Dear Sir/Madam, 

Växjö is according to the British Broadcasting Company BBC “the Greenest City in Europe” because already 15 years the city has been working for environmentally friendly urban development and has managed to reduce its CO2 emissions already by 34% compared to the levels of 1996. The city aims to become fossil fuel free by the year 2030. At the same time the city of Växjö is growing, and the population now is more than 80 000 people. Located in the middle of a large wood and timber industrial region the city has built a well functioning district heating system and also uses wood as a construction material. During the seminar we will visit the wooden multi-storey housing complex on the waterfront of the lake Trummen, but there are lots of other interesting practical solutions to see for planners working with the questions of sustainable urban development.

But despite of the impressive sustainable development, the city of Växjö still has some questions of how to further develop the growth of the city and how to connect certain isolated parts with the city centre. The seminar workshops concentrate on Samarkand, an industrial and commercial area that needs certain updating, and the Trummen area with the Linné University  and the wooden multi storey housing project. The local inhabitants feel these areas are (more mentally than physically) apart from the city centre and thus the urban structure needs improvement, and that is why the ideas of the CUP network of urban planners are highly valuated. To give us something to think about we have asked Mr Martin Möller from the Århus University’s Alexandra Institute to tell us about how business life and university meet and inspire each other for new development. Ms Sidsel Jensen from the Gehl Architects will talk about Samarkand, the other workshop focus area.

The seminar starts this time early on Monday morning, April 11th at the Teleborg Castle where the seminar participants are taken to by bus. The beautiful Teleborg Castle is the venue of the whole seminar, but there are excursions to interesting sites during the seminar. See the enclosed file “Invitation to…” to read about the seminar programme. The earlier announced dinner at the Kosta glass factory has been cancelled, but instead we will have a nice dinner in the heart of the city close to the hotel Cardinal.

To be able to start the seminar on Monday morning April 11th, we recommend that the seminar participants arrive in Växjö already on Sunday afternoon or evening (April 10th). The small Småland Airport is only about 15-20 minutes from the Växjö City Centre with regular flights arriving from Stockholm and Copenhagen. It is also possible to fly to Copenhagen or to Stockholm and take a train to Växjö.

Our organizers in Växjö have kindly negotiated on behalf of the seminar participants a special price of the hotel rooms at the Clarion Hotel Cardinal  (http://www.clarionhotel.com/hotel-vaxjo-sweden-SE094): standard single room costs approx. 104 Euros/night, superior single room approx. 118 Euros/night and a double room approx. 126 Euros/night. In order to get the special price, remember to mention that you are part of the UBC-Conference! The seminar participants are expected to make their hotel reservation themselves either by e-mail: cc.cardinal@choice.se or by phone, tel: +46(0)470-722800.

The seminar ends on Wednesday, April 13th at about noon. The exceptional seminar dates have been decided because we would like to see all the seminar participants to stay to the very end of the seminar – because of travel arrangements on Saturdays some participants have left certain previous CUP seminars before the official end of the seminar and thus missed some interesting information, and this we want to avoid.

To participate the seminar please fill in the enclosed registration form and send it to jesserina.flores@vaxjo.se as soon as possible.  The latest registrations must come by 24^th of March, because our hosts need to confirm all the reservations then. As usual, there is no participation fee in the CUP seminar!

Looking forward to meeting you in Växjö in April!

• Invitation and program (5.09 MB)
• Registration form (31.5 KB)

Sirpa Kallio

Chairperson of the UBC Commission on Urban Planning Project Manager City of Helsinki Economic and Planning Centre Development Division tel. +358 9 310 36124

e-mail: sirpa.kallio@hel.fi