport in the areas of highly dispersed settlements, which stay rather vague. The creative contributions on this topic with an emphasized interdisciplinary approach are presented within track 3. At the level of discussion on the consequences of sustainable mobility policies for the development of urban forms they open up new issues and examples of innovative solutions in both urban centres and the wider space. The particularly interest is in: the effects of digitization on planning and design of transport infrastructure (How will it be re-formed in the new circumstances?); the impact of the deployment of built structures along transport corridors to reduce the differences between urban and rural living environments (How and where to create new centralities? Where and what is the limit of the urban centres?); the impact of densification of built structures on the quality of life (What are the characteristics of the compact city? How dense is too dense? Are the new typologies of dwellings being developed and what are they?).

Participants:

  1.     Ilka Čerpes: The Impact of Globalization on Ljubljana Streets (Introductory Lecture)
  2.     Višnja Kukoč, Mirza Džananović, Marko Borota, Jelena Borota, Mariana Bucat: Dynamic Streets and City Programs
  3.   Gregor Čok, Samo Drobne, Gašper Mrak, Mojca Foški, Alma Zavodnik Lamovšek: Decentralisation of Workplaces as a Factor of the Reducing Urban Transport System
  4.          Alessandro Massaro, Francesco Rotondo: Promoting Accessibility in the Urban Planning System: FADP in Taranto Smart City Planning
  5.     Milena Petrova-Tasheva, Elena Dimitrova, Angel Burov: Urban morphology and Mobility Patterns: Myths and Real-Life Transformations of a Large Housing Estate in Sofia
  Track 4  

Travel time and Efficiency of Transport Systems

Track Chairs: Simon Koblar, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia and Manfred Wacker, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Road and Transport Science, Germany

This track focuses on one of the main functions of roads - to provide transport. To ensure transport while disturbing adjacent land uses not more than really necessary is one of the most fostering tasks in urban road planning and design. Not only motorized vehicles in private transport, public transport, bicycles and pedestrians compete for the given road space, but also adjacent land uses ask for public space along the roads. Nowadays even new means of transport like e-scooters or mono wheels show up. The track highlights the quality of the physical throughput of a road by the perspective of the traveller (travel time) and the planning authority (efficiency of transport), finally leading to the question which capacity a road offers for the different means of transport. These items reflect the connection and feeder function of a road and are very often in conflict with the habitation function. Having this in mind the track addresses also the question of both urban network hierarchies as well as urban road classifications.

Participants:

  1.     Simon Koblar, Andrej Gulič, Sergeja Praper Gulič: Assessing Effects of Sustainable Urban Mobility Measures: Case Study in the City Municipality of Novo Mesto (Introductory Lecture)
  2.     Gregor Boltič, Miha Šetina: Future of Urban Mobility in Ljubljana
  3.     Urban Bračko, Peter Lipar: What Changes are Autonomous Vehicles Bringing to Urban Space
  4.     Andreas Savvides, S. Gregoriou: Joint Development of Transit Corridors
  5.          Q & A
  Track 5  

Public-Transport-Oriented Cities for All

Track Chairs: Luka Mladenovič, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia and Peter Lipar, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Public transport is the cornerstone of mobility of a sustainable city. The contemporary public transport in cities goes beyond traditional forms such as train or bus. It involves ride sharing, car sharing, bike and scooter sharing etc. Applications help us plan the routes in real time. Some cities are also merging all public transport services in user packages within the MAAS services. How will the extended understanding of public transport affect the built environment and the development of cities. How do cities adapt to these services? Are new typologies of public space needed to host the exchange between different transport modes? What elements of public transport should city administration add to planning? Are concepts like TOD a thing of a past or just gaining their real momentum? Are the new services accessible to everyone or exclusive to individual age or economic groups?

The approaches and experiences in this field vary among cities. Some cities have a clear vision of their future development and manage their mobility systems very strictly. Other ceased to plan and manage this area and leave the offer to the laws of the market. The track confronts different approaches, experiences and considerations on how to plan cities in future so that they work more efficiently with the support of public transport.

