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|  Click on a title to read about the conference... Sustainable Tourism 2008 3-5 September 2008, Malta Clone Towns? The High Street in Historical Perspective 10-11 September 2008, Wolverhampton UK Climate Change & Urban Design C.E.U. 2008, 14-16 September 2008 Oslo, Norway Water and Urban Development Paradigms 15-19 September 2008, Belgium Perspectives of Small Towns in the Countryside 17-21 September 2008, Wittstock, Germany Urban Growth Without Sprawl 19-23 September 2008, Dalian, China Landscape and urban form ISUF 2008 21-23 November 2008, Artimino, Italy Parks and the Health of Great Cities 21-23 September 2008, Pittsburgh, USA World Sustainable Building 08 21-25 September 2008, Melbourne, Australia The Sustainable City 2008 24-26 September 2008, Skiathos, Greece The Sustainable City and Creativity 24-26 September 2008, Naples, Italy Ruskin, Venice, and 19th Century Cultural Travel 25-27 September 2008, Venice, Italy Finding The Spirit of The Place: ICOMOS 2008 29 Sept - 4 Oct 2008, Québec, Canada City Museums and the Future of the City 6-8 October 2008, Seoul, South Korea LEHM 2008 10-12 October 2008, Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, Koblenz, Germany The Ideal City 11-14 October 2008, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Réhabilitation et revitalisation urbaine Oran, Algérie, du 19 au 21 octobre 2008 7th International Conference on Urban Health 29-31 October 2008, Vancouver Responsibilities and Opportunities in Architectural Conservation 3-5 November 2008, Amman, Jordan Urban MultipliCITIES: 6-7 November 2008, Queen Mary University of London Casa Nobre 14-15 de Novembro de 2008, Casa das Artes de Arcos de Valdevez, Portugal AGENCY: 5th International Conference of the AHRA 14-15 November 2008, Sheffield UK 2nd Symposium on Vernacular Architecture 15 November 2008, Bandung, Indonesia Rebuilding Sustainable Communities... after Disasters 16-19 November 2008, Boston, USA Global Debate on Creative Economy 17-20 November 2008, Scotland CALL FOR SPEAKERS Coastal Cities Summit: Values & Vulnerabilities 17-20 November 2008, St Petersburg, Florida On The Waterfront: Culture, Heritage & Regeneration of Port Cities 19–21 November 2008, Liverpool Landscape and urban form ISUF 2008 21-23 November 2008, Artimino, Italy Piero Gazzola, an Architectural Heritage Strategy... 28-29 November 2008, Verona, Italy Re-making Places 3 December 2008, America Square Conference Centre, London FUTURE | ASIAN | SPACE (GASS 08) 5-7 December 2008, National University of Singapore Interrogating Tradition: IASTE 2008 12-15 December 2008, Oxford Brookes University, UK Sixth Savannah Symposium: World Heritage... 19-21 February 2009, Savannah, Georgia USA Society of Architectural Historians 62nd Annual Meeting, 1-5 April 2009, Pasadena, California Global City 2009: Sustainability, Our Vision, Our Future 7-8 January 2009, Abu Dhabi, UAE Sustainable Development and Planning 2009 13-15 May 2009, Cyprus 7th International Space Syntax Symposium 8-11 June 2009, Stockholm, Sweden VAF Annual Meeting 2009 10-13 June 2009, Butte, Montana, USA STREMAH 2009 22-24 July 2009, Tallinn, Estonia Urban Morphology and Urban Transformation ISUF 2009 4-7 September 2009, Guangzhou, China The Diverse Suburb 22-24 October 2009, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York Conferences Archive
Sustainable Tourism 2008 Call for Papers The conference is organised by Wessex Institute of Technology, UK and the Complutense University, Madrid, Spain. The event is sponsored by WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment. View the conference website, which has full details about the conference objectives, topics and submission requirements at www.wessex.ac.uk/tourism2008cfp. Conference Topics
Further information
Full conference information is available at www.wessex.ac.uk/tourism2008cfp or submit an abstract directly by sending an email to rcreasey@wessex.ac.uk.
Rachel Creasey
Clone Towns? CHORD invites submissions for a conference devoted to exploring the changing nature of the high street, from the medieval to the contemporary period, in Britain and elsewhere. Proposals are invited for papers exploring any aspect of this topic, and focusing on any geographical area. Areas of interest include (but are not limited to):
Please send proposals (including title and c.200 words abstract) to the address below by 4 April 2008.
