22@Barcelona – Window in Innovative Future

The creation of innovation districts is a recent trend in urban planning that has emerged as a new model to stimulate economic growth in cities across the globe. Since the 1950s, entrepreneurial clustering has been led by the spatial geographic model of Silicon Valley – suburban corridors with sprawling research centers and campuses.

However, in the early 2000s mayors in European and American cities began dedicating zones in cities exclusively for the purpose of clustering entrepreneurs, startups, business accelerators and incubators. These spaces are easily accessible via public transportation, wired for public Wi-Fi, support mixeduse development, and nurture collaboration / knowledge-sharing. The first official innovation districts were in Barcelona, Spain with 22@. Innovation Districts have proven to be effective solutions for cities to modernize their economies and pivot from traditional industrialbased production to technologydriven services. A wave of academic research is also emerging analyzing innovation districts’ positive effects on job creation and economic development.

Innovation Districts utilize partnerships with higher education institutions, businesses, and government to fuel job growth and redevelopment in targeted locations. Innovation districts are based on the premise that collaboration and productivity result from proximity, and therefore job creation and innovation can be fostered through the intentional clustering of businesses, institutions, ideas and people. Innovation districts have been adopted by a variety of host cities in order to revitalize their communities and diversify their economies.

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 Text: Kira Ivanova