CANNES today functions mostly as a tourist, festival, and retirement destination. But it has the potential to play a new, far more dynamic role. Its climate and lifestyle attractions, its connections to the film and media world, and its proximity to the Sophia Antipolis technopole, position it to become a leading center of the creative industries. The focus of this workshop is on innovative development, urban design, and technological infrastructure strategies to achieve that goal. The recent Nation Academies report "Beyond Productivity" will provide a starting point.

Cannes has partnered with MIT to develop an approach for a new high-technology neighborhood on one of the last available waterfront sites (more than 30 ha) near the downtown. The workshop will challenge students to develop specific architectural, urban, and technological interventions that will initiate beneficial urban change. The course will focus on three themes:

* Planning sustainable large-scale urban transformation
* Understanding the repercussions of technology on the spatial configuration of our cities
* Working with emerging wireless technology to transform our cities

Through lectures and workshop sessions students will collaborate in interdisciplinary groups with a diverse team of faculty throughout the semester. The course will include a site visit and a presentation session for Cannes city officials during IAP. The workshop outcome will be published and presented at the leading MIPIM exhibiton in 2004. Students from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, the Department of Architecture, the Media Lab and Harvard GSD are encouraged to express their interest by sending an email to: cannes@media.mit.edu. Good design and graphic skills are recommended.