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Future Cities: Shaping Europe from the bottom up

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  • Euobserver
The 2016 edition of EUobserver's Regions & Cities magazine looks at the cities of the future in Europe. While the EU is grappling with challenging problems - Brexit, migration, the economy, terrorism, to name a few - many European cities are reinventing themselves and tackling these problems in their own way.

Old cities, new shapes

Old cities, new shapes After centuries of development, the European model of cities is trying to put people first. By Eric Maurice In Europe, more than on any other continent, city dwellers, visitors and urban planners are likely to pass by centuries-old buildings and protected monuments. In a world of urban transformation and smart technology, European cities are solidly anchored in their past. But it would be a mistake to think that the "In Europe too, the parts of the urban fabrics that can be easily adapted are much, much larger than their historical parts," he told EUobserver. "Secondly, European cities grow by adding new can easily incorporate the new technologies of environmental sustainability and the new practices of community participation and socialisation." Many urbanists say that there is a "European model of city": old and dense urban areas, smaller than on other continents, where the centre still mixes residential and economic functions. But it is not a static model. "We may focus on the historical parts of Brussels, Calafati, a professor of urban studies at the academy of architecture of the USI (Universita della Svizzera italiana), in Mendrisio. European cities, more so than cities in the US or the emerging world, have to adapt to how the digital revolution might shape urban geography. CLEAR FUNCTIONS In the past, cities were developed by building new head of research at Demos Helsinki, a think tank. areas, commercial areas. told EUobserver. 26 — FUTURE CITIES OCTOBER 2016

is now London's concentrated in one Photo: EUobserver "The economic power is slowly changing. The division of labour is not as clear as it was. We don't just have a few important players, small actors have Traditional urban planners are being faced with new micro-economies, such as car and apartment sharing. The newcomers "don't see the point of spending a that "there should be more platforms where different home and "places don't have a clear function as they had before", he said. We "don't know what the outcome will be" for the shape of cities and their social fabric. the approach in US and Asian cities, which are more infrastructure-centred, techno-centred," said agency, a think-tank on urban innovation in Paris. aside. The focus is on control, like control of mobility, or city-centre management," he told EUobserver. urban area. where a former industrial area in the city centre has been redesigned by local residents. CITIZEN DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT European cities also differ from elsewhere in the world by how they apply the concept of “smart cities”. Smart cities is the name given to the use of new technologies and data to improve infrastructure, mobility or energy consumption. "European cities differentiate themselves from In the smart community, human initiatives and social links are more important than technology to improve urban conditions. service electric cars for residents and people working there. Brussels. More and online and work from home meaning have a clear function Photo: Ludovic Lubeigt FUTURE CITIES OCTOBER 2016 — 27

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