Edinburgh City Forum | BARCELONA PRESENT CONTINUOUS
About this Event
What can Edinburgh learn from Barcelona’s urban planning, design and governance, and vice versa? We will learn from how Barcelona balances its historical legacy with innovative solutions to contemporary pressures.
Barcelona has been designated UNESCO-UIA World Capital of Architecture in 2026, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the passing of Ildefons Cerdà, whose expansion plan of Barcelona (1859) transformed the city and laid the foundations of modern urban planning. In the 21st century, Barcelona’s resilient urban model is still a global reference in urban planning, design and urban governance. Barcelona’s model has reinvented itself to deal with the urban, social, environmental and economic challenges of our time. Barcelona has explored multiple forms of innovative urban policies, ranging from the Superblock model—recently reframed around 'green axes'—which reclaims streets for pedestrian use, greenery, and community interaction, the renaturalisation of public spaces and restoration of urban ecosystems; or the sustainable transformation of industrial heritage. Barcelona has been considered an innovative urban governance laboratory which has explored multiple innovative urban politics ranging from tourism control plans, right to housing plan, neighbourhood plans and participatory action plans, thanks to generous social policies, a complex structure of citizen participation in public policies, and grassroots-led urban experimentation in ‘data commons’.
This one-day symposium on Wednesday 4th November will take place in ECA Main Building, Lauriston Campus, at the University of Edinburgh. It is organised by the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA) in collaboration with the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), in the context of Edinburgh Earth Initiative-Sustainable Cities (EEI). The event counts with contributions and support from the Spanish Consulate in Edinburgh, the Institut Ramon Llull and the Department of European Languages and Cultures of the University of Edinburgh.
SCHEDULE
Morning session
09:00 Talk ‘L’Eixample for People’ by Anna Llopis, Picasso Museum exhibitions coordinator
10:15 Talk ‘Unveiled Ecologies: From Data to Spatial Awareness’ by Pablo Martinez & Mar Santamaría (Trescientosmil urban think tank)
11:00 Workshop with students. ‘Innovative urban design and planning solutions for a more sustainable future city in Edinburgh & Barcelona’ by Pablo Martinez & Mar Santamaría (Trescientosmil urban think tank)
Afternoon session
14:15 Institutional presentation
15:00 Lecture ‘Innovative urban planning/design/governance policies in Barcelona’ by Maria Buhigas, Head of Urban Architecture at Barcelona City Council
16:00 Roundtable. María Buhigas, David Givan (Chief Planning Officer at the City of Edinburgh Council), Rowan Brown (Director of the Cockburn Association), Eulàlia Gomez Escoda (Head of ETSAB), Soledad G Ferrari (Earth Champion in Sustainable Cities, Edinburgh Earth Initiative, UoE)
17:00 Masterclass ‘‘The Cerdá project for Barcelona’ by Joan Busquets, Professor in Practice of Urban Planning and Design at GSD, Harvard University
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