Indeed- Project Management Jobs

Fuente: http://www.gabreport.com/2011/07/san-francisco-exploratoriums-new-home-to-become-largest-u-s-net-zero-energy-building

Compartimos este enlace de perfiles requeridos de arquitectos project managers

http://www.indeed.com/q-Senior-Architect-Project-Manager-jobs.html

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Gerencia de proyectos en firmas de arquitectura.

Compartimos el articulo sobre firmas de arquitectura y project management publicado en el blog: http://www.managearchitecture.com. 

Project Management in Architectural firms

During initial phases of a start-up Architectural firm, an Architect may also be able play the role of a Project Manager, single-handedly and efficiently. But as the firm grows, projects multiply; an architect single-handedly can no longer continue to optimally function as a project manager; managing resources, time and cost for multiple projects at the same time. 

One of the reasons why Project Management becomes overwhelming in an Architectural firm is the sheer complexity involved in the Building process. It definitely requires an additional team member to exclusively serve as a ‘Project Manager’ or ’Project Coordinator’ or ‘Project In-charge’ whose primary responsibility would involve integrated management of Client, Design, Consultants, Construction, Administration, Marketing, and Finance for one or more projects.

Introducing - Architectural Project Management!

The degree of complexity and the magnitude of uncertainty are very high in Building projects; which is why I believe an Architectural firm needs strong Project Management. In the past, the Construction process was solely managed by Construction managers. But today with technological advancements creating paradigm shifts in role definitions and ways of operating, Architects are also actively engaged in the Construction process. Their services are no longer limited to just Design services. They also offer services that involve post-construction demands planning, co-ordination and control of diverse people, activities and challenges with modern building. This certainly demands strong Project Management skills.

Architectural Project Management is unavoidable today!

Architectural Management is a constantly evolving field. The traditional definition of Project Management is limited to managing the construction and delivery of a Building as per agreed Design within the given time, cost and resources. A decade ago, there were hardly any large-scale Architectural firms and firms run by 20 people handling about 20 projects were looked upon as highly successful. Today, our country has a lot of regional and international players. Firms run by 50 people handling more than 100 projects is not uncommon and is considered a good practice. These economical shifts have created a need for integrated Project Management without which a firm cannot sustain and grow in this profession. Integrated Project Management involves taking ownership of managing quality through all stages of the Building process and not just delivering the Building.

Architectural Projects are not the same as Business projects!

Architectural projects are different from other Business projects. Architectural projects are Design-based and need creative solutions that are unique to each project; unlike Business projects where generic solutions can be productized and re-used. There may be a generic set of Rules or Procedures or Best Practices embraced as an Organizational standard in an Architectural firm; but blind compliance to these standards only restrict opportunities for generating unique, customized solutions needed for Architectural projects.  

Who is an Architectural Project Manager?

An Architectural Project Manager need not necessarily be an Architect but any individual with following capabilities and qualities.

Arquitecto y Project Manager

Compartimos la entrevista al arquitecto Manuel José Soler Severino sobre arquitectos y project manager 

Para ser project manager se deben tener unos conocimientos técnicos; los arquitectos tenemos una buena base, siempre que la completemos con un MBA o similar. Lo primero que un arquitecto debe aprender de un project manager es la organización: ser más meticuloso, menos anárquico en sus tareas. No en balde las principales empresas del sector están dirigidas por arquitectos (Bovis Lend Lease, Gerens, Acerta, etc.), lo cual demuestra que tenemos gran capacidad de organización.

En definitiva, pienso que para ser project manager se debe tener una buena formación técnica, una gran experiencia en el campo de la construcción y la gestión de proyectos (que se adquiere a la sombra de un buen project manager) y sobre todo unos estudios específicos de formación en dicho campo, que puedan completar y sobre todo ordenar el trabajo profesional.

