40 inspiring citymakers and thinkers had joined our CITYMAKERS-Ruhr networking event that we had kicked-off together with Sebastian Schlecht, founder of lala.ruhr and CITYMAKERS-Fellow. At this event, we explored the collective potential and interest for jointly solving challenges for sustainable cities across Europe and China, combined with a local focus on the Ruhr region.
Then the pandemic hit and in-person exchange became a lot more complicated. But this does not held us back: During these challenging times, we not only hope to maintain and stimulate the open exchange within our community, but we also want to contribute to the broader discourse around the creation of sustainable cities during the pandemic and beyond. This is why we asked the members of our Ruhr network to continue our dialogue and share their thoughts and observations on the current corona crisis including its impact on citymaking through individual video messages and video interviews.
Listen to what Dr. Annette Erpenstein, who is an experienced urban planner, geographer and facilitator, has to say about the impact of the Corona crisis on urban life:
We also gain personal insights and observations from Rebecca Wessinghage, Transition Concepts Officer for the ICLEI World Secretariat, who is currently working from her home in Mainz. Key points mentioned by Rebecca reach from the new sense of community in our neighbourhoods to the importance of urban planning and urban design in making our cities more inclusive. Listen to her whole message here:
Keru Feng 冯恪如 is a PhD candidate at the University of Duisberg-Essen, who is doing her research on sustainable urban development. She raises an important question: How do we link our private and public space in a way that ensures a harmonious relationship with nature and increases our quality of life?
Watch on bilibili.com
Noémie Koenig is a student researcher at University of Duisberg-Essen’s Institute for Mobility and Urban Planning. She has personal ties to the city of Wuhan where the global corona crisis started to escalate. From her home in Essen, she shares with us her personal take-aways from the pandemic with regard to urban planning:
Every crisis has the potential for accelerated learning experiences that drive change. We thank Annette, Rebecca, Keru 恪如 and Noémie for contributing their inspiring thoughts!