Sydney, 24. – 25. August 23: UDIA CitiLab23: Cities within Cities Summit

We are excited to launch the inaugural UDIA CitiLab23: Cities within Cities Summit, an innovative initiative bringing together global and local experts who have shaped the very fabric of cities around the globe. Hear first-hand from our world-class international keynotes on how cities have been transformed for future generations.  

• Be inspired by innovative approaches to tackling the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in urban development.
• Gain a deeper understanding of major changes in the way people will move around in cities, which presses into the
  NSW Premier’s priority for transit-oriented development.
• Reimagine the way you see and plan urban landscapes and dynamic precincts. 
• Gain invaluable insights from local industry leaders showcasing the transformational work being done in our own backyard.
• Share with your team best practice ideas that empower them to make a difference. 

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The design of the fourth construction site in the historic center has been decided. The new building for the adult education center on the corner next to the City and State Library on Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse is to be constructed according to a design by Vielmo Architekten from Berlin. For the Studentenwerk Potsdam, a dormitory with 80 places is being built on a narrow strip along the eastern wall of the library. In addition, the municipal company Pro Potsdam is building 32 social housing apartments with one to five rooms.

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On the occasion of the reception “The region meets – the region remembers” of the Kasseler Sparkasse, attended by 650 invited guests, Uli Hellweg presents the newly published book “Kassel: Leben am Fluss” in his keynote speech. The book, edited by Petra Wettlaufer-Pohl, shows the multifaceted history and present of the river landscape of the Fulda in Kassel. In his contribution to the book, Uli Hellweg criticizes the missed opportunity in the early 2000s to continue the “Critical Reconstruction” of the Unterneustadt in the area of the city’s old market. He makes a planning proposal for a “green-blue promenade ring” that makes it possible to experience the remaining evidence of pre-industrial Kassel.

Uli Hellweg on the transformation of landscapes by the new solar park boom and the need for regional planning action.

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In recent years, the former guiding function of downtown has lost importance in many places, especially in centers that are mono-functionally oriented to this use. The consequences of climate change and the corona pandemic have structural change in the retail sector and the loss of function in city centers, which has been evident for many years.

Bernd Düsterdiek, German Association of Towns and Municipalities
Uli Hellweg, Urban Planner, Hellweg Urban Concept
Jens Imorde, IMORDE Project and Cultural Consulting GmbH
Nils Jansen, Department for Urban Development, Building and Mo-
bility, City of Aachen
Martin Kurt, Head of Department for Urban Planning and Surveying, City of
and Surveying, City of Ludwigsburg
Dr. Peter Markert, Managing Partner ima-
komm Academy GmbH
Dr. Timo Munzinger, German Association of Cities and Towns
Anne Luise Müller, Beraten-Planen-Bauen, former head of office
City Planning Office Cologne
Angelika Sack, Head of the Building Department, County of Nien-
burg/Weser
Henrik Schumann, Head of Department, City of Siegen
Prof. Julian Wékel, Institute Director ISW Munich, German
Academy for Urban and Regional Planning e.V.
Rüdiger Wiechers, former city councilor Bad Vilbel, Wiechers Foundation
Cities for people

On November 2, a competition jury chaired by Berlin urban planner Uli Hellweg unanimously selected a first prize winner. The Braunschweig planning office jensen und hultsch architekten, in collaboration with the Berlin landscape architecture office studiofutura, Matteo Basta, developed the winning design. It envisages a quarter with a focus on housing, with various forms of living, including communal living, for example, to be realized in around 300 residential units. Around half of the area is to consist of green spaces, which is an unusually high proportion for new developments and redevelopments. The neighborhood is to be largely car-free.

The IBA_Vienna was proclaimed in 2016 with the mission to initiate, support and communicate innovative projects and processes in Vienna’s social housing sector in the face of global challenges. With the resonance study, a research contract was awarded to shed light on the extent to which and how this has been achieved.