Further information
For further information, please see http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in6086/clones.html
Dr Laura Ugolini
CLIMATE CHANGE AND URBAN DESIGN
Following successful Congresses in Berlin 2005 and Leeds 2006, the Council for European Urbanism – C.E.U. - will hold its third international congress in Oslo, Norway from the 14th to 16th September 2008.
The congress will discuss the rapidly-evolving topic of "Climate Change and Urban Design", and the latest implications in science, policy, education and best practice. What is the latest science telling us? What are the consequences for urban development internationally? What are the practical solutions available to reduce climate gas emissions from urban settlements and transportation? What strategies are available to adapt to changing conditions?
The congress will welcome government officials, planners, architects, social scientists, ecologists, developers, local community activists, and all other development stakeholders who feel a responsibility to contribute to more sustainable urban development.
Background
The climate change agenda has clearly reached a world-wide tipping point. Yet while there is growing consensus that the phenomenon poses a major threat to future human well-being, legitimate debate remains about what is to be done to reduce atmospheric carbon levels, as well as to adapt to changes that already appear likely. In particular there is ongoing debate about how the cost of various options correlates to potential benefits. Debate also continues about how the issue of climate change relates to the larger agenda of sustainable development.
The built environment is well known to be one of the largest current contributors to greenhouse gases. Therefore those who work in the planning, design and building professions have a key role in working to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide. While much work has been done to decrease contributions from individual buildings, the role of urban design in addressing climate change remains more obscure, and more contentious.
To be sure, buildings are not passive emitters of greenhouse gases. They shape the patterns of activity and consumption of their occupants, which in turn profoundly affect emissions. Must occupants drive between scattered locations, perhaps for long distances? Do they spend large percentages of time in buildings isolated from a functional public realm, with high patterns of consumption and emissions? Are those buildings sited in remote new developments where significant areas of existing vegetation have been replaced with paved or reflective surfaces? How does the urban street and block pattern contribute? What about the mix of uses, and the distribution of daily activities and needs?
There has been much discussion of the dramatic carbon reductions possible per person in a higher-density urban morphology, particularly in comparison to automobile-dominated "sprawl" development. But what are the factors to be teased out? If we are to pursue such a goal, what are the issues to be addressed in economics, market dynamics, project permitting, legal regulation? How are these issues being addressed successfully, and what further challenges and opportunities remain?
What about the preference of some consumers for lower density neighborhoods, or the argument that it is more sustainable to accommodate a settlement distribution or "transect" from the highest human use to the most pristine natural environment, including lower-density agricultural settlements? Does the new agenda imply, as some argue, that only very high densities will be viable? Or can a mixture that includes some lower-density morphologies be sustained in combination with other forms of mitigation? Is such a range of densities more economically sustainable, as some argue?
Even at high densities, a wide range of morphologies is possible. What are the benefits and tradeoffs of the alternatives? For example, are dense high rise cities the inevitable best option? What about the negative energy impacts of tall buildings that may feature extensive curtain wall glazing, or require other high-energy conditioning, maintenance or repair? How do tall buildings perform across socio-economic classes, or in promoting social diversity and economic sustainability? How do they perform in repairability, adaptive re-use, or typical life-cycle?
What about the advantages of "green" retrofits of existing buildings, in comparison to new green buildings? Since roughly half of the energy use of a building is in its construction, is there credible evidence to suggest that adaptive re-use of heritage buildings should be a greater priority? Are there examples of traditional urban fabric that offer better models of sustainable morphology, such as medium rise "liner" buildings, or high-density terraces? And do traditional buildings offer any significant morphological benefits for the sustainability challenge?
These questions remind us that emissions are a cumulative phenomenon, and must be considered over whole systems and whole life cycles. Clearly a reduction in one targeted parameter is of little use if it results in the increase of another parameter by an equal or greater amount. Moreover, greenhouse gas emissions are only one parameter of sustainability that must be considered in balance with others.
Speakers
Among the speakers are:
Plenary Session and Congress Declaration
The Congress will convene to develop a final declaration of key issues and next steps. The declaration will summarise conclusions from each of the four sessions, reflecting the latest conclusions and imperatives for action:
Science: What we know
The declaration will seek to place urban design in the context of wider climate change issues, and the whole-systems approach that will be required to mitigate and adapt to this urgent challenge.
Academic Committee
Further information
The 2008 C.E.U Congress is organised by the Norwegian chapter of C.E.U.
Mr. Audun Engh
C.E.U. - Council for European Urbanism
Water and Urban Development Paradigms
Water is perhaps the world's most valuable resource - clean water has even been touted as the 'next oil'. Water has become a strategic (and shrinking) resource, a commodity; indeed, control of water has always been - and remains - a highly politicized affair. This proves as a major challenge as cities and urban areas are gaining an estimated 60 million people per year - over 1 million every week.
