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Theme of the Biennial
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The Biennials of Towns and Town
Planners in Europe are promoted by the European
Council of Town Planners ( ECTP)
with the aims to create a platform for urban planners
and designers, sociologists, architecture historians
and other professionals, as well as politicians, to
discuss topical issues sharing information and
experiences. ECTP deploys the organization through the
Permanent International Working Party (PIWP).
On this occasion, the Fifth
Biennial counts with the support of the Government of
Catalonia and the City Council of Barcelona and it is
organized by the Spanish and Catalan Association of
Urban Planners ( AETU/ACTU).
The three-day conference includes workshops,
excursions and an exhibition of selected projects from
European cities and regions. We need to know how urban
planners and designers throughout Europe deal with
changes in culture and technology.
Keeping as a general reference the
theme Connecting the city: connecting citizens
(Access to networks and flows to improve
citizenship), the Biennial tries to explore the
spatial impact of transport and other networks
suppliers of resources such as information, materials
and energy, and tackle the challenges they create for
spatial planning.
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Is the rise and interconnection of
networks at all scales inducing more concentrated or
disperse developments?
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How can planners develop efficient
networks and make them compatible with friendlier,
more environmentally sound cities?
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How can we ensure citizens and
neighbourhoods attain parity of access to those
services provided by networks so as to avoid social
and spatial exclusion?
These questions and others
suggested by European planners have to be explored and
further developed at the different workshops held
during the event:
European level:
connecting cities in a polycentric Europe
Regional level:
connecting the cities in the Region
City level:
connecting social groups and districts
Street level:
connecting citizens
Focusing on the different
conceptions and levels of connectivity is a today’s
crucial aspect to understand systems as complex as
cities, and to formulate plans, programs and projects
balancing economic growth, social cohesion and
environmental protection. How do cities and regions
manage the growing flows of information, persons,
freight, energy, water and waste when planning urban
and regional development? How do they manage to
control the impacts of these flows in the environment
and the quality of life of citizens?
April 2003
Pablo Nobell and Josep Bernis
Members of the Permanent International Working Party (PIWP)
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