10th Biennial of European Towns and Town Planners

Cascais 19-21 September 2013

New Paradigms, Challenges and Opportunities for European Cities
The contribution of Spatial Planning to overcome the crisis

Children born today may live until 2090. We are preparing our cities for them. How should we do that? And how should we combine the new paradigms, the new basis of city life with the struggle to overcome of the current crisis?

The Biennial will try to answer these questions and will be focused on different aspects of these subjects:

• Theoretical presentations by keynote speakers and authors of papers (general and specific; covering energy, water, information, public participation, demography; environment; new technologies, new materials and new methodologies);
• Young Planners Workshop on City without Public Economic Funds;
• Young Planners Workshop on Urban Regeneration;
• Best practice exhibition of innovative urban solutions;
• Best practice exhibition of recently completed innovative plans and projects;
• Exhibition of recently developed new technologies;
• The exhibition and conference presenting the winning projects in 2012 European Urban and Regional Planning Awards;
• Poster exhibition and conference presenting selected projects in the Cascais Urban Award 2013.

Confirmed Keynote speakers: Bernardo Secchi, Anil Menon, Louis Albrechts, Alain Bourdin, Joan Busquets, Paolo la Greca, Oriol Nel.lo, António Câmara, Jaime Melo Baptista, Vincent Goodstadt, Kevin Murray, Ismael Fernandez Mejia, Izabela Mironowicz, Elin Sondergard, Pierre Laconte, Joaquim Poças Martins, Rafaela Matos, José Saldanha Matos, Helena Alegre, Helena Marecos, Eduardo Oliveira Fernandes, António Costa Silva, Nuno Ribeiro da Silva, Manuel Duarte Pinheiro and José Ma Ezquiaga.

Come to the 10th Biennial of European Towns and Town Planners in Cascais. Bring us your professional experience, your questions and concerns, your answers and solutions. Together we will learn how to face the New Challenges, how to find New Opportunities, within the scope of New Paradigms.

João Teixeira
Chairman of the 10th Biennial 
ECTP-CEU Vice-president
Cascais Municipality Director for Strategy, Innovation and Quality

see full detailed programme here

all info: www.cascaisurban2013.pt

The Venue

Estoril Congress Centre
Opened in 2001 and winner of the “Excellency in innovation and Architecture Quality Prize” and “Best Tourism Development”, the Estoril Congress Center is located on a very prominent tourist site known as the Estoril Coast, next to the famous Casino, granted with the surrounding gardens and sea views and a 25km drive from Lisbon airport.

It has been designed to hold a great majority of events and its functionality and modern technological equipment allow it to adapt to specific requirements, as well as the simultaneous holding of different activities.

The Estoril Congress Center is the only space certified as a Green Venue in Portugal for its commitment to green practices and sustainable business.

Exhibitions

Exhibition of new technologies
New technologies will be very important for the future of cities. Several enterprises are developing new technologies. These enterprises will exhibit their ultimate developments and will present them, such as energy, water, communication, information, transportation and other subsystems.

The awarded winning projects in the last European Urban and Regional Planning Awards
The European Urban & Regional Planning Awards is promoted by the European Council of Spatial Planners, ECTP-CEU. Last editions were supported by the Committee of the Regions. The Awards show the state of spatial planning practice in Europe. The aims of the Awards Scheme are to:
a) demonstrate to the general public, and to the planning profession in particular, successful and innovative planning projects and developments through which the quality of life of European citizens is enhanced and improved, socially, economically and environmentally;
b) promote the views, ideas and vision of the ECTP on the future of European cities and regions, as expressed in the New Charter of Athens, (renamed Charter of European Planning ) whereby conditions favorable to the promotion of sustainable development are created and enhanced;
c) illustrate the diversity and wide scope of planning activity today: in regeneration of urban and rural areas, economics and leisure, transport and traffic management, as well as promoting social cohesion and enhancing cultural identity, to mention but a few;
d) demonstrate clearly the advantages of the participatory planning process, facilitated and enabled by professional planners, showing that co-operation between stakeholders, local authorities, development agencies and interested citizens can have a synergistic effect of benefit to all participants;
e) The posters exhibition and conference about selected works of the Cascais Urban Award 2013

Best practices exhibition of innovative urban solutions
In Europe, several cities are dealing in advance with key subjects, such as water, energy and information. In those cities, Spatial Planning and Urban Management set new aims for urban interventions and their implementation process. The Cascais’ Biennial aim to present best practices in innovative urban interventions, setting an exhibition that anticipates the next cities realities. Since such projects are already being implemented, first results and benefits can be evaluated by experts of different areas. Presentations will allow debate with participants.
Best practices exhibition of innovative plans and projects that were recently completed
Urban Planners and other professionals are developing new ideas for cities. Some of those plans and projects achieve levels of excellence that must be shared at technical level, in order to improve other works. With this aim, the Cascais’ Biennial prepared an exhibition of best practices, showing innovative plans and projects that were recently completed. Different projects and plans will be presented, in several urban realities and cultures. Along with the exhibition, experts will be called up to discuss such projects, revealing the key factors for success, and weakness.

Workshops

Cascais New Paradigms Workshop
This workshop will occur for planners that accept the challenge to drawn up new ideas for Cascais’ urban centralities, in order to set new paths for municipality actions, within new paradigm. The final projects of each group should be presented in working session. Several Experts will participate. Participants of Cascais’ Biennial are welcome.

Young Planners Workshop on City without Public Economic Funds
Several Young Planners started in the beginning of the year developing their project about City without Public Economic Funds. This program aims to bring up new ideas to overcome present crises, and should focus on other ways to manage and finance the city regarding to urban regeneration and public utility.