Inspiration from Falkenberg

During one week in November, nike air max 90 pas cher people had the chance to discuss and come with suggestions on how to improve the town centre of Falkenberg. asics soldes A container, converted into a living room, nike cortez was placed on the town square and invited people to sit down, adidas y3 boost drink a cup of coffee and discuss the future of the town centre with representatives from the municipality. basket nike louboutin pas cher The activity resulted in 1290 suggestions, adidas superstar 2 soldes big and small. ugg paillettes nike air max femme The ideas have now been politically prioritized and some will become reality within the municipality’s budget for town centre development.

Half-time update

The EUPLETT project started in January 2014, which means that we have now moved into the second half of it. For those of you who need a reminder, EUPLETT is an exchange-project set up to fuel new ideas on urban planning and to create vibrant town centers using the process of citizen dialogue. Five towns from different parts of Europe have come together to work and collaborate on urban planning issues. adidas superstar aliexpress The towns that are represented and participate in the collaboration are Dubrovnik in Croatia, Schouwen-Duiveland in the Netherlands, Køge in Denmark, Ballymena in Northern Ireland and Falkenberg in Sweden. nike air presto nike air max thea The project of EUPLETT is funded with the support of the European Union under the programme ”Europé for Citizens”. adidas stan smith pas cher homme During 2014, we had 3 events within the EUPLETT project where we met and worked together.

  • First we met in Falkenberg in March for a kick-off for the project. The participants got to know each other and got the chance to start discussing urban planning, the Europe 2020 strategy and citizen participation. adidas femme pas cher The programme for the event included lectures, workshops, town walks and presentations.
  • In May we met again in Dubrovnik. A conference was held about democratic processes from EU level to local level. The content of the conference focused on dialogue between town stakeholders as well as strategies for urban planning with examples and speakers from different parts of Croatia. The programme for the event also included lectures and workshop including a town walk about the future of the historic centre.
  • The last event of 2014 took place in Schouwen-Duiveland in late September and early October. The event included a one-day conference with invited guests on the theme of keeping towns vibrant. Other themes that were discussed during the event were public participation in urban planning and place branding. The partner participants got the chance to walk and bicycle around two of the municipality towns.

The events have gathered people with many different backgrounds, experiences and knowledge who all have an urban development interest in common. nike huarache Participants from the five partner towns have been architects, recreational managers, traffic consultants, EU coordinators, democracy developers, business owners, social housing experts and university researchers (among many other professions). nike flyknit In total, 250 people participated in the 3 events. chaussures nike air max More than half of these were citizens, politicians and other stakeholders who took part in the event activities. The mix of people and views on town development has created a dynamic environment and resulted in many interesting discussions throughout the 3 meetings.   Events and plans for 2015 3 events are planned for in 2015:

  • Køge, 17-20 of March . The programme for the event is already finished. There will be a one day conference called Absolutely Urban. Partners will also visit KØS (Museum of art in public spaces) and discuss culture in public spaces.
  • Ballymena, 2-5 of June – the programme for the Ballymena event is not yet ready, but public realm planning and strategies will be discussed.
  • Falkenberg, 16-19 of November. This will be the final event and combine an opportunity for partners to wrap up and finish the project with an opportunity for the public in Falkenberg and surrounding areas to discuss and learn more about town planning.

Between events a youth activity will also be carried out locally by all partners and will be presented at the final event in Falkenberg in November. The aim with the activity is to involve young people and encourage young ideas on town development and spatial planning. In each partner town a group of young people will work with finding one place/area they like and one place/area the dislike and explain why. In more general terms, we expect 2015 to give us the opportunity to:

  • Find 3 new project ideas for partners to work with after the EUPLETT project has finished.
  • Work together to deepen the knowledge and understanding of a sustainable town planning.
  • Finish an e-book including recommendations and collected experiences about town development and how to create a vibrant town centre.

