Kaleidoscope city: Reflections on planning and London

Posted on: 19 February 2014
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Issue to celebrate the centenary of the Royal Town Planning Institute, this report brings together short, accessible and engaging opinions from leading practitioners and theorists in the built environment. In doing so, looking to both the past and the future, it raises important and often emotive questions about the design and development of our cities with particular regard to London.

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NBS International BIM Report 2013

Posted on: 19 February 2014
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This report examines attitudes towards BIM across four countries, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Finland, to see how each compares. The survey uncovers adoption rates, beliefs about the future of BIM, as well as attitudes towards BIM. It is hoped that this will become an annual publication. 

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Future Earth

Posted on: 19 February 2014
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Future Earth is a 10-year international research initiative that will develop the knowledge for responding effectively to the risks and opportunities of global environmental change and for supporting transformation towards global sustainability in the coming decades. Future Earth will mobilize thousands of scientists while strengthening partnerships with policy-makers and other stakeholders to provide sustainability options and solutions in the wake of Rio+20.

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Guidance to Commons Registration Authorities in England on Sections 15A to 15C of the Commons Act 2006

Posted on: 19 February 2014
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Guidance on implementing the government’s latest changes to the rules around village green registrations has been published by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

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Delivering flood and coastal schemes and projects: Partnering, joint funding and frameworks. Developing practice and emerging lessons. London, 30 January 2014

Posted on: 19 February 2014
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CIWEM Rivers and Coastal Group Annual Conference considered ways of working and funding arrangements involved in the delivery of major flood and coastal schemes and projects are changing fast.  The aim of this conference was for flood and erosion risk professionals be to showcase the developing and innovative partnership approaches to the effective delivery of schemes and projects. This will include the identification of the multiple benefits, working with partners, large consortia projects, framework agreements, shared services agreements, different contractual arrangements and risk management. Presentations are available online.

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Ideas and innovations that are impacting on housing and worklessness. London, 21 January 2014

Posted on: 19 February 2014
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The incentives to support tenants’ move into work are now more prevalent than ever for housing providers and local authorities and a significant amount is being done by both. But with the introduction of welfare reform the housing sector’s income is becoming more vulnerable. As a result there is a growing appetite to explore and develop new ways of linking the housing and welfare to work sector. Housing providers are in a unique position for a number of reasons: they have a direct relationship with their tenants; can play a central role in the delivery of support; are in a strong position to co-ordinate a holistic approach to support tenants; and they have a strong interest (mission and financial) in reducing worklessness. However, the financial pressures on housing providers means there is often a barrier to investing in effective services for their tenants. This seminar aimed to provide housing providers and a wider network of interested partners with ideas and innovative ways of tackling worklessness and housing issues. Presentations are available online.

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Fresh: Designing effective meetings. Copenhagen, 26-28 January 2014

Posted on: 19 February 2014
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FRESH is a two-day conference that refreshes conferences, meetings and events and increases their effectiveness. By introducing and demonstrating the latest tools and knowledge we provide meeting planners, meeting designers, meeting producers and meeting owners with applicable improvement. Video highlights and posts are available online.

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German Future Earth Summit. Berlin, 27-28 January 2014

Posted on: 19 February 2014
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Future Earth is a 10–year international research programme launched in June 2012, at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) that will provide critical knowledge required for societies to face the challenges posed by global environmental change and to identify opportunities for a transition to global sustainability. This Summit brought together scientists from different research fields to discuss and further develop Future Earth topics, and to bring forward the dialogue with stakeholders and research funders. The Future Earth Initial Design report, adopted in November 2013, and a book of abstracts are available online.

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URBACT Pilot Projects: Joint kick-off meeting. Paris 29-31 January 2014

Posted on: 19 February 2014
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This is the first time that URBACT programme organised a joint kick-off meeting for newly selected projects. The event brought together more than 100 city representatives coming from 30 different cities spread over 15 EU countries. They represent the 6 transfer networks and 3 delivery networks recently selected. The Transfer Networks include:

TUTUR – Temporary use of public spaces as planning tool

Diet for Green Planet – Healthy and environmentally friendly food in public kitchens

Placemaking as Open Living Lab – Testing Place-making method with different target groups in different target areas

GeniUS:Open – Participative design and delivery of city services

Healthy Ageing – Raising awareness on demographic ageing & better response to citizens’ needs through more effective strategies and health

GastroUrbact – Gastronomy as tool for tourism and employment

The delivery networks include:

EVUE – Electric Vehicles for Urban Mobility

ESIMeC – Demand-led workforce development as main drivers for medium sized cities

ROMA-Net – Improved access to education, health, housing, services and to stimulate employment opportunities for working age Roma

The event aimed to allow participants to get familiar with the URBACT programme and its activities, receive applied training on specific tasks and take advantage of various social moments to foster informal networking. Presentations are available online.

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HCA Construction Forum. London, 4 February 2014

Posted on: 19 February 2014
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The Homes and Communities Agency organised this forum to highlight existing innovation within the construction sector and to explore the potential for wider adoption, in particular in the context of the launch of the Affordable Homes Programme for 2015-18 and the UK Government’s Construction Strategy. The forum aimed to identify practical and tangible ways of achieving efficiency and adding value throughout all levels of affordable housing construction, focusing on cultural and behavioural changes in procurement and contracting, utilising modern tools such as BIM (Building Information Modelling) for supply chain integration and adopting innovative construction methods such as modular and offsite construction. A presentation is available online.

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