“Los futuros clientes de los arquitectos proyectistas serán los project manager”

Manuel José Soler Severino

Arquitecto, socio director y fundador de Holborn Arquitectura

Manuel José Soler es arquitecto por la escuela técnica superior de arquitectura de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, especializado en urbanismo (1988). Desde 2002, y tras una sólida carrera profesional en varios cargos de responsabilidad (director adjunto de Hans Abaton, empresa de consultoría en facilities management, especializada en oficinas; director técnico de DEGW; jefe de grupo de obras en Eralan, o jefe de obra en Spengler, entre otros cargos), se convierte en socio director y en fundador de Holborn Arquitectura, una empresa consultora especializada en proyectos, gestión y organización de oficinas y sedes corporativas, formada por arquitectos, ingenieros, aparejadores e interioristas.

¿Qué tipo de proyectos han llevado a cabo?

Actualmente estamos desarrollando nuestra labor profesional en banca privada, hacemos todas las oficinas de Banco Banif en España y estamos trabajando en Italia para Santander Private Banking.

Hemos trabajado para Cemex tanto en España como fuera (Egipto), para Siemens en Madrid, para fondos de Inversión Internacionales (Franklin Templeton), compañías de capital-riesgo (CVC y Bridgepoint) y otras empresas de todo tipo, aunque tenemos una gran relación con el sector financiero.

Con su experiencia al frente de Holborn ¿Qué puede decirnos del project management español?

Holborn es una consultora sobre todo en arquitectura (Proyectos y Direcciones de Obra, Imagen Corporativa, etc.), aunque hay clientes que nos piden servicios relacionados con el project management y que nosotros estamos capacitados para poder realizarlos.

El project management español, aunque empezó a primeros de los años noventa, se está desarrollando en la actualidad promovido por AEDIP (una asociación patronal de empresas) y los cursos que impartimos en la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid y en los Colegios de Arquitectos. Los clientes empiezan a conocer el servicio y en muchos casos lo contratan antes de empezar a desarrollar los proyectos. El project management español está a la altura de cualquier project management extranjero, ya que la mayoría de los profesionales actuales trabajan o han trabajado en empresas extranjeras de project management, tanto en España como en el extranjero.

Tiene además un contacto directo con el mundo académico, siendo Director del Master MeDIP ¿Qué puede decirnos sobre este trabajo docente?

Intento compaginarlo con mi trayectoria profesional al frente de Holborn. Soy profesor desde el año 1991 de Organización de Obras y Empresas (ahora Oficio de Arquitecto, Arquitectura Legal y Valoraciones) en la Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Sede de Santander Private Banking en Milán (Italia)

También he sido profesor de la Universidad San Pablo CEU y de la Universidad Camilo José Cela que he tenido que abandonar por la Ley de Incompatibilidades Universitaria entre Universidades Públicas y Privadas, y sobre todo por falta de tiempo.

Dentro del sector del project management además de haber impartido múltiples conferencias en todo tipo de ámbitos, dirijo el Master en Dirección Integrada de Proyectos de Edificación (MeDIP, www.medip.es) que impartimos junto con AEDIP en la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Dirijo un curso de Introducción al Project management en el Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid y también los Cursos de Project Management del Consejo Superior de Arquitectos de España, que impartimos por todo el país: estamos dando a conocer las metodologías de la Dirección Integrada de Proyectos. Con nuestro master formamos a profesionales en un sector con gran futuro y bastante necesitado de expertos en la materia. También dirijo y organizo junto con el Grupo Acciona un curso para estudiantes de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Caminos, Arquitectura, Arquitectura Técnica y Obras Públicas), con el objetivo fundamental de enseñar a los alumnos desde la práctica profesional las metodologías de una empresa constructora, una empresa de proyectos, una inmobiliaria y una empresa de concesiones para facilitarles el paso al mundo profesional.

¿Podría explicarnos en qué consiste su trabajo con el proyecto realizado para Santander Private Banking?

El proyecto es en Italia, concretamente en Milán, por lo que hemos tenido que adecuarnos a otro país distinto al nuestro con toda su problemática.

