02/03/2023

UIC Barcelona hosts the Harmony-H2020 project

Harmony-H2020 is a European Union project that aims to enable metropolitan area authorities to lead a sustainable transition to a low-carbon new mobility era. The final training session for Harmony-H2020 took place at the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture on 22 and 23 February. The project involved twenty-one partners from nine European countries, led by the University College of London. 

This event was supported by the UIC Barcelona Master's Degree in Urban Design for Healthy Cities and the Master's Degree in City Resilience Design and Management. 

During the session, training was carried out using the Harmony Model Suite, a platform that brings together spatial and multimodal transport planning models based on activities in relation to people and goods. By providing evidence-based spatial and transport planning, HARMONY MS seeks to contribute to developing a sustainable urban and metropolitan model.

Maria Kamargianni, coordinator of the Harmony-H2020 project and professor of Transport Systems, Innovation and Sustainability at University College of London, stresses the importance of this type of training. “This is a tool that the market was lacking and that will be very helpful for cities to carry out their sustainable mobility plans,” she said.

Kamargianni defends the role of architects in sustainable mobility. “Architects play a key role in promoting sustainable mobility in our cities, as good street design can motivate people to walk or ride their bike more often.” 

Marta Benages, co-director of the Master’s Degree in Urban Design for Healthy Cities, highlighted the opportunity for the master’s degree students to attend training that uses cutting-edge tools in terms of transport and spatial planning.  “This is a tool adapted to the new sustainable mobility framework developed by the European Union that some leading cities are already using for these issues and, therefore, it is an excellent opportunity for the students in our master’s degree programmes to learn first-hand its design, structure and applications in urban planning,” Benages emphasised.

ENIDE, a leading company in sustainable mobility and a participant in the HARMONY project, has facilitated the collaboration of UIC Barcelona with the Harmony project as the venue for the final Harmony MS training, opening the door to future cooperation, according to the professor. “During the two days of training, we have had renowned researchers in leading centres in urban planning such as UCL and TU Delft, among others, with whom we are sure we will be able to continue cooperating in future research,” she said.

 

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)