This international conference intends to bridge the gap between the disciplines of water management, ecology and the approaches of engineering, urban design and spatial planning. Sessions will develop a series of themes, discussing the historical relationship between water systems and human settlements, and related management problems regarding urban floods, water use and water sanitation. In each session, presentations are invited on problem definition, technical and design-based solutions, but also on boundary conditions of exogenous, political or economical nature.
Conference jointly organized by:
Conference organized under the auspices of:
Introduction
Water is perhaps the world's most valuable resource - clean water has even been touted as the 'next oil'. Water has become a strategic (and shrinking) resource, a commodity; indeed, control of water has always been - and remains - a highly politicized affair. This proves as a major challenge as cities and urban areas are gaining an estimated 60 million people per year - over 1 million every week. In many developing countries cities are growing two or three times faster than the overall population. As urban areas - particularly smaller towns and cities - continue to grow in size, about 5 billion people are expected to live in cities by 2030 - about 61 per cent of the global population of 8.1 billion, the UN projects. At present, over 900 million people - almost one in three of the world's urban population - are slum dwellers, and in 30 years' time that number is likely to double to 2 billion, unless serious action is taken, according to UN-Habitat.
As the world continues to urbanize, mass consumption and pollution are depleting natural resources and destroying natural eco-systems. Water issues are increasingly high on the international agenda - particularly in desert, tropical and sub-tropical regions. It is estimated that today 1.2 billion humans lack access to clean drinking water and 2.5 billion lack access to basic sanitation. The Millennium Development Goals specifically target these pressing problems. Beyond issues of access, water is increasingly perceived as a hot issue because of the rise of the sea level and the increasing salinization of coastal areas, phenomena strongly induced by global climate change. As well, the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters - flooding and tsunami - require strategic re-thinking in terms of mitigation measures.
Water - particularly coasts and rivers - has a long-standing relationship to urbanization. Ancient civilizations had ingenious methods of dealing with water, often simultaneously addressing pragmatism, urbanism and symbolism. Innovative hydrological engineering logics, an understanding of topography and seasonal weather patterns had profound implications in the form, growth (and demise) and vitality of human settlements from Machu Picchu to Sri Lanka to Rome. In the contemporary world of increased specialization and technological innovation, a great deal of this ancient ingenuity has been lost. More often than not, waterworks are in the domain of engineering while urban design and planning are only - other than for re-development of waterfront - tangentially involved.
This international conference intends to bridge the gap between the disciplines of water management, ecology and the approaches of engineering, urban design and spatial planning. Sessions will develop a series of themes, discussing the historical relationship between water systems and human settlements, and related management problems regarding urban floods, water use and water sanitation. In each session, presentations are invited on problem definition, technical and design-based solutions, but also on boundary conditions of exogenous, political or economical nature. It is hoped that this interdisciplinary information exchange and communication will lead to discussion and will contribute to a better integration of approaches currently considered in the separate disciplines of water management, water engineering, spatial urban planning and design and aquatic ecology. Also aspects of meteorological, demographic, political, economical, and educational and life-style related nature will be considered in the analysis of solutions to current and emerging urban water problems. This on the longer term might lead to new paradigms in managing water in the urban environment.
Conference themes
I. Urbanity and Hydrology
This session will investigate water systems and their relationship to urban form and growth. Issues to be investigated include:
II. Mitigating Natural Disasters (flood, tsunami)
This session will present various alternatives to mitigating natural disasters and address the conflict between water and urbanity.
Issues to be investigated include:
III. Urban Water Management
This session aims to concentrate on the fact that the world is witnessing a drastic increase in water demand and with it a renewed need for effective urban water management.
Issues to be investigated include:
IV. Rethinking Water Governance
This session will address the political, economic and social reforms that are needed to make conclusive and significant progress of current and emerging water problems.
Issues to be investigated include:
Key dates
1 September 2007: Second call for papers
Key conference links
Conference website
Contact
Mrs. Greta Camps
Mrs. Maura Slootmaekers
Images courtesy K.U. Leuven
Perspectives of Small Towns in the Countryside
Invitation
Important points of reference are:
“10 Years Declaration of Wittstock”. In June 1998 architects met in Wittstock to consider the chances for towns in Brandenburg in the 21st century. The result was a Declaration which already has had enduring effect. Now is the occasion to take stock and look at the future.
“Metropole and Province – Province and Metropole” is the motto of this year’s Cultural Campaign of the Federal State of Brandenburg 2008. Regions cannot be thought of without reference to metropoles and metropoles like Berlin draw much of their quality of life not in the least from the regions around them which include small towns.
