The Gerd Albers Award (GAA) was established in 1999 in honour of professor Gerd Albers, a co-founder and past president of the Society, who placed a particular emphasis on the task of publishing as a means of elucidating both the current debate and practical achievements in the planning field. This reputable award is bestowed for the best publication (book, book chapter, journal article and/or published project report) of the ISOCARP members.
In 2017, in total ten GAA entries of high academic standards covering a range of topics of wide professional appeal were submitted – four books, one book chapter and five journal articles:
- Planning for Green Infrastructure: Options for South African Cities, by Juanee Cilliers and Sarel Cilliers
- Playing with Density. The compass for inward development as a problem-focused methodology for densification in small and medium-sized municipalities, by Anita Grams
- The house that Jack built: Jack Mundey, green bans hero, by James Colman
- The Preparation of Low Carbon Ecological City Plan – A Compendium, by Stanley Yip and Wei-ding Long
- Spatial Planning in Flanders and Antwerp 1940-2012: movements, clashing values and expertise: drivers for change, by Jef Van den Broeck
- A Reflection on Low Energy Renovation of Residential Complexes in Southern Europe, by Helena Corvacho, Fernando Brandão Alves and Cecília Rocha
- Integration of Markov chain analysis and similarity-weighted instance-based machine learning algorithm (SimWeight) to simulate urban expansion, by Yakubu Aliyu Bununu
- Stickiness and slipperiness in Istanbul’s old city jewellery cluster: a survival story, by Yigit Evren and Ayse Nur Okten
- Coastal and marine tourism: A challenging factor in Marine Spatial Planning, by Marilena Papageorgiou
- Climate change adaptation in Serbia: the role of information networks, by Aleksandra Stupar and Vladimir Mihajlov.
The jury was composed of the Scientific Committee members – Ernst Drewes (South Africa), Malgorzata Hanzl (Poland), Nasim Iranmanesh (Iran) and Awais Piracha (Australia) – as well as Ana Peric (Switzerland) as the VP Awards and the jury president. Amos Brandeis presented the jury report during the Portland Conference and handed over the certificates. The winners were:
GAA ‘Best Book’:
James COLMAN, The house that Jack built: Jack Mundey, green bans hero
This chronicle, written as a popular narrative, revolves around the Australian heritage and environmental activist, at the same time focusing on a more general intersection of neoliberalism, planning and heritage protection, observed through decades. As Jack Mundey coined the term “green ban” – as a response against endangering heritage and wilderness sites – in the early 1970s, he certainly became the pioneer of the modern environmental debate.
Moreover, his influence became greater in the coming decades – coinciding with the global movement for careful management of the environmental resources. Finally, his message remains relevant nowadays, as environmental responsibilities are usually put aside in the name of a ‘progress’ and selective interest of both public and private sector, while NGOs are again considered a safeguard of environmental resources. Conveying such a message in an appealing way targeting thus a broad audience beyond planning circles is, in addition to its relevance to the current planning debates on heritage and green protection, one of the main book qualities.
Read why Jim Colman decided to write the book: http://housejackbuilt.com.au/author/
New South Publishing, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052
ISBN: 9781742235011
GAA ‘Best article’:
Jef VAN DEN BROECK, Spatial Planning in Flanders and Antwerp 1940-2012: movements, clashing values and expertise: drivers for change
The article briefly describes the historical development of spatial planning in Flanders (Belgium) during the last seventy years. However, the message it conveys has a wide appeal. Namely, the topics of interrelating the global and local context, professionals’ skills and knowledge, and civil participation, are intrinsically immanent to the core of planning profession. Therefore, this contribution is highly relevant for a broad audience dealing with strategic spatial planning.
in: Louis Albrechts, Alessandro Balducci, Jean Hillier (eds.), Situated Practices of Strategic Planning, An international Perspective, Routledge, Oxford, New York, chapter 14, p. 233-254, ISBN 978-1-138-93256-2 (hbk), 978-1-315-67918-1 (ebk).
GAA ‘Special mention’:
Ric Stephens and Amos Brandeis congratulating Anita Grams
Anita GRAMS, Playing with Density. The compass for inward development as a problem-focused methodology for densification in small and medium-sized municipalities|
The PhD dissertation on the topic of densifying the urban areas instead of promoting the development on the unused land is a highly relevant topic for both developed and developing nations worldwide. Moreover, using a sound methodological apparatus (based on the relevant theories in the field), the publication offers the tools for dealing with the constant demand for outer development. Although the cases focus on the Swiss landscape, the proposed solutions for combining informal planning instruments within the existing official planning framework are considered universal, and therefore of interest for both the planning scholars and practitioners.
ISBN: 978-3-7281-3794-4
link to the publisher: https://vdf.ch/spielraume-fur-dichte.html
Congratulations to the winners and a big thank you to all authors who submitted a book or an article. We look forward to successful GAA submissions also in 2018.