Welcoming remarks
Dr. Irene Wiese - von Ofen, President of the International Federation of
Housing and Planning (IFHP)
Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of the HABITAT Professionals Forum I would
like to welcome you to our panel discussion. Please allow me to begin by
explaining the idea of the Professionals Forum.
A forum means a place of communication where information can be exchanged.
The HABITAT Professionals Forum wants to discuss with professionals of different
disciplines the relation between the World Report on the Human Future 21 and the
professional experiences represented by the speakers and their various
organizations having in mind the HABITAT Agenda.
Looking at the HABITAT Agenda and at the World Report I felt - as we experts
often do - that activities and trends are described excellently, but
recommendations on how to manage the "Millennium's Challenge" are
non-committal or not sufficiently concrete. From my perspective, the key
challenge for the urban future is reducing social exclusion. I think the main
capital of cities is the human capital. Sustainable development is only to
achieve by mobilising this capital. That means an integrated approach to urban
development, not by the town planning and architectural approach we were
accustomed to for such a long time. Education and empowerment of the
inhabitants, commitment of professionals and a stronger administrative
management are the main points. I am seeing so many talents and experience in
people's action and behaviour, that I would trust more in their abilities than
it seems to me the World Report expressed.
Inhabitants know how to organise their life, their families, and their homes.
One task of architects and town planners is to help in overcoming the challenge
of segregation through giving people the feeling and the possibilities of being
at home in their quarters. Their dream of beauty should be seen as well by
architects.
The other responsibility is to consult economic elites in their wishes to
present themselves in the cities - but this should not lead to the same
architectural language all over the world. And one of the tasks should be to
create living situations for privileged people and their special wishes outside
those areas that should be protected because of their extraordinary natural
resources: that means quality by architecture and not just by the view near a
wonderful landscape. To find solutions in very special situations is once more
the reason for organising participation processes offering technical, legal and
construction professional expertise and on the other hand being aware of what
people are able to do themselves. Therefore the question of participation is a
crucial one.
The organisations in the field of architecture, city planning and surveying
have the responsibility, together with concerned citizens, for the aesthetic
environment: for vision and image of our towns, for city planning, and
especially for an integrated approach of technical, legal and individual
concerns. We also have the responsibility for the technical and economical
registration of land, readjustment of plots and cadastral management; this is
crucially important for organising property and secure tenure as a basic
precondition for a self-responsible organisation of a free and secure existence.
Therefore professionals have an eminently responsible task in our society for
the urban quality of life and to have in mind the two great architects Le Corbusier
and Schumacher, who once have said : "Urban planning is at least the order
of the urban land".
One of the main statements of the World Report that is in conformity with the
HABITAT Agenda is the demand for democratisation, that will make the city
governments more responsive. The role of non-governmental organisations -
especially those with professional and expert know-how - is in this relation a
complementary one to the governments, not a substitute; it is a subsidising one
in direction to the people and a self responsible one as guarantor of
professional quality.
This is the reason, that we - ISoCaRP, FIG, UIA, CASSAD and IFHP - came to
the conclusion to cooperate in support of the ideas and the implementation of
the HABITAT Agenda.
The Professional Forum intends to organise a workshop in February 2001 during
the Preparatory Committee Meeting for Istanbul + 5 in Nairobi and a parallel
event during a Special Session of the General Assembly on Istanbul + 5 in June
2001 (probably in New York). We also have the intention to organise forums during
the congresses of professional associations such as the UIA Congress 2002 in
Berlin or the FIG Congress 2002 in Washington. We invite your participation.
More information
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