National consultancy - Urban Design in Karantina

Contract

This is a National Consultant contract. More about National Consultant contracts.

Background

Being one of the closest areas to the 4th of August explosion site, Karantina sustained the highest level of damages in terms of human losses and physical destruction. Most buildings were severely affected and fully or partially destroyed, leaving people with no safe habitable houses and no businesses. While UNDP launched immediate projects to repair damaged buildings and houses, support shop owners, provide legal assistance to residents, rehabilitate the public hospital, and manage produced waste; it also designed an output for developing a longer-term plan to address the deeper vulnerabilities and opportunities in the area, based on the visions and aspirations of local communities. Karantina is known to be historically marginalized and home for an already vulnerable population of mixed nationalities, ethnicities, and religions. The neighbourhood's multi-layered mental, physical, and spatial segregation has been exacerbated by unjust development planning, economic decline and conflict. Today, the presence of the military, garbage dumps, unregulated industries, and underserviced public spaces has led to an intimidating and unhealthy urban environment that takes a toll on the residents’ wellbeing. The Urban Recovery Framework (URF) team at UNDP conducted a series of participatory activities to identify urban vulnerabilities, trends, community priorities, and opportunities for improvement. On top of the daily community support, follow-up, and informal conversations, the team organized and facilitated five thematic community discussions, each involving participants of diverse backgrounds, ensuring representation of the most vulnerable groups (Syrian refugees, tenants of old rent, etc.). During these conversations, people expressed their perceptions, fears, and aspirations, and spoke about the challenges affecting their daily lives. Additionally, the UNDP team carried out urban walks in Al-Khodor and Al-Sayde sub-neighbourhoods, accompanying groups of community members to take stock together of the area’s needs for a better quality of public life. These activities, coupled with the findings from the landscape assessment, SMEs assessment, and socio-economic assessment (SEIA), led to the identification of priority needs and problems that stretch across sectors, and that can be grouped into five main challenges.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Urban Designer will work on these two main outputs: 1) Analyzing the qualities of the streets and open spaces in Karantina, in connection with the five major issues identified in the first phase, particularly understanding the relationship between people and the urban environment. 2) Developing design responses to improve the safety, accessibility, and comfort of the public space, taking into consideration the projects’ potential impact on the economic and social life in Karantina. For additional information, please refer to ANNEX I – Terms of Reference

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

• Fluent in Writing and spoken English and Arabic
• Proficient in using AutoCAD, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, or similar software.
• Able to work collaboratively with a team
• Good Knowledge in preparing final reports.

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
• Knowledge of the UN preferable.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• A minimum certificate of a bachelor’s degree in urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, or related fields

Years of experience:

• A minimum of 3 post-graduate years of experience in designing public spaces, streetscapes and/or urban landscapes.

Technical experience:

• Demonstrated high-quality urban design skills (public spaces, streets, sidewalks, urban furniture landscape, etc.)
• Proven familiarity with human-centered urban research and design
• Proven experience in small-scale and/or temporary urban design interventions.
• Demonstrated communication skills; Experience in producing high-quality maps, diagrams, and visualizations.

How to apply: The consultancy is open for all national consultants who meet the selection criteria and propose a competitive fee. Interested consultants are requested to apply only through this UNDP jobs portal. Submissions through any other media will not be considered. The application must include all of the following documents: 1. P11, 2. Annex 3 (Offerors Letter) and 3. Financial proposal All files shall be submitted in one single document and uploaded as word or PDF file to the UNDP job site. It has been observed that bidders don’t submit all requested documents and thus reducing their chance to be selected for a contract with UNDP. before you submit your offer please revise that the application is complete and comprises all documents. Incomplete applications will not be considered.