Buro Happold organises Intelligent City workshop

Buro Happold

24/05/2012 Written by: Kasia Chwalbińska-Kusek No comments

Buro Happold Warsaw and Berlin offices have partnered with the Innovation Centre for Mobility and Societal Change (InnoZ) to hold a two day strategic workshop in Berlin which introduced e-mobility projects running in Berlin to a delegation of representatives from Warsaw and E-mobil Cluster including Siemens, Automotive Industry Institute PIMOT, Motor Transport Institute, Department of Multisource Propulsion Systems, Warsaw University of Technology.

The workshop was a platform for sharing experience in e-mobility solutions and sustainable city development between Warsaw authorities and the city of Berlin, as well as companies forming e-mobility clusters in both cities.

Florian Lennert of InnoZ and Paul Rogers of Buro Happold opened the workshop with a presentation on Warsaw city projects and strategic interests, which was followed by a visit to Berlin Hauptbahnhof (HBF) and an introduction to HBF’s multimodal mobility solutions. Attendees were then given an overview of Berlin’s innovative Tempelhof Airport project and the pilot e-mobility projects being developed within the Tempelhof framework. The session ended with a presentation on Europacity; an energy concept for urban masterplan by Buro Happold’s Thomas Kraubitz.

Day two of the workshop took place at the InnoZ headquarters and included presentations from Siemens; Emobility Agency Berlin; Warsaw E-mobil Cluster; the BeMobility project, and Intelligent City and Smart Grid projects by InnoZ.

To close the workshop the group looked at creating a sustainably city and green mobility strategy for Warsaw aided by representatives from both Buro Happold and InnoZ. Lennert summed this up saying, "InnoZ works with different municipalities worldwide in researching and piloting sustainable future mobility systems and their intelligent integration into the cityscape. In this context, we were proud to be able to work with Buro Happold in hosting the visit of a delegation from Warsaw to share the experiences of Berlin and the InnoZ. The intense two day workshop provided a unique opportunity to learn about the respective strategies of Berlin and Warsaw in building the intelligent city of the future and to catalyse long-term professional collaboration."

“Buro Happold has helped to facilitate e-mobility experience sharing between the city of Warsaw and other partners of the ‘E-Mobil’ Cluster and the city of Berlin,” added Leszek Drogosz, director of the Infrastructure Department of City Hall which is coordinating sustainable development issues in Warsaw.

During the visit all participants travelled around the city using only electric cars and bicycles which helped to give a taste of possible e-mobility solutions, as well as forging relations.

The workshop was very well received by the participants; attendee Ewa Mikos-Romanowicz, Business Development Manager at Siemens said, "We consider the whole event as very fruitful and interesting for all engaged parties. For me it was utmost important to observe and discuss real experience and practical conclusions of both cities in regard to future-oriented, sustainable solutions and technologies implementation."

Commenting on the initiative Paul Rogers, Managing Director, Central Europe at Buro Happold, said ‘This is a great example of strategic cooperation within Central Europe between public agencies and the private sector. We are thrilled to be a serious partner in the BeMobility discussion happening now in this part of Europe as issues such as low carbon living, clean energy systems and integrated urban mobility solutions are all interlinked and high at city agendas. Buro Happold has a major contribution to make in delivering integrated solutions to city agencies and private developers and our consultancy teams are active in building relationships with these stakeholders.”

The findings made during the workshop will be presented at the Annual International Symposium on Electric Vehicles and European Cluster on Green Transportation in Warsaw this July.