Munich is transforming its Harthof district, with around 3,300 mostly municipal rental apartments, as the template for 100 structurally similar districts by 2035. How a city gets from one district to a hundred is the question ASCEND will put to cities and experts on 4 November at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2026 in Barcelona.
The panel takes place from 10:00 to 11:00 at the European Commission’s EU for Resilient Green Cities Pavilion (Hall 2, Stand D121). It brings together representatives from Munich, Lyon and Prague with ASCEND partners working on replication, financing and digital tools.
Positive Clean Energy Districts (PCEDs) have shown that climate neutrality can be delivered at neighbourhood level. The harder task is replication: carrying a proven model into the next district, and the one after, with the organisation, the tools and the money to do it.
Lyon and Prague are working on the same step. In Lyon, the model developed at La Confluence is being extended to the district’s southern section, where 55% of housing will be social or affordable. In Prague, the lessons are being built into some 550 new municipal apartments in Dolní Počernice from the design stage.
The panel will discuss four questions:
- Digital tools: How do Prague and other ASCEND cities use AI and digital twins to plan and run districts, and which tools are worth adopting before scaling up?
- Urban orchestration: Munich runs its mission inside the city administration, while Lyon has entrusted delivery to a dedicated Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). What can each model do that the other cannot?
- Replication: Europe has committed to 100 climate-neutral cities by 2030. What organisational, regulatory and practical conditions do cities need to move beyond single pilot projects?
- Financing: Who pays for the next districts? How can Munich, Prague and Budapest close the gap between capped rents in municipal housing and the cost of deep refurbishment?
Speakers:
- Baptiste Mougeot, SPL Lyon Confluence
- Dr. Stefan Synek, City of Munich
- Marek Šmíd, City of Prague/OICT
- Michal Kuzmič, Czech Technical University in Prague (ČVUT)
- Philippe Fournand, BlueSight
- Laura Dieguez, DKSR
- Moderator: Veronika Cerna, TWNTY
The session opens with a live audience poll on the main obstacle to repeating a successful district project. It closes with one replication condition from each speaker. ASCEND will publish the resulting set of conditions after the event.
After the panel, the speakers will be available at the ASCEND station on the European Commission stand for one-to-one conversations.
See ASCEND’s full programme at Smart City Expo World Congress 2026
