How can urban planners ensure their projects respect local cultures and traditions?

In a democratic design process, Urban Planners need to undertake expert and comprehensive stakeholder consultations with various user groups to validate their surveys. Interactive approach needs to be incorporated at all levels to be able to come up with contextual responses.

Planning is an iterative process which requires a feedback loop between planner and community. This is even more important when considering local culture and tradition. The task of the planner is to both lead and follow. Community members may not always be able to articulate a unified stand or solution. This is why planners have to use their skills and knowledge to draw out the best approach to ensure plans will serve a community's best interests. The challenge is really in balancing short and long term interests so the planner needs to be compassionate towards community tradition and help people to come to better understand the consequences of their choices.

Our country is Unity in Diversity. Hence understanding the cultures, traditions of a place is very important. Moreover I am of the strong opinion that legacy of place has to be maintained and preserved. Every city has a legacy. Legacy can be in the form of buildings of importance, architecture or just a way of Living in space designs. Hence understanding the concept is most important and shall help in planning a better space. Any special rules for preserving or conserving can be added as part of the development control rules.

For the urban planners, respecting local cultures and traditions should involve not only adhering to the customs but also enriching the local cultures. One example, which I routinely saw in Tokyo ( a city blending culture and urban planning), was how how urban planners dedicated sufficient privately owned public spaces for organization of various cultural activities (e.g. traditional group drum playing, carrying out ceremonies for religious procession, and also holding fairs for fruits of seasonal importance). Drawing from this, urban planners should not only look at stakeholder mapping, needs and aspirations of the stakeholders, but also how the urban spaces can support and evolve the future goals of the stakeholders.

As the former Director of Planning for the largest city in New Jersey, I found it was important to hold public meetings, organized with the cooperation of key local community groups, which allowed community residents, local businesses and local elected officials to participate in the visioning or planning process. Sometimes those meetings would take the form of a planning charrette, where we would set up tables in a large meeting room with a blank land use map on each table and provide markers to attendees for marking up the maps with their ideas. At the end of the session, each table would report back to the entire group the ideas they discussed at their individual tables, for incorporation into the proposed plan. This made planning fun!😊

Pay people for the time. Hire "plan/project ambassadors" from the community in the early stages to help bring people together.

Some of these locals normally have solutions that need to be improved or guided to make their lives better. When you involve them they also own and support the project.

Dans le cadre d'un urbanisme durable et respectueux des traditions, il me parait important d'être transparent sur la représentativité des participants, leur degré d'implication et la possibilité de débattre des aménagements proposés. La recherche d'information sur un espace de la part des personnes qui l'habitent n'est pas nécessairement inscrite dans un processus participatif.

Community participation in planning interventions has critical role in understanding the priorities, needs and wants of the local community. Moreover, It is a means of building trust, sense of ownership, and empowering urban dwellers for whom planning is intended. Thus, in every planning endeavor, effective community participation framework need to be designed and implemented for sustained success of planning interventions. Accordingly, the various community groups, how to address them and proper justification why certain methods are chosen need to be identified.

As much as we differentiate between different ethnic identities, we need to also recognize that there are differences between homogeneous ethnic identities. Important historical, linguistic, religious and political diversities are ignored, while a similarity of phenotypical features is highlighted. These are the conversations planners need to have in planning schools and planning practice. If we as planners are not aware of the problems associated with multiculturalistic or pluralistic planning in the background or the nuances in planning discourse, how can we plan to adopt equitable processes that result in just outcomes?

The generations have growing urban space needs and standards. This if captured makes the urban cities resilient and sustainable to the needs of the new generations as they come up. Gen Z' s needs are so diverse.

Profound involvement of diverse community members in the planning process, seeking their input, their perspectives, and incorporating their cultural insights into the project design creates room for support and ownership of projects. By fostering inclusivity and embracing the rich local cultures, urban planners can create projects that resonate with the community's values and traditions, ensuring a more sustainable and culturally sensitive urban environment globally.

The best way to do this is to think about public spaces, such as squares, streets, and gardens. People will naturally gather in those spaces and create a bond with them. The inclusivity and diversity will be a by-product of democratic access to city-scapes.

I agree, this can be done by creating liminal spaces that bring people together in urban settings, transcend boundaries, and integrate rather than seperate. This is crucial if we consider large cities with people from different backgrounds, age-groups, interests, etc. These spaces have served throughout history as the social hubs that embraced freedom, democracy, choice, integration, and connectivity.