Fachada iluminada de la oficina Santander Private Banking en Milán

Actualmente estamos desarrollándolo mediante un sistema llamado Fast-track (Proyecto y construcción al mismo tiempo). Es la remodelación de un antiguo palacio de 4.500 m2 (antigua sede de Versacce) situado en el llamado cuadrilátero del oro y que va a ser la sede principal del Banco en Italia.

Estamos utilizando este sistema de ejecución porque la prioridad del cliente era el plazo (sin olvidarnos del coste y la calidad) ya que tiene que estar terminado antes del 9 de septiembre de 2007 porque será el Gran premio de Formula Uno en Monza, lo patrocina el Grupo Santander y era necesario el aprovechar toda la publicidad del evento, que va a ser muy numerosa.

El cliente nos ha contratado el Proyecto, la dirección y la Organización de todo el proceso que culminará con la ocupación del edificio por parte de la Propiedad. Estamos utilizando metodologías de project management para conseguir los objetivos propuestos por nuestro cliente e incorporando la imagen corporativa con la que se harán las futuras oficinas del banco en las principales ciudades italianas.

¿De que manera las herramientas de project management le han ayudado a solucionar los problemas de gestión de proyectos en Holborn?

Lógicamente y con la experiencia que tengo, he implementado en mi empresa las principales herramientas, como son El Manual de la DIP, La Matriz de Responsabilidades, La estructura de Desagregación de Proyectos, etc. Curiosamente, uno de los temas propuestos como trabajo final del Master MeDIP es realizar por parte del alumno un manual de project management que contiene todas las tareas para gestionar un proyecto. Insisto mucho en desarrollar en mi empresa procedimientos para que todo el mundo sepa lo que tiene que hacer. Estamos creando siempre nuevos procedimientos e incluso actualizando los existentes ya que hace pocos meses ha entrado en vigor el nuevo Código Técnico de la Edificación que ha cambiado sustancialmente los documentos -sobre todo escritos del proyecto de arquitectura.

¿Cómo ve el futuro de la arquitectura española de la mano de los servicios del project management?

Hay que pensar qué ocurre fuera de nuestro país. Lo primero que preguntan los grandes arquitectos internacionales que vienen a trabajar a España es: -¿Y quien va a realizar el project management?-, lo cual te hace pensar que están muy habituados a trabajar con esta figura, e incluso cuando no la tienen, la buscan. El project management para el arquitecto proyectista es una ayuda ya que hay muchas tareas que nos piden nuestros clientes, como un comparativo de precios, gestión de licencias, etc…, que no son cometidos nuestros y los tenemos que realizar bien pues la figura del project management permite que el arquitecto se centre exclusivamente en proyectar, realizar técnicamente el proyecto y dirigir facultativamente las obras. Dentro del sector de la edificación estamos notando que existen muchos arquitectos que trabajan como project management, lo cual facilita el lenguaje y la conexión con los arquitectos proyectistas.

Yo siempre digo que los futuros clientes de los arquitectos proyectistas serán los project manager, ya que normalmente entran antes que el proyectista, cuando un cliente toma la decisión de hacer algo.

Al final hay que tener claro que aunque exista un project manager, debe existir un arquitecto proyectista, así lo marca la LOE y los dos son perfectamente compatibles en un proyecto de edificación.

¿Qué tiene que aprender un arquitecto de un project manager?

Para ser project manager se deben tener unos conocimientos técnicos; los arquitectos tenemos una buena base, siempre que la completemos con un MBA o similar. Lo primero que un arquitecto debe aprender de un project manager es la organización: ser más meticuloso, menos anárquico en sus tareas. No en balde las principales empresas del sector están dirigidas por arquitectos (Bovis Lend Lease, Gerens, Acerta, etc.), lo cual demuestra que tenemos gran capacidad de organización.

En definitiva, pienso que para ser project manager se debe tener una buena formación técnica, una gran experiencia en el campo de la construcción y la gestión de proyectos (que se adquiere a la sombra de un buen project manager) y sobre todo unos estudios específicos de formación en dicho campo, que puedan completar y sobre todo ordenar el trabajo profesional.

