PlanScapeArch Conference: At Every Scale (Day 1)

Thursday, September 24, 9:00 am – 1:30 pm
Friday, September 25, 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm

The events of 2020 have exposed critical issues of social justice and health equity that are embedded in the built environment. It is clear that our professions face a broad range of challenges for the future. Are planners, architects, and landscape architects equipped to make measurable and positive change? 

This multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine how current events have shaped public health, transportation, and technology, and how the allied professions can aid our communities in moving forward. We will explore how these components of society are understood from the neighborhood level all the way to a global scale. Now more than ever, each discipline must work to address, at all scales, social and environmental issues. The conference will engage government officials, practitioners, and researchers in discussions about the relationships between scales and the methods of practice used across our professions. 

See further information on speakers and sessions here.

Credits (pending):

6.0 AICP CM Credits 
6.0 LACES Credits 
6.0 AIA Credits

Pricing:

APA-ASLA-AIA Member Registration
Early Bird Pricing ends September 10. 

Sessions:
*Speakers and program for each day will be updated soon*

Session 1 – Public Health 

As we work towards a more socially just, inclusive and healthy future, design professionals are being asked to deploy and develop tools and techniques for engagement and practice. Policy frameworks not only facilitate the design of our physical surroundings, both natural and built environments, but also serve as a vehicle for designers and planners to harness their capacity to yield profound and positive health impacts on near term measurable outcomes and future trajectories. 

This panel will discuss how research and practice are working to identify and support policy-centered, equitable design solutions that improve the physical and mental well-being of communities,from individuals and neighborhoods to regional landscapes and populations.

Session 2 – Transportation

Transportation networks have become central to the physical and social fabric of our built environment, whereby designers and planners are often responsible for creating/implementing  these systems. Transportation systems can be assessed on their accessibility, the functional qualities of the spaces, and how these systems  intersect with other modes.  Transportation systems have the capacity to alter our relationship to the landscape around us and to one another, both positively and negatively, while promoting efficient and convenient modes of travel. 

This panel will discuss the extents of transportation systems and their relationships to both environmental and social ecologies, and will consider how practitioners can design systems that support equity, reinforce social cohesion and promote robust, self-sustaining ecosystems. 

Session 3 – Technology

Distributed and readily available technology is at the fingertips of publics and practitioners alike, enabling  access to seemingly democratized interfaces and generating endless feedback loops. Its availability creates new opportunities to enhance the experience and better understand the behavior of folks who use, manage, plan and design our built environment, thereby enabling work in increasingly functional and responsive relationships to our social and environmental policy frameworks. 

This panel will discuss the ever increasing use of technology across our professions and question whether its use is balanced, equitable, and accessible enough to engage and use with and without the public. 

Session 4 – The Role of Each Profession at all Scales

As we close the day of discussions, it is important to consider the role that each profession plays in their current iterations, and what are our responsibilities now and in the future to our profession and the people with whom we work. Building on the previous discussions of public health, transportation, and technology – and the scales at which allied professionals engage these topics – this closing session will investigate the state of the allied  professions,how our professions can examine and dismantle the disparities laid bare by Covid-19 and racial injustice, and how we need to shift our focus and evolve to address current and future challenges and crises.