Participants:

  1. Luka Mladenovič: Public Transport Oriented Cities
  2.     Stefanos Tsigdinos, Thanos Vlastos: Formulating Multimodal Corridors Towards Sustainable Mobility in a Metropolitan City
  3.   Jelena Marić, Aleksandra Djukić, Eva Vaništa Lazarević: The Role of Green Space and Alternative Transportation in Improving Public Health
  4.     Dima Jawad, Pamela Mouawad, Peter El Khoury: Is Transit-Oriented Development in the Aftermath Feasible?
  5.     Jaka Veber: Underground Rail Infrastructure as a Multimodal Passenger Hub – the Case of the Ljubljana Passenger Centre
  6.     Lola Meyer, Philipp Oswalt, Stefan Rettich: Future Scenarios on New Mobility and the Digitalisation of Traffic & its Effects on Spatial Issues in Rural Areas
03:15 PM Short Coffee & Stretching Break
03:30 PM      ROUNDTABLE 1   

Public Spaces - Knowledge Transition Between Research, Policy and Practice

Moderators: Matej Nikšič, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana and Ceren Sezer, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen

Participants:

  • Patricia Aelbrecht, Geography and Planning School, Cardiff University
  • Cecilia Andersson, UN Habitat, Global Public Space Programme
  • Enzhe Dusaeva, Tamga Institute of urban studies, Kazan
  • Zeynep Gunay, ISOCARP Board, Director of Young Planning Professionals Programme
  • Alenka Korenjak, prostoRož, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Tadej Žaucer, Ministry of infrastructure of the Republic of Slovenia, Sustainable Mobility and Transport Policy Division
 

Public space has received an increasing attention in urban research, policy, and practice. This is evident in the growing academic literature on the themes related to public space, including accessibility, healthy living, inclusiveness, democracy, urban justice, self-organization, social movements among others. The 2016 UN Habitat Conference, Habitat III, adopted The New Urban Agenda, which focused on public space as a promoter of ‘inclusive, connected, safe and accessible’ cities (UN Habitat, 2016). NGOs worldwide have developed a placemaking approach to improve public spaces, which has been adopted in many cities. Neighbourhood organizations, local interest groups, cultural minorities, or politically oriented pressure groups manifested their needs and interests and reclaimed public spaces specifically in the context of profit-oriented urban developments. This complexity requires transdisciplinary methods to analyse and conceptualise public spaces to be able to engage knowledge, approaches and theories of public spaces from various perspectives to inform and influence policy-making and practice in different contexts.

This roundtable aims to promote a vivid discussion between the speakers and participants from academia, international institutions, practitioners and governments on the challenges and opportunities of knowledge transition between public space research, policy and practice.

05:00 PM End of Day 1

 

 

Day 2 – THURSDAY 24 September 2020

all hours are in CEST – Central European Summer Time

 

09:00 AM Welcome to Day 2 /Fikfak, Nikšič, Mady/   
09:05 AM KEYNOTES 3 and 4 and 5
  Darko Radović: When we think about streets, we are always thinking about something else.  

Darko Radović, professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Keio University, Tokyo, and co-founder of co+re platform for strategic thinking making and living better cities Darko has taught, researched and practised architecture and urbanism in Europe, Australia and Asia. At Keio, he heads co+labo radović, research laboratory which focuses at the concepts of urbanity and sustainable development across scales, in contexts which expose difference and offer encounters with the Other. He has published in English, Serbo-Croatian, Catalan, Japanese, Korean, Italian and Thai languages.

Keynote Speech: WHEN WE THINK ABOUT STREETS, WE ARE ALWAYS THINKING ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE.

The title of this presentation paraphrases an argument, most likely formulated by Felix Guattari, that “when we think about cities, we are always thinking about something else.” I use it to point out how streets encapsulate many of the key aspects of what the urban is all about, its ultimate complexity. Properly conceived, (re)produced and (well) lived, the streets are indicators of healthy urbanity. Such statement sounds agreeable, apart from that indeterminate qualifier – “properly” –from which numerous legitimate questions arise. For instance, what do we think when we say – street? When we gather at international conferences and utter that word – to what degree does what we meant corresponds with Dutch expectations from their straat; Bosnian, Croat, Serbian, Slovenian or Russian from ulica or улица; Italian from strada; Spanish from calle, Catalan carrer; Vietnamese đường phố, Thai ถนน, Japanese 通り, Chinese 街, Arabs شارع, Israeli גאַס, or Turks from an, again fairly internationalised – sokak? To what degree does what sociologists assume when saying “street” resonates with what a traffic engineer, an ethnographer, an urbanist, politician or a resident who has, perhaps, grown up in that particular space may think – and feel?

