EUROPAN 11

Territories and ways of life in resonance. Architectures for the sustainable city

Territories and ways of life in resonance / Architectures for the sustainable city

RAE: resonance (from the Latin. resonantĭa).

1. f. Prolongation of the sound, which decreases by degrees.

2. f. Sound produced by repercussion of another.

3. f. Each of the elementary sounds that accompany the principal sound in a musical note and communicate a particular timbre to each voice or instrument.

4. f. A fact or a person's qualities become widely known or spread on the wings of fame.

5. f. Phys. A phenomenon that occurs when the eigenfrequency of a mechanical, electrical, etc., system coincides with the frequency of an external excitation.

6. f. Chem. The state of certain molecules whose structure and properties result from the contribution of several valence formulae.

Transformation and adaptation of urban territories in their quest for sustainability

Spatial planning capable of generating both strategies for change and coherent urban evolution at all scales of its environmental and human components not only reinforces the economic, social and cultural attractiveness of a region or municipality, but also enhances its identity.

Challenge

Sustainable urban intervention requires addressing the question of nature and its relationship with the city and the territory, with special attention to the diversity of site conditions. Nature must be understood in its broadest sense: the urban garden, the public park, the agricultural area or the natural and wild biotope, including from natural spaces to those that have been reclaimed and urbanised.

Bet

A city or conurbation that seeks to be part of a sustainable logic must moderate its horizontal extension in order to limit the consumption of undeveloped land, thus avoiding the plundering of its territory. In some cases, it must even recycle or reduce its built-up area in order to rebuild from what already exists.

Whatever their scale, places interact with each other and it is essential to develop these relationships and interdependencies through systems from the local to the global. These links should also allow access to knowledge and the exchange of ideas. In this way, a clear adaptation of the existing situation to the current context must be gauged in order to respond to the demands of the future.

Expectations

Committing to a certain degree of urban sustainability means improving the quality of life. To this end, EUROPAN 11 contestants must propose environmental development strategies that are part of an evolutionary process that is sensitive to the identity of each site. It is about finding a way to make a development fit the scale of the site, despite the unknowns of time. Interdisciplinarity is necessary to achieve this objective, which the architect cannot tackle alone.

URBAN-ARCHITECTURAL SCALE AND PROGRAMME

Inventing the European city from the contemporary urban context, from the territorial scale to the domestic sphere. The scale of EUROPAN sites is not defined in terms of surface area but by their intensity, their city-building influence and their development potential. The aim is to quantify the futuristic nature of the site.

EUROPAN is therefore situated between urban planning and building, thus opening up the field for reflection on the relationship between public and private space, "architecturising urbanity".

We thus distinguish two families of two scales:

Urban and architectural project area

- The plot (specific place of habitat)

- The neighbourhood (group of buildings grouping habitat and complementary services)

Strategic area

- The city (urban space of habitat and of diverse and mixed uses)

- The metropolitan region (spatial conglomerate formed by interrelated autonomous units)

1.Identity

Tackling the relationship between the local and the global involves considering the question of identity and of the visible and imaginary variables that make up the character of a place, which poses a paradox: The more identifiable cities are on a global scale, the greater their risk of losing identity on a local scale. How can this contradiction be resolved? How to reconcile the different scales and create a contemporary image of European urbanity?

1A - FROM MARGINALITY TO RELEVANCE

Some sites, unoccupied and lacking in personality or concrete use, appeal to the imagination to be transformed into meaningful places. They need to be regenerated and reincorporated into the city, either by connecting them to existing infrastructures or by building a new identity that citizens could make their own, thus avoiding the emergence of new enclaves. However, in these transformation processes, it is important to identify the pre-existence and heritage that needs to be preserved.

1B - FROM INDEFINITION TO CHARACTER

Although these sites are not worthless, their current state is unsatisfactory. They are accompanied by a strong demand for improvements and greater visibility. In some cases, the proposed programmes are expected to revitalise existing structures through the expected creation of new urban and landscape spaces.

