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Information on metropolitan governance and design codes for sustainable housing, which are the result of common work by European cities and Universities on these issues. These exchanges and common work have taken place in the framework of the URBACT programme (www.urbact.eu), a European programme dedicated to promoting integrated urban development in Europe.

Hopus: Housing for Europe – Strategies for Quality in Urban Space, Excellence in Design, Performance in Building

Hopus "Housing praxis for urban sustainability" is an URBACT project that has worked for two years on design coding and other forms of smart project guidance for successful housing development. The 6 partners (University of Rome, Delft University of Technology, Mediterranean University and City of Reggio Calabria, Gdansk University of Technology, University of Minho) have set up a number of basic quality indicators for urban quality, housing design and building technology, in the attempt to outline a "European quality primer".

The final publication is focussed on improving design and sustainability in housing stock through public sector guidance and control, particularly the instrument of design coding. It includes articles explaining the experiences shared between network partners during the lifecycle of the project.

Discover Hopus concrete conclusions and recommendations as well as what was learnt by the project partners and read the project final outputs:

• Hopus Fact Sheet – PDF
• Housing for Europe. Strategies for Quality in Urban Space, Excellence in Design, Performance in Building – PDF

Joining Forces: Metropolitan Governance and Competitiveness of European Cities
Joining Forces is an URBACT project made up of 8 European partners (Lille Metroplole, Burgas, Brno, Brussels-Capital region, Eindhoven, Florence, Krakow, Seville) that have worked for two years to explore how strategy-making and governance arrangements at the city-region level can help to effectively address the main challenges faced by urban Europe: competitiveness, cohesion and sustainability. Joining Forces has worked on the basis of practical examples (case studies) and have considered the theme of metropolitan governance through its different important aspects : Strategic and Spatial Planning, Mobility management and Transport, Main environmental issues (air and noise pollution, waste disposal, water supply), Knowledge economy (Creativity, Research & Education), Private sector involvement in metropolitan Governance (public/private arrangements), Social inclusion, participation and empowerment, Attractiveness & competitiveness (including Promotion / Marketing).

After two years of exchange and learning activities, Joining Forces has produced different surveys and reports regarding its project results:

• Joining Forces Fact Sheet – PDF
• Final Report – Conclusions & Recommendations – PDF
• Compendium of information on Local Support Groups and Local Action Plans - PDF

EGTC : Cross-border agglomerations: towards a better governance
The "Expertising Governance for Transfrontier Conurbations" EGTC URBACT project has worked for two years to improve cross-border cooperation between cities, focusing on governance. This is a rich and complex topic, but also a key challenge for a number of European regions. The 7 project partners (Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière (MOT), Lille Metropole for the Eurométropole Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai, The conurbation of Strasbourg for the Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau, Esztergom for the EGTC Ister-Granum, Basel Stadt for the Trinational Eurodistrict of Basel, Slubice for the Frankfurt(Oder)-Slubice conurbation, Chaves for the Eurocidade Chaves-Verin ) addressed two concrete challenges:

• How can public leaders and cross-border agglomerations frame and implement efficient policies?
• How can the involvement of the civil society guarantee the legitimacy of cross-border agglomeration policies?

Read more on EGTC concrete conclusions and recommendations as well as what was learnt by the project partners during the lifecycle of the project:

• EGTC Fact Sheet – PDF
• The Booklet of the final results – PDF
• Handbook on Governance of Cross-border conurbations – PDF
• The European Action Plan -PDF

You can find the complete news on the URBACT Website: http://urbact.eu/en/header-main/news-and-events/view-one/urbact-news/?entryId=4954