EUROPAN 12

The adaptable city.

ADAPTING CITY AND ARCHITECTURE TO URBAN RHYTHMS

CHANGING CITIES

European cities are facing radical transformation processes: they must minimise their ecological footprint in the shortest possible time, combat the greenhouse effect and protect non-renewable resources. These essential changes affect both their morphology and their metabolism (their energy expenditure) and depend very closely on the way they live. Given the urgency of facing this challenge, EUROPAN 12 proposes to reflect on how time management can contribute to making more adaptable cities.

RHYTHMS AND LIFE CYCLES OF URBAN SPACES

This implies, for example, proposing new ways of sharing collective space and new modes of management. It involves adopting a time approach, mixing the spatial and temporal dimension and, for example, planning spaces according to temporality. It also means developing an urbanism that is sensitive to the possibility of using different places at different times by reconsidering their spatial quality from this perspective. It is also important that urban planning projects are more adequately articulated with the reality of today's city. It is necessary to reflect on the multiple uses of the city and, in particular, on how to share and recycle buildings in order to avoid excessive space consumption and to promote a sustainable city over time.

Addressing the question of territories, the city and architecture today means taking into account both the temporality of uses and the temporality of the urban project. It is increasingly necessary to take the time factor into account in urban policies, as it affects the two main characteristics of the contemporary city, sprawl and fragmentation. If the city is expanding in space, it is also expanding in time: the contemporary city that is taking shape is a city that is continuously active, 24 hours a day. Time often becomes a reflection of the dispersed city, of the polychronic city, which functions at different times.

THE ADAPTABLE CITY

EUROPAN 12 proposes to underline the importance of urban rhythms and life cycles, with the aim of facilitating the adaptation of the city while preserving its specificity. Faced with an uncertain future, it is a question of being able to slow down, accelerate or articulate cycles and transformations. It will be necessary to anticipate the inevitable impacts of change, to anticipate plural uses and to be able to inherit creatively. It is therefore proposed to adjust to the existing and at the same time to foresee the possibilities of harmonising the permanent and the variable.

The specific objective of this new edition of the competition is to explore the relationship between time and space in urban architectural scale projects in order to achieve an adaptable and changing city. Adaptability is the quality of something that can easily adapt to perform functions different from those for which it was designed. Resilience is the capacity of a species, an individual or a system to cope flexibly with extreme situations and overcome them, recovering a functioning.

The city must regenerate itself after having been subjected to urban interventions, speed up to adapt to fast developments or revitalise uses. To this end, urban projects must be able to adapt to new temporalities of uses and deal with their coordination. The "adaptable city" is one that can be remodelled without breaking down, one that is able to expand its potential and regain its shape in space and time. The question would be the following: How to introduce the time factor into urban projects?

PROGRAMMES SITUATED BETWEEN MEMORY, CREATION AND REVERSIBILITY

From the point of view of the programme of uses, it is not so much a question of flexibility or functionality as of establishing frameworks capable of admitting changes situated between memory (history of places), the propositive (innovation of spatial devices) and reversibility (temporal organisation of spaces). It means, for example, that thinking about new buildings also means foreseeing how to act on the landscape and the natural space, anticipating the capacity of new projects to be included in a system.

To do this, it is necessary to evaluate/assess what already exists and to think about the future from an open programme that takes into account different time scales: different rhythms in lifestyles, between night and day, between seasons or between generational bands.

DYNAMIC URBAN PLATFORMS

The revitalisation of public spaces that have lost their attractiveness requires reflection on a scale larger than the site itself. Regardless of their size, these spaces can act as real focal points for urban life. Its influence in terms of identity and image often goes beyond its physical boundaries, thus leading to a major transformation of the existing fabric. Whether we are referring to "dead corners", which have always lacked an adequate use, or to places whose original function is now obsolete or inadequate for the needs of citizens, these places can become starting points for mobilising the local population or, on a larger scale, focal points for citizen activation.

