Young Architects – Planners of some ten countries of the Euromediterranean region met in Jávea in late November with the aim of sharing knowledge, experiences and proposals for the cultural enrichment of future generations.

It was a professional meeting of architecture - urban planning between youth of the Mediterranean and Middle East area, organized by the Jávea Neighborhood Forum, The Mediterranean House, The Generalitat Valenciana and Jávea’s Town Hall.

Already in the presentation The Generalitat Valenciana and The Mediterranean House agreed on the importance of defending the general consistency in the interventions to prevent each municipality act without considering the hole area.

The different thematic blocks addressed issues of interest such as the analysis of trends in urban planning in recent decades and its influence today, recent experiences at the interior and on the periphery of cities, and experiences of territorial and landscape type.

Each block of the meeting consisted of a general conference, a panel of discussion followed by communications by participants and discussion on the issues.

The workshops were attended by the General Director of The Mediterranean House Yolanda Parrado and The President of the Jávea Neighborhood Forum José Ribes.

It involved the participation of prestigious professionals and representatives of MVRDV study of the Netherlands, the study Rogers Stirk &Partners of the United Kingdom among others.

The internationality of the meeting was endorsed by the participation of Professor of Urban Rehabilitation at the University of Cairo (Egypt) Sameh A. El Alalily; the representative of the Lebanese Association for Development and Culture , Dolly Saba Srour, the President of the College of Architects Planners of Morocco and Vice Chairman of the National Order of Architects of Morocco, Rachid Ouazzani; the Assistant Secretary General of the Chamber of Architects of Turkey, Tugce Selin Tagmat; Vice President of the Mediterranean Union of Architects, Michel el Barmaki; and the Egyptian architect Emad Firkry Fouad.

Spain was also well represented by architects and academics, from different parts of the Peninsula, as Dr. José Mª Ordeig, José Seguí, Alberto Peñin and Pascual vernich among others.

The Scientific Committee was directed by José Mª Ordeig, Associate Professor of Urban Design School of Architecture at the University of Navarra, and was also composed by Javier Martinez Callejo, José Seguí Pérez, Alberto Peñin Ibáñez, Manuel Ferrer Regalés, and Vicente Castelló Vallés, architect and patron of the Jávea Neighborhood Forum who served as secretary to this committee.

The meeting concluded with an unanimous call to the pursuit of a sustainable urban design according to this times.

The assistants to the meeting agreed on the need to learn from the mistakes that urban design has been conducting in the northern Mediterranean in recent decades, to avoid repeating them in the emerging countries of the south.

In this sense, in relation to abuses in developed countries, participants assembled in Jávea advocated in thinking about sustainable decrease, whereas in the case of southern countries, where they are developing at present multiple projects of public and private character, has to be carried out a sustainable urban design that respects the landscape and the customs and historical traditions.