URBAN LAB

Meeting place residents, activists and officials, who together they develop and they are implementing solutions corresponding to on challenges standing before Gdynia.

STRATEGIC GROUP
FIRST ONLINE STUDY VISIT
GDYNIA WITH THE PRIZE FOR QUALITY OF LIFE
THEMATIC TEAMS
CONFERENCE “BECOMING THE CITY – GLOBAL CHALLENGES, LOCAL SOLUTIONS”: PRELEGENTS
CITIES CONSCIOUS – GLOBAL CHALLENGES, LOCAL SOLUTIONS TO THE CONFERENCE POSTPONED TO THE SECOND HALF OF 2020

STRATEGIC GROUP

The Strategic Group is a team setting the directions of development of UrbanLab Gdynia. It is composed of all-Polish experts and experts in the subject of city management and solutions for cities, including the President of Gdynia and the College of the President of Gdynia. The group is established for three years. It is up to the group to determine what the UrbanLab will do in a given year and how it will evolve in search of new, more effective methods of finding solutions.

AT THE INVITATION OF THE PRESIDENT OF GDYNIA THEY JOINED THE STRATEGIC GROUP:

– Wojciech Kłosowski – independent local government expert, specialist in local development issues and strategic planning and management;

– Dr. Kacper Pobłocki – an anthropologist and social scientist, assistant professor at the Centre for European Regional and Local Studies (EUROREG) of the University of Warsaw;

– Dr. Mariusz Sokołowicz – Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Sociology of the University of Lodz;

– Filip Springer – publicist and author of books related to urban issues;

– Prof. Michał Stangel – architect, urban planner, assistant professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Spatial Planning at the Faculty of Architecture of the Silesian University of Technology;

– Aleksandra Zemke – a graduate of Conflict Resolution at the University of Amsterdam and the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at Warsaw University. Founder of the Spanish organization Smilemundo.

FIRST ONLINE STUDY VISIT

The first online study visit to the Social Innovation Laboratory was dedicated to the revitalization, neighborhood centers of the Marina and UrbanLab.

Every year at the turn of June and July, an international consortium of 5 universities (Aalborg, Lincoln, Lisbon, Paris and Warsaw) organizes an online summer school for Advanced Development in Social Work students (https://socialworkadvances.org/ ). It consists of 16 social work practitioners who are trained to work in the field of international social work during their master’s studies.

Social Innovation is the theme of this year’s summer school with students and professors from Hong Kong, Ukraine, China, Georgia, Egypt, Libya, Germany, Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Uganda, the Philippines, Japan, Poland and the United States.

During the online “classes” in this year’s program, the selection of speakers was made in order to show students organizations of different scope that implement programs in the area of “social innovation”.

The Social Innovation Laboratory was invited to conduct the lectures, as an institution that implements programs of a city-wide range, in which every inhabitant is the recipient and creator. Where the activities very often concern a specific place and locality.

The idea of “Think globaly act localy” resonates in each of the cultural environments, which are linked by the online summer school program. The Laboratory was also invited as an organization operating within the budget and administration of the city, yet working on innovations in the structure of bottom-up initiatives. .

The presentation of the Social Innovation Laboratory was led by Katarzyna Ziemann, Deputy Director of LIS, on-line on Wednesday 1st July.

The first part was a presentation of the Social Innovation Laboratory as an organization realizing and implementing innovative solutions, meeting social challenges, social expectations and showing the spectrum of LIS activities and its role in the city and a short discussion of the implemented programs and projects. The basic programs are: Revitalization-GdyniaOdNowa, Civic Budget, Network of neighborhood centers – Marina, Youth Innovation Center – Exchange Plant and UrbanLab.

Presented projects: Social and Professional Activation System in Gdynia, Development of Social Services in Gdynia, Revitalization of Social Services – Gdynia OdNowa, Social Innovation Incubator.

The second part is a detailed story about the activities of a specific program and the social innovations that are developed in it – UrbanLab.  The UrbanLab was presented by Monika Chabior, Magda Żółkiewicz and Magda Dębna.

UrbanLab Gdynia is a three-year implementation experiment involving testing the urban lab concept adapted to Polish conditions and supporting its pilot implementation in two Polish cities – Gdynia and Rzeszow. It identifies needs and problems, and then seeks innovative ways of solving them in an open formula of dialogue and cooperation with the residents.

