It is proposed for Europan 13 to continue with the generic theme of
"the adaptable city": adaption to the need for more sustainable
development but adaption also to the context of an economic crisis that
the majority of European cities are currently undergoing. Three generic
concepts structure this overall theme:
- Resilience as a challenge: to be able to extend or
find again the identity of the city’s structural elements (built or
landscaped) in a context of significant changes.
- Social adaptability as a goal: reconciling the coherence of these structures with the evolving uses and practices.
- Economy as a method: managing urban transformations
in different contexts of actors and means, yet with limited resources
and in the era of the “post-oil city”
Taking these three themes into account induces changes in the urban and architectural order:
- in the logics of actors – Welfare State Vs. Self-Organization
The
essence of the European city is a certain sense of the community. A
change is currently taking place from less “welfare state” to more “self
organization”. What will the new relation between the public and
private domains be? Who will take care of the public domain if the state
is less involved? And what does it mean for the practice as architects
or urban planners?
- in the contents – Segregation Vs. Sharing
Sharing
at the urban scale can stimulate the "empowerment" of coexistences
between different cultures: preserving the collective while inventing a
more appropriate organization of the society. How could sharing be a way
to develop cheaper and lighter solutions to build an ecological and
sustainable city? How could it be a way to regenerate the co-inhabited
environments?
- in the design processes – Object Vs. Project (Process)
With
communication tools and social networks in the rising, our culture
grows less object-based; and this phenomena affects architecture and
urbanism. Many young architects are emerging though the implementation
of projects presenting less physical objects, yet where the scope of the
projects is as important as the objects involved. The objects can
already partly exist and the project is about managing the existing,
dealing with social constructions, developing a context and raising the
question of “urbanism with less or without growth”.
Europan therefore wishes that the sites be confronted to the major
challenges concerning the adaptability of European cities and also
propose concrete innovations in the order given by the site
representatives, arousing new project approaches by young competitors. |