Profile article on Yuval Dryer Shilo, Urban Planner
Author: Odeya Friedman

As planners, we are trying to reach an on the ground understanding, but overall, we are human beings who make decisions, and don’t always know how to interpret what is actually happening. We need to recognize the need for mediation. 

Yuval Dryer-Shilo is an Urban Planner who studied at and worked for the Urban Clinic. Today he works as a planning consultant for the National Committee for the Planning and Construction of Preferred Residential Complexes (HaVatmal - הותמ”ל). Prior to that he worked for Sikkuy, a joint Jewish and Arab nonprofit that promotes equality and partnership between Arab and Jewish citizens and worked for The Ministry of Education as a planner for educational facilities. Throughout the interview he calls for uncompromising attention to the space being planned in order to improve planning outcomes.

Family photography

 

Yuval began his academic career with a BA in Political Science and Geography, followed by a master’s in Urban Planning. He joined the Urban Clinic after participating in courses taught by Professor Emily Silverman, who is the Clinic’s founder. During his time at the Clinic he became acquainted with policymaking and the various ways in which it can be used to influence and implement change. The Clinic’s interdisciplinary approach allowed him to explore the planning world beyond academia and examine real-world applications. Among the various projects Yuval worked on, participating in Urban95 was the most notable. Urban95 seeks to promote urban planning and urban design in a child-friendly way. Some of the project’s insights were eventually realized in part of Yuval’s work at the Ministry of Education. “The best part is that yesterday Beit HaKerem inaugurated its first playground that was designed in accordance with Urban95 principles. The construction of another park in Katamonim is currently underway as well.” He continues; “There’s a feeling that we changed something in the Jerusalem Municipality’s perception of what a playground is, and introduced a place that holds space for imagination, and offers an opportunity to interact with nature, take risks, and get dirty, all while contributing to children’s development and resilience.”

 

The Urban95 project widely surveys a city from a child’s perspective, in other words, at 95cm high eye-level. Yuval highlights the need for practical and purposeful planning: My role was not to expand on theories, but to provide results.” Various project outcomes were presented to various city stakeholders, including the Municipality.
 

Bialik Garden, Beit Hakerem, Photo: Yuval Dryer Shilo

What tensions arise between planning for practical purposes and between building planning theories?

We tend to see an imitation phenomenon in planning, where something that works well is assumed to have the same impact somewhere else. During my time at the Clinic, I tried to think about policy as a mechanism that needs to be broken down into smaller ideas that can then be understood at their core. One of the most impactful factors that I was exposed to at Urban95 was the need to work in conjunction with local authorities. For example, it is crucial to understand their individual interpretations of the concept of ‘play’. Each local authority prioritizes and defines play differently. Case in point, Umm Al-Fahm has no designated playgrounds and there are current steps being taken to build this infrastructure from scratch. In contrast, Tel Aviv has a plan and yearly budget allocated for infant and toddler play. I presented my Clinic project to a broad group of education and planning professionals who made statements that reflected my own thoughts. Following this meeting, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, we established a committee to create a guide for child-friendly planning.

 

What limits the planning world’s field of vision?

Planners sometimes assume that cities are inherently good. While embracing this concept is not necessarily wrong, one needs to be reminded of its limitations. In light of this, the Clinic provides the opportunity to dismantle and analyze these paradigms; we are first asked to identify human needs and only then introduce the city for context. We know that even good planning cannot fix everything. For example, one of my key conclusions reached in my Urban95 work was that cities are not good places for children; they are crowded, stressful, and loud, and children are vulnerable to these stressors. This is not an easy conclusion to accept nor work from. This reality has steered my work at the VATMAL. This realization has led to a heightened awareness regarding my own biases, and serves as a constant reminder that what I believe to be good, isn’t necessarily good. In my opinion, this self-criticism and reflection will ultimately lead to better planning.

 

The Garden of the Watchers - Katamonim, Photo: Yuval Dreyer-Shilo

 

What planning worldview are you currently most connected to?

“I am trying to learn from Yaara Rosner-Manor who is currently working  with Arab villages in the Negev. I was first exposed to her work at the Urban Clinic. Through my work at the VATMAL, I am currently working toward improving our collection and understanding of local (Arab) knowledge. We have reached the point where we acknowledge the importance of asking the right questions. Yaara’s recognition of the importance of local knowledge has led to an ability to identify spatial patterns and, based on this, develop an appropriate plan. It is critical to decipher spatial patterns. For instance, through my VATMAL work planning for northern communities,  I face different planning challenges due to their complex relations with the State. As a government representative I have to ask myself if I understand the dynamic and developing situation, or if I am just seeing a momentary picture? Is the community I’m looking at undergoing change? Does it have agents for change? What is my role in this context? Additionally, how does my understanding of informal cultural relations help me prevent superficial conflicts between the State and its citizens? I believe that planning teams need to have a team member responsible for deciphering spatial patterns, a place’s ‘essence’, so that planning can take place in that context as opposed to being a copy of a solution that exists elsewhere. When I ask an ecologist what the environmental values of a particular place are, he first examines the place and only then returns with his findings. Social work does not adopt this same approach. In her work, Yaara is working toward creating a ‘social planners’ profession, where experts connect to local knowledge and follow principles somewhat similar to those of placemaking. I am still working out how to do this and what such work entails. Another idea Yuval adopted after working with Yaara is to not only ask ‘what the benefit of a new project is’, but also ask ‘how much harm is it causing?’. Over the past year, Yuval has taken his accumulated knowledge to plan new neighborhoods for the VATMAL.
 

Yuval explains; a new neighborhood ignores the rule that the state is separate from entrepreneurship. As countries create neighborhoods, they adopt the role of developers. Therefore, state planners work off some assumptions about social good and try to plan along those lines. In this sense, new neighborhoods are futuristic products. After land is allocated, planners need to ask themselves what the best option for the future is. This leads to a ‘utopian’ design based on ‘correct’ principles; ‘here streets and paths will be different than before, and this will lead to quality of life’. At this point, I begin to consider the damage planning will cause, as opposed to only looking at its benefits.
 

Translated by: Galya Globerman