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Productive cities.
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Over the last decades, numerous urban regeneration operations have been developed in Europe. Organisations such as EUROPAN have been promoting the concept of the multifunctional city; today we can say that the idea of the mixed city is a generally shared one.
However, the question remains as to how mixed this mixed city really is. In many urban development projects of the post-industrial era, housing is the main programme. Wisely, a few offices and some public facilities are added, also trying to encourage the appearance of bars, shops and restaurants, in accordance with the desire that each new urban project should constitute a "real dynamic urban neighbourhood". When we look back at the way we have organised this wave of urban regeneration, we can see how one type of use has been systematically excluded: the productive economy. Warehouses have become lofts, industrial warehouses have become art or leisure centres, vacant lots have been transformed into attractive residential neighbourhoods. The productive economy has left the city centre and moved to the periphery, either close to or completely isolated from the city. In many European cities today, the spatial and social mismatch between living and working spaces is evident. The city offers job opportunities for highly qualified professionals, while many low-skilled workers live in the city centre without the possibility of working there. This gap generates a multitude of problems affecting the economy, transport and sociability. Urban renewal under the mixed city ideology is less mixed than we think. Jobs linked to the productive economy, manufacturing, maintenance and repair, etc., should also participate in the life of the city. Today, our cities are not complete cities.
While there is of course no question of bringing steel industries back to the centre, there are many small-scale manufacturing spaces: the city is increasingly incorporating new recycling-related industries and programmes could be set aside for small and medium-sized enterprises in the new development areas. We could prevent a plumber who lives in the city and repairs houses in our city from having to drive and travel outside the city centre to find storage space. The city should promote production so that it becomes part of the urban fabric; it should be made visible, nourished and linked to everyday life.
What alternatives do we have to produce this city? Instead of opting for productivist programmes based on separation and unlimited resources, the challenge is to reinvent proactive proximities, close circular economies, new alternatives for co-production and eco-sharing.
A return to the mix of housing and work could be a means to improve the process of hybridisation between local and global economies, between micro and macro strategies. Thus, by bringing production into the city, we create new opportunities for more recycling, for more social interaction and for urbanity. The aim is to produce a more sustainable city.
- How to incorporate certain productive activities in the city, such as the production of food, energy, low-skilled services or new industrial products, in order to improve new relations between citizens (favouring integration, combating gentrification, creating new ways of learning and working)? How to take into account social rootedness? How to involve the different actors?
- How to live in productive territories and how to produce in a residential environment? How can we manage the tensions arising from new relations between production and urban life, such as pollution affecting quality of life?
- How can all production cycles be integrated, taking into account distribution, waste and consumption? How to favour diverse (shorter?) cycles and anchor them in the local context, articulating them with a larger eco-scale?
EUROPAN 14 poses the challenge of generating new types of proximity by connecting habitat and production.
CLASSIFICATION OF PARTICIPATING SITES IN EUROPAN 14
a. From productive area to productive city
What kind of urbanity can logistics and industrial zones have? Cities are characterised either by large industrial estates well connected to all metropolitan networks, or by light industrial areas next to to urban centres. Both models operate independently of their adjacent areas, with mono-rhythmic uses. The challenge is to inject new economies that generate synergies between uses, but also porosities in order to achieve poly-rhythmic urban environments. How to develop common spaces to be shared by the users of the various activities with the inhabitants of the surrounding areas?
ALTA (NO)
AMIENS (FR)
AMSTERDAM PAPAVERDRIEHOEK (NL)
ANGERS (FR)
BÈGLES, BORDEAUX MÉTROPOLE (FR)
GRIGNY & RIS-ORANGIS, GRAND PARIS SUD (FR)
HAMBURG (DE)
HUY (BE)
KRIENS (CH)
LILLE (FR)
LILLESTRØM (NO)
TOULOUSE MÉTROPOLE (FR) WIEN (AT)
b. From city to productive city
How to create a vibrant productive district, with craftsmen, workshops and local production? All cities aspire to greater diversification. But the usual approaches to creating vibrant communities often conjure up an imaginary of homes, offices, cafes and restaurants, which is fine, but is it enough? Could we not inject vitality into existing neighbourhoods by encouraging productive activities? Is it the most viable option for low-income residential areas? What does production mean for creative and knowledge-based industries? What economic balance is needed to attract productive activities as the area improves and prices rise? These are areas where the will to find new ways of activity and to protect or balance existing activity is paramount.
