CONFERENCE CONCLUSIONS

Conference Conclusions please download here.

1. KEYNOTERS’ SESSION
Chair: Tatjana Mrđenović,  Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade
Keynoters: Professor Nada Lazarević Bajec, Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade
Professor Bob Giddings,  Chair of Architecture and Urban Design, Northumbria University Newcastle upon Tyne UK
Mrs. Virna Busadori, ECTP-CEU Honorary President, director of the office for Spatial Planning of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano and Mr. Ranko Božović, Director and Founder of EnPlus, Serbia/UK

The Keynoter Presentations presented the main themes of the Conference and anticipated the final Panel Session: Sustainability - Rethinking vs. Materialization.
Sustainability and globalization change the role of urban planners/designers. They become consultants/facilitators of participatory process. Facilitation needs new knowledge and skills in mediating plurality of interests, values needs, expertises. New knowledge can be achieved by continuous development of faculties' curricula. Therefore, faculties of architecture and urbanism should be open to changing socio/economic, theoretical and practical environment, making linkages across disciplines and real world (Institutions, Public companies, NGO's, Cities, Municipalities, etc). In the process of curricula development innovative methods and techniques have to be developed and used, (such as GIS), in order to maintain all phases of strategic urban development process, as well as to meet specific needs of each community. In line with this, curricula development should enable research that:
- is interdisciplinary;
- inclusive,
- oriented towards practice;
- both bottom-up and top-down;
- develops social and positivistic knowledge;
- uses and develops new methods and techniques to meet sustainability standards. 

Only in this way the new role of urban planners can be achieved: Creative clusters can be established by developing a network of universities, faculties, research institutes, students, institutions, different levels of government, NGO's, Public companies, professionals, local communities.

2. SESSION 1: SUSTAINABILITY - RETHINKING
Chair: Cenk Hamamcıoğlu, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul-Turkey

According to the contributors of submitted papers in Session 1, the main issue is subjected to ‘sustainability in education’. In this context, the discussions are grouped in three useful sub-topics:
- associating education with sustainability,
- the experiences about the integration of sustainable development issues as a part of academic curriculum and the challenges,
- the efforts on behalf of integrated and innovative approaches, methods and techniques for the education of college of vocational studies, bachelor and master degree students taking sustainable (architectural, urban, landscape) development into account.

The common points of outcomes overlap on the necessity to educate professional and competent stuff in order to be able to implement and accomplish prior sustainable development principles and goals in their future career and jobs. For this purpose, universities set up to the plate and start to search for new techniques and methods (academic curriculum, context of lessons, inter-disciplinary, international workshops …) for integrating sustainability issues in their academic agenda. However, the experiences show that the efforts might not be structured enough in some cases. In common, what lacks in the education process is the tendency to postpone ‘realistic’ solutions for the given problems. That means the legal instruments, economic and social aspects in considering sustainability is still in need. More or less the results of works should cover hybridity, connectivity, porosity, authenticity and vulnerability. Therefore, the education process requiring sustainability should focus on:
- the adaptation to the changing values of contemporary culture, daily life and habits,
- flow of ideas and knowledge-based technologies between the disciplinary, inter-disciplinary and collaborations achieving ‘intellectual network’,
- experimental education, new methods and techniques
- implementation of specialized professional practice,
- the rapid deterioration of the environment and the necessity for a less energy consuming manmade environment as well as comprising artistic, social, economic and cultural aspects,
- traditional values and local identity and
- coordinated creativity.

3. SESSION 1: SUSTAINABILITY - RETHINKING
Chair: Ana Mitić, MSc Technical University Darmstadt & University of Rome Tor Vergata; Intern at ISIS & UNDP

The second session about rethinking sustainability covered a wide scope of topics, ranging from detailed descriptions of new university and college curricula focused on the learning outcomes and creation of tailor-made profiles, over considerations about contemporary demand on the labour market and emergence of green jobs, until policy dimension, new legislation and “marketing approach” to sustainability. Especially interesting was the opportunity to make a comparative analysis of priorities for transport planning engineers’ education in Serbia and in the USA. Some of the central “elements” of sustainable development which were discussed are integration of the real estate appraisals into urban planning procedures, necessity of the public participation (with good governance and adequate provision of information), and build up of the common vision and specific operational strategies. In the field of transport oriented development (TOD), disscussions were raised about the ways of mainstreaming non-motorized transport (NMT) and developing and implementing sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMP). Considering integrative approach to planning, it was claimed that the hyper-dynamic urban context of today requires a cross-sector cooperation with multidisciplinary research and innovation. Collaboration and establishment of partnerships on inter-institutional and international level, as well as the ability to analyse complexity and use new tools (CBA, multi-criteria matrices, indicators, etc.) are indispensable skills for the new generation of global planners. Therefore, life-long learning and continual professional development are priorities for planners as mediators and facilitators of sustainable development processes.