The development or redevelopment of these areas can be understood in different ways: as a rejuvenation, incorporating multifunctional spaces that act as acupuncture points with temporary or expandable structures; as a trial balloon to put a place on the map, to attract co-financing initiatives or private investments, as well as to identify new rhythms of intensity.

AALBORG (DK) - BITTERFELD-WOLFEN (DE) - BUDAPEST (HU) - DON BENITO (ES) - GJILAN (KO) - KRISTINEHAMN (SE) - MARSEILLE PLAN D'AOU (FR) - SAINT-HERBLAIN (FR) - SCHIEDAM (NL) - WITTENBERGE (DE) DIVERSIFYING

THROUGH COLLECTIVE PROGRAMMES

The challenge is to design a proposal for a specific site in need of spatial and use redevelopment on a larger scale. It is about adapting to current and future demands in terms of diversity, both spatially and temporally.

INTENSIFY BY RESORTING TO STRATEGIC CONNECTIONS

In this case, existing public spaces, or simply open spaces, are either under-utilised or obsolete and lack clear definition. They need a strategic idea to weave future relationships between the different types of public, semi-public and private spaces in a wider area of reflection and to lock existing buildings into a long-term vision.

REVITALISING WITH CONTEMPORARY USES

Whether it is a canal or a stream, water is an attractive element in terms of image and quality of life. Docks and riverbanks can become vectors for urban regeneration adapted to contemporary lifestyles. New uses can create new polarities; the linearity of the water's edge allows for the incorporation of promenades and public spaces.

FUTURE HERITAGE

Although heritage is usually associated with the past, we can consider the opposite hypothesis, orienting it towards the future. Although normally extraordinary, can we define "ordinary heritage"? We will focus on how to "make heritage" in three situations which, a priori, lack heritage value: changes to be made in disinherited neighbourhoods, conversion of large buildings or isolated groups of buildings, and development of activity zones or abandoned sites. We can advance the hypothesis that the more the city - morphologically and functionally - mixes, recovers and valorises periods or stages of its growth, the more it develops its capacity to adapt to change, its potential for evolution and its possibilities of resisting brutal crises. Therefore, the question posed is the following: Doesn't making heritage mean increasing the adaptability of tomorrow's city?

AMSTETTEN (AT) - ASKER (NO) - COUVET (CH) - HAMMARÖ (SE) - KØBENHAVN (DK) - NÜRNBERG (DE) - REGIONALE 2016 (DE) - WARSZAWA (PL)

CHARACTERISING THE CHANGE PROJECTSThe city has generated deprived neighbourhoods or areas of unqualified infrastructure. Are we able to change our vision of these places and consider them as traces of an urban history in order to allow their adaptation and transformation into dynamic urban territories?

SINGULARISING RECONVERSION PROJECTS

Despite having very specific forms - buildings or blocks - certain urban fabrics may be in a state of abandonment or have obsolete uses. Considering the regeneration potential of their environment, could they be reconverted through the revitalisation of livelihoods? Can contemporary rhythms of life be compatible with the enhancement of a past identity? SPECIFYING DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS Urban zoning has resulted in a number of activity areas that are now obsolete and infrastructure has created abandoned enclaves. Their geographical location means that their future lies in their densification. Can urban development projects enhance these places and take them out of an enclave situation, taking into account their specificity?

FROM MONO-LARGE TO MULTI-MIX Two types of territorial transformation are closely linked: the transformation of a large single entity into a multitude of smaller elements and the transformation of a mono-functional area into an area of mixed uses and functions. Both approaches lead to a higher degree of spatial and functional complexity, a feature that is essential for achieving urban quality. A system that relies on smaller, differentiated elements is more flexible and adaptable. If one of the elements breaks down, it can await replacement or exchange without affecting too large an area. New needs can be absorbed more equally when the distribution model is differentiated. A highly diversified urban mix is more evolutionary than a large mono-functional cluster.

