Keynote Speaker (28 October 2021) 

Keynote Speaker (8 November 2021, Doha) 

Eleanor Mohammed

Eleanor Mohammed, RPP, MCIP, EP, MTCP is the President of the Commonwealth Association of Planners, Co-Chair of the UN-Habitat Professionals Forum, and the Founder/Principal of Strategic and Resilient Together. She is an executive leader with over 16 years of public, private, and not-for-profit sector planning experience. Eleanor has led a variety of projects including the preparation of statutory and strategic governance documents; policy and guideline development; stakeholder engagement; and various land use planning, sustainable development, innovation, and economic initiatives. She is a passionate professional who regularly speaks and presents at international events on city building.  

With the end of her term in 2020, Eleanor had the distinct honour of being the longest serving President of the Canadian Institute of Planners. Eleanor is an international champion for the planning profession, climate action, healthy communities, technology adaptation, and sustainability. 

Ibrahim Mohamed Jaidah ranks as a pioneer of a new architectural movement which combines the far-reaching influences of Islamic art with modern style, creating memorable landmark structures that are helping to shape the developing State of Qatar.

Ibrahim Jaidah graduated from the University of Oklahoma (USA) in 1988 and had worked for Qatar's Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Agriculture as Head of the Architectural Section before acquiring Arab Engineering Bureau (AEB) in 1991. Under his leadership, the firm grew from six to over 600 highly qualified employees and expanded its presence with branch offices across Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Ibrahim Jaidah has personally overseen more than 1500 projects, which his firm has completed since 1991. In each project, Ibrahim Jaidah attempts to retain the identity of his culture, embrace the modern, and present the true potential and ambition of both, Qatar and AEB. His focus on vernacular architecture has brought a new dimension to architectural field in the region. His projects are considered to reflect cultural, historical and environmental context in which they exist.

His commitment to cultural awareness and growth, and his passion for research have resulted in publishing of a book titled "History of Qatari Architecture" in January 2010. The book is intended to become main referential material as well as it is to be used for educational purposes. This book is a part of Ibrahim Jaidah's legacy and is dedicated to those who have built the unique buildings of the past and to those who strive to become great architects.

He is dedicated to sharing his knowledge and experience with the new generations of architects and designers, providing grants at Virginia Commonwealth University as well as being a frequent speaker at universities, conferences and jury member for international architectural awards.

Ibrahim Jaidah is highly qualified and recognized architect who has won numerous awards such as Islamic Cities award, Arab Town Organization Awards and has been nominated for Agha Khan Award 3 times. In 2005 Ibrahim Jaidah was honored with the State of Qatar Encouragement Award.

In his work Ibrahim Jaidah is focused on delivering buildings and developments that are helping establish Qatar as a benchmark for world-class architecture. He is a dedicated advocate for sustainability and is a co-founding member of Qatar Green Building Council.

Caroline Bos studied History of Art at Birkbeck College of the University of London and Urban and Regional Planning at the Faculty of Geosciences, University of Utrecht. In 1988 she co- founded Van Berkel & Bos Architectuurbureau with the architect Ben van Berkel, extending her theoretical and writing projects to the practice of architecture. Realized projects include the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, museum Het Valkhof in Nijmegen and the Moebius house.  

In 1998 Caroline Bos co-founded UNStudio (United Net). UNStudio presents itself as a network of specialists in architecture, urban development and infrastructure. Completed urban development projects include the restructuring of the station area of Arnhem and the mixed-use Raffles City in Hangzhou, while current projects include the Southbank by Beulah mixed-use development in Melbourne and the masterplan for a leisure island in South Korea.  

Caroline Bos has taught as a guest lecturer at Princeton University, the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, The Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and the Academy of Architecture in Arnhem. In 2012 she was awarded an Honorary Professorship at the University of Melbourne's Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. Central to her teaching is the inclusive approach of architectural works integrating virtual and material organization and engineering constructions. In 2020 Caroline joined AM as Director AM Concepts and Supervisor Urban Planning AM. 

Keynote Speaker (10 November 2021, Doha)

Klaus Kunzmann

Dr. techn. Dipl.Ing, Hon DLitt, Hon RTPI, Professor emeritus  

Jean Monnet Professor of Spatial Planning in Europe, Technische Universität Dortmund 

Honorary Professor, Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. 

Klaus R Kunzmann studied architecture and urban planning at the Technische Hochschule München (1961 to 1967) and received his PhD in urban end regional planning from the Technische Universität Wien, Austria, in 1971, where he had a position as lecturer in urban and regional planning at the Faculty of Architecture until 1971. Thereafter he worked with international and Consulting Engineers in Germany and Thailand. From 1974 to 2006 he was Professor and Director of the Institut für Raumplanung (IRPUD) at the School of Planning, Technische Universität Dortmund. From 1994 until his retirement in 2006, he held a personal Jean Monnet Chair for European Spatial Planning.  

As director of research at the Institut für Raumplanung of the University of Dortmund (1974 to 1993), and as chair holder for European Spatial Planning (1993 to 2006) he has initiated and coordinated more than 50 basic and applied research projects supported by national and regional governments, and research foundations. As German representative he co-operated with his research staff participated in a number of transnational European research projects supported by the European Commission.  

