This event took place online on 20 April 2021 during the Covid-19 crisis. An international audience gathered with a panel with representatives from the UK, Europe and the USA to examine if gender is an overlooked factor in the way we plan, design and run our cities.
You can review the recording of the event in full. Many who wanted to attend were unable to and it also repays revisiting the rich discussion generated by a diverse panel.
The Conversation is chaired by Oyin Talabi of Buro Happold Engineering who sets the gender question as part of a wider discussion about exclusion and diversity. She also points out that the built environment and infrastructure are not the only factors at play but nevertheless there is a growing body of research that suggests we design our cities with a huge gender bias which can disadvantage the wellbeing of a large proportion of our society, treating them as ‘invisible citizens’.
Hannah Corlett, HNNA, UCL (London. UK)
Hannah discusses three topics which all relate to planning and design solutions with regard to gender:
- Firstly representation within design, issues related to the Jane Jacob’s quote about who designs the city and how this influences for whom.
- Secondly the different ways individuals use cities and how these should be addressed whilst also understanding the issue of segregated space.
- And thirdly, taking back the night – designing for fear reduction (predominantly related to transportation, lighting and the media message).
Sarah Williams, MIT (USA)
Sarah emphasises the importance of data – how it is designed and gathered ‘up front’ so that city planners have the authority to make decisions that can really benefit those citizens who are often hardest to reach.
Öykü Ülgüner, City Planner and Sustainability Manager, (Germany)
Öykü ‘s contention is that there can’t be sustainable urban development without it being inclusive to women, and planners, designers and developers must consider this in all aspects of the built environment from mobility, to public space and to housing. An approach to planning, which starts with the definition and analysis of the target audience is a possible perspective.
Rumana Kabir, Development Consultant (Reading, UK)
Rumana argues that that cities represent a compressed profile of social inequality. Cities also present opportunities for a collective dialogue and innovative ways to solve problems in our rapid urbanising world.
Wan Sophonpanich, Global CCCM Cluster Coordinator at IOM – UN Migration (Geneva, Switzerland)
Wan takes us very specific design measures to reduce gender-based violence risks through site planning and site management in humanitarian context
“Working within limited resource, where both time and money are in short supplies, it is vital that we work to add/keep ‘people’ in the equation as we work collectively to ensure safe, secured and dignified living conditions for women, children and those with specific needs. Our works not only focus on integrating considerations for the technical sectors, but also to ensure participation, empowerment and active engagement of women and girls in decision making process during displacement.”
Pedro Silva Costa, UNStudio (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Pedro is working on a highly specialized project designing the redeployment of the red light district in the Hague, Netherlands. But there are still lessons to share: gender and sexuality are important aspects of human life which shape how people behave/interact in and with the public.
Some important links relating to the presentations provided in the chat:
Wan Sophonpanich:
For those interested, the guide I shared can be found here: https://gbvguidelines.org/en/documents/site-planning-guidance-to-reduce-gbv-risks-manual/
Some (oldie) but useful resource: https://www.alnap.org/help-library/methods-for-community-participation-a-complete-guide-for-practitioners
Also a good place to go: https://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/what-we-do/community-engagement/
Mark Leggett:
This is a good document to read about inclusive cities: https://www.ice.org.uk/getattachment/news-and-insight/ice-thinks/growing-cities-and-building-resilience/what-is-the-city-but-the-people/Inclusive-Cities-discussion-paper_lowest-res-for-web.pdf.aspx
Lucy Bretelle:
Dawn Bonfield:
We are looking for contributors to the Inclusive Design for the Built Environment publication from ICE Publications here, if you are interested in getting involved. https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/page/ice-news/cfp-inclusive-design
Hannah Corlett:
Anyone who had a question for me who didn’t have that question answered please feel free to email me at Hannah@hnna.co
The Panel
From top left to bottom middle: Oyin Talabi, Sarah Williams, Pedro Silva Costa, Rumana Kabir, Öykü Ülgüner, Hannah Corlett, Wan Sophonpanich.
Oyin Talabi
Oyin graduated from Loughborough University as a Chemical Engineer in July 2017. She then joined the Energy Team at BuroHappold Engineering as a Graduate Energy Consultant in September 2017. She is currently an Ambassador for the Happold Foundation.
