What Sites for E16? (2)

Each session, European cities propose sites of intertwined urban and architectural scales. Although the contexts of the Europan 16 sites –the number of which has not yet been finalized– can be very different, they do share certain common transformation issues that allow them to be compared and discussed on a European scale. The challenge of this session is to improve, strengthen, or create urban metabolism (taking the natural living into account) and inclusive dimension (social living) of the proposed situations.

All the sites already selected for this session were therefore classified into 3 main families –Revitalization; Recovery; and Care– based on the general theme "Living Cities". Each family is divided into 3 sub-families.
Each site is the subject of a video –produced by the City and / or the Region and the national structures of Europan– presenting the characteristics of the site in 3 minutes, as well as the goal of its transformation, in order to explore the sites issues before the launch of the competition on April 5, 2021.
For each thematic site’s group, the site representatives discuss common themes and their singularities. Some E15 site representatives testify of their experience.

Theme 2: Recovery

In this family, new energy has to be found for the sites through a treatment that respects the existing environment introducing specific elements and actions able to develop a resilient city.

Theme 2A - Recovery / Creating Energetic Landscapes

Sites with a potential to develop a landscape which strongly animates new developments, giving them a resilient quality in the sense of a living milieu, integrating rich biodiversity in the realm of public spaces.
Introduction of the theme by the moderator; projection of the related videos; debate between the E16 and E15 site representatives

E16 Site Representatives:
Schwäbisch Gmünd (DE) Julius Mihm, Mayor Chief of Office for Urban Department, city of Schwäbisch-Gmünd
Grenoble (FR) Gilles Namur, 2nd deputy Mayor, in charge of Nature in the City, Public Spaces, Biodiversity and Freshness, City of Grenoble

With the participation of Europan 15 City Representatives

Moderators:
Miriam Garcia Garcia, Architect Landscaper, Professor, Barcelona (ES), Member of the Europan Scientific Committee
Dimitri Szuter, Architect Researcher Paris (FR), Member of the Europan Technical Committee

Theme 2B - Recovery / Intensifying Districts

The sites address the scale of a larger neighbourhood that has to be enriched with different qualities, such as uses, public space, natural elements, etc.
Introduction of the theme by the moderator; projection of the related videos; debate between the E16 and E15 site representatives

E16 Site Representatives:
Biel/ Bienne (CH): Jürg Bart, architect Europan Switzerland Secretary
Almendralejo (ES): Alfonso Gómez Goñi, General Director of Architecture and Building Quality, Extremadura Regional Government
Barcelona (ES): Jaume Barnada, Coordinator of International Relations Projects Management of the Chief Architect Urban Ecology City Council of Barcelona
Vilnius (LT), Representative of the City of Vilnius
Levanger (NO): Tove Nordgaard, Architect City Cultural Heritage Advisor and City Architect, City of Levanger

With the participation of Europan 15 City Representatives

‍Moderators:
Aglaée Degros, Architect Urbanist, Brussels (BE), Head of Institute of Urbanism TU Graz (AT), Member of the Europan Scientific Committee
Dimitri Szuter, Architect, Researcher, Paris (FR), Member of the Europan Technical Committee

Theme 2C - Recovery / Stimulating Interfaces

The sites are at a crossing-point of different areas, making them not only important mediators, but also places that can stimulate the quality of the neighbouring areas.
Introduction of the theme by the moderator; projection of the related videos; debate between the E16 and E15 site representatives

E16 Site Representatives:
Graz (AT) Wielfried Krammer, Head of City planning department, City of Graz
Selb (DE) Helmut Resch, Head of the Planning and Building Department, City of Selb
Roquetas de Mar (ES) Alfonso Rubi: Architect Roquetas de Mar City Council
Quimper (FR) David Lesvenan, Elected in charge of Urbanism, City of Quimper

Moderators:
Socrates Stratis, Architect, Professor, Researcher, Cyprus University Nicosia (CY), Member of the Europan Scientific Committee
Dimitri Szuter, Architect, Researcher, Paris (FR), Member of the Europan Technical Committee

Grand Témoin

Reaction of a representative of a Europan winning team with an ongoing or completed implementation process
Blaž Babnik, Architect and Urban Planner, Obrat d.o.o, Ljubjana (SI), Europan 13 winner

Which Implementations Processes after the Winning Ideas?

