RECODE: Connected Global Villages - Real Corp 2010 Vienna Workshop

RECODE DNA FOR 21ST CENTURY DWELLING

CONNECTED GLOBAL VILLAGES

A CLEAR VILLAGE AND GIVE WORKSHOP @ REAL CORP CONFERENCE 2010 VIENNA, 18-20 MAY 2010 CAN WE ALL DESIGN A RURAL RENAISSANCE?

REAL CORP 2010 VIENNA -a clear village workshop Whilst urbanisation is still considered a dominant and inevitable phenomenon in today’s spatial development and is even welcomed and praised by many actors, the joint CLEAR Village and GIVE workshop at Real Corp Conference 2010 argues that there is no “liveable city” without a hinterland. Rural areas are essential - not only to feed the city but also to provide us with many other indispensable qualities of life.

©CLEAR VILLAGE 2010

THE CONTEXT Real Corp 2010 - the 15th International Conference on Urban Planning and Regional Development in the Information Society was held under the motto “Cities for Everyone: Liveable, Healthy, Prosperous, Promising Vision or Unrealistic Fantasy? The role of Urban Planning and Technologies on the path towards improved Quality of Life, Health, Sustainability and Prosperity in our Cities”.

GIVE - (Globally Integrated Village Environment) is a research group in Vienna founded by Franz Nahrada in 1992 and one of CLEAR Village’s network partners.

Its purpose is to promote and organise enabling research and development for rural community building.

THE SETTING

CLEAR Village think team member Chris Garvin, team member Karsten Stampa, and Franz Nahrada from GIVE presented their concept at Real Corp 2010 as part of a programme of fascinating presentations including: + Greg Clark - lead advisor to the global British Council’s OPENCities network: Why are international population flows critical to long term city success? + Ismael Fernandez Meija - President of ISOCARP – International Society of City and Regional Planners: Cities for everyone.

Towards liveable, healthy and prosperous cities around the globe. + Prof. Dr. Ernst Gehmacher - Social Capital: the Cement of Society. How to Create it by Urban und Regional Planning + Stefan Denig - SIEMENS AG Deutschland: Sustainable Cities – Technological and economical perspectives. + Michel Sudarskis - Secretary General of INTA – International Urban Development Association: Are we planning innovative cities for everyone?

THE HIGHLIGHTS

Even though more than 50% of the world population still lives in peri-urban and rural areas, it was shown at the conference once again that the trend and also the bulk of investment go towards bigger and denser cities.

The joint CLEAR Village and GIVE workshop that we called the Rural Renaissance and the discussion that followed aimed to provide a counterweight to this bias and hence focused on the question: “How can we integrate more functions into rural spaces that were previously unavailable in order to enhance the quality of life they can offer?”

We believe that there is an alternative to dwelling in cities by building up a network of connected villages. Though we know that there can be no rural renaissance without bridging between cities and their hinterlands; as one of those bridges is the communicative connection with city hubs.

This concept puts planners & developers in a new position: a village cannot be constructed like an urban settlement for an anonymous market, but should be built collaboratively through a participatory approach

MORE INFORMATION

+ conference website: www.corp.at + GIVE website: www.give.at