The cooperation with ECOVAST, the European Council for the Village and Small Town, which already for some years has been developing a programme to strengthen small towns in Europe (ASSET), gives the conference an international dimension. Guests from various countries in Europe are expected, so that a unique chance exists for an interesting exchange of international experience.
Contact Details
The Conference is organized jointly by ECOVAST (European Council for the Village and Small Town), the Brandenburg Chamber of Architects and the Town of Wittstock (Dosse)
The Conference takes place in two languages: All conference events will be interpreted simultaneously in German and English.
Further information
The Conference Office is available to answer all questions regarding the organization:
Stadt Wittstock (Dosse)
The Conference Programme and up to date information can be found on the Conference Platform available on the Website http://www.wittstock.de/texte/seite.php?id=5320
German Section of the European Association for the Countryside e.V.
Brandenburgische Architektenkammer/ Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts
Réhabilitation et revitalisation urbaine
Le colloque est organisé par Col·legi d'Aparelladors i Arquitectes Tècnics de Barcelone, Agencia Española de Cooperación International para el desarrollo (AECI) et l'Office National de Gestion et d'Exploitation des biens Culturels Protégés.
Les centres historiques représentent le coeur des villes et leur histoire vivante. Au cours du XXème siècle, les centres historiques connurent une période de décadence et d'abandon à cause de sa dégradation et un manque des services publics nécessaires. Ce phénomène fit des quartiers historiques un refuge pour les populations pauvres avec la perte de l'identité culturelle et de la cohésion sociale.
La réhabilitation urbaine durable et intégrée commence avec le diagnostic multidisciplinaire qui permet la connaissance du quartier et qui va au-delà des édifices, des infrastructures ou des espaces publics pour impliquer les différents acteurs et les habitants. C'est sur cette base solide que les élus prennent les décisions clé et lancent la gestion urbaine, les outils juridiques et les ressources économiques nécessaires. En somme, l'objectif de la revitalisation des zones urbaines dégradées est de mettre en place une stratégie de régénération qui permette d'arrêter la détérioration du tissu urbain et social ; de préserver ses valeurs patrimoniales ; de renforcer la cohésion sociale et de favoriser l’activité économique.
Pendant la période coloniale, les centres historiques algériens furent l'objet de marginalisation et d’abandon et après l’indépendance, ces quartiers n’eurent pas plus de chance, puisque seules quelques restaurations d’éléments monumentaux furent réalisées. Récemment, le gouvernement a lancé plusieurs initiatives législatives pour la préservation des centres historiques algériens avec la rédaction de Plans de Sauvegarde comme outil urbanistique pour gérer la protection et la revitalisation de ces centres.
La ville d'Oran présente des caractéristiques et des problématiques communes avec d'autres villes d'Algérie et de la Méditerranée. Dans le quartier de Sidi el Houari, des bâtiments tombent en ruine et seule la population la plus défavorisée reste là. Il contient cependant plusieurs des monuments les plus importants de la ville, il est le souvenir vivant et le témoin des différentes étapes vécues tout d'abord avec la présence espagnole, puis l’occupation ottomane et enfin, la période coloniale française.
L'importance de la réhabilitation fut mise en évidence par le Président de la République, Abdelaziz Bouteflika en août 2007 qui insista sur l'importance de préserver l'identité du quartier de Sidi el Houari à travers des actions urgentes de réhabilitation. Le Colloque a comme objectif d’ouvrir un débat sur la réhabilitation de ce quartier et de créer les synergies nécessaires entre les acteurs de la ville pour sa revitalisation physique, sociale et économique et pour redevenir le vrai coeur de la ville d'Oran.
Plus d'informations
Comité de programme
Secrétariat du Colloque
Inscription
Lieu du Colloque
Langue du Colloque
Public cible
* Les actes du Colloque et les contributions des participants seront publiés après le Colloque
Urban Growth Without Sprawl
ISOCARP is proud to announce/present its 44th International Planning Congress which will be held in the City of Dalian, China from 19 – 23 September 2008.
About ISOCARP
ISOCARP is a global association of experienced professional planners. It was founded in 1965 in a bid to bring together recognised and highly qualified planners in an international network. The ISOCARP network consists of both individual and institutional members of more than 70 countries all over the world.
ISOCARP is a non-governmental organisation recognized by the UN, UNCHS and the Council of Europe and has a formal consultative status with UNESCO.
The objectives of ISOCARP include the improvement of planning practice through the creation of a global and active network of planners. ISOCARP encourages the exchange between planners, promotes the profession in all aspects, stimulates research, improves education and training, increases information and awareness on major planning issues.
