Commission on Urban Planning

Innovative and sustainable cities

The Commission on Urban Planning held its 23^rd seminar"Innova-tive Districts"on 11 -13 April in Växjö.

Seminar participants listening to the workshop presentations

Växjö is, according to the BBC, "the Greenest City in Europe", because already for 15 years the city has been working for environmentally friendly urban development. The city aims to become fossil fuel free by the year 2030. At the same time Växjö is growing, and the population is presently 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. That is why the seminar participants visited the wooden multi-storey housing complex on the waterfront of Trummen Lake. There were also lots of other interesting practical solutions to see for planners working with the questions of sustainable urban development.

Despite the impressive sustainable development, Växjö still has some questions of how to further develop the city and how to connect certain isolated parts with the city centre. The seminar workshops concentrated 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 community feels these areas are placed apart from the city centre and thus the urban structure needs improvement. That is why the ideas of the CUP network of urban planners were appreciated. There was Mr Martin Möller from the Århus University's Alexandra Institute to tell about how business life and university meet and inspire each other for new development. Ms Sidsel Jensen from the Gehl Architects gave an inspiring presentation about Samarkand, another workshop focus area. The workshops resulted in many new proposals for future urban development, including new housing and business building possibilities and cooperation with the university researchers.

45 participants from 20 cities and 8 Baltic countries took part in the seminar. The beautiful early 1900's grey stone Teleborg castle provided excellent premises.

The next Commission's seminar will be held in Tartu, Estonia, in September 2011.