Urban Economy Forum, in collaboration with UN-Habitat, ISOCARP, Commonwealth Association of Planners, is organizing a session titled, Creativity for Urban Future, which is hosted by Urban + Future as a virtual launch. 

Creativity for Urban Future will be held on Wednesday, April 21st from 10:00am – 12:30pm (Toronto Time), on occasion of the World Creativity and Innovation Day.

World Architecture Community is media partner of Creativity for Urban Future virtual event, and will share a post-summary of the conference later. 

This session will facilitate a global dialogue between governments, city leaders, urban planners, and urban activists to discuss how creativity and innovation contributes to building sustainable models of urbanisation. 

The session will highlight cities as multidimensional, complex, dynamic and powerful structures that can drive the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

At the scale of urbanization, there has been significant progress in disciplines and expertise that can help to address the complexities of city building and provide solutions to face current challenges. At the core of urban planning, there must be creative and innovative urban design where buildings, places and spaces are not isolated elements but as part of the whole city.

Cities have a constantly evolving relationship between people, land, culture and the wider environment. This in essence, together with land use policies, will move cities toward the sustainability goals.

During the last decade, people’s lives have been affected by great technological innovation that has dramatically changed lifestyles. Today we are witnessing the advancement of technology in many aspects of daily life, however, when compared to new technologies for urban development, there is still a long way to go.

Creativity for Urban + Future calls for transformative approaches to urban development that creates a place for people to live better and longer in a clean, safe, fair and beautiful environment. Urban + Future aims to be the main platform to facilitate progress toward this endeavor and is leading the process to create alternative housing models, globally.

It is evident how much the COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone’s way of life. 

Importantly, the pandemic  has underscored the importance of housing as a place to live and work. COVID-19 has demonstrated that we need to change the traditional style of housing and workspaces. This new characteristic, where home and work are no longer separated, is changing the paradigm of human settlements.

With fast changes happening across the world, it is imperative to rethink current approaches to urban development and housing and to facilitate the necessary and adequate transformation of urbanization for a better urban future.

You can register for free at this link.

Urban Economy Forum stated that we are delighted to have this session opened by Adam Vaughan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development (Housing), Eduardo Morendo, Head of Knowledge and Innovation of UN-Habitat, Mitchell Cohen, President of The Daniels Corporation, and Tom Mrakas, Mayor of Town of Aurora, Canada.

Speakers

Anantha Krishnan, Secretary General, Urban Economy Forum
Camila Ween, Director at Goldstein Ween Architects, Harvard Loeb Fellow
Eleanor Mohammed, President, Commonwealth Association of Planners
Frank D’hondt, Secretary General, ISOCARP
Jose Etcheverry, Member of the Board of Governors, York University
Kamran Hassani, Co-Director, Urban + Future & Professor, CDI College
Ken Greenberg, Architect and Principal of Greenberg Consultants
Lynn Xu, Director, University Research Center for Urban and Environmental Studies, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Massoud Ghandchi, Co-Director, Urban + Future & Chair, Ghandchi Foundation
Matti Siemiatycki, Associate Professor of Geography and Planning & Interim Director of School of Cities, University of Toronto
Michael Brooks, CEO, REALPAC
Nadar Ardalan, Architect
Reza Pourvaziry, Architect & Chair, Urban Economy Forum
Sam Chegini, Independent Filmmaker & Founder and CEO, Sam Pictures Productions
Sean Toussi, Principal Architect, M.Arch. & Forbes Magazine Council Member

Top image courtesy of Urban Economy Forum

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