All Things Urban

Speakers: John Kamp and James Rojas Hosts: Alexandra Gomes and Atefeh Motamedi In this seminar, James Rojas of Place It! and John Kamp of Prairieform will explore how they engage people in urban planning, and landscape and transportation design through their hands, explorations of memory, and the senses. Their approach centres on the observation that engaging people through these methods instead of mere talking radically changes outcomes in planning and design. It simultaneously levels the playing field and allows people of all backgrounds to participate. They will briefly ground their work in the psychology behind this phenomenon and then explore key projects on transportation station design, shared bike/ped spaces, and a new plaza and discuss how they engaged diverse audiences through their hands and senses to radically change the outcomes of these projects. Speakers: - James Rojas, is an urban planner, community activist, educator, and artist who runs the planning, model-building, and community-outreach practice Place It!. He is an international expert in public engagement and has traveled around the United States, Mexico, Canada, Europe, and South America, facilitating over 1,000 workshops, and building more than 300 interactive models. His research has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Dwell, and Places, as well as numerous books. - John Kamp, runs the landscape, urban design, and engagement practice Prairieform. He has developed innovative tools to engage people of all ages and backgrounds in both design and the natural world, with two decades of experience leading hands-on interactive workshops with James Rojas of Place It!. He frequently translates the findings and outcomes of those workshops into designs for inclusive and livable streets and neighborhoods that leave room for all residents to improvise and help create a more welcoming public realm. Hosts: - Alexandra Gomes, Research Officer, LSE Cities - Atefeh Motamedi, Town Planner Seminars are free and open to all but require pre-registration. Date: Thursday 18 November 2021 Time: 5.00-6.00pm GMT

The Urban95 Academy launched in January 2022 and has delivered the programme to 263 cities including 93 Mayors & Deputy Mayors from 71 countries across seven cohorts. Taking part in the Urban95 Academy connects you to a growing network of engaged and motivated urban practitioners around the world, who are working to improve the lives of young children and caregivers in their cities. [Find out more on our website](https://urban95academy.org/). [The London School of Economics and Political Science](https://www.lse.ac.uk/) is a social science university based in central London with a global reach. Ranked first in Europe and second in the world for social sciences and management in the QS subject rankings 2021. Since 1895 the LSE has been pioneering social science research, challenging existing ways of thinking, and seeking to understand the causes of things in order to transform them. [LSE Cities](https://www.lse.ac.uk/cities) is an international centre that investigates the complexities of the contemporary city. It carries out research, graduate and executive education, outreach and advisory activities in London and abroad. Extending LSE’s century-old commitment to the understanding of urban society, LSE Cities investigates how complex urban systems are responding to the pressures of growth, change and globalisation with new infrastructures of design and governance that both complement and threaten social equity and environmental sustainability. [The Van Leer Foundation](https://vanleerfoundation.org/) is an independent Dutch organisation working globally to foster inclusive societies where all children and communities can flourish. The Foundation brings together people with different perspectives and supports them to achieve large-scale impact. Their support involves a unique combination of funding, networks, executive education, technical assistance and knowledge.