Ljubljana – My City project

Renovation of building shells of buildings with the status of cultural heritage

The lecturer Karl Pollak, an arhitect and urban planner, will present »Ljubljana– My City project«, a project that has been ongoing since 1989 and includes the implementation of the renovation of building shells of monumentally important buildings. The motivation behind »Ljubljana - My City project« was the preparations for the 1991 World Designer’s Conference (ICSID 91), at which time the Municipality decided that rather than contribute to the customary glamour of such occasions it would be better to contribute funds to improving the city itself. At that time, a complete renovation was already underway in Ljubljana, where several buildings were renovated and plans for the revitalization of the old city core area were being prepared. However, the renovation then stalled due to social changes and denationalisation, the abolition of systemic funding sources and high refurbishment prices. Simultaneous with the restoration of individual important mansions and other buildings as part of the project they were also arranging public areas. In addition to that, the City of Ljubljana is also doing away with architectural obstacles which prevent wheelchair users and other disabled persons, including the blind and partially sighted, from moving around the city and having access to individual buildings. The project is still active but is now known under a different name. By restoring facades and roofs, arranging an open urban space - squares, streets and embankments, and eliminating architectural barriers, the city of Ljubljana follows the development flows of western European cities - although not with a complete renovation, which is virtually impossible to implement in our environment due to the fragmentation of ownership and lack of system resources. Nevertheless, the city is becoming not only more friendly to the inhabitants, but also more attractive for investments, the development of tourism, congress industry, etc. There is also a growing awareness of the importance and value of cultural heritage buildings.

Karel Pollak is an architect and urban planner that works at the spatial planning department within the City Municipality of Ljubljana. He has been running the project "Ljubljana - My City" for more than 25 years, and has been involved in many other tasks in the area of regulation and use of public spaces.

You are kindly invited to the presentation and the discussion that will follow. More info at info@uirs.si.

CONNECTING NATURE

CONNECTING NATURE at the presentation of UIRS research activities to the higher professional school Environmental Protection and Municipal Services of the Novo mesto School Center

CONNECTING NATURE

The project referred to at the presentation of the research program Spatial Planning to the Administrative Board of the Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia

Work under the program is carried out in four working packages:

WP1: Evaluation of modern developmental paradigms and orientations in order to determine their useful value in spatial planning processes.

WP2: Mobility and low carbon society.

WP3: Spatial demography, migration and social innovation, and housing challenges.

WP4: Development of methods and tools for the implementation of planning processes, and spatial , changes and simulations of in space development processes.

Among the challenges of WP1 Evaluation of modern developmental paradigms and orientations in order to determine their useful value in spatial planning processes, as an example of linkage of research projects and basic research conducted within the research program she referred to CONNECTING NATIRE project with the subject All-inclusive paradigms / approaches / concepts relevant to spatial planning: Interpretation of the NBS, and pointed out the added values of the project to the topic of the research program.

Lessons in collaborative place making

Lecture in English, free of charge

Although there is growing support for the principle of citizens co-creating places together with local authorities and the private sector, there still seems to be a disconnect between the desire to engage the public, and the reality of the standard consultation procedures followed. It is time to change the way things are done and to bring communities genuinely to the heart of planning and placemaking. This lecture will present innovative methods of co-creation (i.e. collaborative place making), and how they can be applied at a local-level.  What new possibilities might open up if there was real co-creation in place-making (as to opposed to consultation, which is often only a step away from tokenism)? How should pre-event activities be fed into and help inform design-led events? How can the impact of outcomes from design-led events be tracked during the follow-on stages of collaborative community planning? What constitutes effective best practice for clarifying the level of substantive planning and design expertise a facilitator requires, if any, at any given community design event? This research presented by the lecturer provides an important scoping of the many components and steps involved. Its findings will aid understanding and ultimately enhance the output performance of community participatory design processes.

Dr. Husam AlWaer (B.Arch, MRTPI, Ph.D, BREEAM AP, AoU, Recognised Practitioner in Urban Design RPUD) is an urbansit with a background in architecture, urban planning and sustainability, who writes and speaks extensively on making better places. He is an award-winning author and curator of events, focussing on issues of place making and urban design practice and their social impacts. He is an educator and facilitator and moderates events nationally and internationally. He is a Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Urban Design and Evaluation in the School of Social Sciences (Architecture + Urban Planning), University of Dundee. Dr. AlWaer has a passionate interest in the future of sustainable places and towns, in particular the development of new thinking on processes and methods to unlock sustainable urbanism and the way these processes are facilitated and managed.

You are kindly invited to the lecture and the discussion that will follow.

