SDMed launches its next major event in June 2013 in Athens: "EchoPolis Days of Sound 2013", 19-20-21 June and 30 september, 1&2 october 2013

Today, when western society is acutely concerned with the questions of individual existence, strongly accentuated by the economic and financial crisis, the emotions are once again at the forefront of our concerns. Social progress also implies that emotions, which have so long been ignored when major decisions were made, be taken fully into account in the construction of our urban world. Our urban world, architecture, the city, and the neighbourhood, naturally, seem to build on emotion, either it is positive or negative but still prohibiting indifference.The event «Echopolis Athena 2013» will deal with ways to enrich sustainable architecture and sustainable city with a new dimension, that of the emotions and senses ...... who can certainly contribute to the rebirth of hope in society and in the city that is plagued by economic decline and collapsing due to the crisis.

The contemporary and future city is being flooded by networks of interconnections both internally and with other urban and spatial scales (its region, the national and supranational level ..), it is increasingly using new digital technologies to regulate its functions. Thus, a firm integration of sensations and emotions in designing sustainable city can only be based on digital technologies and catch up with their progress. Concepts such as interactivity with the user and the inhabitant of the city, are becoming increasingly important in the design of the urban environment and the everyday life.

The event "EchoPolis Athena 2013" will focus on one of the most important senses: hearing, thus drawing attention to the sound quality of the urban environment and how, resources and tools  can be used so that  sounds, noises and music become design elements and factors of enrichment of sustainability in cities and neighborhoods. Relatively recently, the concepts of soundscape and sound design leave the research laboratories and invade the market, the world of professionals  and the discourse between designers and all those involved in the application of sound design in the city, architects, engineers, private companies of sound equipment and facilities.

The EchoPolis Days of Sound 2013  major festival event is hosted by the french-hellenic and International SDMed Association which works for sustainable urban development in the Mediterranean and the Balkans and will be shared between June  (19.20&21) and September-October (30.9, 1&2.10) 2013, in Athens: 

The Event EchoPolis Athina 2013 will target on the objective and use it as motto :

"Re-invent emotions in the City, let's feel them, let's hear the city sounds" !

• Important scientific part of the festival will be the Echo&Polis International Conference, 30.9-2.10 2013, in Athens.
  

"Sounds, noise and music for re-thinking sustainable city and econeighborhood"

is the topic of the international conference “Echopolis 2013”, to be held in the framework of the “Echopolis Days of Sound 2013” festival to take place in the historical centre of Athens, from September 30 to October 2, 2013. The conference will offer a platform for interdisciplinary dialog and presentations of innovative research and development in the field of integrating sound in sustainable building and city planning and design, covering a wide range of subjects from sonic geography, ecology and soundscapes to the noise carthography and recent developments of sound design in general.

“Echo&polis 2013” is pleased to invite specialists from academic and research institutions, industry and public institutions worldwide to present their innovative work. To be on the mailing list, please subscribe to the SDMed newsletter ( www.sd-med.org) or send an email to  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Main organizer of the conference, the SDMed observation Network is known internationally for high-level events and research in the domain of sustainable buildings, cities and eco-neighborhoods in the Mediterranean basin.

Academic partners of the conference are specialists from French, Greek and other world-wide Universities and Research Centers, backed by a strong international scientific committee.

The Echo&polis 2013 Conference Topics are the following :

• "Sonic Geography-Sonic Landscapes-Sonic Ecology"
• "Sound and music in emotional architecture and emotional city"
• "Sound design and eco-innovation in cities"
• "Sound and Noise in sustainable cities and econeighborhoods"
• "Sustainable abatement of noise by optimized combinations of natural and artificial means"
• "Urban and rural quiet areas-Sound and noise Cartography-Strategic noise plans"
• "Noise exposure and effects on health, Noise action plans,annoyance maps"
• "Sound environment, Noise, Music,city attractiveness and sustainable tourism" 
• "Sound Heritage and soundscapes"
• "Sound and Noise in transport infrastructure" 
• "Sound and Noise in sustainable buildings"
• "Balancing energy performance, thermal insulation, acoustic comfort and air quality in buildings"

The event is targeting to :

• the recognition and enhancement of the sound dimension of our lives
• exploring the role of sound in the way of perceiving, feeling, and thinking
• considering the environment in our everyday life as an aesthetic system where sound is an important factor.
• complementing the way we see architecture and urbanism, with a new design factor and parameter : the"sound"
• promoting the idea of enriching the academia and research with the specification of sound design (design sonore in french)
• promote presentation of modern materials and management systems (of sound and noise protection, sounds creation and patterns of use of sounds)

We are addressing to :

Sound, acoustics and sound design scientists.

