AlmaU Urban Center spoke at the forum "Urbathon Aktobe - Fair Cities"

On December 2, 2022, the second republican forum of urbanists "Urbathon Aktobe - Fair Cities" was held in Aktobe, organized by the Association of Urbanists Q88, the Association for the Promotion of Urban Development QazUrban with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Akimat of Aktobe region

Vice Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Almaz Idrisov, Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek, Governor of Aktobe Region Yeraly Tugzhanov, Chairman of Otbasy Bank Lyazzat Ibragimova, Russian Urban Expert Arkady Gershman, Chairman of the Association of Urbanists Q88 Yerlan Aukenov spoke at the opening of the forum and plenary session .

The AlmaU Urban Center represented by the director Anel Moldakhmetova and program leader Ainur Zhubanova spoke at the session “Transformation of public spaces and creative economy”. There was a speech about the role of education in the formation of fair cities. It was the only speech that touched upon the topic of education. First of all, it was said that the opening of the first educational program in urban studies at AlmaU gives legitimacy to education in this area and the knowledge and skills that students receive. We also shared the vision of our program, in the construction of which we drew parallels between the scales of the city (country) and the university, where an integrated approach and a cross-disciplinary view were taken as the basis.

They explained the principle behind our academic program: “Learning from the city and for the city”. This is revealed in the active involvement of students in real city cases and their close interaction with practitioners in this area. Speaking about fairness, we talked about the fact that relationships with students at our center are also built horizontally. We listen to their wishes and even make changes to the curriculum, introducing disciplines that are relevant and necessary for them, case studies, field research, etc., and this flexibility is largely due to the experimental spirit of AlmaU.

This session was attended by such experts as Sultan Amanchin (Head of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of Aktobe), Anna Belinskaya (Specialist in Territorial Development of the Russian ATLAS Bureau), Roman Shnaiderman (Landscape Architect, General Director of Envicon-A LLP), Valeria Khasueva ( director of the PI "Urban Center of Karaganda"), Nazerke Mundakhanov (architectural bureau TAL), Tatiana Ponomareva (Association of Landscaping of Kazakhstan). A total of 11 speakers spoke, each sharing their experience of transforming cities in different contexts.

AlmaU believes that education is one of the most important means of social mobility and therefore it is necessary to understand and recognize its role in shaping society and its spatial organization.