Building, teaching and research collaborations across universities working in the disaster, design and displacement field is the focus of the second Design, Disaster and Development Research Forum – Learning from Urban Crises: 2019 that will take place on August 29/30 at RMIT Europe in the Barcelona district of Poblenou. The forum, coordinated by RMIT University, UIC Barcelona and Aalto University, will bring together leading built environment academics from universities across Europe to discuss how to deal with the pedagogic, spatial and research challenges of global mobility, migration and social inequality.
The event series was initiated following the 2016 symposium Creation and Catastrophe at the RIBA headquarters in London that called for a regular forum and platform for professionals and academics working in the disaster and development sector, with the first edition of the Design, Disaster & Development Research Forum held in July 2018.
One of the key objectives of this year’s edition is the preparation of a book publication on how to respond to the challenges of training the next generation of professionals with specific understandings and capabilities to work in the disaster, displacement and development fields through design education. Furthermore, new and already existing teaching and research collaborations will be advanced and formalized. Participants of the forum include academics from UCL, University of Westminster, ENSAPB Paris, Polytechnic University of Milan, KU Leuven and EAHR.
Carmen Mendoza, director of our master program, and co-director Raquel Colacios are part of the coordination team and will participate on behalf of UIC Barcelona.
Feature Image: Dehaab Refugee Camp, Kenya by UNHCR/ACNUR Américas (Creative Commons licensed)