Agora Caumme organizes Mediterranean Between Expansion and Regeneration. Conference and Call for Projects

Redazione 2 Giugno 2020

AGORA CAUMME, PAUMME WAUMME SAUMME
Joint Conference, Cairo, Egypt
November 25-29, 2020
Conference
Exhibition & Competition
Workshops
Meetings
DEADLINE EXTENSION For Abstract Submission: 10Th July, 2020
Special session for PhD and Masters candidates.

Call for Papers AGORA CAUMME 2020

The Mediterranean and Middle East regions have long played an integral, if sometimes volatile, role in the urbanization of the world. The Mediterranean littoral has witnessed rapid growth of population between the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, from 281 million to 470 million inhabitants.

The level of urbanization was not limited only to the Middle Eastern region, but it was also witnessed in the whole world, leading to the emergence of new cities, including new urban social, political, industrial, and sometimes cultural factors, and, as a result, over half of the world’s populations are now city dwellers. Urban interconnected communities currently contribute to a rapid-growth phenomenon, as witnessed today.

Furthermore, migrations, globalization, wars, post-colonization, new urban communication systems, economic and political activities, have a direct effect on urban forms through the growing demands on infrastructure and services. The new urban parameters in the last decades forced cities to work with expansion strategies to house the increasing population, rather than adjusting the existing structure to overcome the changes. As a result, the existing urban fabric is being neglected, and the population growth has to “cope with the insufficient infrastructure and cities having to manage the lack of planning to meet the needs of all people” (World Economic Forum Report, 2017).

In this context, it becomes clear that the last decades’ urban challenges affect the physical and social structures of cities. On the one hand, the implementation of new projects at new seemingly important locations becomes a necessity, with multidimensional planning approaches. On the other one, inhabitants of what is known as invalid and informal structure become victims of these transitions.

In this regard, the questions that are being raised in the 21st century include the following:

How to address the transformational shift in urban areas?

  What are elements to structure the new posturban model?

  What is the future for the existing structures?

In order to answer these questions, it must be taken into consideration that—in most cases—the emergence and changes of urban lived-in environments are not only a result of internal changes in cities’ social and governmental structures; rather, they are related to the external factors coming from the adaptation to global social, political, and economic agendas.

In view of that, AGORA CAUMME 2020 aims to discuss current cities’ structures validity, and to have a refreshing perspective on two main topics: Urban Transformation and Urban Informals, under the umbrella of four methodological perspectives: Landscape, History, Socio-Economic, and Geo-Politics.

PAUMME – Projects of Architecture and Urbanism in the Mediterranean and the Middle East

PAUMME 2020 – Projects of Architecture and Urbanism will hold an exhibition and competition as parts of the Joint Event AGORA CAUMME 2020 in the German University in Cairo on November 25th – 29th 2020.

The main objective of the exhibition is to foster the integration of Mediterranean and Middle East identities into contemporary parameters of Architecture and Urbanism. It emphasizes and values the role of Architecture and Urbanism as a platform for social cohesion. PAUMME pursues to highlight and commend the excellence in Mediterranean and Middle East Architectures in creative works which are less than three years old and to involve students and professionals, and to engage young architects and researchers to interact, and promote Architecture and Urban quality designs in the region.

The Exhibition targets students and professionals of Architecture and Urban Design. Anyone interested in displaying their projects is welcome to participate in the exhibition and competition.

Submitted projects can be built or unbuilt works produced within the past 3 years. Projects are accepted under any Architectural and Urban themes.

All submitted projects will be included in a special section of the proceedings book of AGORA CAUMME PAUMME 2020 with ISBN number. Participants must provide brief description in English of the respective projects with a maximum of 350 words and a representative image of the proposal. Specific conditions for the submissions will be communicated coming July 2020, together with the identities of the three jury panel members, which will be:

The President of the event

Member of organization committee of AGORA CAUMME PAUMME 2020

Member of the Founding Advisory Board of AUMME

Prizes

Students Category:

Certificate of participation for all candidates

Honorable mentions for the best 10 projects

Cash Prize for the best Architecture project: 1000€

Cash Prize for the best Urban project: 1000€

Professionals Category:

Certificate of participation for all candidates

Honorable mentions for the best 10 projects