Public space in Nairobi.

We are very proud to be part of the first UN-Habitat Assembly, to be held on 27-31 May 2019, at the headquarters of UN-Habitat in Nairobi. Our President Luisa Bravo has been accredited to attend through an invitation letter signed by Ms Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director of UN-Habitat. The invitation included also the participation to the first Global Stakeholders Forum and the Business Leaders Dialogue on May 25-26.

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The General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution A/RES/73/239, on 20 December 2018, decided to dissolve the Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme and to replace it with a United Nations Habitat Assembly of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat Assembly). UN-Habitat Assembly is a universal body composed of the 193 member states of the United Nations and convenes every four years (A/RES/73/239).

The responsibilities of the UN-Habitat Assembly are:

i) Identify key issues and areas of focus for the normative and policy work of UN-Habitat;

ii) Review major trends related to human settlements and urbanisation;

iii) Examine global norms and standards in human settlements and sustainable urbanisation;

iv) Adopt resolutions, declarations, recommendations, formal decisions, reports and other documents pertaining to strategic vision and political guidance in accordance with its mandate;

v) Recommend strategies for coherent implementation of urban and human settlements dimensions of the 2030 Agenda, the New Urban Agenda and other global agendas, including of the work of the United Nations System;

vi) Examine and approve UN-Habitat’s strategic plan, to be prepared by the Executive Board;

vii) Review the Secretary-General’s quadrennial report on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.

In addition, the Assembly should also ensure the active engagement of local authorities and other stakeholders in the Assembly, in its subsidiary bodies and in intersessional meetings.

The special theme for the Assembly is “Innovation for Better Quality of Life in Cities and Communities”, with sub theme “Accelerated implementation of the New Urban Agenda towards achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals”. During the first session, the Assembly is expected to establish the Executive Board of UN-Habitat and to elect its members, to review and approve the UN-Habitat Strategic Plan 2020-2025, aimed at repositioning UN-Habitat as a major global entity, a centre of excellence and innovation, and also review the progress in implementation of the New Urban Agenda adopted at the Habitat III conference in Quito (2016).
Member States of the United Nations are expected to participate in the deliberations, the Assembly will also be attended by United Nations Agencies, Local authorities and non-state actors including civil society, youth and women group representatives, the private sector and the Academia.
The Assembly will be the opportunity to officially announce that City Space Architecture has signed the Letter of Agreement with UN-Habitat for the cooperation in developing The Journal of Public Space, during a side event that will take place on Wednesday May 29 at the City Stage, 1.15-2.00pm, which is included in the official program of the Assembly.

