reSITE 2013: Cities as Places for Life!

reSITE festival Náplavka instant Park

CONFERENCE The main themes of the 2nd year of the festival will be METROPOLIS IN THE CENTER – cities of Central Europe and ENDLESS RESOURCES – people as the most valuable capital of every city. The backbone of the event will once again be an international expert conference, inviting urban planning experts from around the world. “This year, the reSITE conference aims to be a real catalyst for the activities of a new generation of thinkers, leaders, and important actors in the Central European space,” says festival director Martin Barry. Thematically, the conference focuses on the revitalization of cities – residential settlements within a typically Central European context. “Cities in this space typically face the same problem, a conflict between the desire for growth and the awareness of their complicated past,” adds the new program director of the festival, Osamu Okamura, who joined the organizing team thanks to the Vodafone Foundation's grant program – Year Differently.
The number of actors in urban development – individuals or groups – is increasing dramatically every year, and topics such as architecture, economics, planning processes, or democracy are being discussed more and more frequently in the public space. And this is the territory where reSITE operates. “We believe that reSITE will significantly help steer the public and commercial sectors towards positive changes in cities,” explains Osamu Okamura, “Just as we believe that there are politicians capable and willing to listen and address the issues of renewing contemporary cities.”

BLOOMBERG The selection of guests for this year’s reSITE conference corresponds with the organizers' plan to create a discussion and working platform for unifying the positions of various professional and interest groups. The main star of the conference should be the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, whose participation will also be supported by other leading figures and representatives from various departments of the “capital city of the planet” (including Adrian Benepe – former Commissioner for Parks in New York City). European metropolises will be represented by mayors, city architects, and urban planners from Budapest, Wrocław, and Freiburg. A significant guest will also be the Deputy Mayor of Vienna, Maria Vassilakou: “She’s somewhat the European equivalent of Janette Sadik-Khan. She aims for half of Vienna to ride bicycles!”, introduces the guests Milota Sidorová for reSITE. The architectural community will be represented mainly by stars of world architecture, such as Winy Maas from the Dutch studio MVRDV, and the founder of the Denver studio CIVITAS, Mark Johnson. An invitation was also extended to one of the authors of the New York phenomenon Highline, James Corner from Field Operations. The business sphere will be represented by, among others, Paul Romer – a professor of economics at New York University, who has long been focused on urban development from this perspective, and others. Overall, around forty speakers and discussants will take the stage in the DOX gallery in Prague over the course of two days, aiming primarily to showcase concrete positive examples and processes for addressing various issues that arise from the development of modern cities.

REGISTRATION Don’t miss the opportunity to be part of it! Registration for participants is already underway at www.resite.cz.

For more information, contact:       
Matej Šišolák, reSITE PR             
postArch                     
tel.: +420 608 215 740          
e-mail: sisolak@postarch.cz             
facebook | www.facebook.com/reSITEfestival   
 
The main organizer of the reSITE festival is the civil association of the same name. Co-organizers of this year’s edition include the first private architectural school in the Czech Republic, the Architectural Institute in Prague (ARCHIP). reSITE 2013 is held under the auspices of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Karel Schwarzenberg, the Minister for Regional Development of the Czech Republic, Kamil Jankovský, and the Capital City of Prague. The festival is also under the patronage of the Czech Chamber of Architects and the Embassy of the United States in Prague. The conference is supported by Penta Investments.