The association’s main event is the annual congress, which focuses on an international planning theme. The congress takes place in a different country every year, preferably on a different continent. ISOCARP also organises smaller scale seminars and publishes reports and other professional documents. It is represented at major international planning events.
Conference Theme
The theme of the congress refers to one of those grand goals of city planning that – as so many other city planning promises - is in striking contrast with the reality of rapid urban development all over the world. For most city planners (and other critical minds as well), sprawl clearly has a negative connotation, conjuring up images of uncontrolled residential subdivisions and ribbon development, square miles of unused and derelict land, wasteful and unplanned conversion of valuable agricultural soil, clogged-up roads and expensive but under-used utility lines.
Other terms come to mind, such as the more factual “peri-urban development”, or the joking analogy of scrambled eggs (or Mexican omelette) as a graphical image of a contemporary city region. It is now almost impossible to draw a line between town and country – unlike in ancient times when the urban form used to resemble a boiled egg (the walled city) and later (when industrialisation had begun), a fried egg. (Cedric Price and then William Mitchell invented and used the delightful egg morphology to make their point). Not everyone finds sprawl harmful and unwanted though. Some economists have even discovered certain advantages in unlimited urban growth, and political scientists would disagree whether such large sprawling cities are necessarily un-governable or not.
Much of the now common unrestrained physical form of urban development, and with it, the economic and social implications of a sprawling urban continuum, appears to be the inevitable consequence of increasing automobile ownership and use, and even more so, of the global market forces that are at work in our urbanizing world, along with rampant rural-urban migration, and an increasingly unregulated private sector. The global fifty-percent line in urbanisation has already been crossed, and in Asia, it will very soon be reached.
China, as the largest country with a very rapidly growing urbanisation rate, has reached enormous proportions of challenges, but also of opportunities, in its mega-urban regions where an overwhelmingly large proportion of national wealth is generated. In contrast with an earlier era in the People’s Republic of China when everything, including urban growth, was claimed to be firmly under control, the Chinese government now finds it close to impossible to “control” urban growth. So in China, as much as in India or any other fast developing country, “cities without sprawl” would seem to amount to wishful thinking or un-attainable goals, or – to invoke another image that is hard to pin down – an important dimension of the idealistic goal of “sustainable city development”. At any rate, growth and proportions of mega-cities in the so-called developing countries are unprecedented; they are much greater than those in industrialized countries in history or at present; and the global environmental and social effects of urban sprawl are beyond imagination.
Is it possible at all to plan and govern such developments? Do we not have the right kind of strategic concepts that would lend themselves as powerful instruments for achieving those “cities without sprawl”? Some of them are, in random order – the sustainable city, or perhaps the liveable city (which is even more difficult to define), the compact city (straightforward as a physical concept but hard to do in practice), national urban development strategies for better regional distribution of urban growth, regional networking, public transport (including the new miracle of bus transit, or perhaps retro-fitting of public transport systems), brown field development as well as urban conservation and regeneration, and several other concepts. Are they effective in practice, or do they just reflect utopian thinking, as much as the imperative of “cities without sprawl” would seem to do?
Dalian, the host city, is a large industrial and commercial city that would offer a rich laboratory of proven and rejected strategies to learn from. China certainly has much to show in terms of urban development lessons, as much as China wishes to learn the lessons of other countries.
The Congress includes plenary sessions, including an Opening Statement on behalf of Dr Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), five workshops and post congress tours.
The Congress welcomes City and Regional Urban Planners from all over the world and is open to any interested individual, party or organisation, young planning professional, expert and interested professional from other related disciplines (ISOCARP members and/or non-members). ISOCARP and the Chinese Local Organising Committee look forward to their participation.
Abstract submission
Submissions of abstracts have to comply with the Congress Theme and Objectives of the Congress.
Authors will be guided through four submission steps:
Submission of abstracts (Deadline 1 April): here.
Please contact the ISOCARP Secretariat at isocarp@isocarp.org for any problems.
Further information
Web: http://2008.isocarp.org/
World Sustainable Building 08
The World Sustainable Building (SB) Conference series, which has been held every three years, is the peak gathering of the world’s leading technical experts and researchers on sustainable built environments.
SB08 Melbourne will continue a traditional focus on technical developments and case studies. CSIRO (Australia's national research organisation), leading universities and research groups in Australia and from around the world, are all expected to release new research.
How well the research community interacts with industry and government has a significant impact on the speed of technology transfer and adoption of sustainable development concepts and technologies. A high level of engagement will guarantee that communities can enjoy liveable, viable and connected built environments through generations.
