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Un team di giovani ricercatori siciliani, del laboratorio di service design PUSH di Palermo, è stato invitato a partecipare alla conferenza Habitat III, a Quito, in Ecuador, dal 15 al 20 ottobre 2016, per contribuire, con l’esperienza maturata negli ultimi anni, alle discussioni sullo sviluppo urbano sostenibile

Meridionews

Si tratta di Habitat III, la conferenza che si svolge ogni vent’anni sui temi dello sviluppo urbano sostenibile e che quest’anno avrà luogo in Ecuador. I palermitani parleranno del fenomeno artistico e sociale della street art nel capoluogo

A few weeks ago we were invited by Habitat Secretariat to be part of the historic conference Habitat III, in the city of Quito, Ecuador, located 2850 meters (9,350 feet) above sea level!

The city, founded by Spanish conquistadors, is a UNESCO Human Heritage site since 1978 and a megalopolis with about three million people. Delegates from more than 150 countries and thousands of participants were involved in thousands of events focused on the future of human settlements inside or outside urban contexts.

For the UN the goal was to make the delegates sign the New Urban Agenda; for delegates and participants, the goal was trying to figure out how to implement policies of sustainability, inclusivity, resilience (and others) in urban contexts.

Undisputed protagonists (their conferences were the most crowded!) were mayors, local governments representatives and grassroots leaders who shared their paths, their mistakes and their achievements.

During the six days of Habitat III we had the chance to meet Rose Molokoane who on behalf of the poor people of South Africa was elected new president of World Urban Campaign; Rainer Kern and Charles Landry who design Mannheim through music and creativity: Demos Helsinki, Safecity, Pakhuis de Zwijger, Metropolis and the policy makers who are transforming Taipei in the world capital of design; Gregory and Simone from Citiscope, Saskia Sassen and Richard Sennett who, with Ricky Burdett and Joan Clos, are working on a after-Quito document «to inspire a more complex, open and incomplete vision of the city».
During our event, in the wonderful Centro Cultural Benjamin Carrion, we offered a summary of our research on service design for urban policies, telling of the process that led us to the developing of our projects: MUV, Open Tour and Street art Factory.

Back from Ecuador we immediately started dialoguing with the people we met and planning future collaborations for new international projects. Hoping to be able to disseminate and actively support the New Urban Agenda from Sicily we will hardly work to be present at the next appointment of Habitat IV, in twenty years, with new solutions for cities and citizens.

PUSH will take part to Habitat III Conference Events in Quito, Ecuador, from 15 to 20 October 2016.

Habitat III is the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development that takes place following a bi-decennial cycle (Vancouver 1976, Istanbul 1996 and Quito 2016) with the aim to reinvigorate the global commitment to sustainable urbanization, and focus on the implementation of a New Urban Agenda.

PUSH was selected to share its experience on service design for social and urban innovations, particularly focusing on the results gathered in the last few years.
Three events have been already scheduled in the rich conference program:

• A “datathon” where the local community will start building the open dataset for the free and collaborative app for tourism “Open Tour Quito”.

• A workshop session about MUV, the game that adds values to sustainable urban commuting.

• A side event about Street Art with the projection of the awarded documentary “Borgo Vecchio Factory” and a brief workshop on Street Art Factory, the web art gallery where you can find street art pieces, buy street artists’ artworks and, at the same time, fund artistic workshops for kids.

We’re very proud to take part to this historical event. The opportunity to contribute to Habitat III confirms us that with new ideas, a good dose of courage and a simple Internet connection, you can really get anywhere. Even where we never even remotely dreamed. “