November 22

Alfonso Vegara
President,Fundación Metrópoli

Alfonso Vegara is an Architect, Economist and Sociologist and earned a PhD in City and Regional Planning. He is the founder and President of the Fundación Metrópoli, fellow and Trustee of the Eisenhower Foundation. He has taught architecture and planning at the Universities of Madrid, Navarra and Pennsylvania School of Design. He has also worked as an advisor to the Government of Singapore for the One North Project, as well as Cities as Curitiba, Dublin, Bilbao, Casablanca, Sydney, etc. From 2002-2005 he was President of ISOCARP, The International Society of City and Regional Planners. In 2006 he received the European City and Regional Planning Award and in 2007 the Jaime I Award on Planning, Landscape and Sustainability delivered by the King of Spain. His research on Urban Planning has been presented in the book “Territorios Inteligentes”.

FUNDACIÓN METRÓPOLI

Fundación Metrópoli is an international organisation, at the forefront of a new generation of “intellectual capital institutions” that aspires to contribute to the innovation and development of cities and regions through the research, sharing and implementation of knowledge, and with the objective of building a sustainable future. The aim of the Fundación is to be a catalyst for the positive transformation of cities and landscapes in the 21st century.

Mission: to invent private projects that will promote a sustainable future.
Eisenhower fellowship network
The Urban Land Institute

3 Programs:
Research
Innovation: new ideas
Incubation: ideas to reality --> creating new companies or agencies

Formed the Mayors institute to get mayors together.

Why is designing a project in the desert a good idea?

ASMOA


Funding: Got funding from foundations and universities from other countries

Not competitive with traditional planning firms

collaborators: give ideas and connections

always find a component of access that should be elevated to give the area competitive access.

do not do a cookie cutter design
dialogue with the landscape
development they call eco: never one use. always mixed use/mixed income.

background in architecture, economics, and political science.

Collaborate!

Understand institutions and their interconnections with the region

Place as competitiveness



Take out one idea from each class and try to see if they coordinate with the principles. Be and advocate!