Our fourth ‘Past Present and Future of Public Space’ conference took place on 17 September 2021 at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale, titled How will we live together?, curated by Hashim Sarkis, in a hybrid format.
The conference addressed the theme “Shaping Resilient Communities. Global perspectives towards implementation of the New Urban Agenda” and was part of the collaboration between City Space Architecture and the Italian pavilion curated by our President Dr Luisa Bravo.
The conference engaged eminent scholars in lectures and round table discussions on the research and practice of resilience, in its environmental, urban, social and economic meanings, and included the participation of UN-Habitat, to frame the concept of resilience in the ongoing efforts regarding the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, adopted at the Habitat III conference in Quito (2016).

Full programme of the conference

The conference was also an opportunity to remember our dear friend Richard Ingersoll, who passed away in 2021. Richard was actively engaged in our projects and activities on public space and attended two conferences of our series ‘Past Present and Future of Public Space’, in Bologna (2014) and Venice (2018), and generously gave lectures in other workshops that City Space Architecture organised in Bologna and Florence. He was gentle, intelligent and witty, his work has inspired and will continue to inspire young generations of architects and urban designers.

The conference was also an opportunity to continue the discussion on the importance of public space culture in cities as a key asset for sustainable, inclusive and resilient development, in order to leave no one behind, through a series of additional events curated by our President Dr Luisa Bravo:

• 6 July 2021: presentation of selected case studies of Resilient Communities
• 21-22 September 2021: symposium “Resilient Communities in Europe. The experience of European Cities”, promoted in partnership with URBACT Italy
• 6 October: symposium “Resilient Communities for the Global Goals”
• 12 November: symposium “Empowering Resilient Communities. Knowledge transfer and capacity building”

IMPACT

All these activities led to the establishment of the research project Mapping Resilient Communities, promoted by City Space Architecture in partnership with UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme.

Curatorial statement by Dr Luisa Bravo

“Resilient communities are stories of ambition, courage and stubborn dedication of women and men who believe in the beauty of a better world.”

Mapping Resilient Communities is a survey of the Italian and international contexts that sheds light on the hard work of public and private institutions, non-profit organisations, and informal civic groups that promote ideas, projects, and initiatives with a strong focus on resilience in environmental, social, and economic terms. The mapping identifies tangible results based on experiences of knowledge transfer, capacity building and development, the latter being defined as the process of creating something new from scratch, while promoting a dynamic and flexible approach that builds on existing skills and knowledge and involves local stakeholders.
According to UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, “resilience is the ability of an urban system to retain its structure in response to environmental shocks and stresses while adapting, regenerating and promoting positive, sustainable change“. Strengthening resilience means reducing risks, increasing skills, decreasing vulnerabilities and improving effective, forward-looking responses developed through constructive awareness. Resilience also involves addressing public health in an approach that is not detached from urban economy and territorial planning in relation to unpredictable events, such as the distressing and unpreventable effects of the ongoing global pandemic.
In the Italian context, resilience is also about managing extremely bureaucratic processes developed through systems of standardised rules and procedures in a complex and highly unstable political scenario. Resilient innovation and thinking outside predefined schemes and categories encounter many difficulties and clash with backward cultural systems that are unable to adapt to ideas introducing radical changes in terms of not only results, but also language and methods of expression.
Resilient communities possess organisational skills in managing people and resources. They exhibit resourcefulness, invention and entrepreneurship, experimenting by acting beyond established practices, often in unfavourable economic conditions. Their work is characterised by daily reflection, continuous opportunities for dialogue and comparison, and intellectual and creative passion. This demonstrates the value of human capital invested in resilience, which goes beyond the logic of profit and pursues the common good as its main goal. This is because resilience also concerns the quality of life of individuals and the collective well-being.

Read the article by Dr Luisa Bravo (in Italian) “Di cosa parliamo quando parliamo di resilienza“.