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Fourteenth International Seminar on Urban Form, Ouro Preto, Brazil,28-31 August 2007
This was the first ISUF conference to be heldoutside Europe and North America. It was also byfar the largest ISUF conference to date. Out of 412abstracts submitted by prospective speakers, 220survived the vetting process and formed the basisfor presentations at the conference. The number ofparticipants, 310, was also a record, as was thenumber attending from countries as far away asChina (14) and Russia (10). However, the Centrode Artes e Convenções da Universidade Federal deOuro Preto and the local hotels were well able tocope with this influx of urban morphologists, pro-vision for visitors in this rather remote town havingbeen stimulated by its designation as a WorldHeritage Site in 1980. The Brazilian organizers ofthe conference, led by Staël de Alvarenga PereiraCosta (Universidade de Federal de Minas Gerais),are to be congratulated on their organization of thisunexpectedly large and very productive event.
For those arriving in good time, a prelude to theconference was a walking tour of Ouro Preto led byJune Komisar (Ryerson University) who hasundertaken detailed research on the town over anumber of years. Brought into existence by thediscovery of gold at the end of the seventeenthcentury, the town now known as Ouro Pretodeveloped as a series of hamlets located in relationto the veins of gold and connected by paths acrossthe mountainous landscape. The gradual consoli-dation of these initial settlements, with their oftenprominent churches, and the planning in the earlyeighteenth century of a town centre (Figure 1) were
among the themes developed during the tour.After the official opening of the conference, the
paper sessions began with a keynote address byIvor Samuels (University of Birmingham andOxford Brookes University) on typomorphologyand urban design practice. It was exemplifiedlargely by work done in England, but the widerelevance of his argument was manifest. At its corewas the application of the explanatory powers ofurban morphology in planning practice. He arguedthat this is not only a matter of managing conser-vation and change in historical urban landscapes,but also of using the lessons learned from pastlandscapes to create new ones. In particular heargued for the much greater emphasis on enduringstructures, such as the pattern of streets and plots,as distinct from the relatively ephemeral archi-tectural superstructure. Major parts of Samuels’sargument are developed elsewhere in this issue (pp.58-62).
The ensuing proceedings that day and in thefollowing two days covered a very wide range oftopics, most of them dealt with in concurrentsessions of paper presentations. There were alsofive further plenary sessions and a NewResearchers’ Forum. The plenary sessions coveredfive themes: non-Western cities; urban morphologyand computers; urban form and density; archi-tecture and urban design restoration; and openspaces, squares, forms and landscape. As always,a good deal of fruitful discussion took place duringinformal exchanges during coffee breaks (Figure 2)
46 Reports
Urban Morphology (2008) 12(1), 45-52 © International Seminar on Urban Form, 2008 ISSN 1027-4278
Figure 1. Part of the main core area of Ouro Preto, with the eighteenth-century central plaza inthe middle ground.
Figure 2. A gathering of participants during one of the coffee breaks.
Reports 47
and at meal times. All submitted papers were madeavailable to participants on DVD.
Immediately following the conference, about 50of the participants took part in a two-day workshopon the Brazilian, English and Italian ‘schools’ ofurban morphology. In the case of each school therewere presentations on basic tenets and methods,discussions of applications to the case of OuroPreto, and demonstrations in the field (Figure 3).
Before returning to their respective countries indistant parts of the world, many participants tookpart in one of four excursions. These were in BeloHorizonte, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.Providing a brief view of some of the landscapes ofBrazil’s burgeoning cities, they were a fittingfinale.
Before this conference, participation byBrazilians in the activities of ISUF had been limited
to a dozen or so members. It has become evidentduring the past 18 months, in the course ofpreparing for the conference in Ouro Preto and atthe conference itself, that the interest in urbanmorphology in Brazil is very substantial. Visits toISUF’s website from Brazil are in frequency nowthird only to those from the United States and theUnited Kingdom. It is to be hoped that themomentum that has been created by the first ISUFconference in Brazil will be reflected in SouthAmerican participation in forthcoming ISUF eventsin other parts of the world.
