’Grand Pari(s)’ vision of Paris in 2030 – exhibition in the Zsolnay Cultural Quarter

The exhibition entitled ’Grand Pari(s) – vision of Paris in 2030’ organised jointly in Pécs by the Pécs City Development Nonprofit Company and the South Transdanubian Chamber of Architect sums up the lessons of the metropolises Tokyo, Singapore, Mexico City, New York and many more to offer theoretic foundations regarding the future of a fast and aimlessly developing great city. Its goal is to improve mobility, to widen the physical boundaries, to develop the local centres, and to utilize the deserted zones and industrial areas; the so-called brown fields.



The idea for the exhibition came from the French president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007. He drew up his wishes during the inauguration of the La Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine (Museum of Architecture and Cultural Heritage) with the following words: „I wish that the inauguration of this new institution also helped to place architecture back in the focus of political decisions. (…) In order to boost common thinking I would like to have 8-10 architectural companies work on the urban diagnoses of Grand Paris in the following 20, 30, 40 years.’


The exhibition connects to the ‘17th Hungarian Urbanistic Conference, life after the ECoC – urban planning lessons’ programme that takes place in the Bóbita Puppet Theatre inside the Zsolnay Cultural Quarter in Pécs starting on 28 October.


The Hungarian Society for Urban Planning did not decide only by mere chance that there was need for the conference. The city planning map of the country shows that the Hungarian local governments are not ready yet for the fact that the EU urban development tenders – by the help of which several Hungarian cities had the opportunity to get renovated and renewed - will close in two years’ time so fundamentally new relations and a new situation will come to life regarding the development of cities and villages..


The aim of the two-day conference is to shed light on how a new kind of efficient, clear cut, understandable and loveable but at the same time financeable and economically sustainable urban planning and development perspective can be achieved. It was a task of the conference to look into how far this fact appears in the strategies of the different branches of the government and what consequences this process has on the governmental, the local governmental and the private spheres.


The exhibition attached to the conference is the trial event of the É78 building in the Zsolnay Cultural Quarter that will be visible for free between 28 October and 13 November (except for the period between 29 October and 1 November because of the national holiday).