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University of Belgrade-Faculty of Architecture
Bulevar kralja Aleksandra 73/II,11120 Belgrade, RS
info@hersus.org
Contact Project Leader
Vladan Djokić
hersus@arh.bg.ac.rs

MEET THE KEYNOTERS / PARASKEVI KOURTI

Teaching through Design for Sustainability of the Built Environment and Heritage Awareness

HERSUS online Seminar scheduled for 18th and 19th of February, 2021

TREES VERSUS HERITAGE:
19th of February 2021 11:45 - 12:15 Central European Standard Time (GMT+1)

TITLE: Trees versus Heritage: Reflections of a strategy shaping dilemma in the case of the historic site of Pavlos Melas ex-military camp

Our civilization has spent many decades considering city (human environment) and nature as contrasting concepts. It took us too much time to realize the interdependency of the two factors and thanks to a major shift in social action towards the protection of the environment we now have to focus intensively on sustainable and resilient urban policies. That is an idea more or less embedded among political, administrative and knowledge communities at national and supranational formations. Policies and their funding back-up are intensively moving towards to green and carbon neutral solutions, cycling economy and climate resilience represented at the European level by the new and ambitious “Green Deal”.

According to these policies, cities and the man – woman made environment could and should be turned from a factor contributing to environmental crisis into units where problems can be resolved in a comprehensive and sustainable way through state-of-the-art science and most importantly through nature-based mentality and solutions. While this seems as a simple idea it presupposes a huge transformation in social, cultural, institutional and economic action-taking that involves many actors and issues on many levels. The presentation under the above title aims at highlighting such implications through the phase of decision making and strategy shaping at a municipal level and for the case of the historic site of the ex-military camp of Pavlos Melas. It focuses on the preconditions that shaped a “pseudo” dilemma among community members and political personnel concerning funding prioritizing of “green” interventions over the restoration of cultural heritage. It also discusses institutional, economic and technical factors that should be taken under considered in a process of overcoming analogous dilemmas.

PhD Paraskevi Kourti, Managing Director of Strategic Planning, Urban Development & Funding of Pavlos Melas Municipality (Thessaloniki)  

Paraskevi Kourti is Architect, and she holds MSc in Preservation & Restoration of Cultural Monuments and PhD in the field of Urban Policies. She began her career as an architect, focused mainly in the design and the construction of public space projects of different scales. Throughout the years, she have also organized and implement sectoral or integrated urban programs, financed from the EU, national or municipal funds. Her core skills include strategic planning and implementation, EU policies, urban development and societal challenges. Her parallel academic interests and research involvement secures theoretical knowledge of urban policies including the green agenda. She is also highly experienced in coordinating working groups, organizing and allocating the needed resources as well as communicate projects to different levels of participation and decision making. Currently, she is Managing Director of Strategic Planning, Urban Development & Funding of Pavlos Melas Municipality (Thessaloniki) where her primary responsibilities include analyzing data and shaping policy proposals in municipal level, managing the overall operations and resources of the department, acting as the main point of communication between municipal counsellors and political personnel for shaping strategy goals and decision making and shaping, implementation and monitoring of funding proposals.

Her knowledge fields include Cohesion Policy, Public Policy & Analysis, Local Administration, Strategic Planning, Urban Policies and Urban Planning.

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