SB08 has a multifaceted program that builds strong and effective linkages across stakeholder groups to advance sustainability knowledge and practice through market and industry transformation. Site visits of leading-edge Australian commercial, residential and industrial developments are planned.
Sustainable Building Challenge 2008
Preparations for sustainable building Challenge 2008 are heating up, with selected project teams expected to submit completed information by the end of May for verification by iiSBE, the International Initiative for Sustainable Built Environment.
iiSBE received more than 80 proposals from 23 countries for the Challenge, which is an international cooperative process aimed at continuous development and improvement of performance assessment tools and sustainable building design techniques.
Asia Pacific Partnership Projects
The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP) has entered into an agreement with the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) to develop collaborative projects in China and India that will promote high-performance buildings and developments. As part of the agreement, some programs will be delivered through, or showcased at World SB08 Melbourne, and APP will become a major partner at SB08.
Building Regulators at SB08
The peak committee of the world’s leading building regulatory agencies, in conjunction with the Australian Codes Board (ABCB), is partnering with SB08 Melbourne to present the latest international thinking and practices on regulations that promote sustainable building.
Further information
The Sustainable City 2008
Call for Papers
The Fifth International Conference on Urban Regeneration and Sustainability is organised by Wessex Institute of Technology, UK, the University of Siena, Italy. and the University of Thessaly, Greece. It is sponsored by WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment The International Journal on Ecodynamics, and incorporates The Prigogine Awards 2008. View the conference website, which has full details about the conference objectives, topics and submission requirements at
www.wessex.ac.uk/city2008cfpb.html.
Conference Topics
Further information
Full conference information is available at www.wessex.ac.uk/city2008cfpb.html
or submit an abstract directly by sending an email to: rswinburn@wessex.ac.uk.
Conference Secretariat
Rachel Swinburn
The Sustainable City and Creativity
The International Meeting on "Sustainable City and Creativity: Promoting Creative Urban Initiatives" will be held in Naples on 24 - 26 September 2008.
The aim of the Meeting is to analyze in depth principles and practices of the creative city for the formulation of policy lessons and recommendations able to contribute to the building of a creative city.
Conference themes
For information on the call for papers, and online submission, please visit www.creativecity2008.eu/ocs/index.php/creativecity2008/SCC/schedConf/cfp.
In particular, the attention will be focused on the following issues:
The Scientific Committee - composed of Sir Peter Hall, Tuzin Baycan Levent, Roberto Camagni, Giuliana Di Fiore, Francesco Forte, Klaus Kunzmann, John Rees, Peter Nijkamp, Pierluigi Sacco, Roger Stough, and Luigi Fusco Girard
- has been involved in order to identify the Meeting themes/contents. The papers to be presented and then published in a proceeding volume will be selected.
The Conference will involve representatives from Universities, Research Centers, international and national public Institutions, business sector and civil society.
The Meeting will open with a Round Table. There will be three Plenary Sessions and two Parallel Sessions. A Poster Session is expected too.
A final document will be presented as conference outcome, to be sent to government institutions, city networks and research institutions.
If you have any interest in exchanging research results, experiences, best practices about the role of creativity in promoting urban city sustainable development please consider to submit an abstract (30 - 60 lines in English) for attending the Meeting, specifying the title, your name and institutional affiliation and the interested Session. The number of Sessions to be activated will be defined according to the selected papers.
The papers should present theoretical approach (full research paper with innovative results) and/or practical experiences with ex post evaluation and lessons learned and/or preliminary ideas with work in progress.
Further information
Web: www.creativecity2008.eu/ocs/index.php/creativecity2008/
Ruskin, Venice, and 19th Century Cultural Travel
This international conference is presented by The Ruskin Centre at Lancaster University, INCS: Interdisciplinary Nineteenth Century Studies, and The Department of European and Postcolonial Studies of University of Ca' Foscari Venice. It will open at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in the afternoon of 25th September 2008. On the 26th and 27th, all events will be held at the campus of the Venice International University. The plenary speakers will be James Buzard on Cultural Travel, Robert Hewison on Ruskin and Venice, and Anna Laura Lepschy on the reception of Tintoretto in the nineteenth-century.
Papers and panels are welcomed from scholars working in any discipline broadly relating to John Ruskin, Venice or Cultural Travel in relation to the long nineteenth century. Suggested topics include: Cultural Tourism, Topographies, Empires & Commerce, Romantic Contexts, Architectures, Gendered Places, Religious Cultures, Paintings, Museums & Exhibitions, Restoration & Conservation, Photographies, Education & Access.
