New Towns: Laboratories for Implementation of the New Urban Agenda

New Towns: laboratories for implementation of the New Urban Agenda” has a specific focus on New Towns from all over the world: some date from the 20th Century and are in the midst of transforming and reinventing themselves, others are presently on the drawing boards. Participating towns are located in Africa, Europe, South America and South East Asia. New Towns, or planned communities, are a special category of cities. They have always been the ultimate challenge for politicians and designers: what is the ideal city? What is the city of tomorrow? They have always been laboratories for new inventions and pioneering cities. In the New Urban Agenda there is a number of issues that is of particular relevance to New Towns, given their specific character. This side event will develop new partnerships and alliances between New Towns to work on these issues, such as: social inclusivity, demographical diversity, flexibility of urban planning, selforganization, ecology and food production, culture and identity. The ultimate goal of the side event is to connect representatives of new and future cities worldwide and nourish a solid and shared process of mutual learning. Through the exchange of know-how and experience, this event will encourage the kick-off of pilot projects for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda in the participating New Towns. With the network and platform that the International New Town Institute creates in cooperation with the Korean Land and Housing Institute and UN Habitat, examples of implementation will become accessible to similar cities.