This is not the first time I have participated in international conferences, and every time I come across the richness and inexhaustibility of the English language. Such phrases as "sustainable development" or "livable city" have long entered our lives, although they have not yet received an adequate translation. A few years ago, there were also reports about "ubiquitous" or "resilient" cities - try to find a Russian-language analogue yourself. The term for 2011 is “diversity”. To the question, what is it, modern territorial planning, you can answer - the most diverse. In a country, in a metropolis or an agglomeration, in a capital or in a small town, and even on a citywide scale and at a local level, it meets the specific tasks of a particular place and does not obey universal recipes and concepts. One thing is certain: this planning is flexible and dynamic, fragmented and multi-layered, in contrast to the Soviet urban planning so beloved by our academics, the result of which was a master plan - fundamental in its static nature.
The 47th Congress of the International Society of Urban and Regional Planners ISOCARP in Wuhan was held under the slogan "Livable Cities - Urbanizing World: Meeting the Challenge". Previously, I perceived the motto of any conference simply as a beautiful phrase in English, which may be indirectly related to the topics of the discussed problems. But it turned out that the motto should be both catchy and capacious. Thus, the sonorous version of the motto of the next, this time Russian ISOCARP conference, invented in a hurry, was rejected, because it was not “sexy” enough. Yes, this is the term used by ISOCARP's VP of Science! The brainstorming session on finding a sexy topic, which would also fit into the promising subject of ISOCARP interests, and would also take into account the specifics of the Russian urban development, lasted 40 minutes. As a result, as they say, the “group of international experts” proposed for ISOCARP 2012 the slogan “Fast Forward - Planning in a hyper-dynamic urban context ". And here's how to translate it now?
And in general, Russia is here, you ask. The fact is that at the end of September the ISOCARP Council approved Perm's application for holding the next year's congress, and work on preparing ISOCARP 2012 has already begun in China. In addition to the invented motto, outlines of a scientific program and a school for young planners were made, the dates of the congress were determined, and a memorandum of understanding was signed by the head of the Perm administration Anatoly Makhovikov and ISOCARP Secretary General Alex McGregor. On the final day of the congress, the Perm delegation made a presentation of this distant and completely unknown Ural city for most of the delegates, which today symbolizes the advanced Russian urban development.
But back to Wuhan. The scientific program of the ISOCARP congress was completed in 3 days. On the opening day, after the official part, three interesting reports were made by invited experts: on the impact of climate change on the city and cities on the microclimate, on the development of the strategic plan "Amsterdam 2040" by citizens and on the variety of approaches to solving urban transport problems. The afternoon was devoted to technical presentation workshops from ISOCARP partners. Five thematic sections worked for two days, where 93 presentations were held. Each of the sections was preceded by an introduction by the leading "reporter", published on the conference website a couple of weeks before the start of the congress, and ended with his final speech at the closing session. The sections were conducted very clearly - time, questions, discussion - and based on the results of each of them, the presenters selected 5-6 presentations for further distribution. All conference materials in the form of reports are published on the website www.isocarp.org.
Summing up the results, the "reporters" of the seminars were unanimous - the discussion raised more questions than gave answers. So, the search for the best transport solution for cities ended with a proposal to eliminate transport altogether and focus on working close to home and SMT (slow moving traffic), that is, bicycles and pedestrians. The issues of preserving historical and cultural monuments - the more capacious term “heritage” is used in English - resulted in a discussion of the problem of identifying a heritage object and determining its features, among which antiquity, authenticity or artistic value, as it turned out, may not be decisive.
The school for young planners, which is held by ISOCARP for the 22nd time, has become a traditional part of the congress. Young people who have passed the competitive selection - there were 24 of them in Wuhan - come to the congress 3-4 days before its start in order to participate in a joint express design, using the materials of the host city. This time, the theme of the project was the development of the territory of the newly built high-speed railway station on the outskirts of Wuhan.
Also, in parallel to the scientific conference, organizational events of the ISOCARP proper took place. This organization was founded almost 50 years ago by a group of European urbanists and is still the only worldwide structure that brings together planners and collaborates with partner organizations of specialists in land use, housing, planning education, etc. At the 47th Congress, three key documents for ISOCARP were presented: proposals for changes to the charter, which has not changed since 1965, the Action Plan and Strategy 2020, prepared by the incumbent President Ismael Fernandez Mejia. Today, when the main planning activity has shifted from Europe to other continents - to Asia, Africa (the conference was attended by an impressive delegation from Kenya led by the Minister of Territorial Development), Latin America, one of the goals of the new ISOCARP strategy is defined as entering new markets, among which Russia and the neighboring countries of Eastern Europe do not occupy the last place. It is interesting that the members of ISOCARP from the CIS countries who participated in this congress are relatively young people who are not burdened with positions and regalia. And the only corporate ISOCARP member from Russia is represented by the youngest director of the State Urban Development Institute.
In addition, in 2011, the ISOCARP leadership was re-elected and a new president, who will begin his work in 2012 (for the first time a woman, Milica Bajic Brkovic from Serbia), and eight vice presidents in various areas of activity were presented at the congress. This team will have to finalize, approve and implement a new strategy. ISOCARP, like any serious organization, is distinguished by a degree of decision-making - a whole year is given for the discussion of the submitted documents. Accordingly, their approval will take place in Perm, which seriously increases the significance of “our” congress.
In conclusion, some conclusions and reflections. We, of course, fell out of the global trend: the population is growing all over the world and the world is urbanizing even more rapidly - cities are growing, - in Russia, according to the 2010 census, urbanization has reversed, forecasts for a decrease in population sound frightening, growing cities can be counted on the fingers. We devote a lot of time to the development of documentation on territorial planning in an attempt to keep up with the rapidly and unpredictably changing legislation, and very little - actually planning, forecasting. Although, on the other hand, this year alone more than a dozen forums on the topic of urban planning and urban studies have been held, three fundamental books have been published (two of them are translated and not very new), more and more often foreign experts come to us with lectures. High officials - Minister of Regional Development Viktor Basargin, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin - came up with advanced ideas that largely deny the existing regulatory framework and construction practice. But it turns out that many of these "new ideas" about priorities in space design and quality of the environment are not new at all. While in our country the ideas of new urbanism were making their way to the minds of those in power in the struggle against Soviet SNIPs, planned meters of housing and the omnipotent construction complex, world planning, it turns out, has taken another, or even two steps forward. With our general plans, we are no longer in yesterday - in the day before yesterday! And therefore, intensive communication with foreign specialists is vital for us, communication with a variety of experts from different countries - traditional Europe, post-socialist and very similar to us Eastern Europe, not at all similar to us in Asia and Africa, communication in all formats - from lectures to workshops and joint projects. An excellent opportunity for such communication will be the Perm ISOCARP Congress, which will be held in September 2012.