Europan is not just a competition of ideas valorising young European talents –over 100 awarded each session. It is also a process to go from ideas to realisation. After the competition and the evaluation by expert juries, site representatives dialogue with the team –sometimes several team per site– or set up workshops. It allows them to decide which team they want to continue working with in order to develop their ideas in relation to the local context and to multiple actors. Different operational missions can be given from urban strategy missions to guide plans, programming studies to the implementation of buildings and / or of public spaces.

In this Forum 9 project-process have been selected among the most recent ones. Three of them are presented and discussed this afternoon.

Theme 2: Adaptable Spaces

Today the transformation of lifestyles and of urban practises has accelerated and a programme can quickly become obsolete. At the same time though, the capacity of a place or a building to be used more intensively than for its sole initial use allows to save space and resources. Can space be adaptable to change of uses? Can the city and the architecture be malleable enough to absorb changes of programmes?

E13 Zagreb (HR) — Ephemeral Architecture for the River banks
Designers: OPENACT Architecture - Research - Urban Design, Madrid (ES) I Istanbul (TR) represented by Zuhal Kol (TR), architect
Client: representative of the City of Zagreb

E14 Torrelavega (ES) —
Designers: Espacio Vacante arquitectura, Madrid (ES) represented by Begoña de Abajo Castrillo (ES), architect
Client: Enrique Alonso, Deputy General Director of Territorial Planning and Landscape

E14 Amsterdam (NL) —
Designers: UP4 architects and landscapers, Stockholm (SE) represented by Giovanni Lavanna (IT), architect
Client: Sabine Lebesque, Senior Advisor Spatial Quality Architectural historian, City of Amsterdam

With the participation of Europan 16 City Representatives

Moderators:
Socrates Stratis, Architect, Professor, Researcher, Cyprus University Nicosia (CY), Member of the Europan Scientific Committee
Céline Bodart, Architect, Researcher, Paris (FR), Member of the Europan Technical Committee

Introduction by the moderators

Around this common theme, 3 projects / processes are presented as videos retracing the steps of the negotiation from the idea to the implementation through a dialogue with the local actors. The presentation of the video is followed by live comments of the 3 teams and their clients.

In a second sequence, a debate takes place between the actors involved in the 3 processes and the Europan 16 city representatives, who will, at the end of the competition, have to undertake the same operational experiences.

Views on Europan 15 Winning Projects

Presentation of the videos: The Europan Scientific Committee has preselected 23 videos (out of the 86 received) produced by the Europan 15 teams on their winning ideas. Twelve 3-minute videos have been preselected and are presented this afternoon, with the presence and live comments of the teams.

On Thursday afternoon a jury of former winners will select 5 videos among the 23 and grant them thematical prizes.

Moderator: Dimitri Szuter, Architect, Teacher, Researcher, Member of the Europan Technical Commission

What Sites for E16? (3)

Each session, European cities propose sites of intertwined urban and architectural scales. Although the contexts of the Europan 16 sites –the number of which has not yet been finalized– can be very different, they do share certain common transformation issues that allow them to be compared and discussed on a European scale. The challenge of this session is to improve, strengthen, or create urban metabolism (taking the natural living into account) and inclusive dimension (social living) of the proposed situations.

All the sites already selected for this session were therefore classified into 3 main families –Revitalization; Recovery; and Care– based on the general theme "Living Cities". Each family is divided into 3 sub-families.
Each site is the subject of a video –produced by the City and / or the Region and the national structures of Europan– presenting the characteristics of the site in 3 minutes, as well as the goal of its transformation, in order to explore the sites issues before the launch of the competition on April 5, 2021.
For each thematic site’s group, the site representatives discuss common themes and their singularities. Some E15 site representatives testify of their experience.

THEME 3: Care

Care is about recognizing the vulnerability of our living milieu. It is about finding new design ways to pay attention to things that so far, are marginalized, hurt, or ignored. Caring is about weaving together diverse efforts and means across architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning to help heal and repair.

