September 05, 2014 - September 12, 2014

San Francisco Bay Area,San Francisco, California

Individuals interested in design, urban planning, or architecture may apply until August 29, 2014.

swissnex San Francisco, ETH Zurich’s Urban Think Tank, and UC Berkeley’s Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning department are offering a week-long urban design seminar with an emphasis on the parklet approach in San Francisco.

This is a rare opportunity to participate in daily morning and afternoon workshops and discussions on urban design at UC Berkeley, Gray Area, and envelope A+D. Also attend city tours and site visits at cutting edge studios including MIN | DAY, CMG Landscape Architecture, and more. And hear evening lectures (also open to the public) from top thinkers such as John Bela of Gehl Architects, Alfredo Brillembourg of Urban Think Tank, and Nicholas Polansky of MIT Architecture and the Future Cities Lab.

Participants will develop and try out design ideas that have the potential to transform and activate public spaces, even building modular objects to be included in the final design of the forthcoming swissnex San Francisco parklet.

Free Public Talks

September 8 – 12, all talks at 7pm.
No advance registration required

Monday, September 8:
Liz Ogbu and Kevin Conger
UC Berkeley campus, Wurster Hall, room 112

Kevin Conger has led CMG Architecture and its projects since the beginning and has contributed to major projects in San Francisco such as Better Market Street and the SFMoMA’s Rooftop Sculpture Garden.

Self-proclaimed “Green Giant,” Liz Ogbu is a professor, designer, urbanist, and social innovator. She is an expert in sustainable design and spatial innovation in challenged urban environments globally.

Tuesday, September 9:
Margaret Crawford
UC Berkeley campus, Wurster Gallery

Margaret is a Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley. Her Research focuses on the evolution, uses, and meanings of urban space. She has been actively publishing in her field for over 25 years.

Wednesday, September 10:
Urban RISK Lab
Nicholas Polansky
swissnex San Francisco, 730 Montgomery St., San Francisco

Nicholas Polansky is a researcher at MIT’s Urban Risk Lab. They are operating as designers at the intersection of disaster management and risk engineering, hurricanes and earthquakes, ecology and infrastructure, rural and urban, research and action.

Thursday, September 11:
Future Cities Lab
Jason Kelly Johnson & Nataly Gattegno
swissnex San Francisco, 730 Montgomery St., San Francisco

Future Cities Lab is an experimental design studio, workshop, and architectural think tank operating globally out of San Francisco. Founders Jason and Nataly have collaborated on a wide range of award-winning projects exploring the intersections of art and design with advanced fabrication technologies, robotics, responsive building systems, and public space.

Friday, September 12:
Katerina Kourkoula, John Bela, Kristina Hill, Robin Abad and Tina Chang
swissnex San Francisco, 730 Montgomery St., San Francisco

For this panel each speaker brings there own expertise and experiences to discuss the challenges and rewards of working collectively in public space.

Katerina Kourkoula is a professor at ETH Zurich’s Urban Think Tank and has coordinated the Public Spectacle seminar and swissnex Parklet design.

Founder of Rebar, John Bela is an urban designer and landscape architect focused on public space design. He has created some of the group’s most groundbreaking work such as PARK(ing) Day and the Civic Center Victory Garden.

Kristina Hill is an associate professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at UC Berkeley. Her work is currently focused on developing proposals for urban adaptation to climate change in the San Francisco Bay Area by learning from international examples.

Robin Abad Ocubillo is a landscape and urban designer with the City of San Francisco.  Prior to assuming management of the Parklet and Public Life Programs at the San Francisco Planning Department, he helped initiate parklets in Los Angeles.  His current and past work also involves performance evaluation of public spaces and temporary urban design.

Tina Chang is a planner at the San Francisco Planning Department.

For more information please visit website

> via swissnexsanfrancisco.org