GRAZ (AT) - GRONINGEN (NL) - HANINGE (SE) - HEIDELBERG (DE) - HELSINKI (FI) - KAISERSLAUTERN (DE) - MARLY (CH) - URRETXURIMO (ES) - WIEN - SIEMENSÄCKER (AT)

DECOMPONING MEGA-STRUCTURES

Megastructures are characterised by an author, a plan, an objective and an intention. However, the constant evolution of needs and knowledge can put them in crisis due to their lack of flexibility: either they are suddenly abandoned by their specialised users, as in the case of military installations, or their resistance to change is at the root of the degradation of the social, physical and environmental fabric. How to "break" a megastructure in order to transform it into a malleable space, with the capacity to evolve, by inserting a variety of smaller-scale elements capable of admitting heterogeneous rhythms, uses and spaces? How to progressively transform the totalising character of a megastructure in order to make it a "place" capable of triggering the development of local urban qualities?

INTERWEAVING THE LOCAL

Transforming mono-functional clusters into mixed-use areas can have a decisive impact on the development of a neighbourhood, especially when the sites occupy a transitional space between large vacant land and built-up areas. In this case, the shift from the mono-functional to the mixed introduces coherence on a local scale, a new interweaving of spaces, whether it is a village or a neighbourhood in a metropolitan area. How to implement a process of adaptation over time in order to develop these territories? How can we, on the one hand, orchestrate the progressive development of the site itself and, on the other hand, undertake the gradual adaptation of the neighbourhood

PROGRESSIVE TRANSFORMATION

Transforming mono-functional clusters into mixed-use areas can have a decisive impact on the development of a neighbourhood, especially when the sites occupy a transitional space between large vacant lots and built-up areas. In this case, the shift from the mono-functional to the mixed introduces coherence on a local scale, a new interweaving of spaces, whether it is a village or a neighbourhood in a metropolitan area. How to implement a process of adaptation over time in order to develop these territories? How can we, on the one hand, orchestrate the progressive development of the place itself and, on the other hand, undertake the gradual adaptation of the neighbourhood

ECORITHMS

The contemporary city tries to anticipate the future and to prepare for the unpredictable changes it brings. Currently, different strategies are being developed to lay the foundations for creative resilience, to know how to adapt to a changing environment. The Ecorhythms hypothesis is to base urban development on a better synergy between natural and urban environments in order to break with the logic of opposition that has distanced citizens from natural realities subject to progressive degradation.

This distance between citizen and nature is not only spatial, it is also temporal. Indeed, the landscape is not a static frame, a beautiful image, it is a living environment in which cycles reign (seasons, day and night, tides, climatic changes, flora, etc.), forces of growth, slow or fast movements, migrations and transhumance, etc. Acting in the opposite way to modern urban planning, which has led to a rupture between urban and natural rhythms, the aim is, through sites with a strong landscape dimension, to promote operational processes based on the maintenance, incorporation or regeneration of ecorhythms.

BÆRUM (NO) - FOSSES (FR) - HÖGANÄS (SE) - KAUFBEUREN (DE) - KREUZLINGEN/KONSTANZ (CH/DE) - MILANO (IT) - PARIS - SACLAY (FR) - VICHY VAL D'ALLIER (FR)

POROUS LIMITS

These sites invite to redefine an active border between the city and the natural environment. How can this interface articulate the rhythms of urban life and the rhythms of nature? How to take advantage of a border situation to create a more flexible and change-ready framework for living?

HYBRID TERRITORIES

The sites are presented as territories in which natural and built realities intersect, overlap and mix. Its hybrid character can be an opportunity to think about alternative urban development.

IN BETWEEN TIME

Adapting also means introducing into the project process the possibility of working creatively with uncertainty, with the lack of funding, with the unknown of the future or even with the territorial changes that will affect the long term.

How to structure the "in between time" before implementation in order to facilitate the emergence of multiple possibilities, the involvement of various stakeholders and to allow for changes in the initial idea of urban planning? In such a case, the appropriateness and intelligence of the project could be ensured through procedures shaped by the dynamics of the territorial environment. In other words, it is about allowing time for the project to evolve organically, to grow like a plant rooted in its own place.