Shortly before the final presentation in 2022, the activities and processes that took place, more precisely the direct as well as indirect contributions of the IBA_Vienna as a temporary actor in the Viennese housing system, were to be reflected from different perspectives. For this purpose, 55 people from active institutions and the professional public were asked how they experienced the IBA_Vienna from its beginnings from 2012 to the kick-off in 2016 and shortly before the final presentation in 2022.

In addition to this internal perspective, which was dealt with by Andreas Bernögger and Rudolf Scheuvens (future.lab TU Vienna), Uli Hellweg (former Managing Director of IBA Hamburg), Brigitte Scholz (Head of the Cologne Office for Urban Development) and Klaus Selle (emeritus Professor of Planning Theory and Urban Development, RWTH Aachen) took an external perspective.

‘Let’s talk about Belval’ is a week of public talks and roundtables taking place every day at the Belval Campus, between September 19 and 23, 2022.

The festival-like week will be interrogating the spatial and social realities of Esch-Belval, combining lectures, reading groups, and discussions. With Patrick Bousch, Robert Garcia, Denis Scuto, Erna Hennicot-Schoepges, Michel Wolter, Etienne Reuter, Jean Goedert, Rolf Tarrach, Christian Bauer, Tatiana Fabeck, Francois Valentiny, Daniela Flor, Jim Clemes, Christian Weier, Léon Diederich, Marie-Josée Vidal, Jens Kreisel, Georg Mein, Daniela Di Santo, Ulli Helweg, Véronique Astranskas, Lucio Wercollier, Yves Biwer, Thomas Barra, Natalie Kirwan, Laurent Frideres, Sara Volterrani, Monique Ludovicy, Sandra Fonseca, Thierry Debourse, Alba Cortizas Martinez, Patrick-Claus Leske, Ramin Forghani, Marina De Arujo Marins, Marie-Lorraine Mauriére, Pierre Karst, Laura Asuaje Casamayor, and Mathieu Hoffart.

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The “Schönefeld-Nord” urban and open space planning competition has been decided. In a two-phase process, 24 teams consisting of urban planners, architects and landscape architects dealt with the future development of the approximately 150-hectare competition area in Schönefeld North. On Monday, August 22, 2022, under the chairmanship of the Berlin urban planner Uli Hellweg, the jury met again to select the best works from the 10 finalists of the second phase of the competition and to choose the winner or winners. In the end, the team around Christa Reicher from the architectural office RHA Reicher Haase Assoziierte from Aachen, who developed their design together with Carla Lo Landschaftsarchitektur from Vienna and Lindschulte Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH from Nordhorn, prevailed.

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Hardt-Waltherr Hämer was not only an architect and university lecturer and instrumental in saving the student village Schlachtensee. He was much more: he was an inventor of cautious urban renewal, a theatre builder, erected the theatre in Ingolstadt and the Paderhalle in Paderborn, built his first work, the Schifferkirche in Ahrenshoop, until his 90th birthday, and was above all one of the initiators of a change in strategy in dealing with the built city and its historic quarters. “A future for our past” was the motto of the first European Year of Monument Protection in 1975 – and the densely built-up neighbourhoods in Berlin-Kreuzberg, Wedding and Charlottenburg should also have a future. Together with tenants, district activists and planners, Hämer set about a different approach to the city and a cautious further development of historically grown quarters. As co-director of the International Building Exhibition (IBA-Alt), following his understanding of inner-city development, he suggested new solutions for very liveable neighbourhoods and made it possible to stabilise neighbourhood communities. As vice-president of the Academy of Arts, he and Walter Jens were largely responsible for the unification process of the two academies in East and West. Hämer died in Ahrenshoop on 27 September 2012.

The 100th anniversary of his birth on 13 April 2022 is the occasion for a festive event in the student village Schlachtensee, which was one of Hämer’s last places of work, along with the renovation of the Ingolstadt Theatre and the Schifferkirche in Ahrenshoop.