Theme 3A - Care / Valorizing Natural Elements and Landscapes

The sites are located at the edge of parks and forests or situated within agricultural or planted areas. The projects’ actors have to embrace mechanisms of care for natural and manmade landscapes. The sites may be transformed into interfaces with porous edges to support the habitats of the landscapes.
Introduction of the theme by the moderator; projection of the related videos; debate between the E16 and E15 site representatives

E16 Site Representatives:
Carouge (CH), Yoni Santos architect Typical Office representative of the site
Niort (FR): Jacques Billy, Mayor of Aiffres, 2nd Vice-President of the Niortais Agglomeration in charge of Territory Planning and Major Projects
Karlskoga (SE)
Hjertelia (NO): Knut Kiennerud, Engineer, Head of Property Development City Mingerke

With the participation of Europan 15 City Representatives

Moderators:
Miriam Garcia Garcia, Architect Landscaper, Professor, Barcelona (ES), Member of the Europan Scientific Committee
Dimitri Szuter, Architect Researcher Paris (FR), Member of the Europan Technical Committee

Theme 3B - Care / Dealing with New Uses

The sites have available building stock at the end of their first or second life cycles. The sites lack strategic uses that could support the transition of the building stock to another life cycle. it is crucial to take care of relations between the uses, the inhabitants, and the building stock itself.
Introduction of the theme by the moderator; projection of the related videos; debate between the E16 and E15 site representatives

E16 Site Representatives:
Landshut (DE), Johannes Doll, Head of the Building Department, City of Landshut
Istres (FR): Nicole Joulia, 1st Deputy Mayor for Culture, Women’s Rights and Citizenship, City of Istres
Limoges (FR), Vincent Léonie, Deputy Mayor in charge ofUrbanism, City of Limoges

With the participation of Europan 15 City Representatives

‍Moderators:
Aglaée Degros, Architect Urbanist, Brussels (BE), Head of Institute of Urbanism TU Graz (AT), Member of the Europan Scientific Committee
Dimitri Szuter, Architect, Researcher, Paris (FR), Member of the Europan Technical Committee

Theme 3C - Care / Reinventing Rurality and Productive Heritage

The sites are heritage-related, regarding previous forms of production or related to rurality. Part of the challenge is about taking care of such areas with little means of economy  by revalorizing the existing as an asset to living and working in the countryside.
Introduction of the theme by the moderator; projection of the related videos; debate between the E16 and E15 site representatives

E16 Site Representatives:
Beizama (ES) Pablo Garcia-Astrain, Director of Housing, Land and Architecture of the Basque Regional Government
Esparraguera-Colonia Sedo (ES) Pere Picorelli, Coordinator of INCASOL projects, Regional Government of Catalunya
Roquetas de Mar (ES) Alfonso Rubi: Architect Roquetas de Mar City Council
Pont-Aven (FR) Christian Dautel, Mayor of Pont-Aven

Moderators:
Socrates Stratis, Architect, Professor, Researcher, Cyprus University Nicosia (CY), Member of the Europan Scientific Committee
Dimitri Szuter, Architect, Researcher, Paris (FR), Member of the Europan Technical Committee

Grand Témoin

Reaction of a representative of a Europan winning team with an ongoing or completed implementation process
Luis Basabe, Architect, Urban Planner, arenas basabe palacios arquitectos, Madrid (ES), E9, E10, E11, E12 and E13 winner

Which Implementations Processes after the Winning Ideas?

Europan is not just a competition of ideas valorising young European talents –over 100 awarded each session. It is also a process to go from ideas to realisation. After the competition and the evaluation by expert juries, site representatives dialogue with the team –sometimes several team per site– or set up workshops. It allows them to decide which team they want to continue working with in order to develop their ideas in relation to the local context and to multiple actors. Different operational missions can be given from urban strategy missions to guide plans, programming studies to the implementation of buildings and / or of public spaces.

In this Forum 9 project-process have been selected among the most recent ones. Three of them are presented and discussed this afternoon.

Theme 3: Hybridisation City/Nature

Nature and City are often opposed. How can we make these two worlds compatible? With the development of more environmental approaches applied to the city, we realize that the urban environment is also made of flows, energy and natural elements, like soil, air, heat, climate. We talk about “urban metabolism” and of inhabited environment as a potential hybridization of a natural environment and a human environment. It is a challenge to create or regenerate inhabited milieus where nature finds its rights and rules of live again, yet associated with those of human fabrication.

