WORKING ON WATERFRONTS IN GDANSK

On 18-22 April in Gdansk the UBC Commission on Urban Planning organised a Seminar on Best Practice in Urban Physical Planning and Urban Design entitled: "Waterfronts - development opportunities in cities".

The seminar was arranged in the close cooperation with the UBC Secretariat, the Gdansk City Council and Synergia 99, the owner of the Gdansk post-shipyard areas, which were assigned for investments having the character of the new fragment of the City of Gdansk. In the place of the former Gdansk Shipyard the complex foundations of the modern city are being projected.

An important, perhaps the most important fragment of the future building are the waterfronts.

In the framework of the presentation of the subject, the participants were presented a wide spectrum of problems, including the historic background of the Baltic cities cooperation and the vision of the BSR development strategy. An extremely interesting lecture was given about the Old City of Gdansk urban code in connection with the projected areas. Also there was presented a data base regarding the big studio and project investments concerning the post shipyard area. Participants had a possibility to catch sight of this area during the bus and ship journey.

We analysed the area in many aspects of the sustainable development in order to record the results during workshops.

By the work of all participants in three groups we obtained a fresh, interesting outlook and perhaps a new conception of the development of this area. The last act of the seminar will be the report which will present in a detailed way the conclusions and graphic conceptions. The UBC Commission on Urban Planning will meet together this autumn in St. Petersburg to work on the city infrastructure problem.