The pilot concept is implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, under the Technical Assistance Operational Programme 2014-2020, co-financed by the Cohesion Fund.

UrbanLab was chosen to be presented at the summer school on-line because of its innovative program and activities with residents as well as officials and institutions involved in creating social life of cities in response to defined challenges (in 2019. – participation, in 2020 – adaptation to climate change and urban challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic).

The online meeting was an opportunity to exchange knowledge and conclusions resulting from the practice and implementation of programmes and projects.

It was also an opportunity to share experience in creating and implementing social innovations or running the so-called living labs, of which our Gdynia UrbanLab is an example.

GDYNIA WITH THE PRIZE FOR QUALITY OF LIFE

Out of the quarter of a million cities in the world analyzed, Gdynia – as the only city from Poland – was among the best 22. Detailed hearings of representatives of all the cities qualified for the last stage were held in Rome in the past days. Eventually, Gdynia in the category from 150 thousand to 400 thousand inhabitants found itself on the podium, winning third place. The co-organizer of the competition is UNEP – an agency of the United Nations, established to protect the environment.

– For years, we have been consistently implementing the policy of sustainable development, which aims to secure all the needs of the current residents, as well as the next generations of Gdynia’s inhabitants. That is why we are very pleased that a group of international experts have confirmed the rightness of our actions in the economic, social and environmental areas – says Wojciech Szczurek, President of Gdynia.

LivCom Awards is an extremely prestigious and the only ranking in the world that focuses on the quality of life, trying to reward and indicate those cities where one simply lives best (liveable). The review and evaluation of the presentation is performed by an international panel of jurors consisting of environmental and landscape management specialists. In previous editions the finalists included Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Swedish Malmo, Australian Port Fairy and Honolulu (USA).

– The competition procedure lasted several months. Already in Rome itself, we were obliged to give a nearly an hour-long presentation about Gdynia talking about local solutions focused on residents and quality of life. We had to prove each of them with hard data. This award is extremely pleasing and is a kind of confirmation that as Gdynia we are doing really well – explains Bartosz Bartoszewicz, Vice-President for Quality of Life.

The aim of the LivCom Awards is to develop and share the best international practices and improve the quality of life of the inhabitants by creating cities that are friendly to life. This year’s edition was strongly focused on the problems related to climate change. Each year the communities that meet at the LivCom Awards finals exchange best practices and experiences and join forces to face common challenges.

Bartosz Bartoszewicz, Gdynia’s Vice-President for Quality of Life and Małgorzata Czaja, Head of the independent lecture on Quality of Life and Management Systems Integration at Gdynia City Hall with a commemorative diploma from LivCom Awards 2019 // photo: Kamil Złoch

The final of this year’s LivCom Awards 2019 was held at the University of Rome Tor Vergata on 11-13 December. To the finals 22 cities and 34 projects from over 30 countries were invited. Presentations were divided into 5 categories according to the population of cities. Gdynia was in the strict finals with Finnish Oulu, Ambon from Indonesia, Xicheng District in China and Bergen in Norway giving way only to the last two.

The achievements of Gdynia were presented at the conference by Małgorzata Czaja, the manager of an independent paper on the quality of life and integration of management systems, Małgorzata Czaja, the coordinator of the first in Poland UrbanLab Gdynia – Przemysław Górski and the vice-president of Gdynia for the quality of life – Bartosz Bartoszewicz.

THEMATIC TEAMS

A thematic team is an annually established group of local experts and experts in a specific field, whose task is to diagnose challenges in a given thematic area and jointly identify ideas for dealing with them. It is a form of space for dialogue and discussion about the city in terms of a specifically defined challenge. Within the framework of the work of the thematic team, the scope of the thematic module of the Urban Competence Program is also defined and research and consultations on topics important for the problem area are commissioned. This is also where ideas for innovations are created, which UrbanLab provides testing.

In order to make the thematic team really a space to talk about innovations and to ensure that the ideas that arise during the work are universal and meet the requirements of their stakeholders, the members and members of the team are selected so that they represent as many groups as possible interested in both the solution itself and the subsequent stages of its creation.