PUBLIC SPACES AND LOCAL LIFE

A special issue of Urbani izziv

A special issue of Urbani izziv PUBLIC SPACES AND LOCAL LIFE has been published. The contributions were selected at the Human Cities Ljubljana 2017 international event organised by the Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia and the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Ljubljana within the international cooperation of EU Human Cities (www.humancities.eu) and AESOP thematic group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures (https://www.aesop-planning.eu/blogs/en_GB/urban-cultures-and-public-spaces). The publication brings new insights into the topic of participatory planning and maintainance of public space. For a free access follow this link: https://urbaniizziv.uirs.si/kazalo_p/id/70/id_k/p

Project LUMAT

After the @interregCE @Lumat_project conference #cooperationiscentral and #ECDay2018 project meeting will be hosted by the Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, http://www1.uirs.si between 26th and 27th of September 2018 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Participatory Budgeting in Chicago

Lecture in English, free of charge

Library of Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Tuesday, September 18th 2018 at 5pm

Teresa Córdova will discuss Participatory Budgeting (PB) in the city of Chicago and describe the role of the Great Cities Institute (GCI) in facilitating this democratic process of determining public spending. The presentation will include a history of participatory budgeting and describe the process and partnerships for making this process a success. In addition, the lecturer will also discuss the challenges of PB and strategies for overcoming them.

PB is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. It offers people a fundamentally different way to engage with government. The United Nations has promoted PB as a best practice of democratic governance. In February 2012 GCI partnered with The PB Project and a broad coalition of aldermen, city-wide institutions, and community-based organizations to launch PB Chicago. PB Chicago aims to implement and expand PB processes and direct democracy throughout Chicago. GCI is the lead university partner on PB Chicago, responsible for providing overall project management, community engagement, and evaluation. Since 2012, PB Chicago has engaged over 13,000 residents in twelve different communities in directly deciding how to spend over $18 million in public dollars.

Teresa Córdova is the Director of the Great Cities Institute (GCI) at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She is also Professor of Urban Planning and Policy in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs (CUPPA) and an affiliate faculty of UIC’s Departments of Sociology, Gender and Women Studies, and Latino and Latin American Studies. Prof. Córdova received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. She has received multiple recognitions for academic achievement and leadership including recognition of her role in infrastructure planning and in developing a small business incubator and commercial kitchen.

You are kindly invited to the lecture and the discussion that will follow. More info at info@uirs.si.

LUMAT international conference “Future challenges of land management”

Contributions of LUMAT project to European experiences

On the 25^th of September 2018 the international conference “Future challenges of land management” will be organized within LUMAT project in Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia.

The conference will focus on the role of the integrated spatial and regional planning and the importance of urban regeneration for the prevention of urban sprawl and reduction of land take. To achieve land take targets for 2050, planning solutions must include beside others also compensation measures and environmental management tools already introduced in various European regions. Good practices and solutions will be presented by the LUMAT partners and invited speakers.

LUMAT project is co-financed by the Interreg Central Europe and addresses the problem of unsystematic management of degraded urban areas and poorly exploited business zones. The main aim of the project is the preparation is the preparation and implementation of integrated environmental management plans in functional urban areas and the implementation of pilot projects in seven central European countries including Slovenia with the pilot project in the City of Kranj.

The conference is organized by the LUMAT project and the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial planning of the Republic of Slovenia.

LUMAT project meeting

LUMAT project meeting, co-financed by the INTERREG Central Europe Programm is running at the Urban Planning Institite of the Republic of Slovenia in Ljubljana between 24th and 25th of May 2018.

Evaluation of the significance of open space in the areas of settlement heritage

Darja Marinček Prosenc

Library of Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Tuesday, April 24th 2018 at 5pm, lecture in Slovenian, free of charge

With the new legislation adopted last year, a new spatial act was introduced in the spatial planning process: the Decree on the regulation of the appearance of settlements and landscapes. This legal act states that the municipality regulates the urban and other spatial development in built areas of settlements, including the areas of protected cultural heritage. The emphasis is on the appearance as well as on harmonized and mutually complementary use of public and private surfaces. The decree regulates and protects the appearance of settlements and landscapes by listing specific conditions, including the conditions for the implementation of non-structural interventions in the area. The topics of the lecture will include: the definition of significance in the context of spatial planning of open space and the appearance of settlements, types of significance, the reasons for its evaluation and what exactly we are evaluating. Specific examples in several different locations will be presented. Valuation of different types of significance is one of the tools that will ensure successful implementation of the new spatial act.

The lecture is organized within the events of the Month of Landscape Architecture.

Darja Marinček Prosenc received her PhD at the Faculty of Architecture, she is a master of landscape architecture and a conservator in the field of preservation and protection of cultural heritage sites. She has worked in spatial planning since 1983. Since 1991 she has been managing projects in spatial planning and landscape architecture at POPULUS Prostorski inženiring Ltd.

You are kindly invited to the lecture and the discussion that will follow. More info at info@uirs.si.

PlurAlps international conference

PlurAlps international conference with the title Pluralism in Alpine regions: Migration as an opportunity for social and economic innovation will be held on 16th & 17th May 2018 in Torino.