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Skyline of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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After our successul 'Past Present and Future of Public Space. Knowledge sharing toward implementation of the New Urban Agenda' international symposium and workshop held at the Venice Architecture Biennale on September 22-23, attended by 100 participants from more than 25 international University and Institutions, we spent the last three months of the 2018 in expanding our knowledge on public space, through engagement and participation in networking and research events, and in consolidating our projects and initiatives.
Our President Luisa Bravo was engaged in several activities:
- she was invited to participate in the Expert Group Meeting on 'City-wide Public Space Strategies', promoted by UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, in collaboration with KTH Centre for the Future of Places, that took place in Stockholm and Angelsberg, Sweden, on September 24-26;
- she was invited to serve as keynote speaker at the 2nd Saudi Urban Forum, promoted by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (MOMRA), in collaboration with UN-Habitat, within the framework of the technical cooperation of the “Future Saudi Cities Program", that took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on October 15-17. The 2nd Saudi Urban Forum was opened by a speech from the UN-Habitat's Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif;
- she was invited to participate in the SkypeLab SympoLab, a symposium and laboratory dialogue between a multidisciplinary group of academics, artists, PhD candidates and urban thinkers on the impact of digital screen mediation on contemporary identity and spatial knowledge, promoted by RMIT Europe, that took place at the Media-TIC located in the 22@ Innovation District in Barcelona, on November 21-22;
- she was invited to teach the course 'Advanced Urbanism Studio' in the Master's Programme in Urbanism Studies at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (October 2018 - January 2019). For the first week of the studio she organized the workshop 'Everyday geographies of public space. Imaginations and practices in Florence', that took place in Florence, in collaboration with the Master Programme in Geography, Spatial Management, Heritage for International Cooperation and the LaGeS Laboratory of the University of Florence, on November 5-8, followed by a public seminar on November 9 (the poster and the programme are available here). The workshop and the public seminar engaged several renowned academic scholars, such as Richard Ingersoll from Syracuse University in Florence (USA), Eamonn Canniffe from Manchester School of Architecture (UK), Orla McKeever from Cork Center for Architectural Education (Ireland), Sabine Knierbein from TU Vienna (Austria), and engaged also the free lance architect Chiara Fanigliulo, architect Rossella Ferorelli from SMALL Soft Metropolitan Architecture and Landscape Lab (Italy) and Toby Neve from The Florence Academy of Arts (Italy);
- she was invited to participate in 'Le Giornate del Territorio' promoted by Ecomuseo Casilino, that took place in Rome on November 10-11, where she presented our proposal for the regeneration of the abandoned butcher shop known as 'Centro Carni' in the Porto-Saragozza neighbourhood in Bologna;
- she was invited to serve as keynote speaker at the International Conference on Urban Conservation promoted by Centre for Built Environment, a registered non-profit professional society in India, that took place in Kolkata on November 26-27 (she could not attend but she sent a pdf presentation that was displayed during the conference).

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We are very glad to announce that City Space Architecture has signed an agreement with La Biennale di Venezia for the 16th International Architecture Exhibition - titled FREESPACE, curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara - in order to be included in the 'Biennale Sessions', a special program for Universities and Higher Education Institutions. This collaboration is intended as a continutation of the successful 'Biennale Session' we promoted in 2016, where we announced our participation at the Habitat III conference in Quito and officially launched 'The Journal of Public Space', in collaboration with the Queensland University of Technology and in partnership with UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme.

The 3-day event this year, ‘Past Present and Future of Public Space. Knowledge sharing toward implementation of the New Urban Agenda’, on September 21-22-23, is willing to strengthen our efforts around the implementation of the New Urban Agenda adopted at the Habitat III conference and to continue the discussion on the importance of public space in cities.
In addition to the visit to the Architecture exhibition, the 3-day event includes:

- a one-day international symposium

- an international workshop for students

- three collateral events: the visit at the Cyprus pavilion 'I'm where you are' with the curator Yiorgos Hadjichristou, the visit at the Irish pavilion 'Free Market' with the curator Tara Kennedy and the visit at the Dutch pavilion ‘Work, Body, Leisure’ with Marieke Berkers, on the occasion of the launch of the book ‘Dream your own future’. 

The 3-day event is curated by our President Luisa Bravo.

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The full programme of the 3-day event can be dowloaded here. 

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The international symposium will take place on Saturday September 22 at Arsenale, Sale d’Armi G. It is promoted by City Space Architecture and will engage professors, researchers and students from:

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong / The Graduate Centre, City University of New York, USA  / Hunan University, China / IUAV University, Italy  /  Keio University, Japan / KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden / KTH Centre for the Future of Places, Sweden / Lodz University of Technology, Poland / Manchester School of Architecture, United Kingdom / Meiji University, Japan  /  Politecnico di Milano, Italy  /  Pratt Institute, USA / Shanghai University, China  / Stanford University, USA  /  Syracuse University in Florence, Italy  /  Tsinghua University, China / TU Vienna, Austria / Universidad Espíritu Santo, Ecuador / Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain / University of Auckland, New Zealand / University of Bologna, Italy / University of Cambridge, United Kingdom / University College Cork, Ireland / University of Florence, Italy / University of Nicosia, Cyprus  / University of Palermo, Italy 

and will also have representatives from:

ISOCARP – the International Society of City and Regional Planners / UN-Habitat.

