On 14 January, the Saló de Graus room hosted the round table “Activating Barcelona's rooftops. New challenges in green management, communities and renewable energies”, organised by the Master’s Degree in Architecture & Design Business Management in collaboration with the Barcelona Design Centre (BCD) and Barcelona City Council. The discussion was moderated by the director of the master's degree, Maria Isabel Gabarró, and was attended by Pol Font Teixidor, a specialist from the Urban Strategy Department of the Chief Architect's Office of Barcelona City Council; Eugènia Martí, director of Innovation and Talent at Barcelona Design Centre and Lidia Calvo, CEO of EixVerd. 

"The activation of urban rooftops presents a hugely potential business opportunity over the coming years as we are forced to rethink our inner-city lives. But we need to overcome the barriers that currently prevent the activation of these spaces in a sustainable way”, said Maria Isabel Gabarró in her introduction.

Pol Font Teixidor explained the progress made by Barcelona City Council to facilitate the creation of green rooftops in the city, including obliging all new or renovated municipal buildings to incorporate green activation on their rooftops from now on. “COVID-19 has shown us that those people who had access to a green rooftop during the lockdown were extremely lucky”, he added. 

Then, Eugènia Martí highlighted the crucial role of designers and architects in promoting the activation of urban rooftops. “As designers, we have the ability to understand users’ needs and provide solutions to their problems. Raising public awareness of environmental sustainability requires evidence-based decisions that deliver tangible results”, she said. 

Finally, Lidia Calvo highlighted the crucial role of education in raising citizens' environmental awareness and concluded by stating how “cities have to change and move towards a more sustainable model. Cities will either be green or they will cease to exist.” 

Following the round table, the Master's students will take part in a workshop to propose possible solutions that seek to accelerate the activation of the rooftops of multi-family buildings in Barcelona.