Young Planning Professionals Programme (YPP)
ISOCARP celebrated the 15th Anniversary of its Young Planning Professionals Programme. This celebration took place as a part of the 41st ISOCARP (Bilbao, October 2005). The Young Planning Professionals Programme was initiated in 1991 in order to provide unique opportunities to Young Planning Professionals to share their experiences in an attemps to resolve complex and multi-dimensional planning problems. From 1991 - 2005, this Workshop was sponsored by MOST-UNESCO.
On the occasion of this celebration, a Special ISOCARP NET was published.
Fernando Brandão Alves (Vice President, function: Young Planning Professionals)
The idea of an international forum for younger planning professionals, was realized with the first Young Planners' Workshop (YPW) at the 26th ISOCARP Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico (1991). Since then, the elder members of ISOCARP have happily – and at times perhaps a little enviously – observed the competition for admission to the Workshop, the creative spirit of the Workshop itself, and the enthusiastic response of the participants. The YPW has become a source of meaningful debate, new ideas and rejuvenation for the Society. After 15 years, the YPW has developed its own unmistakeable style. It is now not only a unique opportunity for young planning professionals and post-graduate students from around the world to meet and exchange technical and scientific knowledge, but also a basis for making life-long friends.
YPWs are brief-but-intense brainstorming and design exercises that resemble what architecture students know as ‘char rettes‘. In the established tradition of the YP Workshops, you could hear the following comments by the young planners: :"…our multi-skilled and multi-cultural team kicked off our work with a lot of enthusiasm and eagerness … After a bumpy start and a lot of deliberation of what we want to do, what we think we should do, what we could do, what we want to give comments about and what we had opinions about, we decided to make it even more complicated by facing a REAL SITUATION!"
This comment confirms how young professionals, through the Workshops, have the opportunity to develop new ideas, concepts or proposals for the area under study – as defined by Local Authorities or University Departments – that need new strategies and/or action plans.
Another benefit of the YPW is related to the quality of the new ideas, concepts or proposals that are prepared and presented. The Young Planners are required to defend their ideas in front of a critical jury, often in the Opening Session or during the General Assembly. Thus, the working teams have to prepare a well-rehearsed presentation that frequently catches the special attention of the planning authorities and the General Assembly. The host Local Authority or Planning Agency usually welcomes the fresh ideas that arise from the Workshops. Sometimes these ideas and inputs have even been used as inputs in their own strategies for the study area.
Since 1991, UNESCO has extended generous funding for the annual “Young Planning Professionals Workshop”. For 15 years, selected young planning professionals from all over the world have had the benefit of a UNESCO grant for participating in the YPW. The growing number of ISOCARP members from the developing world is encouraging, particularly as the formative processes of the urban future of the world are taking place primarily in these countries. ISOCARP, as an independent think tank and as a network of professionals, can make meaningful contributions to the enormous tasks ahead. In this perspective, the YPWs can play a significant role in bringing in new talent.
With UNESCO support, the proportion of participants from developing countries has increased significantly. UNESCO support to this continuing effort is vitally important and very gratefully acknowledged by ISOCARP.
The wonderful collection of these YPP‘s contributions speak for themselves!