EVENTS

 

   Celebrating Oscar Niemeyer 

Thursday, December 15, 2011

United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium

 

Thursday, December 15th | 6:30–8:00 p.m.
United Nations, 42nd Street and 1st Avenue
Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium

A celebration honoring Oscar Niemeyer, one of the designers of the original United Nations building.

To celebrate the 104th birthday of architect Oscar Niemeyer, please join us for a panel discussion about the changing face of New York architecture in the last sixty years; specifically, the intended meaning, and the public's interaction with buildings such as the UN.

Panelists include:
Anthony Cohn, EYP, Architecture & Engineering
Barry Lewis, Architectural Historian
Cesar Pelli, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, Inc.

 

 

PAST EVENTS

 

Community Upgrading in Bangkok, Thailand 
Thursday, December 1, 2011
This discussion is centered on Thailand's Baan Mankong Community Upgrading Project, a particularly successful example of housing improvement, land-tenure security, and infrastructure development that places slum communities at the center of the upgrading process.

Panelists:
Somsook Boonyabancha, Asian Coalition for Housing Rights
Prapas Sangpradab, Community Leader, Bang Bua, Bangkok, Thailand
Prayong Posriprasert, architect
Thipparat Noppladarom CODI Director  
Le Dieu Anh, National Coordinator, Association of Cities for Vietnam
Ruby Papeleras, community leader from the Homeless People Federation, Philippines

Moderator: Robert Buckley, New School for Social Research

 

More about the panelists:

 

Somsook Boonyabancha is the Secretary general of Asian Coalition for Housing Rights, a coalition of  organizations working on urban poor housing development in Asia, and is the former Director of Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI) where she implemented community upgrading in 300 cities throughout Thailand. After studying Architecture at Thailand’s Chulalongkirn Univeristy and Housing and Urbanization in Denmark she began working extensively on urban poor housing development and slum upgrading in Asian cities over the past 30 years.  At present, she is working on a new regional program – the Asian Coalition for Community Action – which is targeting community-led upgrading and development for 200 Asian cities in 15 countries.

 

Mr.Prapas Sangpradab heads the Bang Bua Canal Community Network - a network of 12 squatter communities which line the 13-kilometer stretch of the Bang Bua Canal in Northern Bangkok - comprised of over 3,400 poor households.  He has presented the importance of community involvement in the Baan Mankong upgrading process at UN-Habitat World Water Day. He serves as a second Lieutenant in the Royal Thai Army and earned his Bachelor’s degree in Law at Kreik University.

 

Mr. Prayong Posripprasert is the Director of the Community and Environmental Architecture Program at Thailand’s Arsom Silp Institute of the Arts, with degrees in architecture from Silpakorn University and University of New South Wales. He has worked as a community architect for Bang Bua Community Development Project and is an appointed member of CODI’s Working Committee for the Bann Mankong program in Bangkok Metropolitan Area.

 

Ms. Thipparat Nopladarom is the Director of the Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI), part of the Thailand’s Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. With degrees in Architecture and Planning she has worked in the Housing Policy and Planning sector for over 25 years; and has lectured on Housing Development in Thailand at Chulalongkorn and Thammasat Universities and Thailand’s National Housing Authority. She has contributed to numerous seminars and study visits in Thailand, Indonesia, India, Japan and Malaysia.

                               

Ms. Le Dieu Anh is the National Coordinator for Vietnam’s Community Fund Development Network, a part of the Asian Coalition for Community Action regional program. With degrees in economics and public policy Ms. Anh has extensive experience in socio-economic development planning in Viet Nam, heading a UNDP funded project which focuses on capacity building for city government agencies in urban development planning and management in Ho Chi MInh City.

 

Ms. Ruby Papeleras is one of the national leaders for the Homeless People's Federation Philippines and lives with her family in Payatas, a sprawling slum which surrounds the mountainous municipal garbage dump within the Manila Metropolitan Area.  She is a co- founder of the Payatas Scavengers Association, which developed their own community-based savings and development strategies, eventually becoming the national Homeless People's Federatio now active in 33 cities with 30,000 savings members. They have collectively saved of over US$ 3 million with numerous community housing and upgrading projects underway.

 

Mr. Robert Buckley, the moderator, is a Senior Fellow in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School. He was previously an Advisor and Managing Director at the Rockefeller Foundation, and Lead Economist at the World Bank with a focus on issues related to urbanization in developing countries. He is particularly interested in the policy issues related to slum formation and approaches to dealing with them. He has taught at Syracuse, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Pennsylvania - and served as the Chief Economist of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Buckley has worked in more than 50 developing countries and has written widely on urbanization, housing, and development issues. His most recent book he co-edited is Urbanization and Economic Growth.

 

 

 Design Exchange Panel
Thursday, November 3, 2011
This panel discussion brought together representatives from organizations featured in the exhibition that demonstrate how design can affect the world's most critical issues, and how these solutions can be shared to implement change. Watch the video of the panel HERE.

Panelists:
Benjamin Bradlow, Shack/Slumdwellers International
Roelf Mulder, ...XYZ Design/Design with Africa
Anna Rubbo, University of Sydney/Global Studio
Gabriela Sorda, University of Buenos Aires

 

Moderator:
Dr. Geeta Mehta, Graduate School for Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University

 

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Sustainable and Inclusive Cities

Thursday, November 17th | 6:30–8:30 p.m.
United Nations, 46th Street and 1st Avenue, New York City
North Lawn Building
Cities all over the world are rapidly expanding and facing issues such as climate change and overburdened public services. A thought-provoking panel discussion focusing on design initiatives that seek to include those marginalized by established cities, especially the women and youth.

Panelists included:
Michael Cohen, New School for Social Research
Celia Martinez, UN-Habitat
Chelina Odbert, Kounkey Design Initiative
Vanessa Padia, Secretariat for Housing, Municipality of São Paulo

 

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL COOPER-HEWITT'S EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AT 212-849-8385 OR CLICK HERE.