MEMBERS OF THE THEMATIC TEAM FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT. DEVELOPMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY AND PARTICIPATION IN 2019

Representatives and representatives of non-governmental organizations:

– Małgorzata Bujak – organizer of events such as the Art Festival and Biennale, the Sentimental Maps project and the Signs project. She is also responsible for coordinating volunteers and running social media. Associated with Traffic Design organization;

– Klaudia Jarecka-Świeca – pedagogue, tester and artist. She mainly implements projects related to social participation in the districts undergoing revitalization, as well as involving residents in the creation of works. Associated with the organization of the Place of Creation;

– Marek Radyko – coach of the third sector, expert in grant competitions. Organizer and initiator of projects for large groups of recipients, including events related to psychology, promotion of sports or civic education. He deals with education on a daily basis – he is the director of one of the leading non-public schools in the Pomeranian province. Vice-president of the In Gremio Association, which runs, among others, the Gdynia Center of Non-Governmental Organizations;

– Martyna Regent – initiator and coordinator of the Writing Remarks to Local Spatial Development Plans Marathons, interested in the city’s spatial development and civic activity in this area. On a daily basis she is associated with the Common City organization;

– Magdalena Warmowska – member of the board of the Non Stop Social Education Association, with many years of experience in running the SPOT Światłowcy day care center. Currently she works in the Diagnosis and Participation Department of the Social Innovation Laboratory.

Representatives of district councils:

– Paweł Musiał – has eight years of experience as a district councillor in Leszczyny district, for two terms of office he has been a vice-chairman. He is the initiator of projects involving residents in local activity and initiatives within the framework of the civic budget. He is a co-creator of the idea of the Forum of Gdynia District Councils and the information portal for youth esencjagdynia.pl;

– Piotr Szpajer – currently Chairman of the Board of the Wielki Kack District, during the 2015-2019 term of office member of the Investment, Information, Sport and Tourism Committee, involved in the activities of the Forum of Gdynia’s District Councils and the development of the civil budget in Gdynia.

Representatives and representatives of the City of Gdynia:

– Salwiusz Marchel – Head of the Independent Department for Non-Governmental Organizations responsible for the coordination, evaluation and development of cooperation between the municipality and public benefit entities and the coordination of legal aid;

– Tomasz Kamiński – head of the District Office, a unit of the City Hall of Gdynia, responsible for supporting the auxiliary units of the local government. In his work he works at the meeting point between district councils and offices, actively engaging in areas where residents decide;

– Ewa Stokłuska – during the team’s work she heads the Department of Diagnosis and Participation in the Social Innovation Laboratory. Currently Deputy Director at the Social Communication Center of the City of Warsaw. She specializes, among others, in issues related to civic participation, social consultations and development of civic budget standards.

– Aleksandra Markowska (joined the team in the last month) – director of the Social Innovation Laboratory. She specializes in issues related to social exclusion, creation and implementation of socially innovative solutions.

Councillors of the City of Gdynia:

– Jakub Ubych – the President of Gdynia’s plenipotentiary for districts, a city councillor from the third sector and strongly associated with it. Coordinator of grant projects, including those with European funding. For years he was the chairman of the Chwarzno-Wiczlino District Council. IT specialist by education, passionate about new technologies;

– Anna Myszka – involved in work for the benefit of educational institutions, which resulted in co-creation of the Gdynia Parents’ Council Forum. Passionate about the civic budget, successfully introducing with the school community projects changing school sports facilities. Popularizer of grassroots initiatives changing the immediate surroundings; – Marika Domozych – Chairwoman of the Committee on Spatial Planning and Strategy of the City Council. She began her adventure with the local government in 2012 after obtaining the mandate of a councilor of the Youth Town Council for the first term, and after a year she was elected president. She prepared events for school students, thanks to which she learned how to organize work and manage the group and the project.

In 2020, a thematic team on adaptation to climate change started its work, consisting of an interdisciplinary group of officials bringing knowledge and experience from various specialties.

The team works in a composition:

– Michał Guć – Vice-President of Gdynia, responsible for environmental protection, waste management, acquisition of European funds, architectural and construction administration, social innovations. For over 20 years actively involved in shaping the development of Gdynia;

– Bartosz Frankowski – Head of the Department of Environment at the City Hall of Gdynia. As the Mayor’s plenipotentiary for the adaptation of the city of Gdynia to climate change, he coordinates the activities of the city’s units in this area;

– Krzysztof Martusewicz – chief specialist in the Department of Adaptation to Climate Change of the Department of Environment of the City of Gdynia. He specializes in the field of hydrology, climate change and waste management and uses GIS software;