Complete papers of 2,000 to 2,500 words in length will be available in advance at the password protected section of this conference website, (currently under construction).
Discussions following several 5 to 7 minute paper presentations will be in English.
Abstracts should be sent in .pdf or .doc formats by 31st January 2008 to both:
Dr. Emma Sdegno (University of Ca' Foscari) esdegno@unive.it
Please include your name, institutional affiliation and contact information within that document, as well as within the body of your e-mail. For individual proposals, please submit an abstract of 200 to 400 words; for panels please submit a single abstract of 500 to 800 words, indicating the number and title of individual papers with a short abstract on each.
Conference fees
Conference fee: 100 Euros, for payment procedure and booking form, please contact Lauren Proctor as below.
Limited, preferential accommodation will be available at the Venice International University's campus on the Isola di San Servolo. Numbers will be strictly limited to 120 delegates, so early booking is recommended.
In collaboration with Arciconfraternita della Scuola Grande di San Rocco & Venice International University.
Further information
General enquiries may be sent to the Ruskin Centre Administrator:
Miss Lauren Proctor
Finding The Spirit of The Place:
Participants are invited to submit papers for the symposium. All papers must fall under one of the four sub-themes mentioned above. Selected papers that cannot be presented orally can be presented in the form of posters (poster session).
For detailed information on the theme of the Scientific Symposium, please visit the conference website.
If you wish to submit a paper, please click here to find out about the conditions for submitting papers and to access the application form.
Themes
1. Re-thinking the Spirit of Place
Summary of theme and sub-themes
Wherein lies the spirit of place? In order to answer this question, we suggest examining the relationship between spirit and place, between the tangible and the intangible.
It is often assumed that the spirit of place emanates from one or the other, as stemming from either the physical object or from the specific uses it serves. Some believe that it is the product of the genius of its creator, who leaves a permanent mark on the place - the creator being an individual, a group, a community, an ancestor or even a supernatural being - while others think instead that it originates from the place itself, which instils meaning in both its creator and its users. However, these approaches tend to present spirit of place as an essence, as something singular, permanent and static.
Rather than dissociating "spirit" from "place", the tangible from the intangible, and considering them as being opposed to one another, we invite participants to explore the many ways in which the two interact and mutually complement one another. Spirit, as the intangible genius of the creator, leaves a permanent impression on place and gives it meaning whereas the place itself, that is to say the tangible, nourishes the spirit of its creator and helps define the creation. We wish to broaden the discussion to include not only the creator but also the actual users of place, and define place as being a combination of both tangible elements (the features of the site, the buildings, the material objects, etc.) and intangible elements (oral traditions, beliefs, rituals, festivals, etc.). When considered as a relational concept, the spirit of place takes on a plural and dynamic character, capable of possessing multiple meanings, of changing over time and of belonging to different groups.
This dynamic perception of the spirit of place is also better adapted to today's world, to the present-day global village, which is characterized by major transnational population movements, increased intercultural contacts and the emergence of pluralistic societies.
The Québec City Scientific Symposium will be structured around four sub-themes or topics of discussion. You are invited to submit papers relating to one of the following sub-themes:
1. Re-thinking the Spirit of Place
The first sub-theme will address the theoretical issues surrounding the relationships that exist between spirit and place, between the tangible and the intangible. We would like to examine the relation between the site itself in its physical context, the creator and the people who use it as its users can sometimes give it a very different meaning from that originally intended. It appears important to also take into consideration aspects relating to memory and examine the crucial role memory plays in the social construction of the spirit of place.
Does spirit inhabit place or does it simply reflect the thoughts of its beholder? Is the spirit of Rome, of Jerusalem, of Stonehenge embedded in their ancient stones or rather in the imagination of those who visit these places? Does Paris, the city of light, evoke the same spirit for the poet as it does for the engineer?
2. The Threats to the Spirit of Place
The second sub-theme will focus on identifying and analysing the tangible and intangible threats to which the spirit of place might be exposed. The deterioration of the environment, climate change, the "touristification" of historical sites, the "folklorization" of practices and rituals, transnational migrations, new architectural icons and ethnic and religious conflicts are but some of the potential threats to the spirit of place that exist today and can sometimes lead to the abandonment, destruction and ultimately the loss of world heritage sites.
Does archaeological research bring to light or rather dispel the spirit of place? Is the addition of new architectures posing a threat to the spirit of historical cities? What impact will the emerging new values that are continuously modifying our cultural behaviour and lifestyle have on the spirit of place?