Consultado en: http://www.aedip.org/entrevistas/pm_arquitectura/soler.asp

23-11-2012 10:23 hrs.

Arquitectura y Project Management

Compartimos esta entrevista desde la página de la Asociación Española de Dirección Integrada de Proyecto

Fuente: http://www.aedip.org/

“El project manager debe significar una mayor eficacia del trabajo”

Felipe Pich-Aguilera
Arquitecto del estudio Pich-Aguilera

Recientemente usted y Teresa Batlle han obtenido el premio de Arquitectura Sostenible 2006 otorgado por el Foro Civitas Nova de Castilla-La Mancha por el edificio para la compañía Telefónica Móviles en Toledo. ¿Qué ha supuesto este premio para ustedes en este momento de su trayectoria profesional?

Significa sobre todo, constatar que el camino que estamos siguiendo en el estudio interesa a la sociedad en sentido amplio.

¿Han contado en este proyecto con un servicio de project management?

Este proyecto surgió a partir de un concurso público para la Administración, donde el pliego no preveía la labor de project management.

Uno de los aspectos que más afectan a la actividad de los arquitectos son los plazos y presupuestos¿Cuál es la nueva realidad para usted de un equipo en el que también interviene el project manager?¿Qué ventajas tiene trabajar con esta figura para ustedes?

El estudio, a lo largo de los años ha contado con especialistas en diversos ámbitos que han hecho posible colaboraciones estables y enfoques interdisciplinares en el desarrollo de los proyectos. Así pues, actualmente el estudio cuenta con colaboradores internos de titulación superior, directores coordinadores de proyectos, obras y áreas temáticas; y colaboradores externos, empresas y asesores, especialistas en management, medioambiente, investigación tecnológica y cálculo.

El project manager debe significar una mayor eficacia del trabajo en equipo de los diferentes actores del proceso. Es especialmente necesario en proyectos que tratan de implementar algún tipo de innovación y que por tanto no pueden descansar sobre las rutinas establecidas.

¿Cómo ve usted el futuro de la relación arquitecto- project manager en el ámbito de la construcción española? ¿Qué cuestiones cree usted que son determinantes que cambien para que el entendimiento entre ambos profesionales sea óptimo en el presente y en el futuro?

Creo que project y arquitecto deben comprender la labor mutua y además deben compartir ciertos valores u objetivos generales. Para ello hace falta diálogo sobre aspectos más amplios, a parte del trabajo concreto del día a día.

¿Podría explicarnos alguna experiencia reciente en una obra donde haya tenido que trabajar junto a un project manager y destacarnos los aciertos y desaciertos de ese proceso en equipo?

Estamos actualmente realizando el proyecto de un hospital de gran envergadura. Aquí la labor del project management es fundamental por la diversidad y complejidad del equipo. En la fase inicial de concreción funcional, la especificidad del tema y la intensidad del trabajo diario impiden una mayor proximidad del project, cuando realmente sería necesaria para ordenar las partes que intervienen e ir consolidando los avances del proyecto.

Imagínese que tiene ante usted a un auditorio lleno de project managers, ¿qué consejo o mensaje les transmitiría?

Actualmente el sector de la construcción está inmerso en un proceso de transformación importante desde el punto de vista de la innovación de los procesos para adecuarse a los nuevos requerimientos de la sociedad. En este camino es muy importante la figura del project management, entendido como agente que conoce la globalidad y está dispuesto a añadir valor dentro de este proceso.

PROJECT ARCHITECT VS. PROJECT MANAGER

Compartimos este articulo sobre la diferencia entre un proyectista arquitecto y un administrador de proyectos. El articulo completo puede ser revisado en: http://lafemmearchitecte.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/project-architect-vs-project-manager/

Some of you may ask or wonder what is the difference between a project architect and a project manager. My initial response would be as follows:

1. It depends on the size of the firm.

2. Which is then determined by the structure and organization of the firm or office.

3. Followed by resposibilities.

Typically, you will see project managers and project architects in larger firms (10+).

