In 2008, the President of the urban community in Dunkirk, France and Vitoria's mayor in Brazil, have called upon the French association «Les Ateliers - International Workshops of Planning and Urban Design» to schedule a double session based on the theme of regional solidarities and urban development. A first session occurred on that occasion in Vitoria, Brazil at the fall 2009, and was followed by a participation in the worldwide urban forum held in Rio in March 2010. The second one will be held this summer in Dunkirk, in the logic of the considerations carried out on the theme of a balanced development for harbour cities and their future, especially in the perspective of harbour economic evolution, initiating wealth and unsteadiness on the territory.

The synergies Harbour-City, triggering off local wealth, indeed scope a wide range of investigations to  be explored in more qualitative perspectives : international  business relationships, cultural exchanges, migratory phenomena, synergy with the hinterland (territory of mining passageways located in the metropolis of Lille), the maritime imaginary....