Knowledge sharing by design at @ 22 District in Barcelona
Spatial proximity creates both competitive advantage and financial gains, as it provides opportunities for knowledge diffusion and partnerships development. The closer firms are located the greater the likelihood of positive synergies and knowledge diffusion. This is why successful urban regeneration project are always characterized by innovative spatial design and the use of modern technologies to enable inter-company cooperation.
Examples of positive synergies include collective learning, institutionalized and informal ties, and staff mobility. Across the world, cities like Barcelona in Spain, Boston in the USA and Curitiba in Brazil have recognized the importance of rethinking urban design with knowledge diffusion in mind.
In the case of Barcelona the design of 22@Barcelona Innovation District or just 22@District is attempting to enable knowledge sharing between local enterprises and the international business community. City officials decided to attract knowledge-intensive foreign businesses focusing on five clusters; ICT, Media, Biomedical, Energy and Design. Each cluster of companies is located in a separate district, favouring same-sector knowledge diffusion. But at the same time, the 22@District brand and the use of modern technologies and innovative co-creation services, allowed for inter-sector collaborations.
The project opened in 2000 in order to regenerate Poblenou, a degraded area of approximately 200 hectares close to city center. It resulted to a 100% increase in new businesses relocating in the area and about 70% of new jobs. Alongside the architectural design, the designers of @22District introduced innovative programs such as program 22@Staying in Company which helps university students to work in companies based in the region, the program 22@Volunteers, that offers voluntary work to help newcomers in the region learn Catalan, the program 22@Update Breakfast, which gathers professionals to exchange ideas, and the 22@Urban Cluster Day, a symposium to further research and documentation of developments on the role of urban clusters.
The example of the 22@District in Barcelona is interesting because despite being developed designed around five distinct agglomerations, it unified all entities around a shared infrastructure, telecommunications and road network.
Similar programs operate in many more cities including the Boston Waterfront Innovation District in Boston, the Paraná’s Center of Innovation, Education, Technology and Entrepreneurship in Curitiba, Brazil, the new financial center in Valencia, and the One North in Singapore. In all of these examples, building for knowledge diffusion and business collaboration with local knowledge sources, remains of paramount importance.