As an expert in spatial planning, he advised the European Commission, the Council of Europe, and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). On behalf of the European Commission and the Senate of the Land Berlin he was a member of the expert panels for the partially EU-funded "Future of London Study" and the "Study for the Future of Berlin." During 2006 and 2007 he was invited to serve as a member of the international scientific advisory council to the strategic plan for the province of Milan. From 1998 to 2004 he was a member of the scientific advisory council of D.A.T.A.R. (Délégation à l'aménagement du territoire et à l'action régionale), Paris, France.  

As a keynote speaker, he has addressed numerous German, European and Chinese conferences, particularly in Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia. He is continuously involved as a policy advisor in local, regional, and national policy and national matters., in recent years, particularly in China. In 2010 he was one of the co-organizers of the 3rd Knowledge Cities World Summit in Melbourne, Australia. In 2018 he has been the keynote speaker on "Knowledge in the Sustainable City of the Future" at the 35th World Conference on Technology Parks and Areas of Innovation. 

Since more than 10 years he is frequently traveling to China. He has taught at Tsinghua University, Southeast University in Nanjing, Fudan University, Northeast University in Changchun, Liverpool X'iatong University in Suzhou and the China University of Mining and Technology in Xuzhou. As an honorary professor at Chung Hua University in Hsinchu/Taiwan he has carried out workshops at this university and at several other universities in the country. Since 2014 he is appointed visiting professor at the Department of Urban Planning of the School of Architecture of Southeast University in Nanjing. He has also been involved in urban development projects and has published in various Chinese professional journals (UPI, Urban Flux, Beijing Planning Review). During 2014 top 2017 he has advised the industrial city of Changchun to develop its knowledge capital for urban development. In 2017 the Provincial Government of Jilin/China honoured him as an outstanding foreign expert for his advisory work in Changchun.  

During the last decades he has occasionally addressed professional and academic audiences in Seoul, Daegu, and Kwangju. At the School of Planning of the Technical University of Dortmund he has supervised PhD dissertations of Korean students.  

Klaus R. Kunzmann is a member of the scientific advisory council of a number of national and international planning journals, among others, disP:The Planning Review, Urban Design, International Planning Studies and Journal of Urban and Regional Planning Studies (Beijing). 

He has published 17 books, in the field of city and regional development and cultural industries, in recent years in Chinese. He has written numerous chapters in edited books published in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, the US and Italy, and frequently publishes in refereed international journals, in German, English and Italian. In 2010, he co-edited a book on the implications of the economic growth of China on European space (Routledge).    

His ongoing research interests are innovative urban policy and European spatial planning, regional restructuring and slow regional development, the role of creativity, knowledge, and the arts for spatial and endogenous economic development, and, more recently, the consequences of the Road and Belt Initiative for cities and regions in Europe. Drawing on his extensive experience in the Ruhr, he continues to explore pathways of regional restructuring in times of globalization and digitalization.

State of the Profession (10 November 2021, Doha) 

Martin Dubbeling is an urban planning and design practitioner based in the Netherlands. He studied Urban Planning and Design at the Delft University of Technology (1981-1988). He was a guest tutor and guest lecturer at several universities. He has a strong professional record in the consultancy, design and process of the regeneration of the historic town and village centres, sustainable urban planning and design and the redevelopment of urban networks and retail districts. He was and is responsible for several master plans for sustainable residential areas and sustainable residential urban renewal in the Netherlands.

Martin Dubbeling is one of the authors of the best-selling book 'Sustainable Urban Design, Perspectives and Examples' (2005), for which he was awarded the Gerd Albers Award on the 42nd ISOCARP Congress in Istanbul in 2006. The second and revised edition of this book was published in September 2010. Martin Dubbeling was Rapporteur and member of the Congress Team on the 45th ISOCARP Congress 'Low Carbon Cities' in Porto in 2009, rapporteur of the Philips Liveable Cities UPAT in Singapore in 2010 and Young Planning Professionals workshop coordinator prior to the 46th ISOCARP Congress 'Sustainable City - Developing World' in Nairobi in 2010. He has written well-received articles about the relation between energy transition and spatial and urban planning and urban planning in China in the ISOCARP Reviews 05, 07, 09, 13, 16 and 17.

As a member and as Vice President of ISOCARP (2011-2017), he led 14 Urban Planning Advisory Team (UPAT) and Young Planning Professionals (YPP) workshops in Singapore, Russia, Kenya, Palestine and Gaza, China, South Africa and Norway. Since 2018, he has been President of ISOCARP (2018-2021), the International Society of City and Regional Planners. He is one of the three directors of the ISOCARP Institute, Centre for Urban Excellence.

Since 2018, Martin Dubbeling has been a senior urban planner and urban designer of the Municipality of Eemsdelta in the Netherlands, focussing on rebuilding, restructuring and transforming Delfzijl, Appingedam and Loppersum into sustainable and resilient cities.