Dr Corrado Minervini, architect and urban planner

Summary

I have been working on urban development for twenty-five years, covering key topics like water supply, sanitation, health and education infrastructure, housing and social housing, emergency preparedness and recovery, as well as cultural heritage preservation. These are also the subjects I deal with when lecturing in several universities.

I carried out my professional activities in Europe, China, Africa, South America, Middle East and the Balkans for institutions like the European Union, UN-Habitat, World Bank, UNDP, NGOs, local governments and the bilateral cooperation (GiZ, Enabel and AFD). My first urban planning exercises date back to 2001 in Kosovo while working as a housing coordinator for UNMIK.  Then I drafted urban development plans in Sierra Leone, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Palestine and Senegal, using participatory approach and appropriate technologies. Housing and Social Housing, as well as primary and secondary infrastructure and productive activities, have always been approached holistically. I also developed software applications to speed up the spatial analysis and consequently the decision-making process.

I have always applied Energy Efficient buildings and green cities thematics to my professional activities, being aware that cities are responsible for 80% of gas emissions and 70% of energy consumption in the world. Their potential investment in the low carbon sector is enormous as well as the incidence in reducing the Climate Change effects.

Working within the MED-ENEC Project (2015-2016, project financed by the European Union) was an opportunity for me to systematise my knowledge and experience in low energy building and urban planning.  I then published a book on energy efficiency retrofitting measures (including a software application on affordability, profitability and applicability of retrofitting measures to residential buildings, urban areas and cities).

My first urban planning exercises date back to the 2001 in Kosovo while working as Housing Coordinator for UNMIK. From 2004 to 2006 I worked on an EU project called “Training and Capacity Building of Local Self-Government Institutions in Macedonia”, as urban planning expert - drafting the key urban development strategies country-wise and as trainer on “Urban Planning Tools and Method” addressed to 85 municipal technical officers.

From 2008 I led a team for the Preliminary Study on the Freetown Development Plan (Freetown Sierra Leone) and in 2009 I was appointed as an urban planning expert within a Cities Alliance project for the Freetown Slum Upgrading. Soon after I headed a team of international experts in drafting four Structural, Regulatory and Investment Plans in Albania (for the city of Durres, Shkodra, Vlora and Kamza – the Project was funded by the World Bank). From 2011 on I have drafted the Freetown Structural Plan (EU), a rollout programme for UNDP in Sierra Leone to support the National Land Policy implementation process, a regeneration programme for minor historic centres in the West Bank - followed up by missions in 2015 - I was Technical Advisor on Land Governance and Urban Planning in Baghdad for UN Habitat, Team Leader of the Tirana City Development Strategy (a City Alliance project funded by the World Bank), EU project evaluator in Israel, urban planner and mobility expert in East Jerusalem for UN Habitat, Team Leader in Mali and low energy building and urban planning expert in Egypt. I have also evaluated a huge urban development programme in Cairo (for the European Union) and a project on Historic Centres preservation in Palestine (for the Belgian Technical Cooperation). Recently I have led an urban development project in Senegal (funded by the WB) and an Urban Development Advisory Service for the EU Commission. I am currently Senior Urban Specialist for Cities Alliance.