Urban Planning Conference at Tel Aviv University

If you’ve been wondering about the skyscrapers threatening to carve up Tel Aviv, or about the atrociously planned residential towers of Beer Sheva (see right), or even if you just want to hear about urban planning in general, then check out Tel Aviv University’s free upcoming conference, “Cities of Tomorrow,” held June 9-12.

This year’s focus is on environmental and planning justice. There’s also a research workshop for master’s and doctoral students.

Most of the conference is in Hebrew, but the opening sessions on June 10 and 11 are in English, and there’s a tour on the 12th.

From the program (in Hebrew): This multi-disciplinary conference focuses on exposure and analysis of the central events that impact the urban environment in the global age in general and in Israel, specifically.

The conference is organized as a meeting between the different players who influence the design and planning of the cities of tomorrow: academia, non-governmental organizations, planning instituions, philanthropic foundations and entrepreneurs, who will discuss during the conference sessions the relationship between sustainability, planning and justice in the cities of tomorrow.

Guest speakers include Peter Marcuse, an American urban planning specialist who’s been studying the field for decades.  Others are Ben Gurion University’s Hayim Yacobi, the Heschel Center‘s Eilon Schwartz and Lia Ettinger, the Knesset’s greenest member, Dov Khenin, and plenty of others. More information can be had on the Web site.

To RSVP, contact Tomer Aviv, [email protected]. And let me know if you’re planning on driving up from Beer Sheva!

(Photo by Daniella Cheslow)