– Arkadiusz Trzeciak – Head of the Investment Department of the Municipality of Gdynia. He coordinates matters concerning the city’s investments and joint investments with various local communities;

– Beata Brzostowska – Head of the Buildings Department of the Municipal Office of Gdynia, responsible for matters related to the renovation of municipal buildings and commercial premises and preparation and implementation of municipal investments;

– Tadeusz Schenk – Head of the Gardener’s Department of the City Hall of Gdynia. He coordinates the creation of the image of urban space in terms of greenery and supervises the aesthetics of areas and buildings in the city. He is an experienced forester;

– Iwona Pianka – acting head of the Administrative Department. She is responsible for maintaining the technical and aesthetic condition of the City Hall buildings, comprehensive service of organizational units, supervision over renovation and modernization works in buildings and premises subordinate to the City Hall;

– Hanna Górecka-Banasik – heads the Independent Department of Energy, responsible for energy policy, improvement of energy efficiency, monitoring of energy consumption, energy consulting, ecological subsidies for the installation of renewable energy sources;

– Alicja Pawłowska – Head of the Independent Department of EU Projects and Mobility Management at the City of Gdynia. She specializes in balancing the development of urban transport;

– Hubert Kołodziejski – Director of the Municipal Transport Authority in Gdynia. Doctor of Economic Sciences. He specializes in issues related to the functioning of transport with particular emphasis on public transport;

– Iwona Markešić – director of the Office of Spatial Planning of the City of Gdynia, architect and urban planner. She is responsible for organizing the work of the office and supervising all its tasks, including, among others, the performance of study and design work in the field of spatial planning of the city of Gdynia;

– Andrzej Ryński – deputy director for infrastructure in the Roads and Greenery Management Board of Gdynia. He supervises the maintenance of facilities, infrastructure for rainwater retention and drainage. He coordinates the KLIMATyczne Centrum project, related, among other things, to the enlargement of areas increasing the retention;

– Joanna Krukowska – head of UrbanLab Gdynia in the Social Innovation Laboratory, sociologist, social researcher. She specializes in the areas of civic participation, climate change, social contexts of food. She deals with social gardens, food-sharing and meal-sharing.

CONFERENCE “BECOMING THE CITY – GLOBAL CHALLENGES, LOCAL SOLUTIONS”: PRELEGENTS

Bartosz Bartoszewicz

Gdynia’s Vice-President for Quality of Life. Graduate of political science at the University of Gdansk and MBA studies. In the city he is responsible for education, health and widely understood activities in the area of the smart city. He started to be active in the city space as a very young Gdyniaian, engaging in the activities of non-governmental organizations. Twice elected by the inhabitants as a councillor of the City Council of Gdynia, he also served as the Mayor’s plenipotentiary for non-governmental organizations, he was also the head of the organizational staff of the Red Bull Air Race Gdynia World Championship. Since 2014, he has been responsible for Gdynia’s educational system, among others.

His competences also include supervision and coordination of works implementing solutions in the area of so-called smart cities.

→ TOPIC OF THE SPEECH: Smart Cities and UrbanLab – in the context of considerations, smart is not only technology.

Małgorzata Czaja

Head of an independent paper on the quality of life and integration of the management system of Gdynia City Hall. Initiator of Gdynia Open Data. Graduate of the Maritime University of Gdynia (currently the Maritime University), specialization: Quality Management.

Since birth associated with Gdynia, and since November 2015 with the City Hall of Gdynia, where she has been implementing projects related to the idea of the smart city and improving the quality of life of its residents.

Katarzyna Gruszecka-Spychała

Vice-President of the City of Gdynia for Economic Affairs. Graduate of law at the University of Gdańsk, legal adviser. As Vice Mayor of the City of Gdynia, she is primarily responsible for economic policy. She supervises the departments dealing with economic development and support of entrepreneurs, supervision of municipal property, municipal buildings, tourism, promotion and social communication, as well as municipal units – Spatial Planning Office, District Labour Office, Pomeranian Science and Technology Park, Experiment Science Centre, Municipal Transport Authority and Municipal Buildings and Premises Authority. It coordinates the implementation of the city development strategy. Under the authority of the Mayor of the City, he exercises the owner’s rights and obligations towards companies in which the municipality holds shares. He closely cooperates with the international organization Urban Land Institute, of which he is a member. He also serves as the Mayor of Gdynia’s Plenipotentiary for the Development of Transport Infrastructure.

