[Public Seminar] Barcelona, Smart City: Tradition and Innovation

Date/Time
Date(s): 25/09/2014
Time: 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Barcelona

Category A: Introduction of the city/region for a general audience (students and others) with an emphasis on current urban innovation activities

Location
FSC501, Fong Shu Chuen Library, Ho Sin Hang Campus

Language: English

Admission: Free

Event Partner(s):

Speaker(s):Dr. Christina West, Visiting Scholar of EUAP/ Visiting Professor of the University of Koblenz-Landau (Department of Environmental Sciences, Geography)/ Assistant Professor and Senior researcher of University of Mannheim (Department of Economic Geography)

CLICK TO READ SPEAKERS BIOGRAPHY:

Dr. Christina West

Event Description: Barcelona’s worldwide reputation as innovative capital is undoubtedly rooted in its exceptional dynamism in architecture and urban development, demonstrated in pioneering social and economic projects.

After the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975, the democratic transformation of Spain since the 1980s brought new opportunities for Barcelona. So as to restructure and revitalize the city, the Barcelona City Council was able, for the first time in history, to implement private-public partnerships (PPP) for urban development.

From ‘Cerdàs Eixample’ to the urban development programs ‘Urban Spaces’ and ‘Areas of New Centralities’ in preparation of the Olympics 1992, as well as to the ‘2004 Universal Forum of Cultures’ and the creation of the ‘22@Barcelona’ High-Tech innovation district – all these projects were vital catalysts and milestones on the road to transform the city as a whole into an urban lab which position Barcelona worldwide at the cutting edge of R&D.

With its recent projects ‘Barcelona as a People City’ and ‘Barcelona – urban platform’ the city is on the way to become the world reference for Smart Cities: a self-sufficient, hyper-connected, high-speed and zero-emission metropolis, merging different strands of urban planning into an integrated transformation strategy towards becoming a fully sustainable city, ensuring that information technology benefits every neighborhood and every citizen. Such ambitions can be realized only with active citizens’ participation in social movements, participatory planning processes and urban governance. The comprehensive city portrait will give some unexpected insights in the past and recent ‘urban innovations’, their origins and the different dynamics of the urban development process to reflect and get a better understanding of the ongoing successfully ‘remaking Barcelona’ itself.

This seminar was opened by Mr. Juan Manuel Lopez-Nadal, Consul-General of Spain.

The powerpoint presentation will be uploaded here shortly.

Photo album: