Foreword

Abstract

On a spring day in April 2008 I sat in an airport lounge with Olgierd Dziekoński, then a minister in the Ministry of Infrastructure now a minister in the Presidential Chancellery, and Anna Tibaijuka, then the Executive Director of UN-HABITAT and Undersecretary General of the United Nations (today the Minister for Housing and Member of Parliament in Tanzania). As we were waiting for Anna Tibaijuka’s flight to be called for departure we got round to discussing what UN-HABITAT could do for young people starting their career in urban planning and development. Olgierd Dziekonski gave us the idea of an annual summer school that could be used not only to exchange ideas and transmit knowledge and experience but also to build a network of such young planners. The idea of the European Urban Summer School was born.