4. SESSION 3: SUSTAINABILITY – MATERIALIZATION
Chair: Mihaela Hărmănescu, Department of Urban Design and Landscape Planning, Faculty of Urban Planning, UAUIM, Bucharest, Romania

The main issue of this session brings up ways of the universities involvement in urban planning process. To provide a sustainable urban development, the universities are engaged to an indirect contribution through human resources, institutional reviews, participation board meetings, but also they have a direct contribution through planning and consulting. According this, the topics of the attended papers develop and evaluate possibilities to implement sustainability of different scales in the urban development ranging from the new concept of “smart” city , infrastructure, areas to the energy efficient technologies of the buildings. The study cases are particularly focused on the next issues:

1. Universities have not neutral position in the urban development process and are balancing the important decisions between political power, social needs and environmental aspects.
2. Sustainable standards and principles of urban development applied from the object scale to the city territorial scale should answer to the quality of urban life.
3. The old technics should be  references for the present sustainable development and should be use evolve new sustainable technologies valuing the local identities and traditions: morphological climatic and cultural context.
4. The sustainable process require to consider all the value parameters (design, management, maintenance costs) to minimize the impact on the environment.

The common point of the papers is the position of the university which is crucial but also vulnerable decision actor in urban planning. To this context, to materialize the sustainability, is essential the university ability:

- to work and integrate different sectors in order to achieve the credentials to solve the complex urban process
- to offer different types of professionals involved in the urban planning process
- to offer relational support between theoretical researches and proposal solutions used for urban sustainable development.
- to respond to different qualification requirements of the population needs.

Therefore, materialization of the sustainability through the universities education should means more then urban development, management,  standards and technology, it should be a reaction to city expansion  and a continuous process of urban life quality of all the fast changing values of our contemporary culture,  our everyday life and  attitudes.

5. PANEL SESSION: SUSTAINABILITY - RETHINKING VS MATERIALIZATION
Chair: Dr Sampo Ruoppila, Research Director, University of Turku, Finland and Dr Nataša Danilović – Hristić, Town Planning Institute of Belgrade, Serbia
Participants: Keynoters and Sessions Chairs Tatjana Mrđenović, Chenk Hamamcioglu, Ana Mitić, Michaela Harmanescu with invited speaker Žaklina Gligorijević and Bob Giddings, Bora Yerliyurt, Nenad Stjepanović

The main issues of the discussion covered topics related to Keynoters' presentations: (1) New role of urban planners in sustainable development, (2) Development of academic curricula and (3) New methods and techniques regarding sustainability principles.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM
29-30 November 2012

Conference Program [A4 black/white] please download here.
Conference Program [duplex A4 full color] please download here.

Day 1 - Thursday 29 November 2012

Day 2 - Friday 30 November 2012

Day 3 - Saturday 1 December 2012

VENUE
Gallery O3ONE, Andrićev venac 12, Belgrade as a part of Science3one Program.
Science3one consists of many scientific projects based on conference and festival type that emphasize interdisciplinary approach within them.
O3ONE within its programme encompasses TEDx Belgrade conference which tend to provide a chance to communities, organization and individuals to present their opinions and ideas through dialogue. Tendency to point out the growing presence of artistic practice in many fields, is mainly reflected in science platform development which O3ONE project puts a great stress on.

Web Address www.o3one.rs

Venue Location

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Accomodation
Recommended Hotels in the city center located 2-5 minutes by foot from the Conference Venue:

Hotel Excelzior, Kneza Miloša 5, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, www.hotelexcelsior.co.rs

Hotel Park, Njegoševa 2, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, www.hotelparkbeograd.rs

Public Transport
Belgrade city public transport company is GSP "Beograd" but there are also bus services run by private companies, on around 130 routes.
For further information browse Belgrade City Transport Company www.gsp.co.rs and new tariff system at www.busplus.rs

Parking
Like the majority of European metropolises, also in Belgrade the lack of parking area and the traffic are two annoying problems. Parking area in Belgrade city center are divided in three zones where parking time is limited and payment is made for each full or incomplete hour:
- Red zone - maximum 1 hour
- Yellow zone - maximum 2 hours
- Green zone - maximum 3 hours
Parking is payable in all three zones on week days from 07.00-21.00 and Saturdays from 07.00 and 14.00. Payment methods for parking in the three zones are:
- Parking tickets - these are purchased at kiosks and other points of sale. The time of arrival should be written on the ticket and it should be displayed on the inside of the windscreen.
- Parking ticket machines (only in the red zone) - machines selling parking tickets take coins and electronic parking cards
- Mobile phone - by sending an SMS containing the registration number of the vehicle (for example BG123456, without spaces) to 9111, 9112 or 9113 (depending on the zone), from any mobile network. Confirmation that payment has been made by SMS.

Taxis
Taxis in Belgrade are cheap and safe, ideal for tourists. Just remember to check if the taxi driver starts the taximeter correctly. Taxi in Belgrade have not a compulsory color but they have to carry a blue city taxi sign on the roof as well as the designation of their taxi company.