Honored to Present at SCI 2025 — “Reclaiming Place: Human-Centered Urban Futures through Creative Sustainability

I am deeply honored to have been invited to present my paper, “Reclaiming Place: Human-Centered Urban Futures through Creative Sustainability,” at the 4th Sustainability in Creative Industries (SCI 2025) Conference, organized by IEREK and hosted by Universitas Ciputra, Indonesia.

Urban planning must move beyond technocratic models to embrace its socio-anthropological roots. This paper critiques data- and efficiency-driven urbanism, warning against corporate frameworks that treat cities as systems to optimize rather than as places for belonging and connection. It introduces Creative Sustainability—a human-centered framework redefining sustainability as the redistribution of care toward people, places, and the planet. Through case studies from Brasília, Masdar City, Copenhagen, Cheonggyecheon, and Barcelona’s Superblocks, the paper explores how cities can evolve from sterile efficiency toward empathy, justice, and community.

Amid climate, housing, and social crises, it calls for urban futures grounded in human well-being, social cohesion, and ethical responsibility.