EUROPAN 2

Living the city, reinterpretation of urban sites

The aim of Europan 2 is to call for reflection on the possibilities of urban recomposition based on new strategies in which the habitat would play a principal or determining role. The aim is to qualify or requalify a site by repositioning it in the general evolution of the neighbourhood, of the city and by incorporating the new requirements dictated by changes in lifestyles and their plurality. It is also a question of proposing the most appropriate implementation processes for the new contemporary urban realities.

There are a variety of land opportunities. They can be used to implement urban logics that take better account of housing. The idea is to use existing sites in virtually all European cities, both in the inner city and on the periphery, vacant land, obsolete land, derelict or abandoned areas. All of them are sensitive sites which could play a decisive urban role in the development of cities and which the promoters of EUROPAN 2 are asking the competitors to consider.

 

Habitat and lifestyles

The change in demographic phenomena and social behaviour, the increase in mass consumption, the inflexion in social relations, all reflect the changes in lifestyles. It is important to detect the invariables, the changes and to assess their impact on habitat forms and their environment. Because if changes in people's habits and expectations affect the internal space of their homes, they also imply an adaptation of the relationship between the home and its neighbourhood, the city, its urban forms and other functions (commerce, work, leisure, culture, etc.). This adaptation becomes all the more imperative when, in the context of the homogenisation of the interior space of dwellings that has been observed for decades, the urban situation of the dwelling, the services and external extensions available to it become a determining criterion for its use and quality. In addition, the spread of communication techniques and the increase in traffic have brought about an enormous change in the relationship between the habitat and other urban functions, as well as between the different neighbourhoods of the city. What relationship should the habitat have with spaces for work, leisure and culture? What should be their functional and symbolic relations with public spaces and communication networks?

 

Urban dynamics and shapes

The ongoing renewal of urban development in parallel with economic and technological change is accompanied by the transformation of urban shapes. The growth of transport and communications simultaneously induces concentrations and extensions of agglomerations. Today's city can no longer be thought of as a finished or frozen object. Fragmented and parcelled, it is structured on the basis of networks and traffic routes. In this context, what value and role should we attribute to traditional urban shapes and old centralities? What form and status can an urban redevelopment operation take today?

 

Brand image

European openness and economic changes impose on cities a process of competition on which their development dynamics depend. Cities should be presented as products for sale and consumption. In order to occupy the best place in this race, they try to attract and keep for themselves dynamic and modern activities: qualified tertiary sector, high-tech industry, research and population of professionals, engineers and technicians, a reputation necessary for their functioning. They therefore need to forge a brand image and provide themselves with urban structures capable of meeting these requirements. This is why the dynamics of cities today seem to be polarised around new concepts, both economic and urban. Technopolis, shopping complexes, congress centres, large cultural, sports and leisure facilities are the driving forces of urban transformation and dynamism. Because of their economic role and their contribution in terms of brand image, their activity and their presence have repercussions which, beyond the direct impact on the environment, can completely change the functional, sociological, aesthetic and urban structure of a neighbourhood, a city or even a region. But very often, these facilities leave little room for habitat and urbanity. However, the habitat remains an essential part of the urban landscape. Its importance remains crucial. In addition, its presence in neighbourhoods oriented towards large facilities, imposes a growing attention to the quality of the environment and the promotion of urban life.

Whether it is a question of major intra-urban balances or of limiting the impact of the various types of pollution linked to urban activity at the local level, the scale and forms of intervention in the city have an ecological dimension which must be taken into account. What qualitative role can habitat play in urban redevelopment operations? What impact can it have on a process of city transformation? Is it just one factor among many, or is it a fundamental link in this search?

 

Crossing temporalities

As in the case of urban heritage, old social structures and old modes of production survive and continue to constitute an important part of the economic and social fabric of the city. The urban is the place of social and economic coexistence and the crossing of temporalities. It must be able to adapt to both day-to-day demands and medium-term changes, while incorporating long-term permanence. It must therefore be thought of in terms of generations. Are the new forms of development polarised in the economy, centred on certain activities and around certain social categories, adapted to future changes and possible involutions of this growth? Are the urban shapes they produce capable of incorporating economic and social invariants? What is its role and place in relation to the traditional city? How can an urban redevelopment operation that incorporates housing respond to these demands? What attitude to adopt in the face of the "natural" tendency to socially and functionally segregate neighbourhoods that has led to overvaluing some places and abandoning others? Should we try to curb this trend when intervening in the city or, on the contrary, accept it and create new links and new communications between urban areas?

