Alicante already has a Digital District and now València joins in presenting its District Design, the new title with which the City Council has baptized La Marina to present it in Madrid as a maritime space “for innovation and creativity”.
The mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, yesterday presented the proposal in the Spanish capital as “an instrument for planning and promotion to strengthen the city’s ability to attract and retain talent”, at an event within the Month of the Valencian Community in Madrid. Ribó stressed that it is one of the spaces with “the greatest international projection of our city” and explained that “it is much more than a port”.
All in the context of dialogue between the town hall and the regional administration on the future of what was once a space for Formula 1 in Valencia, a transformation that Ribó highlighted yesterday when commenting that “it constitutes an example of how past waste based on ephemeral events can be used as structural bases for the development of urban activities that generate economic, social and environmental value”.
For her part, the Councilor for Innovative Development of Economic Sectors, Pilar Bernabé, explained that 2,500 people work daily in the Marina de València, and there are currently more than 30 permanent innovation companies in this area, and around 200 a year in initiatives such as Lanzadera, led by Juan Roig.
According to Bernabé, Valencia, “allied with design and innovation, wants to capture all the investment and attract talent; wants companies to understand that Valencia is not only the best city in the world to live in, but also to invest and to work in”.
The connection between design and innovation that was presented in Madrid is understood within the framework of the world design capital that Valencia holds and that they have also gone to promote, which justified the presence of the general director of València World Design Capital 2022, Xavi Bald.
In a few days it is expected that Àgora València, the icon of the celebration that is being built these days in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, will be finished to host workshops and open programming, for all audiences and with a marked didactic nature.
The Àgora will also move after the celebration of the capital status to the Marina, as it is expected to be the seat of the Municipal Design Council, the first that a city council promotes in Spain, as explained by Ribó, who gave some details: it will be a council of professionals external and independent that will advise all areas of the City Council from a coordination between the Mayor’s Office and the Design Foundation of the Valencian Community.
It will be a “transversal body for all City Council policies”, explained the first mayor that “will improve decision-making on key issues in a city such as urban planning, communication, architecture or the development of services”, he added.
