The international conference ECOWEEK 2013 New Nordic Living in Copenhagen, an initiative of the Greek NGO ECOWEEK and the School KEA Copenhagen School of Design and Technology is the first to take place in Scandinavia.

The international conference is taking place with the cooperation and support of the Municipality of Copenhagen, with 27 ‘green’ design workshops that address real problems in the city. Some of the workshop proposals may be further developed, adopted by the city and some may be implemented.

The conference was greeted by Mayor of the Technical and Environmental Administration of Copenhagen Ayef Baykal, the rector of KEA Ingo Osterskov, and the founding chairman of ECOWEEK Architect and Environmental Consultant Dr. Elias Messinas. The conference was moderated by Jesper Pagh, architect and editor of the Danish Architectural Press, and included lectures by Michael Asgaard Andersen who introduced the New Nordic Living concept from the exhibition in Louiziana Museum of Denmark, and architect Kristian Villadsen associate architect at Gehl Architects.

The opening of the conference included screening of the new film by director Andreas Mol Dalsgaard on the research and work of Danish architect Jan Gehl entitled ‘The Human Scale’.

During the week ECOWEEK 2013 New Nordic Living will also host lectures by the Minister of Education of Denmark Morten Ostergaard and the Commissioner for Climate Change Connie Hedegaard.

The ECOWEEK ‘green’ design workshops will take place until May 17, and will be presented on Saturday May 18, with the participation of Canadian architect Daniel Pearl, the urban ecologist Salvador Rueda founder of the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona, Marianna Lubanski, director of the Cluster Dept. of Copenhagen at Clean Tech Cluster, Jesper Pagh, architect and editor of the Danish Architectural Press and Alex Heick Chairman of the Local Committee Bispebjerg.

ECOWEEK 2013 New Nordic Living workshops in Copenhagen are attended by architects, designers, engineers, landscape architects and students from Denmark, Greece, Israel, Brazil, Canada, Poland, Italy, Sweden, China, England, Germany and Serbia.

ECOWEEK is a non profit organization established in Greece in 2005 with the mission to raise environmental awareness, awareness on Climate Change and to promote the principles of sustainability. ECOWEEK founding chairman is architect and environmental consultant Dr. Elias Messinas. ECOWEEK is based in Athens, Aegina and Jerusalem, and is organized by the ECOWEEK Associates in 15 countries. The ECOWEEK network has members in 43 countries.

More information at www.ecoweek.org

His shocking proposal was made at the same time that the Danish government is to vote on a new support package for Greece.

Messerschmidt is a member of Denmark’s People’s Party and is known for his extreme political ideas. In his interview to “B.T.” tabloid newspaper, he claimed that “should Greece want to borrow money again from the EU, then his party will ask for more drastic and not quite traditional safeguard measures”.

“We understand that Greece cannot provide us with any debt guarantee in the form of money. Therefore, it could, for example, hand us over the island of Kos as a guarantee, so when Greece defaults, we will be able to retrieve our loan by collecting the island’s tourist income”, claimed Messerschmidt while providing the newspaper with some photos of his slinging a Danish flag in Kos.

According to the right-wing MP, the Greek default is a certain outcome “since no country managed to regain control over its economy with its debt being higher than 150% of GDP”.

The Danish politician’s party is known for its radical approaches and beliefs, while it is also against immigrants and the EU constitution as well.