Copyright: Martina Pacasova.

With the sub<urban network nearly coming to an end, the question surfaces as to what comes next, after the networks' final meeting in Barcelona. How do we go from theory to practise or, more concretely, how do we translate the ideas stipulated in the local plans of action into interventions on the ground?

A burning question seeking an anwser during the last transnational network workshop, which will take place in Brno, Czechia, from 31 January till 2 February. The themes for this workshop are temporary use and impementation and financing, which will render useful tools for the road beyond the end of the network.

• Brno, Czechia
• 31 January - 2 February
• 'Temporary Use' and 'Implementation and Financing'
• Find the entire workshop programme here.

Copyright: Joan Caba.

From 4 till 5 December 2017, the network's partner cities Baia Mare, Düsseldorf, Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) and Badia del Vallès - together with the lead expert Maarten VanTujil - went on a field trip to the city of Marseille, France. The purpose of this visit was to gain insight in what challenges housing estates are facing in the Côte d'Azur (familiar to the three sub>urban cities in their IAP) and to get a hold on the main urban renewal plans, as scheduled by the public agency Marseille Rénovation Urbaine (MRU).

"The visit, accompanied by the technicians in charge of the projects in the Marseille metropolitan area, led us past several housing estates in the city outskirts, verifying their deficits particularly in terms of social and physical isolation, building deterioration and lack of public spaces, facilities and amnemities", says Joan Caba.

In order to solve these shortcomings, Marseille's main strategy is to apply integral renewal processes in the neighborhoods, which in many cases implies the total or partial demolition of the buildings.

The URBACT City Festival in Tallinn.

“Good practice - better Cities” was the headline of the Urbact City Festival in Tallinn, to which we sent our network’s price winners for communication and project management: Casoria and Düsseldorf. They selected projects that are particularly interesting for our network. Today's focus: 'mobility management'.

Bright mobility management

The city of Munich's 'Gscheid Mobil’ programme (a Bavarian-Austrian term for both 'quality' and 'intelligence') is a mobility management programme, that aims to reduce car traffic and support environmentally friendly transport. It helps citizens, guests and businesses develop their individual mobility planning. The project is not aimed at building infrastructure, but rather on changing the mindstate of people through small campaigns for different target groups, which are constantly tested, evaluated and improved.

Read more on this 'best practice' here.

From 25 till 27 April 2018, the city of Barcelona (MA) will be hosting the very last sub<urban meeting, including one day entirely devoted to an external audience.

On this occasion, the partners will present their final conclusions and have the opportunity to look back at what have been 3 very exciting years. Stay tuned for updates on the program and for your enrolment through this newsletter or on the website.