E13 Trondheim (NO) — A Harbour Transformed into a District
Designers: False Mirror Office, Genova (IT), represented by Andrea Anselmo (IT), architect
Client: Per Arne Tefre, Architect and Urban Planner at the Trondheim Port Authority

E12 Marseille (FR) — Public Spaces for a Social District
Designers: Concorde architecture, Marseille (FR) represented by Jean Rodet (FR), architect
Client: Elodie Luchini, Operational Housing Director, Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropole

E13 Charleroi (BE) — Regeneration of a Square Linked to a Park
Designers: CENTRAL office, Brussels (BE), represented by Radim Louda (CZ), architect
Client: Paolo Ruaro, Architect, Charleroi Bouwmeester

With the participation of Europan 16 City Representatives

Moderators:
Aglaée Degros, Architect Urbanist, Brussels (BE), Head of Institute of Urbanism TU Graz (AT) – Member of the Europan Scientific Committee
Céline Bodart, Architect, Researcher, Paris (FR), Member of the Europan Technical Committee

Introduction by the moderators

Around this common theme, 3 projects / processes are presented as videos retracing the steps of the negotiation from the idea to the implementation through a dialogue with the local actors. The presentation of the video is followed by live comments of the 3 teams and their clients.

In a second sequence, a debate takes place between the actors involved in the 3 processes and the Europan 16 city representatives, who will, at the end of the competition, have to undertake the same operational experiences.

Prizes of the Best E15 Videos Produced by the Winning Teams on Their Projects

Among a pre-selection of 20 videos (on the 89 produced) made by the Scientific Committee Europan, a jury of 5 former Europan winners –with an ongoing or completed implementation process– announces the 5 thematized prizes they granted and develops the arguments of their selection.

Composition of the jury:
President: Tania Concko, architect (FR), Zaanstad E2 (NL)
Luis Palacios, architect (ES), arenas basabe palacios arquitectos Madrid (ES), Wien E10 (AT)
Meat architecture, Paris (FR), La Bazana E14 (ES)
Giovanni Glorialanza, architect (IT) Trondheim E13 (NO)
Carlos Zarco Sanz, architect (ES) Zagreb E13 (HR)

Moderator: Didier Rebois, Architect, Secretary General Europan Europe

Europan, What Next?

Through the analysis of 2 exemplary process-projects, different points of views and a debate on the next E16 theme, the Forum concludes on the perspective of What could be the goals of Europan for the next sessions?

Moderated by: Bernd Vlay, Architect, Wien (AT), Member of the Europan Scientific Committee
Julio de la Fuente, Architect, Teacher, Madrid (ES), Member of the Europan Technical Committee

Productive Cities: Videos and Exchanges from the Points of View of E15 Winning Teams

— Introduction by the moderator referring to the Europan Manifesto Guide for Process-Projects
— Presentation/Analysis of two dynamic process-projects

1 - A Collaborative Process
E10 in Wien Wildgarten (AT) – 1,000 new urban housing

Designers: arenas basabe palacios arquitectos, Madrid (ES), represented by Luis Palacios, architect
Client: Angela Lämmerhirt, ARE Austrian Real Estate Development GmbH

— Projection of a video explaining how a strong urban structure (a grid of gardens) was integrated through a long negotiation process with the actors, with a lot of new demands
10 min. Production Jmage
— Client and designers discuss live on their common experience

2 - A Metabolist Process
E13 Besançon (FR) – Reconnecting a campus and a Technopole

Designers: Altitude 35, Paris (FR), represented by Benoît Barnoud, architect, landscaper
Client: Nicolas Bodin, Vice-President Grand Besançon Metropole

— Projection of a video explaining how to consider the natural elements of the territory (geography, topography, water, vegetation…) to create landscapes reliances and to federate the actors (university, technopole, city) around a common project
10 min. Production Jmage
— Client and designers discuss live on their common experience

Comparative discussion on the processes and perspectives for Europan to produce such urban and landscaped projects.

What Theme?

— Europan launched a call on Instagram – @europan_cafe – to react on the Europan 16 theme of “Living Cities – Metabolism and Inclusivity”. Six personalities and offices (among the offices that did the take-overt) present their view by video.

Miriam Garcia, landscaper, Barcelona (ES); Atelier Georges, Paris (FR); LMNL office, Rotterdam (NL); Obrat architecture, Ljubljana (SI); Meat and Territories, Paris (FR); Omni, urbanists/researchers, Weimar (DE); arenas basabe palacios arquitectos, Madrid (ES)

— Reaction and Debate on the questions asked to the E16 competitors at the crossing between the metabolist and the inclusive approaches

Chris Younès, Philosopher, Professor, Paris (FR), Member of the Europan Scientific Committee
Aglaée Degros, Architect Urbanist, Brussels (BE), Head of Institute of Urbanism TU Graz (AT) – Member of the Europan Scientific Committee

What Competition?

32 years after its creation, is the competition still dynamic and adapted to the stakes of the development of the European Cities? What could be changed or improved?

Conclusion of the forum in a debate as an open window towards the future