Press - Local Patterns for the New Urban Agenda Solving the Urban Last-Mile Implementation GapLocal Patterns for the New Urban Agenda Solving the Urban Last-Mile Implementation Gap (WUF13)

Hello, good afternoon.
My name is Robert Kraser from the Patten Institute in Austria.
Thank you for coming to our press conference about the local patterns for the new urban agenda, solving the last urban Last Mile implementation gap.
You can see here on this image a split of the road where we're going to go? Will we go to the left where we can get gray box buildings or we're going to go to the cities.
They are livable and human scale.
And Today, we will give just a very brief overview what we would like to do.
As I said, my name is Robert Cressa.
Next to me is Jenny Quillen from the Cystsis Foundation, and also Michael Mehafy from the Cstis Foundation, and then Jose Jung's the program of Management Officer from UN Habitat.
I want to just say very brief.
I know everybody of you know this.
The New Urban Agenda has 54 pages and 175 numbered paragraphs.
It's quite difficult to read it, especially if you are not an expert, and if you, for example, be a mayor or something like this.
The idea is, and you know those new urban agenda is very abstract and lack of usable local tools.
The new urban agenda inspires, but it doesn't equip It needs translation into practical, repeatable tools, such as a pattern based approach from a vision to visible results.
We have to go from paper commitments to real change on the ground.
I'm going to go back to this image where you can see, which is a development in LGS Atlantic, where you can see that everything was done, which is not correct.
You see high rise building, glass towers, parking, no public space or almost no space, no bicycle lanes.
Everything what's inside an urban agenda was not done in this, you can see in this image.
Anyway, we think There is already a solution 50 years ago.
Christopher Aleksander wrote a book called a pattern language, which is the most sold book in architecture and urbanism in the world since the last past 50 years.
In this book it got translated in, I think 12 languages, even Chinese, Russian, German, Spanish and Polish.
And the main objective would be that local planners, officers, and something can have an easy approach to the pattern language.
I will not read this, but all of you who don't know what a pattern is, a pattern is a common solution to a common problem.
It is a universal formult already used in architecture, planning, and software, and it integrates multiple UN habitat tools under the living structure.
And you see many people are writing patterns, and there is already the book, a pattern language, then there is Michael, you have it, the new pattern language where you can design things.
And what are we proposing now is to make a pattern language from the new urban agenda which get interlocked then with the real agenda.
That's one example how it could look like.
For example, I called it New Urban Agenda one, P compact cities with 150 inhabitants per hectare.
This could be a goal.
You see then the solution and the solution drawings.
Why were suggesting doing this with patterns because We would like to have it mayor friendly so that even a mayor can understand it when he's going to construct something.
To get to have reliable results, smarter decisions, and in the end, the pattern will turn the new urban agenda into concrete and actionable results.
I think the why Jenny will tell us now why we should do this, and then Michael afterwards will tell us a little bit more about the patterns, and then I would like to continue with Jose and he said, how we could probably implement it.
First, not doing only the study, but it would be very interested to do a it in a real village in Africa and Asia or somewhere that we can try it and make a thing.
That is basically the proposal.
Thank you for the first time, but now, Jenny, please.
All right.
So what I'd like to do really make a bridge between what Robert said and the people in the room and the fact that we're all here at this conference, and we've been here a couple of days.
And I keep hearing a little voice, not a big voice, a little voice.
And it's people in the hallways, people stopped by the booth.
And that little voice, it says, God, this conference is extraordinary.
There's all this stuff.
I feel almost drunk with all this going on.
But But I'm not finding what I need.
That's what this little voice I keep hearing is saying.
This voice says, I go from these stands, this country, that country, another country, and I see these incredible cities and there's a model of a city with the towers and they gleam and they glitter and it's high tech, and it's big and impressive and God is an architect and he just brought it down from the sky boom like that, and it's on the table.
But that's not what I need.
That's not what I'm after.
I can go from one country to another country and I could change the models from the tables and nobody would know the difference.
And then another voice says, and then I walk around and I see other kinds of shows and they're pictures, and it's very low tech.
It's all about no money, and it's a little tiny little square of a house exactly 3 meters from an identical little square of a house.
And There's no life in it.
There's no magic to it, and that's not what I want either.
So I hear this little voice saying, I'm not finding what I need, and besides that, I'm in a hurry.
