Putting residents at the center of urban planning

Josep Bohigas, director of the Barcelona Regional Strategic Planning Agency, is pictured in the center of Athens. The Spanish architect was recently invited by the Schwarz Foundation to deliver a lecture at the National Technical University of Athens in which he tried to debunk popular myths of urban planning and analyze the ways in which authorities have responded to fresh challenges. Speaking to Kathimerini, the 55-year-old son of the late Oriol Bohigas, the masterplanner of the successful 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, warned against the pitfalls of overtourism and unchecked real estate investment, while stressing that city-dwellers must be at the center of urban policy planning.