Life as an Urbanist #1: Paloma Bugedo Caroca

What made you choose to study Urban Planning?

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I was actually wanting to travel and explore the other side of the world…so I chose to study, and Urban Planning in Melbourne seemed like a good option. Unfortunately, the travelling bit hasn’t worked out as I expected with COVID-19…

I used to study Architecture and also worked at the Minister of Transport in Chile, where I worked on intermodal transportation projects. So I have been in the built environment industry before I started studying Urban Planning.

But as I started working, part of my career was spent listening to people, where I take on the role as a ‘visual translator’, materialising peoples needs in visual representation. A key driver for my shift to Urban Planning was really seeing how this discipline brings together or rather visually codes ways of understanding the world.

What has been the most thought provoking thing you’ve learned about planning so far?

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It’s hard to put into words, but to me it’s about the deep beliefs, about building just and equal societies, hearing collective voices, and putting a narrative together. Whilst acknowledging that it doesn’t come without conflict (nor does anything else in planning), it really is about how we manage conflict to create a common vision in place.

Through placemaking, I’ve come to understand the world of urban planning as merging stories, building a community we are all part of. Urban planning is such a broad discipline, and you get to meet people from all different places and sectors. There are so many opportunities to bring in your own interests as an urban planner.

As someone who is very creative, how have you found the synergy between art and planning?

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It kind of is like putting together different actions from both disciplines, and trying to find how these two platforms can work best with each other. For example with community engagement, just having surveys can be a bit dull, but once you add a bit of music, food, games, art!…it gets so much more interesting and adds another layer of colour to it.

The most exciting thing about this synergy is that there are no limits to how creative you can get! Going back to community engagement again – that’s just one example of how effective implementing the arts into planning can be.

Another thing is that sometimes it can be difficult to put things into words, and being creative lets us express all these emotions and social interactions we have with the world through other languages, for example, visually. Most importantly, it’s also about respecting diverse ways of expressions, and to be able to find the most suitable platform to capture them is what makes them shine the most.

Speaking of community engagement, could you share with us projects you’ve worked on in Chile?

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One of the projects that I most fondly remember is while I worked with the non-governmental organisation, Ciudad Emergente, that specialises in tactical urbanism. The project that I was then involved in was ‘Tácticas para Barranquear‘ (Tactics to explore the ravines), and this was part of an initiative called Shared Cities for Sustainable Development, involving tactical experiences between Chile, Guatemala and Honduras. The initiative was also funded by Fondo Chile (Chile Fund), a grant program started by Chilean Government and supported by United Nations Development Programme

The aim of the project was literally like the title states, to explore the ravines and rainforests in a particular neighbourhood in Ciudad de Guatemala, to increase not only awareness of these natural habitats and reconnect with wildlife, but also to strengthen the social bonds within the local community. We had a range of activities in the ravines such as community workshops, bird watching activities, a collaborative potluck (food is very important!) and also had educational sessions with schools in the area about biodiversity conservation. All of this we linked to a huge participatory wall mural! The project also resulted in local alliances between community and governments. As a knowledge sharing exercise, this was one of the different projects that we got to present the results at a forum in UN Headquarters in Chile.

This project was a huge milestone in my career. As this project was where I began to experience the powers of placemaking, and realise how we can play a role in consolidating ‘the big picture’.

What are the differences or similarities in planning between Melbourne and Chile?

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Planning to some extent needs to rely on civic engagement. Whilst not totally different, public participation here in Melbourne does have a different taste to it (and absolutely not in a bad way) in comparison with what it is like back at home.

In Chile, we’ve experienced a lot of socio-environmental and political events — from earthquakes to violent dictatorships. These experiences have helped shape the society we are today, where we understand the value of civil organisation at a neighbourhood level to overcome such chronic shocks. But it still is really messy, unjust and that is why the constitutional process is so important. I’m truly hopeful of this process, for a woken Chile has chosen a first nation’s woman to lead this process.

I like to believe we appreciate the agency we may get as a neighbourhood through insurgent public participation. It is about protecting that power, the right to have an influence on how to thrive in the city and protect everything between the mountain and the ocean as citizens. The bonds and organisations to assure dignity still needs to be further strengthened, it’s not static, and public engagement is always going to be an ongoing process.

What do you think is the biggest challenge we are currently facing in urban planning?

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Changing the paradigm to ‘participation as planning’ (recalling the paper of the same title by Frediani & Cociña, 2019 that we read in the subject Participatory Planning). We need to make visible the hidden voices and hack the instruments of our legal systems to enable us to provide the opportunity for multiple desires to come together and figure out the method to translate them into the collective spaces that we call cities. It might be a lot to ask, but we need to understand that we need collective voices to be heard to get this paradigm shift through.

The other challenge is more on an individual and local level, perhaps to overcome the many emotions that can come to us when we try to transform and improve our environments – whether it be anxiety, anger, sadness – through our own decolonising journey. It’s important to take care of yourself during the process as well.

As urban planners, we have an immense responsibility and should collectively proclaim a commitment towards Earth, towards mother nature, god, love or whatever we want to call it. We’ve got the tools to change our built environment towards pathways in the near future that will make us thrive as humanity. Let’s always put forward the voice and knowledge of First Nations peoples and cultures of the place we inhabit, with empathy, solidarity and love. This is the only pathway to heal ourselves and the planet we inhabit.

For me, this pathway has been merging art and urbanism.

What are you hoping to do after you graduate?

I’m currently involved with the Wattle Fellowship, a one-year leadership program under the University of Melbourne. The program started the middle of this year and is due to end in May the following year. As part of the program, we are supported to action a project that will bring positive impacts to society. I’m currently the only planning student on the program, but including myself there are about 20 students and it has been super exciting to be able to see what other actions people have proposed.

My action project is a tiny theatre inside a briefcase to tell stories inspired by birds (If you hadn’t known alread, I’m a huge bird lover!). It’s all still work in progress, but the idea is that through story-telling, what I intend to do is reconnect with nature and our roots, using birds as an inspiration and main characters of the stories that are told.

Any tips for current students who are still fresh to this course?

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Coming from my own experience, Planning is an excellent excuse to realise your own dreams and use community or collective spaces as a living lab. With my thesis, I’m currently using a community bike workshop (the bike shed in CERES) as a case study! In a way it is transforming a passion of mine into a pragmatic activism through research.

Planning has infinite niches of innovation, so another top tip is to embrace the diversity within this discipline. If you like plants, birds, bicycles, public transport, electric vehicles, the built environment, the public landscape, circular economy, soil regeneration, deep emotional healing – you name it! There’s a space for everyone – if you manage to get the narrative right! I also think it is important to understand your positionality – question our own history, your privileges’ and vulnerabilities, but also how our skills may influence others and improve the place that we are in. Understanding this can lead us to better shape public spaces.

Also never forget to connect to nature, because that’s where cities take place, and we share those spaces with our non-human friends!