I live in a city where there's no water infrastructure, and the water infrastructure is actually the women who just carry the water around in jars.
And Or a voice says, I've got a couple of thousand refugees and they're not going to go home because they haven't got a home to go to.
And what are we going to do here? And they're here.
We're in a hurry.
Or you hear another voice and it says, But I live in this region, and you can tell at the rate of the population growth that we've got to do a lot fast.
So I'm not finding what I need.
What I want to suggest to you is a way of thinking that has to do with patterns.
Robert said some Michael will say more.
A pattern is a manageable piece of problem solution.
It's manageable.
You can put your head around it.
That's what a pattern is.
It's like a consistent something that you can say, okay, I can think about that.
So let's imagine you have a big plate, okay? You can all have a big plate, and on the big plate are 100 coins, and each coin, you can go head or tails, right? So you say, Me, I've got a big mess.
I'm in a hurry.
And to do things right, I have to get all 100 coins to land on heads because heads would be a good answer.
So, what am I going to do? Am I going to throw the plate? How many times do I have to throw the plate in the air so that all those coins come down on heads? Well, how long is that going to take you? Forever.
It won't work.
So the fastest way to do it, if you've got a big mess of 100 coins, is you flip one till you get it on heads, then you flip another till you get it on heads and another and another.
And that's a much faster way to get 100 coins on heads than throwing the thing up in the air, right? So the additional problem is you've got 100 coins, but you also have to figure out which coin do you start with? Because if you flip one coin on heads, then that really changes the situation of all the other coins.
So which one do you do first? So one of the things so if they're little voices like that, then I think we can have a conversation because that question of putting things into manageable size where you can think about it and deciding which one comes first because it creates the context for the next ones, then we can have a conversation with you because unlike these big cities models, and This is a problem we've thought about.
How do you make manageable bits and how do you do them in the right sequence? That's the connection I wanted to make between what I'm hearing here in the conference, what I see as the problems that people are grappling with, and the patterns as a methodology.
With that, I'll turn it over to Michael.
Thanks, Jenny.
Jenny talked about the magic and the life of buildings and of places.
How do we get that? We know how to plan.
We know how to build lots and lots and lots of stuff.
But how do we actually build places that are life affirming and beautiful and sustainable in the deepest sense of the word? I think that's the problem that both Robert and Jenny have described.
What I'm going to try to do is give you a little more detail on this project that we're conceiving and proposing and developing with our good friends at UN Habitat and other partners.
And I'll run through the details of this project and why we think pattern languages are the methodology.
So look, folks, we all know that were not on target to achieve the new urban agenda or the sustainable development goals.
There is a rupture, if you will, in the pipeline from the commitments to the execution, and we need to address that gap somehow.
We need to deal with the last mile problem as it's sometimes called.
How do you get the resources down to the ground, down to where they're really needed, down to the local context where you have local codes and laws and standards and models and what you might think of as the operating system for growth.
How these things actually happen on the ground.
If we don't deal with that, we're never going to get where we need to go with the implementation process.
That's a process of managing complexity.
These are very complex issues.
But again, the pattern language methodology is really good for that because it is a joined up approach.
It really is all about local conditions and needs, and also it's about some universal principles that are the kind embodied in the New Urban Agenda and the sustainable development goals.
Let me describe a little more about how that works.
A pattern language, some of you may know, Robert, alluded to the original is all about the configurations of things and how we make them better, how we make past so that they're shaped in the best way in relation to the squares and in relation to the entrances to the buildings and so on.
It's those kinds of configurations.
Oops, I think I've got the background has dropped away.
At any rate.
The problem with the original was that it didn't deal with some of the challenges that we're talking about, rapid urbanization, the challenges of the global South, the challenges of informality, many other issues, the problems of implementation.
We wrote this new volume, a new pattern language for growing regions with our UN habitat colleagues and other partners and added another 80 patterns and our colleague Ward Cunningham, who developed Wiki and Wikipedia and so on, also created a companion Wiki.
You can go onto it just by typing in pl dot wiki pl dot wiki and visit that.
Then we're continuing this development with new kinds of patterns, new kinds of challenges, a climate adaptation, and so on.
We've done this for a number of other clients internationally.
Then also Robert has produced a deck of cards that is quite engaging and it's a way that people can share the patterns with each other in a group If it's a planning process or if it's an educational process, children can use the cards.