From a Falkenberg perspective, expectations are that 2015 will give us even more inspiration and opportunities to discuss, share, learn and reflect on the work we and our partners do. Hopes are also that we can find shared interests in other fields and establish new future partnerships and collaborations. Regarding public participation, we will hopefully continue to discuss and share experiences between partners in order to find new and improved ways to involve our citizens in our urban planning projects.

Looking ahead

To finish this meeting in Køge, louboutin pas cher we discussed how our network of partner towns can find new possibilities for cooperation. nike air max command soldes asics gel lyte 5 We plan to find some new ideas and will discuss this more in Ballymena. nike air max classic bw The Ballymena meeting takes place 2-5th of June. nike air presto nike air max thea soldes Among other things we will take part in a conference about spacial planning. air max homme nike air max femme pas cher We are looking forward to it and to meet again.

Culture and art in our towns

The Køge event has been very interesting with a good programme but also a lot of time to talk about our common interest – town planning and urban development. asics nimbus The knowledge and experiences that partner participants have when you put us all together is great and we really learn from each other. basket nike adidas pas cher We discuss art for breakfast and the need for parking spaces (or do we need them at all?) for dessert after dinner. chaussure adidas nike air huarache soldes This last morning in Køge, each partner presented how they work within the field of culture and art in their towns. chausson ugg adidas yeezy boost Partners agreed on that the museum of art in public spaces that we visited on Wednesday is unique and very inspiring. air jordan future nike femme solde We have learnt that culture in the public realm is truly important and can make a big difference for the people living in the town.

The conference Absolutely Urban was a success! About 150 participants got together at Tapperiet, the local youth cultural centre, which in itself was a very urban setting for the conference. WP_20150319_011 Absolutely Urban raised questions around the fact that cities, towns, local town communities and rural communities today are all taking part in the big urban competition of providing vibrant and flexible urban areas. asics gel quantum 360 During the day, questions were being asked such as: Is there anything else than urbanity today? How can we handle ”absolute urbanity”, when citizens and consumer groups demand direct and determining participation in a still stronger urbanisation of urban and rural communities? Do we understand how to transfer our experiences – from the exchange with citizens, with art and culture as driving forces and with temporary initiatives – to the permanent solutions? Urbanism is a mental state as well as a perspective of life – what characterizes urbanism as a spiritual frame? The programme had 8 speakers, with several influential researchers and practitioners within the field: Henrik Reeh, Urban Culture Lab/University of Copenhagen, talked about the meaning of being absolutely urban by giving 3 examples of absolutely urban phenomena. nike pour homme pas cher The showed the complexity in the term and that a definition must be wide. Jan Gehl, Gehl Architects, has since more than 40 year been an advocate for building cities between the houses and showed on the importance of building cities for people. nike air tn Gehl claimed that the real problem is how we build new cities, not how we develop the already existing cities. When building new cities we still use our old models, but we need to think new and create housing and city areas for the 21st century. adidas femme Living conditions have changed among other things and we need to adapt our cities to new circumstances. Gehl told us we also need to have a holistic approach and aim for appropriate sustainability where all measures taken have a specific purpose. Kenneth Balfelt, artist, was part of the transformation of the public park Folkets Park in Copenhagen. adidas gazelle He talked about the process of developing the park into a park where everyone wanted to go and of how they combined all the differnt interests of the people using the park. WP_20150319_009 Saskia Sassen, prof. of Sociology at Columbia University, New York, talked about the city and how the city is a zone for making life. Peter Bishop, prof. louboutin homme in Urban Design, The Bartlett School of Architecture, London, held a lecture about the temporary city. The idea that we could freeze the city, making it permanent was big in 20th century. nike air pegasus But Bishop meant that this has changed during the last 20 years and temporary events are starting to capture the way the cities work. Temporary urbanism is a response to the emergence of the consume, it is a fragmentation of democratic consensus, a positive force, an act of hope and a political statement. nike air max thea soldes To illustrate the temporary city he gave examples of beaches in Paris, farmers’ markets on Autobahn, popup furniture in the streets, public art, guerilla gardening, occupants and urban culture. Roberta Brandes Gratz, ’urban critic’, journalist and author, New York gave an image of the a rising tide as she called it, that she has seen in the United states. nike air max pas cher She said that historic cities are doomed. They are a museum and private and commercial interest are pushing urban life out of the cities. Real people don’t get a place in the cities when companies and the rich are buying up real estate. Rebuilding a living city is hard. Axel Timm, Raumlabor, Berlin, talked about the process of transforming the area at the old Tempelhof airport which included a 10 step activation plan frpn creating an organization to creating activities. Jes Möller, director of the Köge Kyst project, was the last speaker of the day and talked about the project and how to drive a long term cultural process. WP_20150319_017 The day ended with at panel discussion that included all speakers and all participants were invited to mingling and networking after that.

