BDP wins contest for EC study of cities

Building Design Partnership is studying technology and its effects on the future of cities for the European Commission.

BDP was awarded the project by the EC’s Science, Research and Development Directorate after winning a competition. The 18-month study is described by BDP chief executive Roy Adams as a “prestigious project to win”.

The research, being undertaken by BDP division BDP Planning, will be led by Adams and fellow BDP Planning director Peter Fleming. Adams says: “BDP’s spread of offices across Europe together with the multi-disciplinary nature of our skills” helped secure the project. The study’s aims are to produce a set of goals for a more “humanised” city. This involves reviewing state of the art technologies and how they can work holistically, and preparing designs for idealised “building blocks” for cities using new technologies.

Eight European cities – Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belfast, Bremen, Frankfurt, London, Manchester and Narbonne – will be used as environments for creating the “building blocks” components of city life. Real life problems will be addressed and solutions will be devised.

The areas of health care, work, leisure, living and travel are to be tackled by the research.