An office with at least 20 employees would be organized with a head principal (usually the founder of the company and the one who signs all the paperwork). The princpal is usually busy running around bringing work into the office; always in meetings and talking to clients. Successful principals have busy schedules and do not have time to keep track of the daily aspects of projects. That’s where the project manager comes in. The PM is brought in to manage the daily affairs of a project or two, and supervise the project team. A project team usually consists of at least one draftsperson and one project architect, who is responsible for producing the construction documents, and works with the PM to meet deadlines and provide them with information.

Fuente: http://www.sustainabilitythomasspiegelhalter.com/buildings/

Sometimes the line between project manager and project architect blur together in firms that have around 10 employees. And that’s due to one or more of the following reasons:

1. Small offices may not have the man power to delegate and separate the responsibilities.

2. Small offices may not have the revenue to hire individuals for the distinct roles.

3. The type and size of the projects may not require the levels of personnel to be involved and thus the roles may be combined.

From my experiences I have been a project architect, a mix between a PA and a PM, and most recently a project manager.

As project architect I was responsible for preparing and producing the construction documents as well as communicate and coordinate with our consultants. I had some direct contact with clients. I researched and specified products and materials.

While I was project architect my responsibilities expanded to project management lite, which meant that I took the lead in not only mamaging myself but staff and consultants and to some degree clients too, however I was not creating schedules or watching the budget. I determined the deadlines not only for myself but also for my consultants. As PM coordination with consultants became an exercise of following up with them on items that needed to be addressed. I also managed the flow of information to keep the project moving forward and meeting deadlines.

In a small office setting an individual has an opportunity to get lots of varied experience and advance professionally, which is why I prefer to work in small firms. Not all small firms may offer greater opportunities due to office structure. Sometimes they only need a draftsperson or just someone who can prepare and produce documents.

In a firm where titles are defined, PA and PM work in tandem to accomplish the project goal. The PA is reponsible for producing the design and construction documents as well as coordinate consultant documents. The PM makes sure the project team meets the program and project scope as well as establishing and meeting timelines. The PM also coordinates with the client, consultants, and general contractor and/or construction manager. Other duties include managing internal budgets, project staffing, and construction administration.

For more information about each role, please click on the following links:

Project architect as explained by Wikipedia.

Architectural Project Manager as explained by Wikipedia.

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GANAS, MUCHAS GANAS: ¿Podemos diseñar ciudades para hacer feliz a la gente?

Happiness itself is a commons to which everyone should have equal access.
That’s the view of Enrique Peñalosa, who is not a starry-eyed idealist given to abstract theorizing. He’s actually a politician, who served as mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, for three years, and now travels the world spreading a message about how to improve quality-of-life for everyone living in today’s cities.
 Peñalosa’s ideas stand as a beacon of hope for cities of the developing world, which even with their poverty and immense problems will absorb much of the world’s population growth over the next half-century. Based on his experiences in Bogotá, Peñalosa believes it’s a mistake to give up on these cities as good places to live.
“If we in the Third World measure our success or failure as a society in terms of income, we would have to classify ourselves as losers until the end of time,” declares Peñalosa. “So with our limited resources, we have to invent other ways to measure success. This might mean that all kids have access to sports facilities, libraries, parks, schools, nurseries.”
Peñalosa uses phrases like “quality of life” or “social justice” rather than “commons-based society” to describe his agenda of offering poor people first-rate government services and pleasant public places, yet it is hard to think of anyone who has done more to reinvigorate the commons in his or her own community.

Credit: Felipe Andrade

 Transforming Bogotá
In three years (1998-2001) as mayor of Colombia’s capital city of 7 million, Peñalosa’s Administration accomplished the following:

Led a team that created the TransMilenio, a bus rapid transit system (BRT), which now carries a half-million passengers daily on special bus lanes that offer most of the advantages of a subway at a fraction of the cost.

