Commissioned by UN-Habitat and UNDP, an Urban Planning Advisory Team from ISOCARP, with ten international experts and ISOCARP Vice President Martin Dubbeling as head of mission, developed and presented a spatial vision for Gaza and the heartland of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. UN-Habitat and UNDP joined forces to curate and facilitate a spatial visioning exercise between the 6th and the 14th of June 2015. The International Society for City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP), which is an international planning NGO, was commissioned to compose and lead an Urban Planning Advisory Team (UPAT). A team of eleven international and...

Invited by Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University and Ningbo Institute of Planning and Design and the School of Urban Design, Wuhan University a Team of Dutch Experts (TDE) from ISOCARP and the Connecting Cities Network visited Nanjing, Ningbo and Wuhan from 25 May to 3 June 2015, participating “Sino-Dutch Planning Week” in Nanjing and seminars in Ningbo and Wuhan. The “Sino-Dutch Planning Week” in Nanjing University is an important part of “village planning” education programme of the fourth-year bachelor students from urban planning discipline. By involving the Team of Dutch Experts, the planning week was supposed...

Employment and Professional Activities in 2013-2014 Connecting Cities, in Assen, the Netherlands. Office for research, consultancy, design and communication in sustainable urban and regional planning. Position: Founder and principal, urban planner and designer, consultant in sustainable development. Registered as Urban Designer in the Register of Architects, registration number 2.890201.001 (since 1989). Chair of the Committee on Sustainable Urbanism of the Netherlands professional organisations of urban planning and design and landscape architecture (BNSP and NVTL), until December 2013. Vice President of BNSP, the Netherlands professional...

Martin Dubbeling is interviewed for an article in Scape Magazine that addresses the history and virtues of ISOCARP, the International Society of City and Regional Planners. This article ’50 years of ISOCARP, Planning without borders’, describes the past, present and near future of ISOCARP. When ISOCARP was founded in 1965, population of western cities increased rapidly. It became clear that town and regional planners had tasks beyond housing and that good planning was important to stimulate economic development, to manage social change and to tackle environmental challenges. The inaugural congress was held in the Netherlands. In 2015 the...

For ISOCARP I am responsible for the acquisition and preparation of Urban Planning Advisory Team (UPAT) workshops worldwide. The objective of a UPAT is to mobilize the extensive planning experience and expertise of ISOCARP members in order to help and assist cities and regions with for projects, programmes and policies on spatial planning and urban design. In the week of 15-23 August 2014 I was invited by the UN-Habitat office in Ramallah to prepare a UPAT workshop for an independent Test Planning Exercise for the region between the cities of Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jericho. This region, that includes East-Jerusalem, is an underdeveloped...

From 2004 till today, there have been some 22 Urban Planning Advisory Teams taking the expertise from both senior and young planners from ISOCARP to numerous places and regions all over the world, to address and probe, together with local and regional experts, challenging planning questions defined by inviting cities and other institutions. Against the background of the 50 years anniversary of ISOCARP in 2015, the ETH Zürich organized a symposium to create an opportunity to discuss the results as well as the longer-term impacts and outcomes from this ISOCARP initiative, to reflect upon those and draw lessons for the future advancement of...

A team of experts of the ISOCARP, the International Society of City and Regional Planners, participated in the first and second International Advisory Conferences for the Jiangbei New District on 11-17 August and 27 October-02 November 2013. During the two conferences the experts observed the field conditions in the vast planning area and were briefed about the 2049 Strategy Planning and 2030 Overall Planning for the Jiangbei New District. The ISOCARP experts carefully reviewed the plans, shared their experiences of related international practices, and initiated sketch sessions in which opportunities and threats of the planning area were...

