My 1st Jealousy of Fukuoka, Japan : The Urban Research Center is Extremely Cool !!

Konbanwaa, good evening my dearest grandchild ...

Really sorry for being absence writing in a such long long period,  hope you guyz still love me <3

Granny has soooooo many jealousy  about  Fukuoka and the citizen. Eitts..no worries, granny could turn that negative feeling into positive one since granny intend to share their outstanding points to all of you and for the people in our lovely country.

The first jealousy is related to my daily activity here as a researcher. This lovely city has an Urban Research Center (URC) and it`s different compared to others research center based on my opinion. It was last year when I started connecting with URC. My supervisor invited us to attend the presentation which topic about``Urbanization in Asian Countries`` and we should register in advance through email to URC.  From that moment, seemed the URC saved our email address and share any information whenever they held an event. 

The first event of URC that i attended

On that day, there were several presenters sharing their research findings about urbanization included my supervisor. I thought the event was only attended by academicians or government institution. But when i asked the occupation of a 40th old man who was sitting next to me, suprisingly... he is an artist ! Moreover he said, he oftenly came if  URC held a presentation because it is necessary for him to aware about the current issue in this city or any other cities. Speechless...i have nothing to say.

My curiousity lead me to find out more about URC which is located at the 6th floor of  Fukuoka City Hall in Tenjin Area, one of business district. URC was established on April 2004, to develop urban strategies for the future based on research then applied into urban policies from Asian perspective and taken issues in Fukuoka City. They cooperate with the residents, industries and academic circles.

URC Office at the 6th F of the city hall

Furthermore, URC could figured out the future needs of Fukuoka city through actively involved of the citizens, industries, NPO, government and academics. URC not only scrutinize various aspects of city but also gain a wide range information through networking and sharing it to public. They believed that to improve the city, local issues should be consider from global perspective and vice versa. 

There are some interesting things about URC instead of held an integrated research, sharing information through publication, library and seminar, they also provide some development program for researcher. Ranging from : a) resident research program -giving an opportunity to the citizens to explore knowledge on the urban development and have a meaningful relationship with other participants; b) grants for young researcher - advising and granting the young researcher; and c) supporting the member of research program-the supporting member consist of corporate, individual and student. Well...i think this is another reason why envy on this city...they really concern about research development. Really hope, I and my lovely sista from Egypt  could get the grant ;) 

The second event of URC that i`ve attended was international symposium of  ``Open Data and Urban City`` it was held at the same place with the first event that i`ve mentioned, in ACROS Fukuoka. They found out that when the city allowing people to access data such us location, public facilities, tax,etc it would enable city to be more transparant, attract many investors and even encourage local people to be an enterpreneur because they have many information available. It was awesome since at that time my lovely sista from Egypt were there with me <3

Recently i had attend another event of URC collaborated with Urban Design Island City. They held a public lecture in Fukuoka City Hall and the speaker was a famous architect Kengo Kuma. Kengo Sensei delivered his outstanding project not only in Japan but also in Europe such as :

Yusuhara Wooden Bridge Museum, Japan

Starbucks in Dazaifu, Fukuoka Japan

Besancon Arts and Culture Center, France

And next week, I and Irma will attend another cooperated event of URC which would present topic about elderly. Hope could make networking there or maybe find a part time job.. who knows ;) 

Anyway..all of the events that i`ve attended was free of charge, nice isn`t it ? URC really encourage the citizens to join, get many informations and finally enhance their sense of belonging to the city.

Guyz...that`s all my 1st jealousy, next writing would be another jealousy :p , don`t miss it !!


References :
www.urc.or.jp
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