ASSEN (NL) - DONAUWÖRTH (DE) - KUOPIO (FI) - ROUEN (FR) - SERAING (BE) - VILA VIÇOSA (PT) - WIEN - KAGRAN (AT)

CREATIVE USE OF IN BETWEEN TIME

Given the current crisis, either the resources to implement planned urban development are lacking, or the objectives themselves are now unclear and uncertain. Could the waiting time be transformed into an opportunity to rethink the possible futures of the site by building into the project a degree of relaxation, a degree of uncertainty?

BEING SMARTER BY PROCEEDING SLOWER

Even when there is a dynamic to transform a site, it seems wiser to go for a process that takes place bit by bit, step by step. Especially when the degree of complexity of a site increases due to its relative size and the level of unpredictability of the new role that the site has to play on an urban scale. This process does not depend so much on the definition of the phases of a given project, but rather on the degree of intelligence in the initial stages. This would facilitate the implementation of the successive stages and the continuous readjustment of the project's objectives.

NETWORKED TERRITORIES

These are sites whose urban potential depends on their link to a larger-scale entity. It can be concrete, physical, such as a transport infrastructure, or it can be a virtual network of relations between several urban centres. Even if these communities are small or seemingly isolated, the connection to the network opens up possibilities for improving their urban life through a mix of different uses and a more complex urbanity.

How can we prepare these territories to be able to cope with different circumstances that may affect the other components of the network or the network itself? How can they adapt to major changes in the network, even its disappearance, by defining their own urban and architectural characteristics?

ALMADA - PORTO BRANDÃO (PT) - ÅS (NO) - BARCELONA (ES) - CINEY (BE) - KALMAR (SE) - MANNHEIM (DE) - MÜNCHEN (DE) - PARIS (FR) - VENEZIA (IT)

TRANSLOCAL ADAPTATION

The internal transformation of a place, whether physical or functional, extends its capacity to play a new role in the network and to accommodate new social dynamics if a new relationship with its environment is established. However, this transformation should be reversible or be the first stage of a longer process, so that the site can readjust its relationship with the network according to circumstances. ENCLAVES/DESENCLAVEMENT The physical connection to the grid is governed by a double (paradoxical) impulse: on the one hand, the opening of the internal structure thanks to its connection to the grid and, on the other hand, a protective enclosure to avoid the negative effects of the grid. These two processes are incorporated into the site as possibilities, potentials or different stages of a long-term strategy.

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+info:

EUROPAN / Spain
CALLS: Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (MITMA)
IN COLLABORATION WITH: Ministry of Public Works Higher Council of the Spanish Architects' Associations (CSCAE) EUROPAN / Spain

RESULTS

By categories

Jury

Víctor NavarroSebastià JornetVictoria AceboClara Murado President of the Jury : Joao Luis Carrilho da GraçaFredy Massad

  • A parlour game
    A parlour game
  • Reevolution in Mannheim
    Reevolution in Mannheim
  • Sonnenblume
    Sonnenblume
  • Germany
    Germany
  • Germany
    Germany
  • Rouen on the move
    Rouen on the move
  • Welcome to urban wellness!
    Welcome to urban wellness!
  • Ola K Asker
    Ola K Asker
  • Kaleidoscope
    Kaleidoscope
  • En pointe!
    En pointe!
  • Urban software
    Urban software
  • Urban permaculture
    Urban permaculture
  • Wood de travers
    Wood de travers
  • Somewhere over the train flow
    Somewhere over the train flow
  • Satellyzing Hammarö
    Satellyzing Hammarö
  • Synergy
    Synergy
  • Fasten your seatbelt!
    Fasten your seatbelt!
  • Open
    Open
  • On the edge
    On the edge
  • Twinphenomena
    Twinphenomena
  • Protection, density and complexity
    Protection, density and complexity

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