You are invited to attend APES+ talk titled “Kissing Frogs!”: The project that never saw the light of day- by Derek Chittenden As built environment professionals, we often work long hours on projects (often at risk) that .. for various reasons.. ‘never see the light of day’. This is particularly true for professionals that are at the ‘front end’ of the process, like planners. APES+ has asked Derek Chittenden to share some of his experiences in this regard over his 40+ years in practice. He has consulted widely to the private and public sectors in South Africa, many African countries, the Indian Ocean Islands and as far afield as Malaysia and Costa Rica. He will give a snapshot of various projects that he has been involved with in the fields of sustainable development, ecological design, integrated development planning, and urban design. Whilst he has an enviable track record of built projects, there are those that simply never happened. Derek will share some of these, and try to draw some lessons Derek Chittenden Derek Chittenden leads ‘BlueGreen planning&design’, an interdisciplinary professional practice specialising in regional planning, sustainable master planning, city planning and urban design, eco-tourism development, site planning and environmental design, project facilitation and development management. The practice is committed to excellence in integrated and regenerative development, ‘natural systems inspired’ planning and design at all scales across the globe. Projects span nine countries in Africa, the Indian Ocean Islands, Malaysia, and Costa Rica.

Derek is founder and retired senior partner and director of ‘CNdV Africa’, a multiple award winning professional practice he established in 1988, which forged, over 20 years with Derek at the helm, a national reputation for excellence in the fields of environmental planning, urban design, landscape architecture, resort and tourism planning and integrated urban, regional and urban structure planning. Derek left CNdV in 2009 to establish ‘BlueGreen’ in order to focus on his particular specialities and interests in the wider arena of international consulting. His particular interest and experience is at the interface between the built and natural environment, as a master planner, specialist site planner, urban designer and environmental planner. ‘Regenerative’ development and ‘bio-mimetically’ inspired ecological principles of planning, design and management, specifically in the fields of integrated development planning and site level solutions, is a founding principle of the practice, which is committed to solving the contemporary built and natural environmental challenges of the Anthropocene by designing cities and regions informed and inspired by nature's intelligent design, as articulated in the practice of Bio Mimicry.