The global COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and magnified issues of urban inequality and environmental justice. Quarantine measures and the shutdown of city centres have highlighted the extent to which urban land is dominated by road and car parking infrastructure. In many places, air quality has improved, nature has become more prominent and neighbours are starting to speak for the first time. This online lecture series organised by the Planning Society at Queen's University Belfast, will explore, through comparative practice, how planning can re-imagine our cities to enhance well-being through creating more vibrant, sustainable and biodiverse places.
19th August 2024 at 10.00 - 16.00 BST - "My Neighbourhood" Conference with UN Habitat
Neighbourhoods are a fundamental framework for our everyday lives and local communities and “... good neighbourhood[s) provide an enabling environment for an improved quality of life for everyone” (UN Habitat 2023: 4). In a divided city like Belfast, the severed connections between neighbourhoods constitute barriers to improving the quality of life of residents and they also compromise the overall connectivity and cohesion of the city. Until recent times, the planning system has avoided issues related to divided neighbourhoods and ‘peace walls’. It is now acknowledging the central role of planning in relation to community engagement and creative solutions to create more shared spaces as a form of spatial good relations. Speakers include: Pinar Caglin, Maia Smillie (UN Habitat Lab), Marina Milosev (London Legacy Development Corporation) and Xavi Matilla (Former Chief Architect - Barcelona).
This free event is in the Graduate School in Queen's with tea and coffee from 9.30 but online attendance will be facilitated from 10.00 BST.
General Info