 

Multifunctionality

The very essence of the city is the existence of plural activity. But in the contemporary, atomised city, polyfunctionality takes on new forms. From the mix of traditional urban fabrics to the rigid zoning of modern urbanism, the neighbourhood, or the coexistence of functions in space, can take many different forms. Which functions should be mixed or separated? Should the traditional mix of uses be reinterpreted, redirected or abandoned? Should we try to extend it or reserve it for some urban areas? Should we try to invent new forms of mixing or, on the contrary, accept the tendency towards specialisation of urban fragments and transfer the question of connections to the urban scale, through the development of communication networks? This fundamental question about the scale and quality of polyfunctionality must be accompanied by a reflection on the scope that the proposed solutions may have. Is it still possible to elaborate general answers and principles, or should we adopt the answers to each agglomeration or even to each site according to its characteristics and the wishes of the inhabitants?

 

Operational strategies

In parallel to the revival of urban growth, the ways of urban management and intervention are changing. Contemporary urban planning is characterised by the search for efficiency models and relevant scales of intervention, leading some countries to decentralisation, while others re-concentrate the bodies and powers responsible for planning. In general, urban planning procedures are less globalising, less controlling than in the past. They are also characterised by the added weight of private developers in urban interventions. What city project could federate the often contradictory energies that concur in the transformation of a city? How to use the induction power of a simple operation? What process of realisation must it be endowed with in order to be able to incorporate other operations into its dynamics in order to generate a broader movement of recomposition?

The growing sensitivity of citizens to the quality of their environment also implies raising the question of their participation in defining it. Can we imagine democratic approaches and processes of implementation, open to the expression and realisation of people's wishes? And in this perspective, what would be the role of the technicians and their contribution to the affected citizens?

The extension of this set of questions, which affects both the processes of realisation and urban shapes, implies the existence of several scales of answers that must be clearly expressed and incorporated in the proposals submitted to the competition.

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+info:

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

RESULTS

By categories

  • Terrenos vacíos para expansión urbana en Basauri
    Terrenos vacíos para expansión urbana en Basauri View Work file
  • Terrenos vacíos para expansión urbana en Sevilla
    Terrenos vacíos para expansión urbana en Sevilla View Work file
  • Antiguo barrio residencial que necesita renovarse en Caravaca
    Antiguo barrio residencial que necesita renovarse en Caravaca View Work file
  • Áreas residenciales monofuncionales que necesitan un desarrollo más denso en Mendillorri
    Áreas residenciales monofuncionales que necesitan un desarrollo más denso en Mendillorri View Work file
  • Las Colonias Municipales de Madrid
    Las Colonias Municipales de Madrid View Work file
  • EUROPAN 2. Finalista. Emplazamiento en Alcalá de Henares
    EUROPAN 2. Finalista. Emplazamiento en Alcalá de Henares View Work file
  • EUROPAN 2. Finalista. Emplazamiento en Madrid
    EUROPAN 2. Finalista. Emplazamiento en Madrid View Work file
  • EUROPAN 2. Finalista. Emplazamiento en Meaques
    EUROPAN 2. Finalista. Emplazamiento en Meaques View Work file
  • EUROPAN 2. Finalista. Emplazamiento en Valencia
    EUROPAN 2. Finalista. Emplazamiento en Valencia View Work file
  • EUROPAN 2. Segundo Finalista. Emplazamiento en Alcalá de Henares
    EUROPAN 2. Segundo Finalista. Emplazamiento en Alcalá de Henares View Work file

Jury

Fernando Ubeda Rives Presidenta : María José Aranguren LópezManuel Gallego JorretoJosep Martorell CodinaJosé Antonio Corrales GutiérrezManuel de la DehesaVicente VerdúPanos KoulermosLuis Álvarez López

  • EUROPAN 2. Finalist. Netherlands
    EUROPAN 2. Finalist. Netherlands

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