Built 52 new schools, refurbished 150 others and increased student enrollment by 34 percent.

Established or improved 1200 parks and playgrounds throughout the city.

Built three central and 10 neighborhood libraries.

Built 100 nurseries for children under five.

Improved life in the slums by providing water service to 100 percent of Bogotá households.

Bought undeveloped land on the outskirts of the city to prevent real estate speculation and ensured that it will be developed as affordable housing with electrical, sewage, and telephone service as well as space reserved for parks, schools, and greenways. 

Established 300 kilometers of separated bikeways, the largest network in the developing world.

Created the world’s longest pedestrian street, 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) crossing much of the city as well as a 45- kilometer (28 miles) greenway along a path that had been originally slated for an eight-lane highway.

Reduced traffic by almost 40 percent by implementing a system where motorists must leave cars at home during rush hour two days a week. He also raised parking fees and local gas taxes, with half of the proceeds going to fund the new bus transit system. 

Inaugurated an annual car-free day, where everyone from CEOs to janitors commuted to work in some way other than a private automobile.

Planted 100,000 trees.

Credit: Carlos Felipe Pardo

Quality of Life = Common Wealth

All together, these accomplishments boosted the common good in a city characterized by vast disparities of wealth. Peñalosa is passionate in articulating a vision that a city belongs to all its citizens.

David Burwell—a strategic analyst with Project for Public Spaces who has long experience working on environmental, transportation, and community issues—calls Peñalosa, “One of the great public servants of our time. He views cities as being planned for a purpose—to create human well-being. He’s got a great sense of what a leader should do—to promote human happiness.”

Bogota is now held up as an international model for sustainable innovation, even for cities in the developing world. Peñalosa of course, didn’t do this alone. Antanas Mockus, who both preceded and succeeded him as mayor, and Gil Peñalosa, Enrique’s brother, who served as parks commissioner under Mockus, are among the many who deserve credit. Bogota mayors are limited to one consecutive three-year term. Peñalosa ran again for mayor in 2008, losing according to some observers because a leftist opponent also embraced a commons-style agenda, including the promise of a new subway system.

Enrique Peñalosa has become an international star of sorts among green urban designers, so I assumed he was trained as a city planner and inspired by long involvement in the environmental movement. But the truth is that he arrived at these ideas from a completely different direction. “My focus has always been social—how you can help the most people for the greater public good.”

Growing up in the 1960s, when revolutionary fervor swept South America, Peñalosa became an ardent socialist at a young age, advocating income redistribution as the solution to social ills. He studied economics and history at Duke University in the United States, which he attended on a soccer scholarship, and later moved to Paris to earn a doctoral degree in management and public administration. Paris was a marvelous education in the possibilities of urban living, and he returned home with aspirations of bringing European-style city comforts to the working class of Bogotá. Several years working as a business manager moderated his ideological views but not, he hastens to tell me, his quest for social justice.

Credit: Pattoncito

Thinking about Equality in New Ways

“We live in the post-communism period, in which many have assumed equality as a social goal is obsolete,” he explains. “Although income equality as a concept does not jibe with market economy, we can seek to achieve quality-of-life equality.”

Quality of life is not just a phrase to Peñalosa. He is firmly dedicated to giving everyone in a city more opportunity for recreation, education, transportation and the chance to take pleasure in their surroundings. That explains his emphasis on parks, mass transit, childcare facilities, bikeways, schools, libraries and other forms of the commons that enhance people’s lives. And that focus on serving the disadvantaged extends to public space—which he explains is where poor people who do not have backyards, vacation homes and private clubs tend to hang out.

Peñalosa is proud of how his administration tamed the automobile in Bogota in order to meet the needs of those who do not own cars. Nearly all cities around the globe accommodate motorists at the expense of everyone else, turning the streets—a commons that once was used by everyone, including pedestrians and kids at play—into the exclusive domain of motorists. In the developing world, where only a select portion of people own motor vehicles, this is particularly unfair and detrimental to a sense of community.