There are many different formats that the patterns can be used and can be very effective and many different issues, as I said, like climate adaptation and other global challenges that we're all facing, economic challenges, health challenges, and so on.
So what we've done is assembled a group of partners, including many of the people who have been involved with development of pattern languages over the years, one of whom is Sie Angel, one of the original authors of the original book at NYU, and then our colleagues at UN Habitat, some colleagues at Santa Fe Institute, other NGOs, other universities around the world, in China, in Vietnam and other places.
And all of us have been working.
We've had some online meetings and initial collaborations to flesh out, what would this project be all about? How would we engage the pattern language methodology for implementation at the local level? How would we do that? We have a project pays on our website that you can go to stasis.org.
It has a lot of the project resources and the initial patterns that we've developed and so on and you can peruse those.
Anybody who would like to, we'd love to begin conversations.
That's one of our goals for being here and having this press conference is to invite colleagues, invite collaborators.
This project and then also right at 4:00 P.M.
Right after this, we'll have a workshop in networking session in multipurpose room four and you're all warmly invited to that.
We'll have a meeting in Latvia in July.
Then we'd like to see at least the first pilot workshop in a city, ideally in the Global South.
And then we will apply the methodology that we're planning is to take the initial group of patterns we're calling them meta patterns that are drawn directly from the new urban agenda, and then combine those with locally developed patterns that are very specific to that place and to what the stakeholders want, the engagement with the stakeholders and the dialogues What is of concern to you? What are the issues that you need? Jenny talked about, what do I need and we want to have those conversations and that process.
Then that becomes the collective pattern language, the local pattern language that will be the resource going forward to guide the implementation process in what you might think of as a snowball model.
You know, you start with one pilot project, then maybe it becomes two or three pilot projects, and maybe that becomes bigger projects and bigger and bigger and we think this is the way we're going to drive change, whether it's our project or other projects that we need to scale up.
We need to get the implementation processes at a larger and larger scales, more effective scales across the cities that are implementing the new urban agenda.
That first pilot workshop might lead to a couple of pilot workshops and then more standardized workshops at scale.
That would be able to implement this on a wider basis.
That's the model.
That's the hypothesis, if you will.
And then the last thing I want to do before I turn it over to Jose to comment is to give you just a flavor of some of the initial patterns that are drawn from the new urban agenda Um, so if you know the structure of the New Urban Agenda, there's a section of content and then a section of implementation enabling.
And so you'll see some of the very common concepts of the New Urban Agenda, the idea that streets are part of public space.
Streets are essential to public space.
Everyone needs to have access to public space.
We need compact connected growth, and so on.
I won't go through the whole list because many of you know what's in the New Urban Agenda, but they're all identified as patterns that will be the initial patterns going forward.
And then the enabling patterns, the co production, economic patterns, governance issues, measurement and follow up and so on.
I'll mention also something that Sale Angel recommended to us, which I think was really good advice.
He said, Look, I work in many of these cities around the world that are rapidly urbanizing and that have informal settlements that are growing very rapidly.
If you don't get ahead of that growth, you're never going to get anything.
It's going to be a perennial catch up and you never will catch up.
So you need those upfront patterns that get just the essential framework of the infrastructure right, the street grids, the services, the land tenure, the plot size, and so on.
I think that's really good advice, and I think that's something that we'll keep uppermost as we go forward.
Then, yes, we can have a larger repository of the more detailed local patterns going as far as you want to go into the actual expression of local characteristics, local traditions, local historic precedents, the local forms, the foreign language is something that we've been thinking about a lot and talking about a lot.
The economics, which is so fundamental, if we don't address the economic drivers, we're never going to get there, that operating system, as I referred to it.
That's a good note to end on, I think, and to ask Jose to comment on your um your view of the strategy of UN habitat as we're now that the midpoint to 2036, how are we going to implement the new urban agenda and how can a project like this and maybe this project, particularly with your collaboration and others, help us to achieve that? Thanks a lot, Michael, for the opportunity and it is a pleasure to be here in this discussion.
First of all, I wanted to start and maybe for the audience, for us, it's quite important the implementation of the Nurbang agenda.
It was repeated in several points in the conference.
The Nurbang agenda, only to understand this and actually, I met Michael in one of the preparatory meetings of the Nebang agenda more than ten years ago was a huge effort for UN habitat, United Nations, member states, local governments, stakeholders to convene in a series of principles that will lead on sustainable organization and define the sustainable orization and how to achieve it in the next 20 years.
