GFA AT NATIONAL URBAN DEVELOPMENT POLICY CONGRESS
Cooperation as a guiding principle: In mid-September, GFA Consulting Group participated in the 17th National Urban Development Policy Congress in Heidelberg, which focused on community-oriented urban development in the context of local and international cooperation. Key topics included international city networks, local solutions for global challenges, climate adaptation, land efficient urban development, resource efficient urban districts and co-production as a catalyst for local democracy.
"International issues and cooperation are gaining more and more attention at the congress, paving the way for shared learning on urban development issues and enabling an exciting exchange of technical and methodological approaches to similar and different challenges in local contexts," said consultant Hendrik Jaschob, who attended the congress for GFA Consulting Group.
Ida Bigum Nielsen, an expert in urban strategies, opened her keynote by emphasizing a feminist perspective in urban planning as a way to create "a city for all". Further insights came from Vienna and South Africa, highlighting the contrasting challenges of urban development as a global issue. While the theme of "quality of life" was discussed as a central guiding principle in the context of Vienna's urban development policy, the example of South Africa attracted attention for its focus on the role of urban transformation processes in the context of colonial legacies, spatial justice and pro-poor urban development as key elements of action.
A highlight of the congress was the connection between theory and practice through a spatial exchange of experiences in urban project areas. The international delegations at the congress, including participants from the USA, Japan, Italy, Canada, South Africa, Namibia and the Ukraine, were given guided tours of Heidelberg's Bahnstadt to promote exchange on the development of new urban spaces and areas. Heidelberg's Bahnstadt is a local flagship project that represents an innovative, low-emission urban district with passive houses and intelligently reused public spaces that is still under development, and thus builds a bridge to approaches for the reconstruction of urban spaces in Ukraine.
