About this event
Global Urban Development (GUD), Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization (CSU), Cornell Tech, and Shibumi International are collaborating with the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) and its World Urban Campaign (WUC) to organize an Urban Thinkers Campus, and with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction to organize a UNDRR Learning Lab, taking place at the Cornell Tech campus on historic Roosevelt Island in New York City on Friday, November 11, 2022, with the theme of Affordable Housing Technologies and Sustainable Innovation Communities.
This Urban Thinkers Campus will showcase cutting-edge construction and other housing and community development technologies to create more affordable housing and sustainable communities, promote technological innovation in housing production by reducing costs and time, and address the challenging issue of climate change. This event will focus on a wide range of new technologies, materials, and methods, ranging from 3-D printing to wood and other bio-based components.
The overall goal of the conference is to contribute and share innovations, best practices, and policies to advance progress in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Paris Climate Agreement, New Urban Agenda, and Sendai Resilience Framework, through developing and applying new technologies, sustainable innovations, climate resilience, disaster risk reduction, circular economy, inclusive prosperity, and participatory solutions for producing more cost-effective, affordable, and sustainable housing and communities.
Participants will highlight their ideas and experiences with designing and implementing sustainable innovations along four main pillars:
1) New Technologies, Materials, and Methods for Sustainable Urban Construction and Development;
2) Sustainable Innovation Zones and Communities;
3) Policy, Financial, Legal, and Regulatory Challenges.
4) Sustainable Building Design
Activities will include a video demonstration of 3D printing from Paris, France; a walking tour of affordable housing on Roosevelt Island on Friday, November 11; and a tour of affordable housing and sustainable community development sites in Brooklyn on Saturday, November 12. This Urban Thinkers Campus and Learning Lab will be both in-person and online via Zoom, with international virtual speakers and participants.
PROGRAM
Friday, November 11: Location-- Cornell Tech
8:00 am - 8:45 am – Welcome remarks by:
- Michael Samuelian, FAIA, AICP, Founding Director, Urban Tech Hub, Cornell Tech;
- Theodore Liebman, FAIA, Principal, Perkins Eastman, GUD Senior Fellow and New York Coordinator, and CSU Board Member;
- Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, CSU President, and GUD Senior Fellow;
- Jane Katz, GUD Vice Chair and Washington Coordinator, UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign Steering Committee Member, and Urban Representative, UNDRR/Sendai Stakeholder Engagement Advisory Group;
- Dr. Marc Weiss, GUD Chairman and CEO;
- Chris Williams, Director, UN-Habitat New York Office.
8:45 - 9:30am -- Opening Plenary
Keynote Speakers: Dr. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director Emeritus, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and GUD Advisory Board Member (33-minute video about “Bauhaus Earth“: the Urban Built Environment as a Carbon Sink); and Vishaan Chakrabarti, FAIA, Founder and Creative Director, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) (11-minute “TED talk“ video)
9:30 am - 11:00 am -- Roundtable on New Technologies, Materials, and Methods
- Moderator: Dr. Marc Weiss
- Speakers:
- Dr. Banning Garrett, GUD Vice Chair and Berlin Coordinator;
- Vlada Kenniff, Senior Vice President for Sustainability, New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA);
- Sam Ruben, Co-Founder and Senior Sustainability Advisor, Mighty Buildings, and GUD Senior Fellow;
- Michael Blanford, Research Engineer, Affordable Housing Research and Technology, US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD);
- Mark Reed, Founder, Contact Fund;
- David Smith, Founder and CEO, Affordable Housing Institute;
11:00 am - 12:30 pm -- Roundtable on Sustainable Innovation Zones and Communities
- Moderator: Lance Jay Brown
- Speakers:
- Jane Katz;
- Theodore Liebman;
- Sri Husnaini Sofjan, Senior Program Administrator and Strategist, Huairou Commission, Co-Chair, UN-Habitat World Urban - Campaign Steering Committee, and GUD Advisory Board Member; and Shorai Chitongo, Programs Officer, Huairou Commission;
- Edgar Westerhof, Vice President and North American Adaptation Solution Lead, Arcadis;
- Peter Cavaluzzi, FAIA, Principal, Perkins Eastman;
- Dr. Marc Weiss
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm -- Lunch Plenary and Urban Lab
- Moderator: Nicholas Billotti, Managing Director, Shibumi International, and GUD Senior Fellow;
- Keynote Speaker: Jean-Daniel Kuhn, Co-Founder and Managing Director, XtreeE, and GUD Senior Fellow.
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm -- Roundtable on Policy, Financial, Legal, and Regulatory Challenges
- Moderator: Jane Katz
- Speakers:
- Olivia Caldwell Nielsen, Associate Principal, Miyamoto International, and GUD Fellow;
- Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy , Global Director, Policy and Investments, Resilient Cities Network, and GUD Advisory Board Member;
- Brian McLaughlin, President, Enterprise Community Development, and President, Community Development Division, Enterprise Community Partners;
- Dr. Edmundo Werna, Associate Professor of Construction, Property, and Surveying, London South Bank University, and GUD Advisory Board Member;
- Sam Ruben;
- Judy L. Baker, Global Lead, Urban Poverty and Housing, and Lead Economist, Urban Africa; World Bank (tbc)
3:30 – 4:15 pm -- Roundtable on Sustainable Building Design
- Moderator: Theodore Liebman
- Speakers:
- Emily Billheimer, Sustainability Project Manager, Socotec, and GUD Fellow;
- Lois Arena, PE, Director, Passive House Services, Steven Winter Associates;
- Wids DeLaCour – Principal, DeLaCour, Ferrara, and Church Architects (DFCA)
4:15 pm – 5:00 pm -- Urban Thinkers Session and Closing Plenary
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm -- Urban Lab -- Walking Tour of Roosevelt Island affordable housing led by Theodore Liebman
5:00 pm - 8:00 pm – No-host Reception at Cornell Tech
Saturday, November 12: Location -- Brooklyn
11:00 am - 4:00 pm -- Urban Lab tour of Brooklyn examples of affordable housing technologies --Visit to development site(s) led by Peter Bafitis, AIA, Managing Principal, RKTB Architects.
