#urbanthinkers #rethinklandscape

Led by Professor Kathryn Moore, the Towards an International Landscape Convention – Rethinking Land Use Urban Thinkers Campus (UTC), is a two-day multidisciplinary event that will establish the case for an International Landscape Convention (ILC). The event aims to provoke, challenge and inspire different behaviours and attitudes towards the land, enabling us to better deal with global challenges in urban regions.

The West Midlands National Park Lab has been selected to run the Urban Thinkers Campus in Birmingham UK, in collaboration with UN Habitat and the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA).

The critical significance of the infrastructure of landscape in tackling the interrelated and accelerating problems of the climate emergency, pollution, urbanisation, health and well-being, food and water security and loss of biodiversity is slowly becoming more apparent but continues to be a blind spot in regional and national economic strategies.

It has never been more important to shift this attitude. Disquiet about current development practices raised by UN Agencies at the 2022 World Urban Forum was confirmation that business as usual is clearly not an option and that more radical change is needed. We need to be braver, more ambitious and more determined to deal with the global challenges we face.

Aligned with the UN’s City We Need Now! Initiative, the UNSDGs and using the experience of developing the West Midlands National Park, the Urban Thinkers Campus 2024 will see some of the world’s leading landscape and city thinkers and practitioners come together in Birmingham, in the context of these, to discuss how best to increase international awareness of:

• the cultural, economic and ecological significance of the infrastructure of landscape and its immense restorative capacity
• our dependency on landscape for everything we need – clean air, soil, food, water, biodiversity, identity and culture
• the contribution the infrastructure of landscape can make to social, environmental and spatial justice across all seventeen Sustainable Development Goals

You can reserve individual tickets for each of the sessions below. The Zoom link to online events will be sent to you via email closer to the date.

Thursday 3 October - ONLINE:

Morning (09:30 - 12:30)

Welcome addresses: 

• Jala Makhzoumi, Vice President and Acting President for IFLA Middle East, IFLA
• Gulnara Roll, Head of Cities Unit, UNEP
  
• Roger Mortlock, CEO, CPRE

Think and rethink: enabling and delivering transformational approaches to land use

• Mette Skjold, CEO, SLA
• Jennifer Lenhart, Global Lead, WWF Cities
• Savita Raje, Associate Professor, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology-Bhopal
• Damian Tang, Director General, Circular Cities Network
• Hugh Ellis, Policy Director, TCPA

Afternoon (13:30 - 16:00)

PhD Research Showcase and discussion

• Chaired by: Professor Nick Gebhardt, BCU

Featuring research presentations from:

Yarden Woolf, UWE Bristol, England
Holly Doron, Birmingham City University, England
Thomas Cabai, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Dr Mashal Hamed Alammar, University of Liverpool, England
Ghazaal Zare, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
Tuanne Monteiro de Carvalho, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Marina Cervera, UPC BarcelonaTech, Spain
Emma Collett, Birmingham City University, England
Ayaka Yamashita, Harvard Graduate School of Design, USA
Eliki Diamantouli, University of Padua, Italy
Marco Fiorino, Harvard Graduate School of Design, USA

Evening (16:30 - 18:00)

• West Midlands National Park Awards winner announcements
  
• West Midlands National Park Awards Lecture: Professor Gareth Doherty, Harvard School of Design

Friday 4 October - IN-PERSON (08:30 - 13:30) 

Optional 08:30 - 09:15 Networking breakfast.

Chair: Dame Fiona Reynolds, former Director General, National Trust

Welcome from Glenn Howells, Director, Howells

Keynote speaker: Francesco Bandarin, Former Deputy Director General, UNESCO

Making it real: support for an international landscape convention in policy and practice

• Andrew Rudd, Urban Environment Officer, UN-Habitat
• Joanna Averley, Chief Planner, MHCLG
• Professor Claire Fitzsimmons, Professor of Marine Ecosystems and Governance, Newcastle University
• Michael Schwarze-Rodrian, Visiting Professor, Birmingham City University
• Taps Mtemachani, Director of Transformation, Partnership and Population Health Academy, NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board
• Andrew Grant, Director, Grant Associates
• Rachel Fisher, Deputy Director Land Use Policy, DEFRA
• Daisy Narayanan, Public Realm Director, The Crown Estate
• Sandeep Shingadia, Director of Development & Delivery, Transport for West Midlands

Final comments

• Francesco Bandarin, Former Deputy Director General, UNESCO