The examples in this presentation are mainly from Tokyo, where I frame my research to include subjectivity of lived space, my own vécu. Attempts at conciliation of my personal, external and increasingly internalised views create conflicting perspectives, hint at the variety of possibilities and degrees of entry. As Jullien puts it, when exploring cultures and thought of the Other “only crossing thresholds and ‘entering’” might be possible. Thus Japanese, along many other non-Western languages, has no words for “public”. Neither the transcribed paburiku, nor indigenous kōkyo encapsulate the true meaning. That indicates an absence, or at least (to me) a very unusual situation with the concept of public – the cornerstone of my cultural, professional and academic frameworks. How to think streets without the idea of public?! How to admit that, as Jullien puts it mercilessly again, “other cultures have shown hardly any interest” in many of our key concepts?!

In this talk, my aim is to be polemological and to both, in de Certeau’s tradition, help “force theory to recognise its own limits”, and demand humility from common expert practices of solutionism. In that, I favour local criteria of excellence (as in the old environmentalist adage, critically associated with global awareness), as expressions of (also controversially untranslatable) – the right to the city.

  Davisi Boontharm: Capturing the Captivating Streets.  

Davisi Boontharm, professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Meiji University, Tokyo. Davisi’s international academic career stretches from France via Thailand, Singapore, Australia to Japan. Her interest in urban research includes subjective method and artistic approach in requalification, while her creative work expresses passion for cities. She published a number of books and research papers; she also exhibits her artwork internationally. Davisi is a member of the council board of City Space Architecture, participating in research and action of public space. With Darko Radović she co-founded co+re, platform for strategic thinking, making and living better cities, organizing workshops, talks and exhibitions in Asia and Europe.

Keynote Speech: CAPTURING THE CAPTIVATING STREETS.

Street is an intricate subject at the core of urbanity. Street represents the character of the city and plays an important role in determining the quality of urban environment. I am interested in the notion of street as place, set within the context of my own cultural background and other familiar cities of East and Southeast Asia, which are in constant flux. The aim of this presentation is to explore creative methods other than those conventional in urban investigation, in particular artistic way to capturing, analysing, representing and interpreting the character and meaning of streets, with an aim to reach beyond the tangible data, and recognize their capacity to captivate. Three projects in three cities will be discussed.

1) Singapore: A tale of two streets, as an attempt to understand Singapore’s urbanism through comparative mapping of Orchard Road and Haji Lane. Both streets communicate image of the city state as global, with strong sense of locality. By layering and delayering information that could relate to urban intensity, we eventually establish a rich visual essay capable to communicate such qualities.

2) Tokyo: “A street with no name” tests an artistic approach which seeks ways to communicate personal insights and sensibilities triggered by subtle qualities of lived experience, aiming to complement traditional depictions of place in urban research. Through my sketch&script method that engages bodily acts of drawing and writing, drawings help detect and they depict personal attachment to a particular street as a living place.

3) Bangkok: Mapping lived experiences of soi is the project that explores mapping of spatial narratives of residents living in my neighbourhood soi (local appellation of inner streets), located in a unique superblock of Bangkok. By referring to Lefebvre's trialectics and exploring those spaces as conceived, perceived and lived, I discuss the complexity of socio-spatial production of the neighbourhood and the soi which transformed from water-based settlements to land-based city by mapping the narratives of my family members and their attachment to the place.

The concluding part of presentation with focus at ultimate cultural quality of Bangkok, is endangered system of khlongs, canals which over the centuries functioned as liquid streets. This presentation will focus on current co+re efforts to help Bangkok reclaim and revive this complex urban type.

  Luka Mladenovič: Public transport and our cities.  

