The first semester design project for the final year of the MArch course involves producing urban design proposals for a city of the students\u2019 choice. Cities studied this year ranged from Fez in Morocco to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Working in groups of six, students spent a week in October visiting their cities to explore and gather information about its urban planning and local culture. For us, this meant visiting Croatia\u2019s second largest city: Split.<\/p>\n During our time in Split, in order to gain insights into the city we met with local architects, professors and students from Split University\u2019s Architecture department as well as the city\u2019s development agency. Once back in Bath we continued to communicate with the contacts we had made throughout the project. After completing the design project at the end of semester 1, we sent through copies of our final report. The City Development Agency and Mayor of Split were seemingly sufficiently impressed with the work to invite our group and Prof. Alex Wright to return to Split to present the project.<\/p>\n At the start of April we arrived in Split to give two presentations. The first was a public forum arranged by the city\u2019s Development Agency, held in a showroom currently exhibiting a masterplan for Split financed by the EBRD. The audience included city officials as well as the general public with a question and answer session following our presentation. Not only was it the first time any of us had presented to a public forum, but also our first time experiencing simultaneous translation.<\/p>\n The second presentation was given to final year undergraduate students from the University of Split\u2019s architecture department. The presentation was followed by discussions with the students on a range of topics, from the issues facing Split to the role young architect\u2019s can play in shaping our cities.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iro\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/98\/2019\/05\/IMG_2559.jpg\")
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