She is a co-author of the Agreement on Implementation of Integrated Territorial Investments, which provides a basis for financing metropolitan projects from EU funds.

→ SUBJECT OF THE SPEECH: Developing business in cities of the future. Why Gdynia

Michał Guć

Gdynia’s Vice-President for Innovation. Civil engineer, Master of Economics. In the city he is responsible for: raising European funds, cooperation with the non-governmental sector, activation and support of seniors, social assistance, social economy, revitalization programs and community organizations, civic budget, architectural and construction administration, environmental protection, waste management, social innovations.

He presides over the Gdynia Council for Public Benefit Activity, the Gdynia Senior Citizens’ Council and the Citizens’ Budget Council. He is the representative of the President of the City of Gdynia for civic activity. He was the initiator and author of the first in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe comprehensive program of cooperation between local government and non-governmental organizations. For two terms of office he worked in the Council for Public Benefit Activity at the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, currently he is Vice-Chairman of the Social Welfare Council at the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy and Chairman of the team working at the Prime Minister’s Chancellery to reform the rules of public financing of the non-governmental sector.

→ FOUNDATION THEME: Social Innovations in City Policies

Joanna Jaczewska

Sociologist, data analyst, urban planner. For three years she has been working for the Social Innovation Laboratory in Gdynia, where she was involved in conducting social consultations, Civic Budget, evaluation and preparation for implementation of open source software (LimeSurvey, Consul, Decidim). Co-coordinator of the 3rd Civic Panel in Gdansk. Since 2018 researcher and lecturer at the Department of Regional Development of the Institute of Geography, University of Gdansk. Interested in deliberative democracy, e-participation, sustainable development and human-oriented design.

Marek Łucyk

Gdynia’s Vice-President for Development. Political scientist by education, sport manager by choice. Under his wings Gdynia has developed its recreational offer. Undertakings such as the free sports program Gdynia Poruszenie, MTB Gdynia Marathon, or the Grand Prix of Gdynia – the largest cycle of street runs in Poland – gather lovers of physical activity. It carries out tasks based on a broad partnership with non-governmental organizations, sports clubs, schools and district councils. 

→ TOPIC OF THE SPEECH: The climatic center of Gdynia. Designing changes to meet the needs of residents and climate change

Wojciech Kłosowski

Local government expert in strategic planning of local and regional development, one of the most experienced Polish specialists in urban regeneration. For over 25 years he has worked as an independent advisor to local authorities. Author and co-author of numerous strategies and plans concerning the development of cities and regions, including economic strategies, revitalization programs, social policies, cultural strategies. He is the author of, among others, the manual “Islands of opportunity. How to build local development strategies”. Privately – grandfather of eight grandchildren, author of the novel, saber and keen participant of LARPs.

→ SUBJECT OF THE SPEECH: A new perspective on the social policy of cities in the area of ageing societies

→ WORKSHOP THEME: Will urban space survive climate change (workshop with strategy game elements)

Martyna Obarska

Culture expert, editor-in-chief of “Magazyn Miasta”. She studies, writes and lectures. She describes initiatives at the junction of architecture, urban planning and social activities. She conducts research workshops and trainings. She lectures at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Warsaw (SWPS University), where she co-created the module of urban studies in the field dedicated to innovation design of the School of Ideas. She co-created the programs “Hear Your City” and podcast “Magazyn Miasta” in TOK fm.

Bartosz Piziak

Graduated from the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management of the Jagiellonian University. He is also a graduate of the Faculty of Management and Marketing at the Institute of Public Affairs of the Jagiellonian University. Currently Assistant Professor at the Institute of Urban and Regional Development, where he coordinates, among others, the project entitled “Urban Lab as a pilot tool to improve the quality of life of city dwellers according to the idea of smart city”.

His research interests focus on the issues of regional development in Central and Eastern European countries, as well as implementation of the smart city concept in Poland. He took part in various research projects. Author or co-author of several scientific articles and books devoted to, among others, the development of tourism in cities, geographical proximity of companies in advanced industry and broadly understood economic development. His passion is traveling, and the best regeneration of the Beskids.

