The closing seminar of the ABC Project

The last seminar of the ABC Project was recently held in Malmö, Sweden. 50 architects and planners from eight different countries and 27 cities, gathered in a sunny and warm city of Malmö to participate in the five-day-seminar focusing on the theme: "Renewal of city districts - aspects of integration and Public Private Partnership in developing cities".

The essence of the ABC-seminars is the cooperation and the practical planning work which all participate in.

This was completed by two series of high-qualitative lectures treating the topic. As usual in the ABC Project, the seminar started off with an introduction to Malmö and the Swedish planning. The former was done both by a lecture and a tour around the city. Malmö was described as a dynamic but a complex growing town. This knowledge was also offered on the following day during the lectures on the theme of the social and physical integration, which is a very important question often discussed in the Swedish society. The lectures gave inspiring ideas to use in the practical city planning. Among other things they stressed the importance of using the local conditions as a starting-point when developing plans for the city. It was also highlighted how important it was with creativity, imagination and the need for less rigid perspectives on issues as integration and segregation.

During the afternoon the workshops started. Architects from the City Planning Office guided the participants in the present areas: Norra Sorgenfri and Limhamns Industrial Area and Harbour. The areas represent well the topics of the Malmö seminar.

The third day offered lectures on the theme of the Public Private Partnership from four different angles, and gave quite a lot information about how to build different kinds of partnership and the meaning for the city.

During the closing day, on 9 October, the workshop groups presented their ideas. The City Architect Agneta Hammer was one of the representatives from Malmö who picked up the ideas and pieces of advice offered by the participants.

It was the sixth and the closing seminar of the ABC Project. At the same time it was the end of a very successful project. It was also, hopefully, an inspiring starting point for possible future forms of cooperation based on the experiences from the ABC. During the last seminar day Lars Brattberg introduced the idea for a coming cooperation project: "A Baltic Academy of City Planning". During the closing day of the ABC seminar in Malmö, a new committe of the Commission on Urban Planning and Public Design was elected.