KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Matthew Car
mona is Professor of Planning and Urban Design at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL. His research has focused on the policy context for delivering better quality built and natural environments, having worked on a range of research projects examining among others, design policies and guidance, the delivering of urban renaissance, the value of urban and architectural design, managing external public space, London squares and high streets. Matthew is on the editorial board of ‘Urban Design Quarterly’, is European Associate Editor for the ‘Journal of Urban Design’, and edits the ‘Design in the Built Environment’ book series for Ashgate. He is a regular advisor to government and government agencies both in the UK and overseas and writes a column for Town & Country Planning, the journal of the Town & Country Planning Association. See more at https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=MCARM96.
For his latest views on urban design, presented in his new open access article, ‘The Place-shaping Continuum: a theory of urban design process’, published in the Journal of Urban Design, check the video:
Panu Lehtovuori is Professor of Planning Theory at the Tampere University of Technology, School of Architecture. He is also a co-‐founder and partner of Livady Architects, a Helsinki-‐based practice. His doctoral dissertation, Experience and Conflict (2005), presents a new conceptualisation of public urban space, valorises the changes of the use of urban space in Helsinki, and tests a new, experiential approach to planning and urban design. In 2001, Lehtovuori was the visiting research fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University. From 2005 to 2012 he coordinated the module “Urban Interventions” of the international European MA in Urban Cultures (POLIS). He is a member of the editorial board of Yhdyskuntasuunnittelu (The Finnish Journal of Urban Studies) and the Finnish Architectural Review. See more at http://www.panulehtovuori.net.
For some interesting insights in contemporary urban issues in Finland, related to boulevardisation of Helsinki and Tampere , check one of his latest writings at: http://urbanfinland.com/2014/10/21/city-of-boulevards-or-city-of-malls-urban-transport-infrastructure-retrofits-are-changing-the-urban-landscape-in-helsinki-and-tampere/.
Pietro Garau, an architect-planner and first a tenured lecturer/researcher in planning at the University of Rome, joined what was then the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) in 1980 where he worked for more than twenty years in the areas of human settlements research and policy. There he pioneered and led the production of the first Global Report on Human Settlements. As Habitat’s head of research from 1990 to 1994 he authored several policy documents, including the “New Agenda for Human Settlements” and the “Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000”, participated in the interagency work leading to UNDP’s Human Development report series and authored the Human Settlements chapter of “Agenda 21”. Between 1994 and 1995 he led the Secretariat of the Habitat II Conference, subsequently acting as Habitat’s Europe focal point for the Habitat II preparatory process. Between 2002 and 2005 he co-led the Millennium Project’s Task Force on Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers, which produced the report “A Home in the City”. Back in the academic arena, he taught urban policies at Rome’s Sapienza, revived that university’s Planning Research Centre for the Developing Countries, and directed courses of higher learning and studios on the Millennium Development Goals. This work was summarized in the book “Barefoot and Prada”. Lately he co-organized the National Planning Institute’s 2011 and 2013 Biennials on Public Space and pioneered and steered the process leading to the adoption of the “Charter of Public Space”. He is currently the Biennial’s international curator. His current line of research is on public space as a means to mitigate social inequities in cities
Diarmaid Lawlor, head of Architecture and Design Scotland, 
will also give a short talk on the key concepts.In his own words: “I am an urbanist with a multidisciplinary background. I use design thinking to unlock problems. I am a principled pragmatist. I believe place matters.”
For Diarmaid’s full CV, please go to http://issuu.com/diarmaid.lawlor/docs/diarmaid_lawlor_cv_cities.
ORGANISING TEAM
AESOP TG REPRESENTATIVES
Ceren Sezer is an architect and urban planner working as a researcher and docent in Delft University of Technology at the Chair of Spatial Planning and Strategy. Her research interests include urban form, urban cultures, street markets, public space design and neighborhood development. Sezer is a co-founder and the coordinator of the AESOP (The Association of European Schools of Planning) thematic group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures. She is co-author of the Special Issue of the journal Built Environment on ‘Marketplaces as Urban Development Strategies’ (2013). Currently, she is preparing a new themed issue for Built Environment on ‘Public Spaces and Urban Justice’.
Celia Ghyka is Associate Professor, PhD in architecture, teaches theory of architecture at the “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning, Bucharest. Her interests refer to public space, monument, memory, art and psychoanalysis, contemporary art and architecture, post-communism, themes that she has approached in several writings published in Romanian academic journals and books, as well as guest lecturer in postgraduate joint courses at Ecole Nationale d’Architecture de Paris la Villette & Université de Paris VIII or Université de Luxembourg. Getty-New Europe College fellow, 2002/2003 and 2011/2012.
New Europe College Alumni Club coordinator (www.nec.ro).
Member of the Association of Urban Transition (www.atu.org.ro). Find more about Celia at: http://iaim.academia.edu/CeliaGhyka/Papers.
LOCAL ORGANIZER
Georgiana Varna is a m
ulti-disciplinary scholar with a passion for making better places for people. Coming from a background of Human Geography and Planning, she has obtained her PhD at the University of Glasgow, Scotland in the field of urban studies. Her main speciality is urban regeneration and public space development, with a focus on Northern European countries. Apart from Scotland, she has worked in Finland and Estonia, both as a researcher and a lecturer. She taught undergraduate and postgraduate students from different backgrounds such as Sociology, Architecture, Planning, Art History or Cultural Studies at the University of Turku, Finland; Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn and University of Glasgow, Scotland. Since January 2013, she is working for the Scottish Cities Knowledge Centre (SCKC), a collaboration between the University of Glasgow and University of St. Andrews. Download her CV.
ADVISORY BOARD
Sara San
tos Cruz is Assistant Professor in the Territorial Planning and Environment Division, Faculty of Engineering – University of Oporto, Portugal. She is also Senior Researcher at CITTA (Unit one). Find more about Sara at: http://citta.fe.up.pt/about-us/staff/scruz.
Dr James White is Lecturer in Urban Design in the Urban Studies department at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. His research focuses is on the tools and mechanisms that planning policymakers can use to shape the built environment and design-led waterfront regeneration case studies. He is particularly concerned about the intersection of professional and local knowledge in the design process and my current work examines the potential for public participation during design competitions and the role of urban agriculture as a community-led design tool. Find out more about James at: http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/staff/jameswhite/.
Prof David Adams is Ian Mactaggart Chair of Property & Urban Studies in the Urban Studies department at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. His research interests lie in state-market relations in land and property, with a particular focus on planning and land policy, real estate developers, speculative housebuilders, brownfield redevelopment, and place quality. To find out more about David, please visit: http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/staff/davidadams/.