Kacper Pobłocki

Social anthropologist. He works at the Centre for European Regional and Local Studies (EUROREG) of the University of Warsaw. He received a PhD degree in Sociology and Social Anthropology from the Central European University in Budapest. He also graduated from University College Utrecht in the Netherlands and was a scholarship holder of Professor David Harvey’s The Center for Place, Culture and Politics at the City University of New York. His doctoral thesis was entitled “The Center for Place, Culture and Politics. His doctoral thesis was entitled “The Cunning of Class: Urbanization of Inequality in Post-War Poland” was awarded by the Prime Minister in 2011. He has published, among others, in Critique of Anthropology and Polish Sociological Review. He conducted research in Łódź, Poznań, Warsaw, Wrocław, Detroit, Teheran and Tokyo. In 2009-2014 he supported the emergence and development of urban movements in Poland, among others as the substantive coordinator of the first Congress of Urban Movements. Co-author of the book “Anti-spatially-less: the right to the city in action”. (Res Publica Nowa, 2013, Jerzy Regulski Award) and author of the book “Capitalism. A Story of Short Duration”, which was recognized by the Economicus competition chapter as the economic book of the year.

Dr. Mariusz Sokołowicz

Born in Łódź. Academic worker and urban social activist. Professor at the University of Lodz, specializing in the issues of urban economy and territorial marketing. Author and editor of over 80 publications on urban economy. For several years he worked as a manager and advisor on the real estate market. He was a social co-author of the Development Strategy of Piotrkowska Street for the years 2009-2020 and in the years 2009-2013 as a local government official was responsible for its revitalization. He managed several research projects and participated in the implementation of several national and international projects financed by Horizon 2020, National Science Centre, Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, European Social Fund, Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, and Norwegian Financial Mechanism. Urban activist, among others in the Piotrkowska Street Foundation, whose aim is to revitalize the center of Łódź and strengthen its identity. He deepens his knowledge and experience during numerous trips abroad, among others to France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Slovakia. In her free time she reads and writes a lot. His passion is travelling, especially motorcycle travel.

→ TOPIC OF THE SPEECH: Architecture of choice.Nudge units in local governments – is it possible to implement tools of architecture of choice in Polish cities?

The condition of effective implementation of urban policy is acceptance of its assumptions by the inhabitants. In order to persuade the inhabitants to take actions that foster sustainable urban development, the so-called Choice Architecture tools can be used, which have so far been used primarily by the governments of some countries. However, it seems that many of them can be implemented in local governments.

During the session, the concept will be explained, the tools presented and the proposed possibilities of using the selection architecture in Polish local governments.

→ WORKSHOP THEME: Communication and territorial marketing in the process of adaptation to climate change

The aim of the workshop is to work out together the areas in which the concept of the architecture of choice can be used in local governments and to work out possible solutions for establishing local government “nudge units”.

The skills that the trainer wants to pass on are creative thinking about designing new institutional solutions within traditional local government structures and cross-sectoral and transversal thinking.

Filip Springer

Writer and photographer. Author of many reportage cycles and books, among others Miedzianka. History of Disappearance, Bathtub with Colonnade, 13 floors, City Archipelago, Badly Born, Dwunaste: Don’t Think You’ll Escape.  Scholarship holder of the National Center of Culture, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Ryszard Kapuściński “Herodot” Foundation and the City of Warsaw. Nominated for the most important literary awards in Poland. His books are translated into Chinese, English, German, Czech, Russian and Hungarian. He cooperates with the Institute of Reportage in Warsaw, co-founder of the MiedziankaFest literary festival.

→ TOPIC OF THE SPEECH: Building the future. Architecture is an art that allows to travel in time. Thanks to its long duration, we can not only move to the past and feel the spatial relationships created for people living in a given place centuries ago, but also set out into the future to see how our buildings and cities will look like in 20, 30 or 70 years. However, each of the stakeholders of the investment process (developer, architect, contractor, user, neighbor) uses a completely different notion of “future”. Where the term expires for the developer (with the expiration of warranty and guarantee agreements), this is where the user’s future really begins. An ecological disaster equals us in this complex relationship to time. Without taking radical and large-scale climate action, the term of validity of the future designed for us by architecture is extremely short.

