From 13th to 14th November, some of the brightest minds in the fields of Sociology, Urban Sciences, Technology and Architecture gathered in Barcelona to discuss the Future of our Public Space.

The second edition of the Responsive Cities Symposium, chaired by Areti Markopoulou, with programme responsibles Chiara Farinea and Mathilde Marengo, closed its doors confirming itself as a major event in the architectural and urban debate. More than a dozen outstanding keynote speakers, 30 international panelists and more than 400 visitors animated the two-day gathering, held in Barcelona CaixaForum and Smart City Expo on the 13th and 14th of November 2017.

On the first day of the symposium the opening of the APS exhibition “Implementing Technology Towards Active Public Space” aimed to promote the knowledge generated in the framework of the Active Public Space Project. At the show, visitors were able to explore best examples of implementation of innovative technologies for public space activation.

How do we design and inhabit our Public Space? How does it perform? What does it produce? These were some of the questions and discussion topics raised during the roundtables and debates taking place at CaixaFòrum and Smart City Expo. Through transversal viewpoints, the 2nd edition of the Responsive Cities Symposium combined disciplines such as urban planning, biology, advanced architecture, interaction, participatory technology and even performing arts to respond to the challenge of how cities can shape their public spaces towards more dynamic, productive and active citizen meeting places.

New modes of interaction among social, environmental and economic agents are redefining our Public Space and issues such as security, accessibility, segregation, privatisation, contamination or equality to name a few, are affecting its essential function. During the symposium these and other topics were debated by experts such as Luis Falcón, Mara Balestrini, Crimson Rose, Nataly Gattegno, Aldo Sollazzo, Helle Søholt, Claudia Pasquero, Enric Batlle, Pontus Westerberg, Alexei Novikov, Francesca Bria and Patrick Blanc.

The Symposium was organized as part of the Active Public Space (APS) project, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and developed by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, the Centre for Central European Architecture and the University of Applied Arts Vienna.