Urban development gets its own high forum in Spain

The First Urban Forum of Spain is the wake up call to all cities and stakeholders in the country that care about the road to the future

The First National Urban Forum of Spain is taking place in the city of Seville from 5 to 7 October at the Palace of Conferences as a hybrid format event. It is organized by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda of the Government of Spain, and it is conceived as the most important open and permanent space in the country on Sustainable Urban Development.

After the creation of the Spanish Urban Agenda in 2019, the Forum is here to promote the exchange and participation for a strategic, sustainable and integrated urban development in Spain. Its first theme – ‘Cities and regions during the social and economic recovery’ – also reflects the new item on the urban development agenda, that of post-pandemic recuperation.

Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez was there to inaugurate the event

The beginning of October has turned into a busy time for the city of Seville, which is also concurrently hosting the First Convention of Tourism Destinations in Spain, also at the same venue. As such, the Andalusian capital has turned into the prime spot to be when it comes to finding out what´s next on the menu for Spanish cities.

The Forum constitutes the main multilevel platform of participation for all relevant stakeholders on urban issues in Spain, including all levels of governments, as well as civil society, academia and private sector among others, in order to share, propose and exchange ideas and best practices on sustainable urbanization.

It is there as a way to unify and synchronize efforts, policies, thinking and strategies on urban planning in a way that will ensure that development does not happen piecemeal and disjointedly.

For his part, speaking at the Forum´s opening, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez reported that in line with the initiative of the New European Bauhaus, his government will shortly present the Law on the Quality of Architecture, a new regulatory instrument that allows European funds to have a direct positive impact on citizens.

"We need cohesive and sustainable cities, clean cities conducive to the emancipation of young people. Those are the objectives," he remarked. In his words, the instruments for this will be the new youth housing voucher, the macro-impulse of rehabilitation, the norms of sustainable mobility and the Architecture Law.