reSITE, the international festival about collaborative and sustainable urban planning, continues into its second year with more interesting themes and guests with the goal to transform Prague into a modern European metropolis at the center of the urbanism world from June 19-23. The main theme of the second annual conference (June 20-21) is Metropolis Central – reflecting Central European cities and the increasing number of young, creative people who are the infinite resources of those urban centers. The conference will focus on providing a process and potential solutions for the conflicted desires of Central European citizens. More information after the break.
Again, the heart of the festival will be an international conference at DOX Centre for Contemporary Art that will gather professionals from architecture, urban planning, finance and technology from all over the world. The main goal is to debate ideas about livable and competitive cities. From year-to-year the number of activist groups and visible opinion makers has increased dramatically. The themes that parallel reSITE - architecture, politics, finance, planning and democracy - they all meet when one thinks of public space.
The impressive list of speakers again in 2013 reflects the aim of the organizers – to transform the festival into a discussion and working platform to bridge the gaps between different professions and groups. The main star of the conference should be the Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City. Bloomberg, whose presence will be supported by representatives of the City of New York such as Adrian Benepe – former Commissioner for New York City Parks – and Alexandros E. Washburn, a popular guest at last year’s conference. MVRDV, and founder of NYC-based studio TERREFORM ONE, Maria Ailova, will represent architects at the conference while the landscape architect, James Corner of Field Operations (the lead designer of the Highline in NYC) has been invited as well.
Progressive mayors, main architects and urban planners will represent the Europeans from London, Budapest, Wroclaw and Freiburg. The Deputy Mayor of Vienna, Maria Vassilakou will be another important guest of the conference. „She is the European ‘Janette Sadik-Khan.’ Her aim is to have half of Vienna riding bikes,“ says Milota Sidorova, festival Coordinator. Winy Maas from the Dutch studio,
Economics and finance will be represented by Paul Romer – professor of urban economics from NYU, while Tomas Sedlacek and many others will comment on the Central European situation. In total, more than 60 speakers will meet during two days in DOX, Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague to show the best practices that helped modernize their cities to be more livable.
To register, and for more information, please visit here.