Monday 19 January 2009 the tenth session of Europan opens. You will find on our website, www.europan-europe.com, information on the theme, the sites, the calender and the rules and will be able to register and download the full site’s files of the competition.
We hope that many of you will take part in this session on a topic –inventing urbanity : regeneration, revitalization, colonization – that is strategic for the 62 European cities that propose attractive sites and wait for your innovative ideas and projects.  

You will find underneath some synthetic information on the competition.

Europan counts on the young urban design professionals to reveal their ideas and their talents,and on the projects’ innovative power to install urbanity in each site’s specific context.


Good work - and good luck - to you all!

19 participating countries and 62 sites
Belgique/België/Belgien
Denmark
Deutschland
Eesti
España
France
Hrvatska
Ireland
Italia
Latvija
Magyarország
Nederland
Norge
Österreich
Polska
Portugal
Schweiz / Suisse / Svizzera / Svizra
Suomi-Finland
Sverige

The generic theme of Europan 10 – Inventing urbanity - specifically involves collaboration with the cities and urban developers in the organising countries. Indeed, the ultimate aim of the European vision of the city is to make society, in other words to bring together people of all conditions and origins. However, the dominant trend towards individualisation, the quest for autonomy, cannot be ignored. This is precisely the contradiction that Europan addresses: on the one hand wanting the city – i.e animation, communal life, people – and on the other side wanting intimacy, privacy, home and the immediate circle.

TOPIC
EUROPEAN URBANITY
SUSTAINABLE CITY AND NEW PUBLIC SPACES
Urbanity can be defined as a shared way of experiencing the city and its functions but also as a way of envisaging city space in order to create the conditions for people to come together in communal places: public space.
But where does public space start and where does it stop? Can neighbourhood and local spaces be seen as part of the public domain? And also, can we use the term public space for the new communal spaces - such as shopping malls, stations and airports?

But Europan is engaged also in the qualitative goals of sustainable development. How can density and residential quality be reconciled, how to be both in the city and in the nature? How can sustainable projects able to both create urban intensity and respect the environment be imagined?

These are the questions young European architecture and urban planning professionals will have to answer by choosing a site amongst three types of sites: those that must undergo a strong transformation (regeneration), those that must both keep their identity and redynamise their programme (revitalization) and those that must undergo a development (colonization)

FAMILIES OF SITES

TOPIC 1 / REGENERATION

An organism is said to regenerate a lost or damaged part if the part regrows so that the function is restored. Regarding Europan 10, this topic relates to the sites where the main question of development is: in areas with a strong identity but with obsolete functions, how can spaces be adapted to a new dynamic of uses?

T 1a PROGRAMMATIC CONVERSION
Conversion means the adoption of a new identity. Regarding Europan 10, some sites require more a strong change of uses than of spaces. But how can adaptation of the existing space to new urban ways of life also have as results a change of the spatial identity?

10 Sites:

Wien – A
Gembloux – B
Liège - B
Bottrop – D
Forchheim – D
Oslo – N
Vardø – N
Maastricht - NL
Utrecht – NL
Entroncamento – P

T 1b LANDSCAPE MUTATION
A mutation of an objet is a change of its structure. A group of Europan 10 sites are large-scale areas with strong landscaping characteristics but which need to activate new functions. In what way can this territorial identity be preserved even if the ‘programmatic structure’ of the site is modified?
6 Sites:
Augustenborg – DK
København – DK
Madrid - E
Saintes - F
Lerum - S
Östhammar – S

T 1c SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
A transformation is a change from one entity into another. A great many urban transformations also imply a social transformation of the area by exclusion of a part of its former inhabitants. Especially in housing districts renovation, how can a better quality of life avoiding social exclusion be offered?
6 Sites:
Nyon – CH
Elda – E
Rijeka – HR
Genova - I
Dublin - IRL
Den Haag – NL

TOPIC 2 / REVITALIZATION

Revitalization is a deliberate, organized, conscious effort by members of a group to create a new culture. Regarding Europan 10, it relates to the sites where the main question of mutation is: in spatially and socially disqualified areas, how can urban life be intensified?

T 2a URBAN ACUPUNCTURE
Acupuncture treats large health problems by interventions on some specific points that interact with the global system. Regarding Europan 10, some sites are larger than their real dimensions. In which way can punctual interventions have an urban effect at the territorial level?

7 Sites:
Eisenstadt – A
Dessau - D
Leisnig - D
München – D
Rudkøbing – DK
Trondheim – N
Emmen – NL

T 2b PUBLIC LINES
Linear spaces can play a strong role in the structure of existing urban areas, but how can their development be linked to their surrounding, thus reinforcing their role as public spaces?

8 Sites:
Graz – A
Neuchâtel - CH
Guben - D
Heidelberg - D
Cáceres – E
Tallinn – EE
Lisboa - P
Warszawa – PL

T2c MAGNETIC POLE
A magnet is a material or an object that produces a magnetic field and attracts or repels other magnets. Regarding Europan 10, some sites can provide the opportunity to create urban magnets. What are the necessary conditions in a specific location - change and reinforcement of uses, increasing of public and private dynamics… - to reactivate a space by attracting citizens?

