Urban design and good communication were the focus on day two of the Adeje Summer University
19 july 2022
Considering how people who live in a city are going to actually enjoy their lives as residents is a fundamental axis in urban design according to University of La Laguna Professor Vicente Zapata. The observation was made as part of his course during this week’s Adeje Summer University. He believes that “on occasions urban design is inhospitable, without shadows, benches, spaces that generate dialogue”. He says that designers need to think more about the people who will live in their cities.
During the second day of his course participants went on a tour of Adeje neighbourhoods such as El Galeón, Los Olivos and Las Nieves, looking at how community interests are served. Zapata pointed out that Adeje has invested a lot in socio-community constructs, schools, health centres, sporting centres, public zones, municipal centres, with street art side by side with heritage sites, a place that “is specifically evolved for social harmony and participation”. He added that it was particularly relevant given that a large part of the resident population is foreign, “with such a diverse population social harmony is a challenge” adding that the way the council have met that challenge has been very positive.
In one of the other courses today Professor Javier Rivero Grandoso was delving into the world of oral communication. The course looked at the characteristics of oration and rhetoric as well as the use of certain theatrical techniques in oral presentation at professional level as an aid for those who might be nervous or unused to speaking in public.
The course explored the use of tools in presentation too – for instance if someone is nervous and moving their hands too much, the use of a lectern can help. Grandoso advised that even though we might be ‘performing’ we should never forget ourselves in the presentation.
He told the course that he had noticed, as someone who corrects pre-university exams, a worrying deficiency in many young people in the art of presentation and expression. Good presentation needed to be learnt and practised – too many people think it’s something that is easy to do until they have to present something important – a wedding speech, ask for a bank loan – and find they lack the tools they need.
