‘Urban Renewal Policy: Balancing between Housing Affordability and Urban Sustainability’
On 10 October 2018 an International Scientific and Practical Conference ‘Urban Renewal Policy: Balancing between Housing Affordability and Urban Sustainability’ held by the Graduate School of Urbanism of the HSE Faculty of Urban and Regional Development took place at the Higher School of Economics.
Passing through rapid economic and spatial growth cities are facing similar problems such as ineffective land use, transportation system overload, out-of-date housing stock and communal infrastructure. Due to the scale of these challenges, they must be addressed not only on the local but also on the national level.
Three sessions of the Conference covered these issues in urban planning, economy, and social sphere. Experts and practitioners from Russia and EU discussed urban redevelopment, housing stock renovation, housing affordability and various formats of ownership. The program is available here.
The conference started with open talk on national housing policy in Russia and European countries with Prof. Alexander Puzanov, HSE University, director of the Institute for Urban Economics, ENHR member, and Prof. Michael Oxley, Emeritus Senior Fellow, Department of Land Economy of the University of Cambridge, ex-director of Cambridge Centre for Housing & Planning Research.
The conference brought together international experts from practice, government and academia: Prof. Christine Lelévrier, Paris School of Urban Planning, Prof. Elena Shomina, the Department of Local Administration of the HSE University, Anton Finogenov, head of territorial planning institute ‘Urbanica’, Tatiana Gudz, CEO, Polis Consulting LLC, Elena Korotkova, head of the Center for Urban Economics, Strelka KB, et al.
The central themes of the conference were:
– How does the connection between housing affordability and urban sustainable development define economic effectiveness and social stability in the cities;
– How to work with built-up areas, and is there a need for a unified development corporation initiated by the city government;
– Why does the type of ownership dictate its affordability (along with the price);
– Why there is no social interaction between neighbors in one house or district, and what prevents their communication;
– Whether the right urban renewal policy could make housing more affordable and urban environment more enhanced.
The Conference took place on Wednesday, 10 October 2018, in the HSE main building on 20 Myasnitskaya str, room 311.
The video of the Conference is available on our YouTube channel via the following links (part 1 and part 2), in Russian only.
The Conference was held by the Graduate School of Urbanism of the HSE Faculty of Urban and Regional Development with the support of Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.