Urban Hotspot 2.0

Cities all over Europe are developing ‘knowledge hotspots’: physical concentrations of knowledge-intensive or creative activity. They come in many disguises: science parks, technology parks, creative districts, design quarters, etc. Well-known examples are the Cambridge Science Park, Barcelona’s @22 district, or Helsinki’s Arabianranta area. Increasingly, such hotspots are being developed inside the city rather than at sub-urban Greenfield sites. This makes their development highly complex. A key challenge for cities is to deal with the many conflicting interests, and to integrate knowledge hubs in the city. How do European cities deal with these challenges? Which problems do they face, and how do they tackle them?