Luka Mladenovič, researcher and project manager at Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia. Works in the fields of sustainable mobility and urban planning. He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana and then in Urban Design at University College London, the Bartlett. Doctorate conducted at Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana on the topic of sustainable planning and development of high-density urban areas. He has 15 years’ experience working with Slovenian municipalities on their Cycling strategies, Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans and in the National SUMP Platform. He is a certified BYPAD auditor and a member of advisory board of European Cycle Friendly Employer Certification Scheme.

Keynote Speech: PUBLIC TRANSPORT AND OUR CITIES.

Public transport is considered the cornerstone of mobility of a sustainable city. But the contemporary public transport system goes beyond traditional forms such as train or bus. It involves all sorts of new modes, some private and other shared, such as bike sharing, scooters, skateboards, rollers, electric bikes, ride sharing and many more.

Within the presentation we will take a closer look into important stages which shaped the system into today’s state and influences public transport had on urban planning and design, with a special focus on Central European cities, which are mostly small and medium-sized, so changes might take some more time or develop a bit different, than in metropolises which we usually observe.

We will be focusing on three important stages, in which public transport had a direct influence on how urban environment is designed and built. First, the relationship of public transport and urban development in the period before the fast growth of motorization. Neighbourhoods of that period were originally planned as self-sufficient towns, allocated along important public transport corridors, which allowed daily commuting of its residents. This concept is today known as Transit Oriented Development.

Second part of s speech will focus on the post 2000 development with rise of shared and micromobility. We will look at what influence these new trends have on public space and urban development, challenges related to that and what approaches cities use to manage them.

Last part will discuss the effects of the COVID-19 crisis to public transport, mobility in cities and effects it has on planning and managing urban environment. As always, the crisis is a time of reflection, reconsideration of previous approaches and a possibility for change.

11:15 AM Short Coffee & Stretching Break
11:30 AM SESSION 3 - (parallel)
  Track 6

Borders in Street Life: Dividing or Protecting?

Track Chairs: Domen Kušar, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture, Ljubljana, Slovenia and Luca Staricco, Politechnico di Torino, Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning, Italy

As Jane Jacobs preached, large-scale highways, parks, and big buildings can all divide communities, discouraging street life and sucking the life out of cities. Can street life connect people when trying to follow protecting regulations and rules, and ensuring safety in the living environment? Security is among the most valued values of modern man. Measures, in particular the construction of walls and fences, are accompanied by a man since the ancient times. Nowadays the walls are being erected all over the world to satisfy partial economic interests, prevent migration flows, and maintain religious, social and ethnic dominance in individual societies. The questions are arising on a balance between safety, symbolism, semiotics and creation of borders with the urban furniture on one hand and the open urban public spaces as places of socio-economic interactions in the widest sense. In the conditions where due to the safety & security regulations the urban communities are losing the public space for the meaningful social contacts, human interactions, exchanges and free mobility, the contributions to this track are addressing the issue of borders in open public space in theoretical and practical terms.

Participants:

  1.          Domen Kušar, Blaž Komac: Fences as a Means of Determination of Mobility (Introductory Lecture)
  2.     Katarina Konda: Divided Neighbourhood
  3.     Lola Beyrouti: Music on the Streets: Positive Impressions
  4.     Leandro Madrazo, Maria Irene Aparicio, Burak Pak, Tadeja Zupančič: A-Place: Linking Places Through Networked Artistic Practices
  5.     Oskar Cafuta: Digital Borders - Effect of Contemporary and Future Consumerism on Street Life
  Track 7

Green Mobility in a Way to Climate Resilient Streets

Green Mobility in a Way to Climate Resilient Streets Track Chairs: Kristijan Lavtižar, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture, Ljubljana, Slovenia and Jean-Pierre El Asmar, Notre Dame University-Louaize, Ramez G. Chagoury Faculty of Architecture, Arts and Design, Lebanon

The track encompasses papers, presentations and discussions addressing green mobility on a way to climate resilient streets. Namely, climate change has become a relevant topic within various disciplines over the last decade. The manifestations of climate change are identified as a realistic threat to sustainable development in the built environment. In the context of climate resilience, common spaces in the built environment, including the streets, are gaining a new role and significance that need to be explored. Some of the main research issues addressed within the track are:

  • Climate-resilient streets, strategies and policies;
  • Climate-resilient streets and urban sustainability;
  • Structure, metabolism and functionality of climate-resilient streets;
  • Addressing climate change-related risks in street (re)design;
  • Streets and extreme weather events;
  • Design and materialization of climate-resilient and sustainable streets.
 

