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Every Project Impacts Climate, Goh Says

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Associate Professor of Urban Planning Kian Goh spoke to Architectural Record about addressing social inequities in the work of climate justice. “Almost anywhere we look, the places architects practice have histories of injustice,” Goh said. “A core part of our practice is to be accountable to the fact that these are not neutral places.” She explained that built-environment professionals need to be more attuned to injustices within their own ranks, as well as to the embodied struggles that have given rise to the climate-justice movement. “So how do we not talk over or otherwise speak for these front-line vulnerable communities?” Goh asked. “And what practices can we embrace that take their claims for justice seriously, at the same time as we need to do big projects fast?” Goh hopes that urban planners will be able to use their expertise to contribute to and advance these movements for climate justice.

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Goh on Decolonization of Public Parks

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Assistant Professor of Urban Planning Kian Goh was featured in a New Yorker article about the legacy of landscape architect Frederick Olmsted and the future of public parks in the United States. Olmsted, who was born 200 years ago, is regarded as the father of landscape architecture but has also been criticized for his work that displaced Black and Native communities. Goh explained that she uses Olmsted as an example of the lineage of urban parks — but one for which students swiftly see the limits. “Green space has a history of exclusion, even though the original ideals might have been different,” she said, adding that her students “don’t think that the ideas of folks like Olmsted stand the test of racial and social-justice critique now.” Moving forward, her teaching is guided by the question: “How do we decolonize ideas for public parks?”

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Loukaitou-Sideris Co-Authors Book on ‘New Practices for Reimagining the City’

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Urban Planning Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris is one of five co-authors of the new book “Urban Humanities: New Practices for Reimagining the City,” published by MIT Press. Urban humanities is the emerging field at the intersection of the humanities, urban planning and design, according to the authors. Their book offers a new approach not only for understanding cities in a global context but for intervening in them, interpreting their histories, engaging with them in the present and speculating about their futures. The book offers case studies of real-world projects in mega-cities in the Pacific Rim, including Tokyo, Shanghai, Mexico City and Los Angeles. Several projects are described in detail, including playful spaces for children in car-oriented Mexico City, a commons in a Tokyo neighborhood, and a rolling story-telling box to promote “literary justice” in Los Angeles. The interdisciplinary nature of the book is highlighted by the team of authors, which includes four of Loukaitou-Sideris’ UCLA colleagues from other departments: Dana Cuff, Todd Presner, Maite Zubiaurre and Jonathan Jae-an Crisman. The book features work from faculty and students in the Urban Humanities Initiative, who come from the urban planning, architecture and humanities programs. The initiative draws from humanist practices and a concern for social justice to interpret and intervene in the city. Loukaitou-Sideris is the author of numerous articles and co-editor of multiple books. “Urban Humanities: New Practices for Reimagining the City” is Loukaitou-Sideris’ fourth co-authored project.

Loukaitou-Sideris on Strategies to Ease Sidewalk Congestion

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In an interview with the Chilean publication MasDeco, Urban Planning Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris discussed design strategies necessary to make sidewalks safe for all users. Loukaitou-Sideris explained that, while sidewalks were originally designed with the sole purpose of accommodating foot traffic and separating pedestrians from fast-moving cars, these narrow corridors are now overwhelmed by bikes, scooters and pedestrians, all moving at different speeds within the same space. New laws require bikers in many cities to ride in the street instead of on the sidewalk, but Loukaitou-Sideris stressed the importance of creating a designated bike lane to protect bikers riding alongside cars. In the interview, published in Spanish, Loukaitou-Sideris said design should be informed by the demography of the area in order to create space for everyone, especially older adults and small children. She concluded that urban planning and design can minimize conflict by creating space for all types of sidewalk users.

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