ALCOY (ES)
AMSTERDAM H-BUURT (NL)
AMSTERDAM SLUISBUURT (NL)
BARCELONA CANYELLES (ES)
BESANÇON (FR)
CUNEO (IT)
LA BAZANA (ES)
NARVIK (NO)
NEU-ULM (DE)
OULU (FI) P
LATJA DE PALMA (ES)
ZWICKAU (DE)
c. From functional infrastructure to productive city
How can new ways of mobility improve the degree of hybridisation between city and production? Infrastructure is crucial to enable a dynamic economy in the city. However, they are often planned without taking into account their urbanity: motorways, car parks or intermodal spaces cause cut-throughs, increasing the degree of urban fragmentation. The city, which is moving towards a soft mobility model, offers new opportunities to reinvest in these infrastructures in order to adapt them. But how can we ensure that this leads to more sustainable urban living and a hybridisation of programmes that include productive activities? How can infrastructure be strengthened as an enabling environment for the productive city? Can obsolete roads become productive streets? What about unused car parks, can they be transformed into productive spaces? Could revalued intermodal nodes become productive places? What new typologies can emerge from these possibilities?
AMSTERDAM PIARCOPLEIN (NL)
ASCHAFFENBURG (DE)
AURILLAC (FR)
ÉVREUX, PORTES DE NORMANDIE (FR)
GRAZ (AT)
HELSINKI (FI)
MADRID (ES)
MÜNCHEN/TAUFKIRCHEN (DE)
TORNIOHAPARANDA (FI/SE) TORRELAVEGA (ES)
d. And... Productive again!
How to reintroduce the productive economy in new urban neighbourhoods? Many sites, in and around our cities, which were once industrial, have fallen into disuse. Buildings were abandoned, activities moved or closed down, turning these sites into industrial ruins. Obsolescence is the common feature of these sites and their future is uncertain. While we dream of transforming them into vibrant new urban neighbourhoods, if we want to avoid total gentrification, as has happened in the past in many urban renewal projects, perhaps we should try to restore some of their former productive activity, make them... productive again? Because these sites were once industrial and at the same time linked to the city. Because we want a very mixed city, and that mix also includes the productive economy.
AMSTERDAM TRANSFORMATORWEG (NL)
GUEBWILLER (FR)
KARLSKRONA (SE)
LINZ (AT)
PANTIN, MÉTROPOLE DU GRAND PARIS (FR)
ŠIBENIK (HR)
TRELLEBORG (SE)
TUBIZE (BE)
WARSZAWA (PL)
Rafael Durá Melis - Member. Treasurer CSCAE.
Carmen Espegel Alonso - Member
Juan Lucas Young - Member
Rafael Pellicer Zamora - Member. Counsel CSCAE.
Kristiaan Borret - Member
Miriam García García - Member
Zaida Muxí Martínez - Member
+info:
EUROPAN / SpainRESULTS
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Common groundCommon ground View Work file
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De vaca negraDe vaca negra View Work file
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Estación Impuls.AEstación Impuls.A View Work file
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On the blue summer eveningsOn the blue summer evenings View Work file
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PlacesPlaces View Work file
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Step by StepStep by Step View Work file
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Exposed CityExposed City View Work file
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In flowIn flow View Work file
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Bazana GOBazana GO View Work file
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Ágora 4.8Ágora 4.8 View Work file
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Vacant Space_Espacio VacanteVacant Space_Espacio Vacante View Work file
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KaljamaKaljama
Jury
Deputy Director General of Architecture and Building of the Ministry of Public Works. President of the Jury. : Javier Martín Ramiro Member : Berta Barrio Uría
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HummeloHummelo
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Small Room / Big WindowSmall Room / Big Window
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Give me 5!Give me 5!
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Embracing TechnologyEmbracing Technology
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Re-Meaning. Transforming traditional industry in urban synergiesRe-Meaning. Transforming traditional industry in urban synergies
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The ExcityThe Excity
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VarsoviaVarsovia
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A tale of two lakesA tale of two lakes
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PROlinz Productions UnlimitedPROlinz Productions Unlimited
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Top spinTop spin
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3L's for Liesing3L's for Liesing
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OuluOulu
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AurillacAurillac