THE BiSP 2015 and THE CHARTER OF PUBLIC SPACE PRESENTED AT THE UNITED NATIONS

24 February 2015 Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland

The Biennial 2015 and the Charter of Public Space have been presented during a workshop organized by the UNECE in Geneva.

The workshop “Vital Public Spaces: Promoting Inclusive, Safe, Resilient and Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements Through Designing and Managing Public Spaces” – jointly organized by the UNECE Committee on Housing and Land Management; KTH – Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden; UN-Habitat together with Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation – was part of the Sustainable Land Management Week.

The importance of public spaces is highlighted in many policy documents of the UNECE Committee on Housing and Land Management: the Strategy on Sustainable Housing and Land Management 2014-2020, the Geneva UN Charter on Sustainable Housing. These two important documents aim to promote green and socially inclusive human settlements and the long-term sustainability of housing and land management in the region.

The workshop discussed measures that governments and stakeholders in the UNECE region undertake to develop and promote accessibility of safe, inclusive, green public spaces. The workshop focused on the planning, design, and management of public spaces.

Pietro Garau, Biennial’s international curator, presented main goals and topics of the third edition of the BiSP, in particular, street, urban regeneration, and equal city.

During the presentation, Garau emphasized on the importance of recognising public spaces as vital part of cities, which is necessary for their full development. He highlighted the need of citywide approach in order to create vital networks of public spaces. Garau also illustrated the process that led to the adoption of the Charter of Public Space in 2013 and its main contents.

Garau announced the publication of a seven-language version of the Charter of Public Space to be presented during the final event of the BiSP2015.

Click here to read the full program of the workshop