Those involved in city planning needed to rethink the way in which the built environment was conceived, designed and delivered, president of the organising committee for the twenty-fifth International Union of Architects World Congress (UIA 2014) conference, Hassan Asmal, said this week.

He was speaking at the official launch of the event, which will be held at the Durban International Convention Centre from August 3 to 7, 2014. The conference is expected to attract between 6 000 and 10 000 local and international delegates to the host city and swell city coffers by an estimated R120-million.

Delegates will include international speakers, academics and global leaders in the architectural profession and associated disciplines, who are expected to address a variety of topics through keynote presentations, workshops and seminars.

UIA 2014 would bring together professionals to look at alternative and best practice strategies for the design and delivery of human settlements, encouraging innovative thinking on new developments, the transformation of existing suburbs and townships and the upgrade of informal settlements.

Asmal said the local architecture and allied professions would benefit from the congress through exposure to fellow members of the South African architectural fraternity, as well as practitioners from the rest of the world, an opportunity to improve the profile of the profession and the creation of a platform to showcase products and technological innovations to an international audience.

This is the third time the conference will be held in Africa, with Morocco and Egypt previously having hosted the event.

Durban-based architect and treasurer of the UIA Trish Emmett said the UIA, which is a global nongovernmental organisation that is accredited by the United Nations, represented about 1.3-million architects – or 93% of the profession – operating in 131 countries.

The theme for the 2014 congress is “architecture otherware”. Asmal said this represented an attempt to dissolve distinctions between the architectural profession and other built environment professions, between South Africa and Africa, between the profession and communities and between the profession and government.

A number of legacy projects are expected to be unveiled in the run-up to the event. Jonathan Edkins, a spokesperson for the eThekwini municipality’s Department of Architecture, confirmed that a number of projects were already on the table. These included developing the canal that runs along Milne street, in the city centre, into an arts precinct, as well as putting in place a system linking inner city precincts such as Warwick Junction, the Beachfront and the sporting precinct.

Another important component of the congress is an international student competition that provides an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students from schools of architecture across the world to submit solutions for interventions around Warwick Junction, a controversial urban trade and transport hub adjacent to the Durban central business district.

The project comprises three different aspects – the development of a long-term, large-scale vision for the precinct, the development of a medium-term, medium-scale intervention on one edge of the Brook Street cemetery and the creation of a short-term, smaller intervention that would act as a catalyst for development. The work of student teams will be exhibited at the congress.