A successful European network

Thursday was the last day of meeting within the EUPLETT project. ugg australia nike air max command soldes Air Jordan Future Homme A bit sad to say goodbye, ugg australia Adidas Zx 850 Homme we have become friends. adidas femme nike air huarache Nike Air Max 90 Femme But we are looking to see if we can work together again, nike air max classic bw louboutin chine as we have clearly established a good and valuable network between our municipalities and towns. ugg paillettes nike air max soldes adidas superstar 80s homme We already have quite a few new ideas about how to do more things together within the network. Falkenberg’s own town developer Henrik Olsson ended by taking everyone for a tour around the centre of Falkenberg, ugg pas cher buy bns gold once again starting a discussion about how to improve Falkenberg.

Vibrant town centres in a European perspective

IMG_0101 IMG_0104 A little over 100 people gathered today to take part in the open conference that Falkenberg arranged as part of the EUPLETT programme. nike free louboutin flat sandals The conference began with an introduction to the EU efforts to develop towns and cities. new balance femme By 2050, 80 percent of all Europeans will live in towns or cities. goedkoop air max 2017 chaussures nike femme 2017 Chaussures nike In 2016, asics gel noosa tri member state ministers will gather in Amsterdam to decide on an EU urban agenda that will strengthen the growth of cities, Nike Air Max Thea Homme Noir but also address how to handle the social challenges in growing cities. louboutin pigalle After that introduction, Nike Air Max 2018 Femme representatives from each partner shared with us some experiences and challenges from their municipalities and towns. adidas zx 750 homme Nike Free Rn Flyknit Homme Here are their presentations: Ballymena Falkenberg Dubrovnik Schouwen-Duiveland Køge After a nice lunch with local grown produce, we got to listen to three interesting lectures. asics gel kinsei Lina Bjerke from the University of Jönköping talked about relations between a small town and it’s surroundings and about moving patterns for young people leaving the country side to find work or study in the city. nike chaussure nike free trainer Lina Bjerke Anna Mocsáry and Oana Mihaescu from HUI Research told us about retail trends and the future for retail in small towns. adidas tubular shadow asics duomax Nike Free Run Flyknit homme HUI Lastly, nike air max 2016 uomo Rasmus Waern told us about how to handle conflicts in city planning.

Art in urban spaces and 3 different workshops

Our first full day in Køge started with a visit at KØS, the museum of art in public spaces. nike soldes louboutin homme AIR MAX 90 Women
They focus on the art that is all around us, buy ffxiv gil online in our urban spaces like town squares, adidas zx 700 damskie churches or in industrial areas, like they later showed us in Køge. asics gel lyte 3 soldes nike air jordan soldes kyrie 1 pas cher EUPLETT has shown many good examples of the difference culture can make in urban spaces. adidas homme It is an important part if we want to create vibrant towns where people want to spend their time. adidas homme adidas nmd Utah Jazz IMG_8266 IMG_8260 After a walk around the area Søndre Havn, Nike Air Max 2016 Dames Groen we were divided into 3 workshop groups and a bus dropped us of one group at the time in the residential area Ellemarken, at Campus Køge and at Køge Marina. chaussure timberland homme air jordan 31 Busy with our work, Nike Air Max 2016 Homme we ate our sandwich lunch while working.