Architects, urban planners, sociologists, psychologists, philosophers

Academics and researchers in the above fields.

Companies that deal with related materials and building systems

Companies that deal with the supply of technological equipment of management, creation and use of sounds

Cities and networks of cities having developed innovative solutions for noise abatement or use of sound and music for increasing attractiveness

The official conference languages are both English, French and Greek. 

See also :

EchoPolis Cultural Event, June 2013   

"Echopolis Soundscape Award" ,October 2,2013

The venues of the event

1 - The Foundation "Michalis Kakoyannis" 19, 20 and 21 June 2013 and 30 Sept, 1&2 Oct. 2013

2 - The auditorium of the French Institute of Greece (under confirmation)

Partners and supporters

How to foster Europe’s competitiveness and integration through cooperation with neighbouring territories?

Under this headline the first day of the Internal ESPON Seminar held in Cyprus on the 5 and 6 December 2012, contained a mixture of plenary sessions and parallel workshops.

The round table discussion, which included speeches from representatives from relevant organizations covering the European Neighbouhood (i.e. EUROMED, VASAB and Barents Co-Operation), shared experiences and good practices in cooperating with different regions in the European neighbourhood to improve their territorial development and economic performance.

The discussion guided by a facilitator provided relevant inputs on ideas and demands for further cooperation to meet shared challenges and gain the economic advantages of increased territorial scale.

The key note speeches and the round table session set the scene for a more detailed discussion organised around the following themes: accessibility, transport, territorial factors for global competitiveness and growth, territorial cooperation at different scales, urban fabric, demographic change, core-periphery challenges.

ESPON projects were asked to contribute with territorial evidence and reflections on the territorial opportunities and challenges in Europe and its neighbourhood fostering competitivenees and ideas for further cooperation.

11.45-13.00 ROUND TABLE How to foster Europe’s competitiveness and integration through
cooperation with neighbouring territories?
Neighbourhood objectives for territorial development from a policy point of view

Facilitator: Michael Parkinson, External Expert
Territorial development strategies in regions and cities in the European Neighbourhood

‐ Stella Kyvelou,EUROMED representative
‐ Rune Rafaelsen, Barents Co-operation
‐ Peter Melhbye, EU Strategies for the Baltic Sea and Danube Region representative
‐ Irina Karelina, VASAB representative from Russia

Stimulus statements from the Director of the Cyprus Energy Service, Solon Kassinis, from
the European Neighbourhood and feedback statement from Pierre Beckouche, Lead
Partner of the ESPON Project on European Neighbourhood.

The aim of this roundtable dialogue was to discuss new opportunities and ideas for
cooperation by considering the territorial development objectives mentioned in the
TA2020, Europe 2020 but also presented by multilateral cooperation initiatives. Cities,
regions, Member States in an enlarged Europe plus the European Commission shall all
contribute. Policy makers has been invited to give their points of view on “How to foster regions and
cities competitiveness by making better use of territorial diversity in Europe and its
Neighbourhood”. This question has been also further addressed in the thematic parallel
workshops.

Key questions :
‐ How can the diversity of territories in the European Neighborhood be positively
explored in the long term development and integration of Europe?
‐ What main challenges related to disparities and territorial balance can be identified?
‐ What are the main priority areas for cooperation?
‐ What new demand could arise for the EU Cohesion Policy due to further accession
of new EU Member States?
‐ What examples could be mentioned as good practice in boosting the
competitiveness and integration of cities and regions in the 21th century’s new era of
international competition?

SDMed 2005 major event :

SB05MED&Expo "Sustainable construction : action for sustainability in the mediterranean region"

For further information, please download :

Film of the LIFE SB05MED&Expo 

Spot_LIFE SB05MED&Expo

SB05MED&Expo Programme

SB05MED&Expo Proceedings

Book of abstracts :

Plenary

Workshops (1)

Workshops (2)

Poster1

Poster2

.

24.1.2012

SDMed supported the event "Demain la ville", 24/01/2012, 19h00 from INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE GRECE on Vimeo.

At French Intitute of Greece 

For more information please click here !! 

 "URBAN REGENERATION AND CITY BRANDING:IS MEMORY AN ASSET OR AN OBSTACLE?"

40th Annual Conference of the Johns Hopkins International Fellows in Urban Studies, Professor Georges Prevelakis, organ

Institutional partners : Greek Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Museum of the City of Athens, Organization for Planning and Environmental Protection of Athens, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences of  Athens, SD Med Association, Sorbonne (Paris 1) University and UMR Geographie-cites