J. W. R. Whitehand, School of Geography, Earthand Environmental Sciences, University ofBirmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. E-Mail:[email protected]
ISUF business meetings, Ouro Preto, Brazil, August 2007
Meetings of the Council and Editorial Board ofISUF took place on Tuesday 28 August in OuroPreto, immediately before the annual conference. AGeneral Meeting of ISUF took place during theconference. This report covers all three meetings.
Secretary-General’s report
The decision to hold the conference in 2008 in
Rabat, Morocco, was reviewed owing to organi-zational difficulties experienced by the localorganizer. Abdellah Abarkan was seekingalternative venues. If the conference could not berelocated to another venue in Morocco, it would beheld in Italy in association with the meeting ofISUF Italia.
The conference in 2009 would be held at SouthChina University of Technology (SCUT),
Figure 3. Applications of the methods examined in the workshop being discussed in the field.
48 Reports
Guangzhou, China from Friday 4 September toMonday 7 September 2009. The principal organizerwould be Professor Yinsheng Tian of theDepartment of Architecture at SCUT. Dr Kai Gu ofthe University of Auckland would co-ordinate theconference on behalf of the Council of ISUF.
Treasurer’s report
Keith Lilley was unable to attend the meetings butsubmitted a report which indicated that ISUF’sfinances were healthy. For the year 2006/7payments exceeded receipts but money overduefrom institutional subscriptions should offset thedeficit. The Treasurer thanked Professor AbdellahAbarkan for the funds received from the Stockholmconference.
ISUF’s main expenditure continued to be theproduction of Urban Morphology and it was notedthat there had been a small increase in costs thisyear.
The number of individual members continued togrow. Members who had joined in Ouro Pretowould benefit from an extended membership perioduntil 31 December 2008. This would include freecopies of the journal. The Treasurer noted that animproved membership database for both individualand institutional members was needed. Herecommended that consideration be given to theappointment of a Membership Secretary.
Editor’s report
Jeremy Whitehand reported that there had beensome improvement in the quality of articlesreceived but there was still a need to improvediversity. In particular more submissions would bewelcome from outside Europe and North America.Regional reviews and thematic progress reviewswere continuing. The flow of ‘viewpoints’ remainedsatisfactory, but it was hoped to enlarge the size ofthe book review section.
Access to the journal through the website isavailable for the early issues (up to and including2001). Library subscribers have access to recentissues. It is hoped to provide free access as soon aspossible to library subscribers for the whole run ofissues.
The flow of manuscripts has been such that thenumber of pages in the journal has remained at theincreased level of Volume 10. About one-third ofthe articles submitted were accepted for publication.
During 2006/7 the average time lapse betweenreceipt of revised version of an article andpublication was approximately 6.5 months. This isthe longest time lapse since the journal began, butis still substantially less than for most journals.
New appointments
To fill the vacancies created by the retirement ofSylvain Malfroy, Attilio Petruccioli and JeremyWhitehand, and the appointment of Nicola Marzotas Secretary-General, the following people wereelected to Council: Abdellah Abarkan, JasonGilliland, Peter Larkham and Shigeru Satoh. KaiGu was co-opted onto the Council. Emily Talenwas appointed to the Editorial Board, following theretirement of Anne-Sophie Clémençon.
Webmaster’s report
Elwin Koster was unable to attend the meetings, butsubmitted a written report. The website continuedto grow in 2006/7. A user database has been set upon which users can add and change their own data.It is hoped to expand the database so that it can beused for conference registration.
Regional associations
Giuseppe Strappa reported that ISUF Italia had hadthree meetings so far and these had been verysuccessful. 42 individuals had joined the Group.Current members are all from an architecturalbackground. It is hoped to attract others, such asItalian geographers, in order to maintain theinterdisciplinary ethos of ISUF.
New Researchers’ Forum
It was agreed that there should be greaterencouragement for younger members and that theyshould have a more substantial time allocation atconferences. Their participation in regionalassociations should be encouraged and theircontributions to a Newsletter were welcomed.
Susan M. Whitehand, Urban Morphology ResearchGroup, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston,Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. E-mai l :[email protected]