Start every planning project with evaluating the history of the site, neighborhood, or city. Dig into the history of local planning and zoning policy to see how it has impacted specific communities and neighborhoods. Always meaningfully engage the community to identify what is culturally and historically significant to them. Acknowledge you are not the expert in that community’s culture and history, they are. Planners should act as facilitators and listen, not assume they have all the answers.

The urban fabric of a city is often intertwined with its history and culture. Planners should work together with historians and conservationists to identify and preserve sites of historical or cultural significance. Restoring and integrating these spaces into the contemporary urban context can reinforce cultural identity and serve as a physical reminder of local traditions.

Mapping these heritage sites and ideas normally help in correct planning and design of the urban areas. This is used as a way to balance and preserve these works or arts.

Respect #goldenenergies -> put more energy in phase 0 -> observe observe observe and then and only then start planning. Don’t forget the stories, people and emotions transform space into places!

Large cities are usually abundant not only in cultural and historic heritage but also in natural objects or even landscapes. To consider any restrictions on building and road construction, you should thoroughly comb through any legal acts dedicated to heritage: national, regional, local and municipal ones. Warning: they may be (and often they are) too variable, while the data required may be quite scarce, especially spatial ones - coordinates of zones with different regulations, restrictions, prohibitions, e.g.

Urban planning must be a harmonious blend of respect for local heritage and environmental stewardship. Best practices dictate that projects should employ renewable energy, sustainable materials, and efficient waste management. By fostering green spaces and supporting local economies, planners can craft cities that are not only vibrant and inclusive but also equipped for future challenges. This balanced approach ensures that urban developments are sustainable, serving current needs while safeguarding resources for generations to come.

The best waste is the one we haven't produced. Restoration, conservation, and management go a long distance when talking about sustainable ventures.

Externalities to public goods and collective rights must be prevented, most of the cost of development do not consider these, and recovering from such is far more complex than to avoid them. Socioeconomic externalities that prevent social mobility and inclusion for the most vulnerable people; Sociocultural externalities that impact on their cultural heritage and break their social fabric; and environmental externalities that reduce the resilience of ecosystems and acumulate to the collapse of the planetary boundaries. Therefore the mitigation and prevention measures should include not only local impact, but regional and planetary if urban development aims to be truly sustainable.

In my experience, cultures play a crucial role in shaping green infrastructure projects in the way these initiatives are designed, implemented, and embraced within a community. Understanding local cultural values and imputing them into green infrastructure that aligns with the community's preferences could provide planners which knowledge of initiatives that best work, the type of priorities communities have for various biophysical systems etc.

When you are looking at sustainability, it's important to think about how much further you can stretch your dollars, what projects can be implemented in an incremental manner, and what allows for your citizens to improve their QOL so that these improvements have net benefits for your community. Ask yourself when you are deciding what sustainability items to invest in, "How many people will benefit from this?" Is a single EV charger being installed going to see more usage per person compared to an improved bus stop/new bike lane?

Listen to local people’s stories and develop upon them ……………………………………………………………….. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all 😊

The responsibility of ensuring urban planners respect local cultures and traditions lies not so much with the planners themselves but with those sho hire them. Planners seldom if ever have the executive authority to bring their projects to fruition: for this they rely on those who hire them, typically a government entity. It shouldn’t surprise that disregard or regard for local interests depends on the nature of that entity: the higher that authority and the authoritarian in its powers the more likely local interests will be disregarded as is evident if one looks at de elopement’s the world over. Substitutes for real democracy based on focus croups, use of media Ai.etc are possible in a highly mobile society but disadvantage the poor.

The New European Bauhaus Compass is an interesting tool to take into consideration local and cultural heritage in place based projects. Soon to come: a toolbox to implement the principles

Overall, it is important to understand that the success of urban planning projects relies heavily on the integration of local cultures. This not only ensures acceptance but also fosters a sense of ownership and connection within the community. Community Engagement is Paramount and involving community members in the planning process enhances the relevance and effectiveness of projects and their sustainability.

Imho the use of data-based planning and decision systems are a crucial factor for participative processes. Just take the opportunities of user-generated data (images, posts, …) from geolocated social media highlighting individual interests, spots and habits, which can be analysed with AI - or movement data from platforms like @strava giving insights on frequencies, mobility patterns and more.