The City of Shantou invited three renowned urban planning and design teams from Europe (KuiperCompagnons & Paul Andreu Architecte Paris), Asia (Ove Arup & Partners) and the USA (NBBJ Architectural Consulting) to participate in the international urban design competition for the Shantou New East Coastal Area. The Shantou New East Coastal Area is regarded as an important function area for future Shantou. The development of this area is designated as an engine for this new round of urbanization of the city and should turn this area into a place to demonstrate the identity of Shantou. Planning and construction of this area will also...

Shantou is a seaport with 5,4 million inhabitants in the province of Guangdong, People’s Republic of China, and a Special Economic Zone since 1980. The five Special Economic Zones – Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Xiamen and Shantou cities and Hainan Province – represent the most progressive policy for reform and trade. In spite of this special status, Shantou, originally by far the biggest and most prosperous of the Special Economic Zone cities, has been struggling to match the rapid growth of the other four Special Economic Zones. The Institute of Urban Planning and Design of Nanjing University and the Shantou Urban and Rural Planning...

This report is the result of the work of nine planning professionals who took part in the UPAT workshop in Shantou, China, in the period 10-16, March 2013. One of the challenges facing Shantou in the future is to regenerate the historic downtown. The city of Shantou has a 150-year heritage. Now, the Shantou city region contains about 2000 square kilometres and the Shantou central city has about 100 square kilometre with 1,2 million inhabitants. The central city grew from a 0,5 square kilometre old town along an inner sea bay. Whilst the principles of organic regeneration and expansion apply to the city region where new spaces will be...

The workshop was hosted by the Shantou Planning Bureau and the Institute of Urban Planning and Design of the Nanjing University. These institutions were awarded with the 2012 ISOCARP Award for Excellence for the integrated strategy and the focus on sustainability and organic transformation as proposed in The Shantou Strategic Development Plan. Shantou is a seaport with 5,5 million inhabitants in the province of Guangdong and a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) since 1980. The five SEZ’s – Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Xiamen and Shantou cities and Hainan Province—represent the most progressive policy for reform and trade. Even with all these...

To the south of Shantou, in Guangdong Province, lies a vast area that can be characterised as a “Desakota” area. A Desakota area is in origin an agricultural area in Asia were the villages (“desa” in Indonesian) and agricultural lands are rapidly changing towards intensive and densely built cities (“kota” in Indonesian) with a mixture of small and larger industries, housing for local inhabitants and immigrant workers. The Shan Nan Desakota Area has a surface area of about 600 km2 and contains an estimated 1,3 million inhabitants. In the process of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation historic and useful structures, such as the delicate...

Employment and Professional Activities 2011-2012 SAB, in Arnhem, Amsterdam and Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Office for urban and regional planning, urban design, landscape architecture and the environment. Position: Senior consultant, urban planner and designer, consultant in sustainable development. Registered as Urban Designer in the Register of Architects, registration number 2.890201.001 (since 1989). Chair of the Committee on Sustainable Urbanism of the Netherlands professional organisations of urban planning and design (NVTL and BNSP). Vice President of BNSP, the Netherlands professional organisation of urban planning and design....

A team of experts of the ISOCARP, the International Society of City and Regional Planners, participated in an International Advisory Workshop for the Wuhan East Lake Scenic Area on 11-16 March 2012. During that workshop the experts observed the field conditions in the vast planning area and were briefed about the objectives of the Wuhan East Lake Scenic Area. The ISOCARP experts carefully reviewed the plans, shared their experiences of related international practices, and initiated sketch sessions in which opportunities and threats of the planning area were discussed. The Wuhan Planning and Design Institute (WPDI) is a public sector...

Employment and Professional Activities in 2009-2010 SAB, in Arnhem, Amsterdam and Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Office for urban and regional planning, urban design, landscape architecture and the environment. Position: Senior consultant, urban planner and designer, consultant in sustainable development. Registered as Urban Designer in the Register of Architects, registration number 2.890201.001 (since 1989). Chair of the Committee on Sustainable Urbanism of the Netherlands professional organisations of urban planning and design (NVTL and BNSP). Vice President of BNSP, the Netherlands professional organisation of urban planning and design....