Human Cities Festival 2010

Introduction

Brussels will host the first Human Cities urban festival in early May.

This biannual event will be a showcase for raising awareness of public spaces in Brussels through various meetings and events. The festival will kick off on 6 May 2010 with a PECHA KUCHA happening session. A symposium and scientific workshops will welcome numerous Belgian and international experts, professionals and students in urban planning, architecture, design and sociology, as well as key figures from public service. They will share their experiences, work and thoughts on urban planning, and its general uses, focusing particularly public spaces.

Families and the public at large will be honoured through a series of more playful activities organised in collaboration with several local partners such as Recyclart, Citymine[d], Turtelwings, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, WIELS, BRASS. Throughout the festival the «Places to Be» exhibition will creatively promote the work and reports selected from the international call for entries launched under the framework of this European project.The Bozarshop will showcase books about public space while Cinematek, twinned with BOZAR, will offer a selection of films and reports focused on the city and its human spaces. A Pecha Kucha will provide a forum for players in the public arena while various activities will be on offer for children, young and old, in the form of educational workshops or urban expeditions on the uses and appropriation of public spaces.

To emphasise the pleasure of this alternative appropriation of the city, an urban Sunday brunch will take place on 9 May 2010 in the vicinity of BOZAR. Other unique forms of entertainment will be organised throughout the festivities until 16 May. This festival is the result of a European partnership «Human Cities: sustainable urban design» supported by the European Commision’s «Culture 2007-2013» program. Launched by Pro Materia and l’ISACF-La Cambre, the initiative aims to establish an exchange of expertise, in a European context, in order to fuel an interdisciplinary debate on the sociocultural dynamics of sustainable design for urban public spaces. The aim is to promote a friendly and participatory approach for users and players involved in the city in order to encourage a more creative approach to managing urban public spaces.