Participants:

  1.          Kristijan Lavtižar: Adapting to the Urban Microclimate – Street Pollution (Introductory Lecture)
  2.     Andrej Gulič, Sergeja Praper Gulič, Simon Koblar: Advancing Low Carbon Mobility in Slovenia: The Case of the City Municipality of Novo mesto
  3.     Katarina Rus, Vojko Kilar, David Koren: Configuration of a City Street Network to Support Urban Seismic Resilience
  4.     Dima Jawad, Marie-Belle Boutros, Marc Abi Khalil, Ralph Khadra, Lilia Aboul Hosn: Sustainable Transport University Campus: Starting at the Grassroots
  5.          Q & A
01:00 PM Lunch break
01:45 PM SESSION 4 - (parallel)
  Track 8

Pedestrian Friendly Cities to Support Climate Change

Track Chairs: Matevž Juvančič, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture, Ljubljana, Slovenia and Ognen Marina, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Faculty of Architecture, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia

Walkability and pedestrianization have come to dominate our visions of ideal cities. We can agree on the main benefits of pedestrian friendly urban environments: lively streets, safe and less stressful places, exercise without exercising, providing livelihood for dense and mixed-use programme at eye level, vicinity of functions, more opportunities for social interactions, etc. These create the cities in which we would all like to live in. Based on predominantly individual perception, we sometimes forget the larger benefits and influences on sustainable way of life. Does being able to walk really reduce the need to use the car and commute? Every last inch of the city cannot be a pedestrian zone: what ‘pedestrian friendly’ really means and what appropriate levels do we envision? Is it about the access, enjoying walking or cycling, preferring the ‘on foot’ mode over the others or excluding the others? Does pedestrian friendly also mean carless society and car free streets? To which of the main pillars of sustainability do pedestrian friendly cities bring the most and which ones get usually overlooked?

Participants:

  1.          Matevž Juvančič: Walkability Themes and Principles Examined on Ljubljana City Centre and Južne Fužine Neighbourhood (Introductory Lecture)
  2.   Steffan Robel: Another Street is Possible: Exploring Future Streetscapes Through Temporary Redistribution Strategies
  3.     María Eugenia Martínez Mansilla, Marta Adriana Bustos Romero: New Centralities for Integrated and Universal Mobility in Latin America
  4.     Dima Jawad, Maya El Chakhtoura, Julien Semaan, Nasri Khneisser, Paul Boulos: Towards a Walkable City: A Case Study of Zouk Mosbeh
  5.          Lea Petrović Krajnik, Damir Krajnik, Tamara Lukić: Contribution of Public Space to Sustainable Urban Development: Case study Varaždin
  Track 9  

Perspectives on Sustainable Mobility: Culture of Everyday Activism

Track Chairs: Janez Grom, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture, Ljubljana, Slovenia and Christine Mady, Notre Dame University-Louaize, Ramez G. Chagoury, Faculty of Architecture, Arts and Design, Department of Architecture, Lebanon

Mobility in this track is investigated through a relational perspective, considering the historical, social, economic, political and environmental characteristics of the context, and how they shape and are shaped by social practices. In particular, the role of mobility in contexts of instability is central in either mitigating or increasing discrepancies among the population. Also, social practices including everyday activism could contribute towards facilitating the mobility of various groups such as the disadvantaged, the impaired, the very young or the aging. Activists are essential in promoting different modes, specifically the non-motorized. Contributions to this track are from various disciplines and engage with the following questions: how is mobility justice sustained in the absence of public investment? How can activists guide investors in transportation away from the modification of basic mobility and towards a sustainable approach? What happens to everyday mobility in contexts of instability such as sudden population changes, natural or man-made disasters? How can actors engage in increasing accessibility and everyday mobility for different user groups? How can activists inform urban planners and policymakers in decisions related to mobility to and within urban contexts? What modalities by mobility activists contribute to sustaining spontaneous encounters and social interaction through mobility, enhancing the urban experience?

