IFHP 55th World Congress
IFHP’s 55th World Congress in Tallinn, Estonia (a 2011 European Capital of Culture) explored the connections between housing, planning, sustainability and the wider economy. Particular emphasis was placed on how housing and planning is serving, and can better serve, the aims of economic sustainability – which may or may not include growth. A broad agenda addressed issues including holistic planning efforts and partnerships, affordable housing provisions, innovative development models and energy efficient retrofit/renovation, and the impact of the economy on housing and planning. Here we looked to address the particular longer term challenges that we will encounter as a result of the current period of financial constraint and how we can prepare ourselves to emerge from it.
IFHP President Flemming Borreskov led the opening ceremony with a presentation on current challenges facing planners that will continue to be relevant for the foreseeable future. He discussed the importance of coping with the demographic shift from rural to urban areas, fostering greater sustainability, remembering to plan for the human perspective, and recognizing the “life between buildings.”
Next, Benjamin Davy gave a keynote speech on our inability to precisely predict the social, economic, and ecological results of urban renewal projects. He discussed examples of “surprising” impacts of urban renewal in India and Germany. His use of Rudolf Henneberg’s painting “Die Jagd nach dem Glück” (The Pursuit of Happiness) as an analogy for urban renewal, interpreted in several different ways, presented a unexpected twist on a familiar concept.
Monday’s plenary sessions included many dynamic speakers. The first plenary session of the day focused on balancing private and public financing. Priit Perens, CEO of Swedbank in Estonia, opened the session with an analysis of the Estonian residential property bubble, particularly noting the role that aggressive lending practices played in contributing to the crisis. He noted that several sustainability issues need to be further explored, including what constitutes sustainable property values. He emphasized the need for cooperation among government, banks, enterprises, and non-profit organizations.
Wolfgang Streitenberger, adviser to the Director General on “Regional Policy” at the European Commission, discussed EU initiatives with energy efficiency investments in buildings, specifically the present and future Cohesion Policy.
Rounding off the morning session, Mirja Adler, IFHP Council Member and head of the Housing Division of KredEx, presented the requirements for motivating private investment to retrofit the existing housing stock. These requirements include a suitable legal framework, the availability of specialists and retrofit companies, financial support schemes, and programs and campaigns to raise awareness about retrofitting.
The midday session on planning as an economic tool began with Duncan Bowie, Senior Lecturer at University of Westminster and former strategic planner for past London Mayor Ken Livingstone. Using the example of the City of London, he asserted that although there is a tendency among UK government officials to see planning as an obstacle to development, the economic and funding factors are far more critical in determining whether development succeeds. Development economics must work to enable planning to be effective.
The second speaker in the midday session was Hannu Penttilä, Deputy Mayor for the City of Helsinki, who spoke on the advantages of rational land management, including better infrastructure (electricity, heating, water and sewage, data networks, and so forth) and services. This rational land management is possible in Helsinki because of active land policy, offering a lesson for other major cities.
In the afternoon, a session on the retrofit dilemma began with a presentation from Rudolf Hennes of KfW Bankengruppe. He discussed German approaches in promoting energy efficiency, concluding that loans provide high promotional incentives and capital for investors. According to Hennes, investors benefit from subsidised interest rates over a long period of time and interest subsidies also stretch the consumption of funds over a longer period of time. Additionally, high public awareness and high impact are being achieved at zero net budget cost.
Paula Fermenías, Assistant Professor at Chalmers University, followed Hennes with a presentation on the need for integrated visions and tools for long-term sustainable and regenerative management and use. Using examples from Sweden, she concluded that there are few examples of sustainable, comprehensive and long-term visions, and that there is a lack of economic incentives and policy directives. She further concluded that a need exists for comprehensive policies on energy efficiency, transformation and safeguard of the existing housing stock, especially given that the current value systems support short-term and non-sustainable actions.
The final plenary of the day concerned housing and the economic crisis. Angus McIntosh of Jones Lang LaSalle led off with a comprehensive and innovative exploration of the relationship between housing and the economy, covering macro-level issues (e.g., the bank debt crisis and Euro crisis), micro-level issues (e.g., property and land market drivers), and town planning, social, and “green” issues. He discussed mega drivers of change (environment, economic, population, technology, culture, governance), and concluded with several potential scenarios for the future of Europe and European cities.
Peter Boelhouwer, Scientific Director of the OTB Research Institute at TU Delft, presented crisis measures for Western European housing markets. He discussed that countries are severely affected by the economic crisis are also struggling with the largest housing market problems. He conjectured that a nation that is a highly sensitive to the general economic climate might have a housing market that is also sensitive to the economic climate.
Following the plenary sessions was an IFHP-Realdania panel discussion on emerging issues. Panellists included Pedro Gadanho, Jan Gehl, Izabela Mironowicz, Modjtaba Sadria, and Alexander Schmidt, with Arun Jain moderating the discussion. Each panellist presented his or her perspective on the changing world and its urban future. They discussed the challenges that cities are facing, and how to better inform urban practice.
Tuesday’s parallel sessions mirrored the plenary sessions by exploring the following themes: balancing private and public financing; planning as an economic tool; the retrofit dilemma; social & behavioural aspects of housing and market response; and the crisis in the housing market and the future.
The concluding plenary involved the parallel sessions’ keynoters reporting back on the papers presented in each session. Christine Whitehead, Professor of Housing Economics at the London School of Economics, represented the Balancing Private and Public Financing session. She described how papers ranged in breadth from the general to country-specific examples to specific topics such as how to keep families in town. She stated that the need for public-private partnerships is obvious, but the question is how to form them and do this well.
Curt Liliegreen from the Knowledge Centre for Housing Economics spoke on behalf of the presenters from the Crisis in the Housing Market and the Future. He pointed out that whether the housing market has returned to normal or hit rock bottom yet depends on which country one is considering. He asserted that there is a need to better understand the social and economic consequences of the housing market for individuals.
Mari Vaattovaara, Professor at the University of Helsinki, reported on the Social and Behavioural Aspects of Housing and Market Response session. She pointed out the role of local social life as a driver for housing and that we must build and sustain trust in local residents. Further, she cautioned that when we criticise housing, we are criticising people themselves because people see their homes as themselves.
Endrik Mänd of Tallinn City Government discussed the Planning as an Economic Tool session. He provided insight into the perspective that planning helps slow development so that there is time to carefully consider decisions before implementing them.
Finally, Inga Raukas of the Union of Estonian Architects represented the Retrofit Dilemma session. Her session included the largest number of presenters and diversity of papers. Overall, she concluded that the development of new technology and new research can mutually support each other well.
