As an associate partner of World Urban Campaign (WUC) of UN-Habitat, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) hosted the Urban Thinkers Campus for the third consecutive time on BUET campus. The three-day UTC-BUET 2019, organised by Department of Architecture, ended recently.
Convener of UTC-BUET 2019 and head Department of Architecture Prof Dr Nasreen Hossain presented the UTC-BUET 2019 Declarations for Bangladesh at the closing session on December 7. Md. Abul Kalam Azad, former Chief Coordinator on SDGs Affairs of Prime Minister’s Office, attended the function as chief guest. Dr AKM Abdul Kalam, former President, Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP), and Sudipto Mukerjee, Resident Representative of UNDP, attended as the special guests with ASM Aminur Rahman, Chief Architect of Dept. of Architecture, Ministry of Housing & Public Works, in the chair.
The Urban Thinker’s Campus (UTC) is an initiative of UN-Habitat’s World Urban Campaign (WUC) conceived as an open platform for critical exchange of views among urban researchers, professionals, decision-makers and stakeholders, who believe that urbanization is an opportunity and can lead to positive urban transformations. The aim of UTC-BUET 2019 is to bring together all relevant partners to implement the Habitat III outcome document ‘New Urban Agenda’ for building the city we need.
This year, the title of UTC-BUET 2019 was ‘Approach to Inter-Scalar Resilience-Settlement Linkages’. The Campus included Thematic Sessions’ on three specific themes: ‘Housing & Settlement’, ‘Urban Design & Landscape’ and ‘Environment & Energy’.
The Campus has included Urban Labs with Documentary, Tour and an Exhibition representing academic projects and partner organizations works. Twenty Partner Organizations from government, non-government and international sectors will join the campus including Dhaka North and South City Corporation, Department of Architecture of Ministry of Housing and Public works, UDD, LGED, RAJUK, The World Bank, Habitat for Humanity Bangladesh, IDCOL, HBRI, HBFC, Bangladesh Housing Forum, UIA, IAB. BIP, Prothom Alo, BAPA, Work for Better Bangladesh, Jahangirnagar University and Khulna University.