Participants:

  1.          Janez P. Grom, Matevž Frančič, Alenka Fikfak: Vodnikova Street in Ljubljana: Students Perspective (Introductory Lecture)
  2.     Christine Mady: Experiencing Mobility under Instability: A Perspective from Beirut’s Informal Bus Riders
  3.     Natalia Olszewska, Nour Tawil: Transition Streets: A View from Psychological Sustainability Perspective
  4.     Milica Lazarević, Aleksandra Djukić, Branislav Antonić: Space Digitization as a Tool to Enhance the Identity of Historic Public Space
  5.     Kaja Pogačar: Potentials and Experience of Streetscape Transformations - Recent Examples from Maribor
  6.     Carine Assaf, Christine Mady, Pieter Van den Broeck: Utopia or Dystopia in Mobility Cultures? Beirut’s Informal Bus System and Bus Map Project as Social Innovations
  Track 10  

Street Lighting – Supporting Sustainable Urban Development

Track Chair: Tomaž Novljan, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Exterior lighting has always been an essential element of nocturnal cityscapes; initially it was primarily based in function, providing night-time security and orientation within the built environment. These functional needs were in turn augmented by advertising and outdoor living ambiances that established multi-scaled spatial hierarchies as well as creating multifarious views of the city during the darkness of night. Nocturnal lighting within the urban landscape is one of the many challenges that any contemporary city faces. Thw contributions to Track 12 address the following topics:

  • Establishing orientation and hierarchy in cityscapes;
  • Creating “another face” of the city;
  • Nocturnal public spaces;
  • Lighting art and advertising;
  • Obtrusive light and light pollution.
 

Participants:

  1.   Tomaž Novljan: Urban Luminous Ambiences (Introductory Lecture)
  2.   Lanlan Wei: Outdoor lighting plan - rethinking of Trg osvobodilne fronte in Ljubljana
  3.   Aleš Švigelj, Marko Lazič: Lighting in Urban Space – Challanges in Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon
  4.   Mia Crnič: The Evolution of the Shared Space
03:15 PM Short Coffee & Stretching Break
03:30 PM   ROUNDTABLE 2  

Moving Around our Cities in the Times of Epidemics – the Changed Demand for Public Spaces

Moderators: Alenka Fikfak, Faculty of Architecture, Ljubljana and Christine Mady, Notre Dame University-Louaize, Beirut

Participants:

  1.   Jose Chong, UN Habitat, United Nations Human Settlements Programme
  2.   Marko Peterlin, Institute for Spatial Policies, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  3.   Janez Černe, Deputy Mayor of The City Municipality of Kranj, Slovenia
  4.   Stefano Ragazzo, AMAT - Agency of the Mobility, Envrionment and Territory of Milan Municipality, Italy
  5.   Q_A
 

The recent Covid-19 pandemic crisis have affected mobility, social practices and other forms of life that are part of public spaces in our cities. While the public transport usage is decreasing, some other forms of mobility such as walking and cycling are gaining popularity. At the same time new social distancing measurements are challenging the design and management of the open public spaces. On one hand public spaces must stay the places of the social exchanges and democratic practices, on the other hand the epidemiologic measures demand the changed behavioural patterns and practices in open public spaces. Can this be an opportunity for re-conceptualising public spaces as we know them and turn them into more democratic and sustainable places?

This roundtable focuses on the following questions: Which technical solutions can contribute to a responsible usage of open public spaces during the epidemics so that the transportation, socialisation and other normative functions of streets can be kept while the public health standards not endangered? Which interdisciplinary approaches are needed to address the issue in a holistic way at the crossroad of health, IT, urban planning, social and other sciences and disciplines to allow streets and other public spaces stay alive during the epidemics? How can individuals, communities and local authorities equally engage in circumscribing epidemics and mitigating their impact on the everyday lives of commuters, cyclists, pedestrians and other users of city streets? How can data be shared in epidemics situations and the transmittal of viruses controlled in streets and public transport?

05:00 PM End of Conference

 

 

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