She is passionate about sustainability and the use of low carbon renewable technologies. She has a passion for creating life-changing spaces for under-privileged communities. Having grown up in Nigeria and moved to the UK in 2010, she was amazed by the lack of basic amenities in her home country and she is hoping to use some of her work with the Happold Foundation to help change this.
She is also keen to inspire and educate young students, especially females and ethnic minorities, to study STEM subjects at a tertiary level. She was part of a team that launched a group called Robogals in Loughborough, who went into schools to deliver robotic workshops which aimed to inspire girls of all ages to get involved in STEM subjects.
Öykü Ülgüner
Öykü Ülgüner is a city planner with an educational and professional focus on sustainable urbanism. Previously she worked for Buro Happold as a consultant for strategic urban planning, and sustainable district and building consulting for years. She is currently working as a Sustainability Manager, working on providing affordable housing that is sustainable and inclusive over the whole lifecycle.
Wan Sophonpanich
Trained as an architect, Wan worked in community-based participatory design process in Thailand before joining the humanitarian sector over 13 years ago during Cyclone Nargis response. Since then Wan has coordinated and managed emergency responses in Haiti, Nepal, Pakistan, Indonesia, Iraq, the Philippines and Ethiopia amongst others, working with IFRC, CARE, Save the Children and IOM. Her expertise spans over emergency preparedness, response and recovery, with particular focus on shelter, settlement and Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM). In 2017 Wan took on the role of the Global CCCM Cluster Coordinator with International Organization for Migration in Geneva
Rumana Kabir
Rumana Kabir has a long track record as a development practitioner with a background in architecture and broad experience of working globally in conflict, emergency and development contexts. She has been leading and delivering strategies on housing, community development and disaster risk governance projects. Rumana has demonstrated expertise in facilitating, coaching and mentoring numerous non-government organisations (NGOs) whilst strengthening capacities for senior government officials and UN staff members. Rumana enjoys giving time to charities in various ways, such as being the Chair of Trustees for Global Network of Civil Society Organisation (GNDR), mentoring professionals to evaluate and strategise their career paths and engaging as the Vice President for Public Relations at Ascot & Bracknell Speakers.
Hannah Corlett
Hannah Corlett is the founder of HNNA, a studio of urban designers and architects who combine research and practice to reconsider how we design cities. Her team shares a culture of exploration and innovation with a focus on questioning preconceived attitudes in the midst of contemporary challenges. HNNA have had the opportunity to work on large scale, culturally diverse projects internationally, including winning competitions for the design of the new Iraq Parliament and for UN HABITAT economic housing settlements.
Currently she is both the masterplanner, design coordinator and one of the architects for London’s first purpose-built Design District on the Greenwich Peninsula. Hannah has a strong knowledge of speculative design strategies and has been instrumental in shaping HNNA’s approach to design through research, as a result the practice has embedded a continuous strategic pairing of professional practice and research. Hannah is currently the Design Coordinator for the Masters in Architecture and Historic Urban Environments at The Bartlett, University College London, which pioneers a more diverse attitude to the reinterpretation of historical environments. Hannah lectures internationally and was recently a keynote speaker discussing cultural heritage at the RIBA International Conference, speaking about Cultural Heritage in relation to the New Urban Agenda.
Pedro Silva Costa
Pedro is an urbanist and architect that started his career in the urban design field as a researcher at LabRua (Portuguese for “Street Lab”), with focus on researching and monitoring the quality of urban spaces in Brazilian’s cities. The reason he decided to become an urbanist was to help to create safe and inclusive environments in our cities, with equitable design being the backbone of his work. For the past years, he has been working as an urban designer with the Urban Unit (UU) at UNStudio. As an integral part of the office, the UU leads a relational approach to the integration of architecture and urban design. The approach to urban design is based on a thorough investigation into urban processes, such as people flows, social and environmental resilience and typological changes, embracing the concept of shared space and focus on places that encourage public interaction. Always involved in diversity and inclusion discussions, his main interest is how can urbanism address social issues faced by minorities using design as a tool to create tolerant, respectful and inclusive public spaces.