The symposium includes a session entirely dedicated to students’ research and activities on public space. Using the format of speed presentations, participants will have an in-depth overview of students' research about public space from a various of topics and contexts, such as Italy, USA, Spain, Ecuador, Sweden, Japan, Poland. The students' session will be moderated by our co-founder Valerio Francia.

The international workshop will take place on Sunday September 23 at Arsenale, Sale d’Armi G. It is promoted by City Space Architecture in collaboration with University of Auckland, Hunan University and Shanghai University and will engage students in lectures, presentations and a roundtable discussion. The international workshop will be coordinated by Manfredo Manfredini.

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Skyline of Brisbane from the terrace of the building hosting the Faculty of Creative Industries, Kelvin Grove Campus of the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Picture by Luisa Bravo.

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Our President Luisa Bravo had a fantastic experience in Australia as Endeavour Executive Fellow, a prestigious award fully funded by the Australian Government, Department of Education and Training, hosted at the Queensland University of Technology, Faculty of Creative Industries, School of Design. This award was a highly competitive recognition of her efforts in promoting public space culture and curating proejcts and activities at City Space Architecture. From the beginning of March to the end of June she lived and worked in Brisbane and also travelled to Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Cairns. She was invited to give lectures by major institutions such as Queensland University of Technology, University of Sydney, RMIT University, James Cook University and Planning Institute of Australia, Urban Synergies Group, Compass Housing. She attended meetings, workshops and events and received a warm welcome from Australian institutions, professionals and scholars. She also enjoyed the Australian beautiful nature and wildlife at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and the endless beaches and astonishing sunsets in Queensland and New South Wales, such as Noosa Heads and Byron Bay.
Australia is promoting transdisciplinary innovation in architecture and urban design, so it is a fertile ground for cutting-edge research addressing complexity and creative experimentation. In this context, our global campaign 'Stand up for Public Space!', that we launched at the Habitat III conference in Quito in 2016, was received with great interest. 

Read the full list of events our President Luisa Bravo attended as speaker.

Entrance of QUT Campus Gardens Point, Brisbane, Australia. Picture by Luisa Bravo.

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We are extremely glad to announce that our President Luisa Bravo is the recipient of the 2018 Australia Award Endeavor Executive Fellowship, a prestigious grant fully funded by the Australian Government, Department of Education and Training. She is the only Italian among 93 awarded candidates from 25 countries. She will be working for the next four months at QUT (Queensland University of Technology) in Brisbane, developing a research-based professional development on 'public space, social entrepreneurship and smart communities' at the Urban Informatics Research Group, which is a pioneer institution on transdisciplinary research and practice, placed at the intersection of people, place and technology; she will explore how the digital dimension is facilitating people networks, and how it can effectively promote an human-centred approach in the design of public spaces.
The Urban Informatics Research Group is part of the QUT Design Lab, which supports transdisciplinary collaborations that result in tangible impact and engagement, acting as a hub and home for a diverse team of academics, research students, and industry professionals,  transferring knowledge and technology into beneficial applications for industry and society.

Our President received a congratulation letter from the Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham, Minister for Education and Training, Senator for South Australia, for being selected. In this letter the Senator wrote: "The Australia Award Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowsips is a prestigious program offered by the Australian government to support high-achieving individuals to undertake study, research and professional development overseas and gain international experience. Your selection for an Endeavour Fellowship recognises your commitment to outstanding achievement and role as an education ambassador for Australia. Congratulation on joining a selected group of exceptional individuals".

For us at City Space Architecture this Australia Award is a very important recognition of our efforts throughout the past 5 years of activities, in networking events, creative projects, academic conferences, research workshops and seminars, aimed at expanding the discussion on public space from academia to industry, professional practice and civil society, through a transdiciplinary approach involving art and architecture.