The theme of this conference is the extent to which new, emerging issues are changing the principles of urban design and its practice at the scale of the city and territory. Topics to be explored include the future of the traditional city and modern districts constructed thus far; the new urban forms that have come into being along with the innovation economy; the potential influence of the hypermobility that global centers appear to promote; and forms of economic and urban development that may have been neglected amid the models of the widespread growth of housing and infrastructure that were so influential in the twentieth century.
By considering several different issues in Barcelona, including case studies in the concurrent exhibition Barcelona: Metropolis of Cities, the conference aims not only to examine the urban transformation of that city since the 1980s but also to reflect on how its recent history may shed light on the urban development of other cities across the globe. The conference will thus explore a new dimension of the urban design project as such, in which multidisciplinary reflections on the similarities and differences between a specific case study and innovative trends in other cities may disclose new fields for reflection, orientation, and coordination of the various disciplines and scales involved in the design and management of the city. Organized by Joan Busquets, Martin Bucksbaum Professor in Practice of Urban Planning and Design.
