Sustainable City Planning: For More Livable Neighborhoods

The reality of urban life can be rather banal. We all have to wait for the bus on cold winter days, take out the garbage cans, drive long distances by car or commute. David Sim believes that low-cost / cost-effective measures and a focus on human scale can significantly improve life in the city.

Following Bruno Latour's actor-network theory, urban planner and professor Tanja Siems stands for an intensive exchange between teaching, practice and urban society. With her interdisciplinary work, she shows which methods and working methods can be used for participatory urban planning.

Programme

Welcome
Birgitte Tovborg Jensen, Project Manager Culture & Public Diplomacy, Kgl. Dänische Botschaft
Doris Kleilein, Architect, Editorial Director, JOVIS
Ria Stein, Senior Acquisitions Editor, Birkhäuser

Panel discussion
David Sim, architect and urban planner; former Creative Director at Gehl Architects, Copenhagen
Tanja Siems, architect and urban planner; heads the Chair of Urban Design and the Institute for Environmental Design at the Bergische Universität in Wuppertal
Moderation: Sorana Radulescu, architect, editor-in-chief Baunetz Campus

David Sim
After a distinguished career teaching architecture at Lund University in Sweden. He spent 17 years at the renowned Gehl urban planning practice, most notably as Creative Director, seeing it grow from four people in an attic to a world brand with offices in Copenhagen, New York and San Francisco. David Sim now works with his own consultancy company, making cities, towns and villages softer, based in Sweden.

David Sim, »Sanfte Stadt. Planungsideen für den urbanen Alltag«, JOVIS Verlag

Prof. Dr. Tanja Siems
Since 2009, Tanja Siems has headed the Department of Urban Design and the Institute for Environmental Design at the University of Wuppertal. Co-founder of T2 Spatialwork and the Interprofessional Studio AAIS in London. Tanja Siems’ work opens up new possibilities, sustainable and resilient strategies, unconventional methods, and creative tools to find common paths for the cities of the future.

Tanja Siems, »Stadt vermitteln. Methoden und Werkzeuge für gemeinschaftliches Planen«, Birkhäuser Verlag
English edition: »Imparting City. Methods and Tools for Collaborative Planning«, Birkhäuser Verlag

Abbildung aus David Sim, »Sanfte Stadt. Planungsideen für den urbanen Alltag«