Dr. Wojciech Szczurek

President of the City of Gdynia. A third-generation Gdyniaian, loves Gdynia. Doctor of law, judge by profession. He started his local government activity preceded by civic activity (he co-founded the Civic Committee) in 1990, when he became a councilor of the City Council of Gdynia. In 1991-1998 he was the Chairman of the City Council of Gdynia, at the same time representing the city in the Local Government Sejm of the Gdańsk Province. He initiated the establishment of the NORDA Metropolitan Forum of Commune Heads, Mayors, Presidents and Starosts in 2011, the aim of which is the cooperation of its local governments for the development of Pomerania. Vice President of the Board of the Gdansk-Gdynia-Sopot Metropolitan Area Association established in 2015. Author of the book “Economic activity of communes in sea ports” (Gdańsk 2002) and many press articles on law and self-government; co-author of the book Law in sea ports (Warsaw 1998).

Aleksandra Zemke

Graduate of Conflict Resolution at the University of Amsterdam and the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at Warsaw University. In 2011 she founded the non-governmental organization Smilemundo in Spain, creating innovative educational tools to support sustainable development. For years she has been cooperating with institutions operating in the field of local politics: United Cities and Local Governments, UNDP, UN – Habitat, Eduacting Cities or the Province of Barcelona. He creates for them educational programs related mainly to Agenda 2030 and innovations in the field of Social and Reliable Economy. The tools she creates have received numerous awards, including the prestigious Word Summit Youth Award, granted by the United Nations in Brazil for the best projects using new technologies to promote sustainable development.

→ TOPIC OF THE SPEECH: The city is a continuous dialogue. The development of a city requires a mature dialogue between all its users, each of us is part of the process of city development and planning (even if we do not consciously participate in it). Local government is only one of the actors in search of answers to the biggest challenges, without grassroots initiatives it is difficult to make bold decisions – the need for education, planning and decision making based on available knowledge.

The presentation is based on the examples from Barcelona and the results of the simulation game, which show when participation can be successful, inspire and stimulate reflection on how to get involved in creating the cities of the future.

→ WORKSHOP THEME: SmileUrbo activating game. Participation in the proposed game will show you how to navigate the issues of local democracy, multidimensionality of decisions, sustainable development, mechanisms of building understanding.

It will inspire innovative and adapted to different situations ways to solve conflicts, participate in public debate, use participatory tools.

CITIES CONSCIOUS – GLOBAL CHALLENGES, LOCAL SOLUTIONS TO THE CONFERENCE POSTPONED TO THE SECOND HALF OF 2020

Out of concern for the health of the participants and the sense of responsibility for the city, the President of Gdynia Wojciech Szczurek decided to change the date of the conference. However, we do not give up the opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience. We encourage you to observe UrbanLab Gdynia in social media (Facebook).

We create a conference dedicated to the challenges facing modern cities.

The program includes, among others: debate on climate change adaptation, sustainable development and participation as elements of city development, presentation devoted to a new look at the social policy of cities in the area of ageing, panel on business development in cities of the future, workshops on open data.

A specific type of challenges facing cities are global trends (climate change, ageing, integration of immigrants, labour paradigm shift) that will not be directly affected by them – but will have to adapt to the changes that these trends will trigger. It is also crucial to think about them in the category of the “butterfly effect” – the consequences of global trends will spill over into all spheres of city/ city life, putting cities under the obligation to build solutions within practically all implemented policies. The second group consists of challenges being in the domain of individual solutions designed and possible to implement by local governments (quality of space, systemic solutions for socially excluded people, locally developed education system, reconciling development with heritage protection, economic development, city development based on the potential of districts, building local communities as a driving force for city development).

The idea of Urban Lab

UrbanLab, as a formula for action of a modern city, assumes interdisciplinarity, building a space for intersectoral / interdepartmental work, raising topics that exist “at the interface of sectors”.

The conference “Becoming the City – Global Challenges, Local Solutions” is organized as part of the project “Adapting the Concept of the Urban Lab in Gdynia” carried out under the Technical Assistance Operational Programme for 2014-2020 and co-financed by the Cohesion Fund.

Contact: urbanlab@lis.gdynia.pl.

Contact for media: pr@projektpr.pl.

Droga Użytkowniczko, Drogi Użytkowniku portalu internetowego www.urbanlab.gdynia.pl

Uprzejmie informujemy, że od 25 maja 2018 r. obowiązuje tzw. RODO, czyli Rozporządzenie Parlamentu Europejskiego i Rady (UE) 2016/679 z dnia 27 kwietnia 2016 r. w sprawie ochrony osób fizycznych w związku z przetwarzaniem danych osobowych i w sprawie swobodnego przepływu takich danych oraz uchylenia dyrektywy 95/46/WE.

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