3. Safeguarding the Spirit of Place
The third sub-theme will examine the practices, methods, means and tools that could be developed to safeguard and protect the spirit of place. In most countries around the world, policies and sound practices have been established in order to safeguard tangible cultural heritage. However, although great efforts are now being made to preserve intangible cultural heritage and establish appropriate conservation practices, there is still much work to be done in finding better ways of protecting the intangible elements of place.
Is the preservation of the spirit of place in professional practices taken into account when drawing up charters and declarations? Are our reference texts adequate guides? Are new technologies the opponents or supporters of spirit of place? Can spirit of place be found in the gaping holes left by masons in our stone walls? How can we get communities to be more involved in the protection of spirit of place?
4. Transmitting the Spirit of Place
Transmission is an essential condition for preserving spirit of place. It is through this process that heritage is passed on and thus survives. If spirit of place is not transmitted it can be forgotten, abandoned and finally disappear. Ancient sites are often repossessed and transformed: new civilisations, rival groups and explorers have successively re-appropriated the same places and left in their wake their spirit, often through intangible practices. Their passage has left its stamp on our cities and landscapes and the spirit of our sites is thus rooted in the depths of time. This reality is at the heart of the debate on spirit of place, a debate that is often political and can jeopardize the quality of transmission when spirits that should be reconciled are in reality in opposition and clash!
How can photogrammetry and the increasingly advanced technological tools used today for recording monuments, historical sites and sites of memory be used to help transmit the spirit of place? How can new information technology contribute to conserving and transmitting the intangible elements of place? Passing on historical truth – is that not the essential role of the curator and of the spirit of place altogether?
Submit an abstract
All authors will be informed by e-mail during the month of April whether their paper has been selected. Selected authors must send their full paper to the coordinator of the Scientific Committee no later than 15 July 2008. Papers received after this date will be withdrawn from the symposium program.
Selected authors who are unable to give an oral presentation for reasons mentioned above can submit their paper for the symposium in the form of posters (poster session). All authors must indicate on the on-line application form if they wish to present their paper in the form of posters (maximum of 3 posters; format A1 or 24 x 36 inches) should they not be selected to give an oral presentation.
Important: Selected authors who wish to present their paper during the symposium either as an oral presentation or as posters, must be registered as participants in the General Assembly and Scientific Symposium when they submit their full paper, that is to say no later than 15 July 2008. If they are not registered, their oral presentation or posters will be withdrawn from the symposium program.
Conditions for submitting papers
Publication
Abstracts of the papers that have been selected for the symposium will be published in the official program and on the symposium website. Full papers will be published on a CD-Rom that will be included in the Symposium's official program folder as well as on the symposium website.
A number of selected papers will also be included in a scientific publication produced, following the symposium, by the Institute for Cultural Heritage at Universite Laval in Quebec City, under the direction of Laurier Turgeon and Michel Bonnette.
Further information
Québec ICOMOS 2008
City Museums and the Future of the City
The committee, set up in Moscow in 2005, is a forum not only for people who work in museums about cities, but also for urban planners, architects, historians and indeed anyone with an interest and involvement in cities. It also breaks new ground in representing a new generation of museums about cities, which are concerned not only with the city’s past, but its present and future as well.
CAMOC is holding its next conference in Seoul on 6-8 October. The overall theme is City Museums and the Future of the City. The specific themes include these:
Full information is on the CAMOC web site at www.camoc.icom.museum
City Museums and City Development, a book based on CAMOC's conference in Vienna in 2007 will be published in October by the AltaMira Press. It is edited by Ian Jones, Secretary of CAMOC, Bob Macdonald, former Director of the Museum of New York City and Darryl McIntyre of the Museum of London. Much of the book is concerned with the experience of urban living and contributors include Georges Prévélakis of the Sorbonne and author of Athens: Urbanism, culture and politics and Chet Orloff, adjunct professor of urban studies and planning at Portland State University. The book carries an endorsement by Joseph Rykwert.
Further information
Ian Jones
LEHM 2008
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Courtesy Bodleian Library, University of Oxford: John Johnson Collection; Trade Cards 5 (72)
Small towns in the countryside are often overlooked when it comes to trying to solve the problems of Europe or the World. However they are important central points in the settlement structure, they are indispensable for a future-orientated economic, social and cultural development, important for the quality of life and the identity of the inhabitants of the region. For this reason ECOVAST (European Council for the Village and Small Town), the Town of Wittstock (Dosse) and the Brandenburg Chamber of Architects together are dealing with this subject and invite you to a conference to discuss it.
CAMOC (the Collections and Activities of Museums of Cities) is an international committee forming part of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), a partner organisation of UNESCO.
The Dachverband Lehm e.V. is the German Association for Building with Earth. Every four years