1C - FROM AN OBSOLETE IDENTITY TO A NEW IDENTITY Given that the current planning is obsolete, inadequate or simply under-exploited, there is a desire to create a new state of affairs through the introduction of new programmes, added value and a better connection with the surrounding areas. All sites must also take into account the cultural heritage, whether it concerns existing buildings or, in an intangible sense, the collective memory linked to its past.

2. Uses

Attributing a new programme to a site is a strategy with many repercussions in different fields ranging from architecture itself to social or economic life. For sites in this category, the biggest challenge for programmes is to redefine the relationship between the global and the local. Although the starting point is different for each site, three sub-groups can be identified according to the relationship with the context and their relative dimensions,

2A - FROM WASTELAND TO URBAN LIVING

Waste land is unproductive: whether it is green (agricultural), brown (industrial) or grey (asphalt), underused land leads municipalities to launch new programmes. What strategies will bring the richness of urban life to these areas? How can new urban areas be designed to offer maximum benefits with minimum environmental impact? What are the ways to achieve contemporary coexistence?

2B - FROM ISOLATION TO SOCIAL INTEGRATION

A series of plots, an isolated plot of land, a clearing in the forest; sometimes a one-off intervention can change an entire context. What types of programmes could stimulate the surrounding areas? How can the project be an open platform for social and economic integration? What is the piece that can complete this puzzle?

2C - FROM INTERMEDIATE SPACE TO SHARED SPACE

Intermediate spaces can be simple voids that do not invite you to live or stay in them, that do not give rise to any sense of appropriation. They are places of passage, adapted to automobiles. How to transform an empty space into a public space? How to encourage passers-by to visit? What kind of programme could be a benchmark for shared urban living?

3. Connectivity

In the framework of sustainability, the issue of connectivity concerns methods of dependency (interconnectedness) between the global and the local, between scales of space and time, between natural and social environments. The existing is reviewed in the light of the relationship between mobility, urban practices and public spaces.

3A - FROM BORDER SITUATION TO INCORPORATION

How to move from a border situation (infrastructure, topography) to stitching, to connection? The boundary (between town and country, urban and suburban, between neighbourhoods, etc.) can be subjected to numerous changes in order to foster new urban connectivities.

3B - FROM EMPTY SPACE TO RELATIVE SPACE

The sites in this category are considered to be "remnants" of the infrastructures or green areas of certain neighbourhoods. They offer the possibility to build new housing and to create a new space for relationships, not only between different urban fabrics of the city, but also between different groups of citizens. The relative emptiness of these spaces allows for the creation of a sustainable, high quality public space as a framework for future developments that will seek to establish links between the different fragments of the environment.

3C - FROM PLACE TO TERRITORY

Contemporary urban environments are the result of multiple processes that inject new dynamics into local environments and turn local micro-activities into territorial and even global scale activities. New connections are created or existing ones are strengthened in the main metropolitan areas. Some municipalities join forces, grouping together, to promote this connectivity.

When territorial-scale dynamics dominate local environments, it is urgent to reassess the relationship between the global and the local. How can a place take advantage of this territorial presence to create connections without being overwhelmed by its consequences?

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+info:

EUROPAN / Spain
CALLS: Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (MITMA)
IN COLLABORATION WITH: Ministry of Public Works Europan

RESULTS

By categories

Jury

Jordi BadíaNuno RavaraJuan Domingo SantosJesús IrisarriGaia RedaelliJavier García-GermánKristine JensenFélix Arranz

  • Helianthus
    Helianthus
  • Yes We Bridge
    Yes We Bridge
  • Linzertus
    Linzertus
  • Play Topography
    Play Topography
  • Hip-Hubs
    Hip-Hubs
  • In Return
    In Return
  • Line Code
    Line Code
  • Terracing - Play Mobile
    Terracing - Play Mobile
  • Back to Citizens!
    Back to Citizens!
  • nieuWATERgarden
    nieuWATERgarden
  • Fratres
    Fratres
  • "Wear Out"
    "Wear Out"

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