Barcelona Melbourne 2050 Dialogues
Separated by 17,000 km, practically on opposite sides of the globe, Barcelona and Melbourne share several characteristics that allow interesting comparisons to be drawn between them in terms of urban development despite the distance. The “Barcelona Melbourne 2050 Dialogues” project consists of a series of seminars that will present institutions working towards Melbourne’s future, with the aim of drawing lessons for the Barcelona metropolitan area.
Objectives
- To establish a strategic dialogue between Barcelona and Melbourne with a view to their development towards the 2050 time horizon.
- To strengthen ties between institutions in both cities, particularly, on Barcelona’s side, among members of the PEMB.
- To generate shared knowledge.
The “Barcelona Melbourne 2050 Dialogues” project aims to bring two cities that have a great deal in common even closer together. Both are the second-largest cities in their respective countries in terms of population, with around 5.3 million inhabitants in their metropolitan areas. Both are very open and diverse cities, with world-class ports stemming from their economic potential based on industry, although both underwent a significant transformation in the 1990s, becoming centres of knowledge and tourist destinations. Both have hosted the Olympic Games and are often ranked close to each other in various global city rankings.
Finally, both metropolitan regions face similar structural challenges, such as access to housing, mobility, adaptation to climate change, and metropolitan governance.
Melbourne is currently developing the M2050 Vision process, which may serve as inspiration for carrying out a similar initiative in Barcelona. In addition, Melbourne has several institutions working in the field of urban innovation and collaborative governance that may also serve as references for Barcelona-based institutions.
For this reason, jointly with RMIT University, which has its European headquarters in Barcelona, and the UPF-BR Chair on Metropolitan Futures, the PEMB has decided to organise a series of online seminars aimed at Barcelona-based institutions, which will present experiences from Melbourne-based institutions concerning urban transformation and governance.
The project consists of a series of four 1.5-hour online seminars which are scheduled at 8:30 a.m. due to the time zone difference. The working language is English.
PROGRAMME
Session 1: Participatory urban innovation
- Date: 16 April. This session will include a second part consisting of a field workshop in the 22@ district on 14 May
- Objective: to learn about the working processes of RMIT’s Future Play Lab
- Speaker: Troy Innocent, Director of the Future Play Lab
Session 2: Building Melbourne’s 2050 strategy
- Date: 18 June
- Objective: to learn about the M2050 Vision process
- Speaker: Phoebe Harrison, Vision 2050 Strategy Lead at the City of Melbourne
Session 3: Multi-stakeholder collaboration in urban regeneration
- Date: 10 September
- Objective: to learn about the work of Regen Melbourne
- Speaker: Alison Whitte, Systems Lab Director at Regen Melbourne
Session 4: Innovation districts
- Date: 26 November
- Objective: to learn about the development of Melbourne’s innovation district
- Speaker: Tom Bentley, Vice President for Strategy & Community Impact at RMIT
The series of online seminars will result in a report documenting the different cases and compiling the lessons learned that may be useful for participants from both cities.
