What are Urban Laboratories?
An Urban Lab is a permanent or temporary think tank, which helps municipalities find multi-sectorial solutions in a complex and dynamic world. It is set up as a supportive laboratory for the planning department of the municipality.
Urban Labs act as facilitators in generating quick urban solutions in the context of rapid urbanization. The labs assist in creating a dialogue between different groups of stakeholders, which significantly increases the chances for successful and sustainable urban development.
ESCI’s Urban Design Labs (UDL) has been implemented in 17 cities throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and have contributed to the development of ESCI’s Action Plans.
Urban Laboratories International South Africa Contact Details
Company Number: 2009-024682-10
Status: In Business
Incorporation Date: 22 December 2009 (over 13 years ago)
Company Type: External Company
Jurisdiction: South Africa
Registered Address:
- 10 BRADFORD ROAD
BEDFORDVIEW
2007 - South Africa
Registry Page: http://www.cipro.co.za/ccc/EntDet.asp.
Tools For Integrated And Participatory Urban Planning
A myriad of problems and solutions
Cities have become increasingly complex, and thus more factors have to be taken into consideration when working on urban solutions.
We tend to think in boxes: planners do the zoning, architects design the buildings… In other words, the way we think is not multi-disciplinary.
Sharing knowledge about ‘emerging topics’
In the context of Latin America and the Caribbean, urban planning is becoming more and more important. A high urbanization rate of over 80% and accelerated urban growth are having a severe impact on the urban ecosystem. The outcome is a series of ‘emerging topics,’ or issues that happen over and over again. Among these topics are the following:
- Abandoned or mono-functional historical city centers
- Transformation of the urban tissue, density, and the lack of centralities
- Need for affordable housing in the context of creating urbanity
- Disconnected or generally lack public space
- Urban security and social resilience
- Weak urban economy, unemployment, and entrepreneurship, mono-functionality in the urban tissue
- Walkability and human-scale mobility
- Metropolitan planning issues and tackling the growth of the suburbs
Challenges and lessons learned
After two years of running Urban Labs in Latin America and the Caribbean, we realize how powerful this planning methodology really is. These are some of the lessons we have learned:
- The Urban Lab has to be tied into a public entity—for instance, the municipal urban planning department—and it must foster multidisciplinary work, by connecting this entity with different stakeholders.
- Project ownership can be achieved by creating Local Support Groups that act as a liaison with the community.
- Open discussions and a non-linear development process are key to producing new urban ideas.
- The Urban Lab methodology must be taught as part of the university curriculum, and as a powerful capacity-building tool for professors, students, and local municipal planners.
- Urban Labs help reaches a consensus on priority investments to improve densely-populated neighborhoods or those with accelerated urban growth.