8 Sites:
Elmshorn - D
Teruel - E
Alès - F
Dunkerque - F
Zagreb – HR
Ajka - HU
Kisa – S
Mora – S

TOPIC 3 / COLONIZATION

Colonization occurs whenever any one or more species populates a new area. The term is derived from the Latin colere, "to inhabit, cultivate, frequent, practice, tend, guard, respect". Regarding Europan 10, it concerns the sites where the main question is: within urban extensions of the city, how can a new philosophy of sustainable occupancy of the territory be implemented?

T 3a NEW COMMUNITY
A community is a group organised around common values and social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units. Regarding Europan 10 the transformation of a group of sites consists in creating new residential districts and the question is thus: what are the necessary conditions for these new areas to become ecodistricts?

5 Sites:
La Chaux-de-Fonds – CH
Montreux - CH
Kolding – DK
Riga - LV
Lugar Do Cabreiro – P

T 3b URBAN FOOTPRINTS
The ecological footprint is the measure of human demand on the ecosystems representing the amount of biologically productive land needed to regenerate the resources a human population consumes in a specific place. Regarding Europan 10, some sites are pure extensions. Is it possible to evaluate in what type of urban structure the colonized territory has the largest efficiency at the ecological level?

5 Sites:
Dietikon – CH
Nürnberg - D
Taboadela – E
Valverde – E
Tampere – SF

T 3c SCALES OF SUSTAINABILITY
Buildings account for a large amount of land use, energy and water consumption, and air and atmosphere alteration. As of 2006, buildings used 40 percent of the total energy consumed in the European Union. Regarding Europan 10, in a great many sites, a new attention to sustainable buildings is required. But in the case of extensions, how can sustainability be connected to the building scale and to the urban scale, which must be also integrated?

7 Sites:
Århus – DK
Reus - E
L’Isle d’Abeau - F
Seilh - F
Triel-sur-Seine – F
Galway - IR
Järvenpää – SF

CALENDAR

Launching of the session and registration
Opening date for online registration on the European website
Monday, January 19, 2009
Closing date for registration
Friday, May 29, 2009

Interactive information on the sites and competition rules
Site visits
The dates of the visits organized with the local and national officials on each site will be posted on the European website on each site’s webpage.
A national report on the sites will be available online within a maximum of 3 weeks after the last site visit.

Questions on the sites via the internet forum
Closing date for submitting questions about the sites
Friday, May 1, 2009
Closing date for grouped answers about the sites
Friday, May 15, 2009

Questions on the rules via the internet forum
Closing date for submitting questions on the rules
Friday, May 29, 2009
Closing date for grouped answers on the rules
Friday, June 12, 2009

Submission of entries
Closing date for submitting or sending entries
Monday, June 29, 2009
Closing date for receipt of entries sent on June 29, 2009 by express delivery or by post
Monday, July 20, 2009

Selection
Shortlisting of entries by the national juries
September-October 2009
Comparative European analysis by the committee of the shortlisted project ideas, followed by the Cities and Juries Forum based on this analysis
November 2009
Final selection of entries by the national juries
December 2009 - January 2010

Results
Announcement of results
Monday, January 18, 2010
International presentation of results
May/June 2010
 

THANKS
Europan Europe wishes to thank all those who helped providing the materials for this Europan 10 Website.

SITES
The documents of the sites pages - images and texts - have been produced together with the representatives of the 62 sites and the national secretariats of the 19 participating countries.

TOPICS
The topics pages are the synthesis of two thematic debates held during the Forum of Sites, in Paris on 11 Novembre 2008.

FAMILIES OF SITES AND TOPICS
Topics reviews and analysis were conducted by the members of the Technical Commission, and by the Scientific Committee.

Scientific Committee
Pascal Amphoux, geographer, professor, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Carlos Arroyo Zapatero, architect, teacher, Madrid, Spain.
Aglaee Degros, architect, teacher, Delft-Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Ellen Hellsten, architect, teacher, Oslo, Norway.
Hugo Hinsley, architect, professor at the ’Architectural School, London, United-Kingdom.
Ines Nizic, architect, teacher, Vienna, Austria - Croatia
Bernard Reichen, architect, urban planner, Paris, France.
Roger Riewe, architect, professor Graz, Austria.
Marcel Smets, architect, professor, Louvain University, Belgium.
Socrates Stratis, architect, Europan Cyprus secretary, Nicosie, Cyprus.
Coordinator : Didier Rebois, Europan general secretary, architect, teacher, Paris, France.

Technical commission
Stephane Bonzani, architect, Paris, teacher ESA (Paris),France
David Franco, architect, Madrid, Spain.
Jens Metz, architect, Berlin, Germany.
Bernd Vlay, architect, Europan Austria secretary, Graz, Austria.
Erik Winqguist, architect, Europan Sweden secretary, Sweden.