Partners

UPC Technology Center

CARNET, The Future Mobility Research Hub, initiated by SEAT, Volkswagen Group Research and UPC, is an open hub for industrial and academic partners from the areas of automotive and mobility research & innovation. CARNET is located in Barcelona, and works through project-based collaboration. Within the project, Carnet’s role is managing the overall project.

Technical University of Catalonia (UPC-BarcelonaTech)

The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC-BarcelonaTech)is a public institution of research and higher education in the fields of engineering, architecture, sciences and technology. The Department of Urbanism and Regional Planning (DUOT), based in the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), specializes in spatial planning at regional and urban level, public space design and architectural design of inter-modal transport buildings. The DUOT is the UPC Department that teaches bachelor degree, master’s degree and doctoral studies in Urbanism at Schools of Architecture of Barcelona and Vallès (ETSAB-ETSAV). Learning spatial planning has a long tradition and is a hallmark in UPC-BarcelonaTech internationally recognized. Urbanism Studies taught at UPC become a strength for urban planners who studied in our university. It is mainly reflected in the quality and success of the urban planning developed in Catalan cities, but also in Spain and the rest of the world. It is involved in project activities in business models, value proposition, and decision support tool development. The role of the UPC-BarcelonaTech and the Department of Urbanism and Regional Planning (DUOT) in the project will be to share their expertise in both public space design and urban planning at local level.

Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) is an interdisciplinary research and education institution synthesizing such topics as architecture, urbanism, innovation, participatory design, robotics, remote sensing, information and communications technologies, ecology and digital fabrication. IAAC hosts the Fab Lab Barcelona, the leading node of the worldwide Fab Lab Network. IAAC will contribute to this project expertise in local digital fabrication as well as the expertise in hosting global collaborative and competitive design events it has gained through establishing many highly successful competitions including the Advanced Architecture Contest currently in its 8th edition with jurors and participants from every continent. Moreover, IAAC will contribute decades of experience in the design, planning and implementation of urban pedestrian spaces including direction of such initiatives as Barcelona’s Sustainable Mobility Plan which featured the tactical urbanism demonstration of the Superilla Pilot.

Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering

ELISAVA Barcelona School of Design and Engineering is a network of students, alumni, researchers, industry, organizations and cultural design stakeholders (e.g., Cumulus, ELIA, Desis Network). Operating since 1961 and affiliated with UPF since 1995, it trains over 2.000 students per year and boasts 11.000 m2 of facilities, including 5 experimentation labs. Its expertise is articulated around a social, human and cultural perspective of design and engineering. ELISAVA Research, a transdisciplinary research group, investigates, ideates, prototypes and communicates current and future design, societal and business challenges. It generates and transfers knowledge through research projects, IPs and patents, and it produces an international research journal–Temes de Disseny. ELISAVA will contribute to this project expertise in temporary space design as well as in collaborative and co-creation platforms it has gained through international, European and national initiatives such as International Conference No Boundaries Design, Design Does (DHub BCN), Fuel for Design (Erasmus+) and Decoding European Creative Processes (Creative Europe). ELISAVA will contribute its expertise in social-oriented design and the know-how gained through initiatives clearly aligned with the project, such as ongoing Civic Placemaking, Design for City Making and Superilles+.

City of Milan

The Municipality of Milan is an Italian local public authority responsible for delivering a large number of services across the city (education, social services, economic development, mobility). Second largest city in Italy (1.400.000 inhabitants in its Municipality, 180 sqKm), Milan is also the administrative and business centre in the largest Italian metropolitan area, with a population of about 5.000.000 people, and the main city of Lombardy, Italian most populated and wealthy region. Milan Municipality is the local government of the core city. The Municipality of Milan is member of Eurocities network, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Urban Development Network (sustainable urban development strategies) and the Global Resilient Cities Network. It is also involved in environmental policies and has signed two important agreements: the Covenant of Mayors and the Local Governments Climate Protection Agreement. The Department for Mobility, Transport and Environment works actively with other departments in order to reach urban sustainability. In the past years it has been working at the development of Congestion Charge Area C, improvement and promotion of bike mobility, conversion of public transport fleet toward green vehicles, implementation of energy efficiency practices and policies, renewable energy conversion in private and public buildings. Recently, in response to the Covid-19 emergency, within the Milano 2020 Adaptation Strategy, it has developed “Open streets“, a set of strategies, actions and tools for cycling and walking, ensuring distancing measures within the urban travel and towards a sustainable mobility.

AJUNTAMENT DE BARCELONA

Barcelona is a city of 1,7M inhabitants in a small area of 100 km2, part of a metropolitan area with a total population of 3,3M inhabitants in an area of 600 km2. Barcelona is one of the most densely populated cities in Europe, also in relation to the amount of vehicles/km2 (near 6.000). Barcelona has to tackle environmental and health problems that directly affect the quality of life of citizenship: air pollution, noise, traffic accidents, public space occupation, lack of green areas and climate emergency. The city is working hard to change all these effects thanks to the Superblocks strategy, which aims to transform the whole city combining both tactical and structural interventions. But the children population is the most vulnerable, this is the reason why there is also a specific program to tackle safety and environmental quality around schools, called ‘Let’s protect schools’.

Barcelona is now involved in transforming big areas that used to be dedicated to cars. In Gran Via – Glòries there is a new tunnel?just opened in April 2022, and a space of 9.200 m2 is now available to be transformed initially by tactical urbanism measures. This is the area where FURNISH-KIDS is taking place, with the direct involvement of the schools located nearby to co-create the new mobile urban elements that will be located in public space.