The streets were reclaimed for people through policies that used both carrots and sticks. As expected, the sticks—driving bans during rush hour and enforcement of long-ignored laws prohibiting cars on the sidewalks—drew howls of outrage from a small but powerful group of people, who had always treated sidewalks as their own personal parking lot.

“I was almost impeached by the car-owning upper classes,” Peñalosa recalls, “but it was popular with everyone else.”

However, the carrots were embraced by almost everyone. The pedestrian streets, greenways and bike trails he created are well used on weekdays by commuters and on evenings and weekends by recreational bikers and walkers out enjoying the Latin custom of a paseo—an evening stroll.

Credit: Carlos Felipe Pardo

Streets for People, Not Just Cars

Another hit is the Ciclovía, in which as many as 2 million people (30 percent of the city’s population) take over 120 kilometers of major streets between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. every Sunday, for bike rides, strolls and public events. This weekly event began in 1976 but was expanded by Peñalosa. It now has spread to numerous Colombian cities as well as San Francisco; Quito, Ecuador; El Paso, Texas; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and is being explored for Chicago, New York, Portland and Melbourne, Australia.

Peñalosa’s proudest achievement is TransMilenio, the bus rapid transit (BRT) system that enables buses to zoom on special lanes that make mass transit faster and more convenient than driving. There are now eight TransMilenio routes criss-crossing Bogotá. The BRT idea was pioneered in Curitiba, Brazil, in the 1970s but Bogotá’s success shows it can work in a larger city.

Oscar Edmundo Diaz, senior program director for the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), who was Peñalosa’s chief mayoral aide, proudly notes that even wealthy people who own cars are now enthusiastic users of the BRT. “You don’t want to build a transit system just for the poor,” he counsels. “Otherwise it will be stigmatized, and even poor people will look down on it. If everyone uses it, it will help the poor more.”

Wowed by the success of TransMilenio, six other Colombian cities are developing their own systems. And Peñalosa and Diaz have been very influential in spreading the idea throughout the world. In 2004, Jakarta, Indonesia, inaugurated TransJakarta, a Bogotá-inspired BRT system that now features six lines with three more under construction. Dozens of other cities around the globe have BRT projects under construction or up-and-running, including Hong Kong; Mexico City, Mexico; Johannesburg, South Africa; Taipei, Taiwan; Quito, Ecuador; and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. The idea is now spreading to cities in developed countries including Sydney, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and even the city known for decades as the world center of automotive glory, Los Angeles.

It’s not that Peñalosa hates cars. It’s that he loves lively places where people of all backgrounds gather to enjoy themselves—public commons that barely exist in cities where cars rule the streets. These sorts of places are even more important in poor cities than in wealthy ones, he says, because poor people have nowhere else to go.

Credit: Nobara Hayakawa

Urban Sustainability Goes Global

Peñalosa has been taking this message throughout the world in lecture tours sponsored by the World Bank and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), a New York-based group promoting sustainable transportation in the developing world.

“You cannot overestimate the impact Peñalosa has had, on a personal level, in 10 or 12 countries,” notes Walter Hook, director of ITDP. “He takes these ideas, which can be rather dry, and speaks emotionally about the ways they affect people’s lives. He has the ability to change how people think about cities. He’s a revolution that way.”

“Economics, urban planning, ecology are only the means. Happiness is the goal,” Peñalosa says, summing up his work. “We have a word in Spanish, ganas, which means a burning desire. I have ganas about public life.”

“The least a democratic society should do,” he continues, “is to offer people wonderful public spaces. Public spaces are not a frivolity. They are just as important as hospitals and schools. They create a sense of belonging. This creates a different type of society—a society where people of all income levels meet in public space is a more integrated, socially healthier one.”

Consultado en: http://www.shareable.net/blog/can-we-design-cities-for-happiness
Jueves 22 de Nov.2012