More information on the webpage and in the attached file:
http://www.alpine-space.eu/projects/pluralps/en/home

Caregiving and home care

One of our researchers, Assistant Professor Boštjan Kerbler is one of the co-authors of a book titled : »Caregiving and home care« in which he wrote a chapter about using information and communication technology in home care for the elderly.
Most elderly people wish to stay at home in their familiar environment for as long as possible, where they are able to lead their lives with the best possible quality of life. The possibility to remain in their living environments can be achieved with the help of information and communication technology (ICT) by which home care could be provided remotely and by moving elder-care activities to their homes.
You can read the entire chapter HERE.

My favourite Art Nouveau architect

A series of short videos as part of this year's Art Nouveau World Art Day.

The international Réseau Art Nouveau Network (RANN) is presenting a series of short videos titled My Favorite Art Nouveau Architect!, as part of this year's Art Nouveau World Art Day.

Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (UIRS) has been a member of Réseau Art Nouveau Network since its establishment in 1999. Within this network and with the financial support of the European Culture Program, UIRS carried out three major international projects presenting the key authors of the Secession heritage in Ljubljana, among others Maks Fabiani who stands out with his opus.

More information: http://www.artnouveau-net.eu 
                              https://www.facebook.com/ReseauArtNouveauNetwork

From roads to streets

Urban Regeneration for Street Conviviality – The Case of Suburbs of Ljubljana

Hosted by the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Ljubljana (FA) in collaboration with the Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (UIRS) and the Slovenian Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning (MOP).

Programme, lectures' summaries and short introduction are avaliable in this file

Individual presentation are attached as .ppt files.

LUMAT project meeting

Bärnbach (Austria)

Preparations for the #lumatproject Interreg Central Europe project meeting in Bärnbach are under way. The Slovenian partners Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, the Municipality of Kranj and the Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia are preparing results that will be presented to other project partners.

LUMAT project presentation

On the 16th of January 2018, the Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia presented the LUMAT project to the Economic Committee of the BSC, the Regional Development Agency of Gorenjska, which represents one of the key actors in the implementation of the Action Plan for the functional urban area of Kranj. The Committee expressed great interest in the topic and results which will support the sustainable management of industrial or underused areas and reactivation of degraded urban areas for the needs of the economic development in Slovenia.

#lumatproject
Interreg Central Europe

Aging in home environment

The elderly's attitude towards home and home environment

Our co-workers Boštjan Kerbler and Richard Sendi, in co-authorship with Maša Filipovič Hrast, published an article in the last issue of the Urban Challenge, which explores the relationship between the elderly and the home environment. The authors present new findings in this field.

The article is linked in the attachment.

More about aging in your home environment can be found on the QAPS project website.

Youth mobility

Changes in the mobility of primary school pupils

Changes in the mobility of primary school pupils over the last thirty years have been alarming. How extensive are they? What are the reasons why today most of the primary school children are brought to school by car, although not so long ago, almost all children came on foot or by bicycle? What are the options for improving the situation? Our colleagues PhD Aljaž Plevnik, PhD Luka Mladenovič, and Mojca Balant have presented the answers to these questions in an article published in the Urbani izziv.

The article is linked in the attachment.

The December issue of the scholarly journal Urbani izziv

volume 28, number 2.

 

The December issue of the scholarly journal Urbani izziv, volume 28, number 2, was just published. The journal brings you six articles and a book review. 
All articles are freely accessible at: http://urbani-izziv.uirs.si/en/Publishedissues/2017.aspx

We wish you a pleasant reading!

'Doma Kultury'

Regeneration of Soviet socio-cultural centres into new urban nodes

Irina Irbitskaya, Center of Urban Competence, Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Admin.

The transformation of the socio-cultural infrastructure erected in the state-socialist period of the Soviet Union into local activity centers corresponding to the needs of contemporary society is one of the pertinent topics of the current urban planning in Russia. It includes various activities such as turning the excluded territories of schools and kindergartens into neighborhood centers; resetting the entire district life by transformation of the ‘doma kultury’; improving the diversity and the quality of social services and the quality of the urban environment while reducing the load on the municipal budget by attracting quality investment into the districts. The lecture will present a method of evolutionary transformation of the urban environment through the social and spatial transformation of a ‘dom kultury’ which initially was the cultural and educational centre provided by the Soviet state to a settlement or a city. The main goal of the proposed approach is to preserve the traditions kept in the territory of ‘dom kultury’ while giving it a new identity and bringing in an innovation. Irbitskaya will explain how to make an inventory of the traditions around the existing object by describing the way it functions, its relationship with the surrounding space, its attitude to the past and the future. Re-programming of the object will be discussed, as well as the tools to expand it spatially. Financial and management models will be proposed for all phases of the project metabolism (launch, implementation, use and adaptation), explaining how the emphases shift depending on the growth or decline of the economy.

Irina Irbitskaya is an architect and urban planner. She is a director of Center of Urban Competence at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) with the expertise in housing projects and urban development and planning advancement. She is a co-funder and a principal architect of Platforma, a strategic consulting and conceptual spatial and architectural design office.

You are kindly invited to the lecture and the discussion that will follow.
More info at info@uirs.si.