This is quite important.
We are in the midpoint review of that one, there will be some events and reports of what has been achieved in these ten years of the implementation of the Anne Euro Bank agenda.
And actually that is quite relevant to have a different tools or methodologies that help us to implementation.
This is something that is quite fundamental, like how we pass from the principles and policies like a tool implementation on the ground.
This is something that UN habitat is willing to continue working with partners.
And as the colleagues that are here in the panel, bringing discussion on patterns and how this could achieve the new urban agenda.
Maybe to say that there are different efforts on how to achieve it from UN Habitat site.
Also, we have another document that is the illustrated urban agenda So this is something that is also useful to try to translate more on the principle that sometimes can be a little bit overwhelming and this as Jenny was mentioning, a little bit confusing, maybe on the vocabulary and what we wanted to achieve on sustainable urban development.
So we need to have a sort of simplified tools that help us to pass from attacks to real implementation and how to benefit the community.
This is a team that we are working more with partners and we believe that this approach can be very useful.
I wanted to highlight other efforts that we are doing also between you and Hita that we have a long collaboration with Stasis participating on some of the conference that you are convening and how is different partners are trying to do this implementation like the one that you mentioned with Soli Angel.
We have a project that was related to Atlas of F Rang expansion, and this is also available online.
And we were researching rapid urbanization in the world.
We have we took a satellite images and then to understand what is happening with urbanization.
We have seen that sometimes at the existing tools that are available, traditional urban planning tools, they don't go with the pace of development that is happening, particularly in Sub Saharan Africa and certain areas of Asia Pacific.
This is quite fundamental and we believe this example of the application of tools like patterns can be a good way, a simplified way and understandable way.
I also to reach out to our constituencies, through urban planners, local governments to achieve what is stated in the Urban agenda, but also to achieve SDG goals, particularly SDG 11 that is on sustainable urbanization as you mentioned.
From my side, working a lot on public space and urban regeneration processes, It is important to have the tools patterns.
Despite these very localized solutions that can happen in different city levels, there are some universal principles that can be applied when we are talking about urbanization, like the proposal like a solid angle long urban expansion and actually to have a network that can facilitate the streets, open spaces, and then facilities in general is something that we see that is something that is missing and a lost opportunity sometimes because what is happening now from our experience is that urbanization is going faster than planning.
So we believe that we need to have a tools, like a wheelbow a to translate this necessity of quick urban planning to the development in different contexts.
With that, for us, it is important and we are con participating in these meetings.
Michael showcase publication that actually our colleagues of your Habitat has contributed on the legacy of Christopher Alexander, that is also is quite important, but also how that can be related to the new challenges in terms of organizations.
To at least this ten years going towards achievement of the New agenda, we can have practical examples and implementations working with local offices, with regional offices also align with a new priorities of human habitat in the new strategic plan that is related to housing, land, and basic services, and we believe the work on urban patterns can help us to achieve these objectives.
Thanks.
Great.
Jose, have you thought or do you have any thoughts about where we might have one or two initial or three pilot projects? Any thoughts about maybe different contexts is one thing that we're thinking about Or maybe in the audience.
Or anybody in the audience if you have suggestions? Absolutely.
Sorry, I was from the audience.
From the work that we have had in the past, even in developing or approaching a rapid organization, I will say that it's like at the regions that we have more necessity in terms of to have a simplified tools and that is aligned with the capacity of implementation of local governments and partners, normally look at a fast growing cities.
I will, I will start on that region, particularly like we have seen, a lot of the growth is happening in intermediate cities.
This is a first approach.
In this case, like a Suxaharan Africa, it can be one of the regions that is a tool like Urban Pat can work.
Other parts of Asia Pacific data that is happening rapid urbanization can be part of the discussion for a specific context that will be related also sometimes like what we work is in experience and pilot projects where you have, for example, that commitment of local governments to implement the projects that you are supporting.
This could be something that we can discuss with local offices and regional offices on what is that alignment between communities, local governments, and the tools that you're presenting and the necessity to implement through this tool like a sustainable urban.
Well, that's a conversation that we're keen to have with maybe some of you and others who might have connections to those cities.
We're going to our next session at 4:00 P.M.
Just 10 minutes from now and warmly invite you all to join us in multipurpose room four.
Thank you.