Summary: Europan is a competition of ideas followed by implementation processes open to professionals of architectural, urban, and landscape design under 40 years of age. 9 European countries proposing 40 sites are participating in the Europan 16 edition on a common theme: Living Cities – Metabolic Vitalities / Inclusive Vitalities.
Description: In the conditions of the Anthropocene –a new bio-geological period where human activities on the global scale have a destructive impact on life on earth– how to face climate change and inequalities? How to imagine other possibilities to inhabit the planet Earth? The Europan 16 topic focuses on living cities as a new paradigm, in which new kinds of synergies can be considered between the environmental, biological, social, economic, cultural and political dimensions. This paradigm leads us to think in terms of co-evolution and interactions, and to work with regenerative project dynamics, combining metabolic and inclusive vitalities.
Metabolic Vitalities
Metabolic vitalities should help go over the opposition between city and nature, allowing the Europan projects –mixing architecture, urban design and landscape architecture– to identify and to negotiate with an ensemble of transformations. These transformations take natural elements into account like water, material flows, energy… which are all part of the life cycles. These new relations generate inhabited milieus. These milieus are considered as complex ecosystems creating flows (with entries and exits) and in constant evolution. Developing such cyclic processes (natural cycles, circular economy cycle) leads the design process to minimize the environmental footprint and the consumption of non-renewable energy, and to promote new forms of dwelling. Metabolic vitalities encourage design processes on different scales. The recycling competence, the enhancement of organic or energy material, the adaptation to climate change, the integration of nature and biodiversity are as many metabolic vitalities that Europan 16 sites should trigger to allow their own transformation into ecosystems between nature and culture. To be rewarded, the projects should translate this metabolic dynamic in their proposals.
Inclusive Vitalities
Urban environments are facing increasing inequalities and conflicts produced by invisibility, exclusion, marginalization, and inaccessibility to housing, to work, to education and to public services. To fight against these social fractures, inhabited milieus should become places where new inclusive policies and practices are supported. Inclusive vitalities put on the foreground modes of doing that can support territorial justice articulating social and ecological concerns. Issues of accessibility to public infrastructures and to housing should get a predominant role, promoting conviviality. Taking care of living environments could promote inclusion by transforming marginalised spaces into places of exchange, co-learning and biodiversity. This could allow new inclusive narratives of inhabited environments across scales and generations, promoting new forms participatory democracy. When choosing the sites, when defining the programmatic frames that come with their evolution, and when judging the participants’ proposals, Europan 16 will emphasise on the consideration of the inclusive dimension of the inhabited milieus.
Conclusion
If we want to face these social and environmental emergencies, we have to address new creative and responsible project dynamics, which should be able to reconnect with the cycles and rhythms of the living nature, associating metabolic and inclusive vitalities.
The Europan 16 sites should therefore consider these two dimensions in their transformation goals. How can the project spatialize and, at the same time, spare resources, common goods, recycling processes, hybridisations, sharing and the different temporalities?
This is the question raised to the competitors for Europan 16.
1. ENTRY CONDITIONS
1.1. Entrants
Europan 16 is open to any team consisting of at least one graduated architect, who may be in association with one or more professionals of the same or related disciplines within the architectural, urban, and landscape field (such as architects, urban planners, landscape architects, engineers, artists) or from other relevant fields (such as sociology, geography, biology) and may further be associated with one or more students with a bachelor degree or equivalent (3 years of study) in architecture or related disciplines. The team may also have one or more contributors, who are not considered authors of the project. Every team member must be under the age of 40 years old on the closing date for the submission of projects.
1.2. Composition of the Teams
There is no limit to the number of participants per team. Multidisciplinary teams are strongly recommended with regards to the sites’ issues.
A registered team can modify its composition on the European website until the closing date for submissions.
No further change shall be accepted after this date.
Each team member (associate and contributor) shall be registered as such on the European website before the closing date for submissions.
One team can submit a project on different sites in different countries with participation limited to one site in the same country and one person can be part of different teams provided that the projects are not submitted in the same country.
Associates – Associates are considered to be authors of the project and are credited as such in all national and European publications and exhibitions. Architects must have graduated with a degree from a university specified within the EU Directive 2005/36/EC, or with an equivalent degree from a university within the natural borders of Europe, recognized by the professional architects’ organizations in the country of the competition site. Other professionals must have an applicable European university degree, regardless of nationality. The compulsory requirement is to hold such a degree.
Membership in a European professional body is optional, except for associates without a European degree.
Students accepted as associates must have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent (3 years of study) in architecture or related disciplines from a university as mentioned above.
Contributors – Teams may include additional members, called “Contributors”. Contributors may be qualified or not but none of them shall be considered as an author of the project. Just like the associates, the contributors must be under the age of 40 years old on the closing date for submission of entries..
Team Representative – Each team names one “Team Representative” among the associates. The Team Representative is the sole contact with the national and European secretariats during the whole competition. Furthermore, every communication shall be done with one email address, which shall remain the same during the whole competition.
The Team Representative must be an architect or must have the architect status under the laws of a European country. In specific cases and when mentioned on the site definition (see Synthetic Site File), the Team Representative can be an architecture, urban or landscape professional (architect, landscaper, urban planner, architect-engineer). In this case the team shall necessarily include at least one architect among the associates
1.3. Non-Eligibility
No competition organizer and/or member of their families are eligible to take part in the competition on a site where he/she is involved. Still, he/she can participate on another site in which he/she is not involved.
Are considered as organizers: members of the Europan structures and their employees; employees and contractors working for partners with sites proposed in the current session, members of technical committees; observers; jury members and their employees.
2. REGISTRATION
Registration is done on the European website –www.europan-europe.eu– and implies the acceptance of the competition rules.
In compliance with French Act #78-17 of Jan. 6th, 1978, on Information Technology, Data Files and Civil Liberties the protection of personal data communicated during registration is guaranteed. With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced in May, 25th, 2018, you hold the right to access and modify the information regarding your participation, as well as the right to limit, transfer personal files and eliminate your personal data.
2.1. Europan 16 Website
The European website for sixteenth session of the competition is available online from the opening date of the competition, at the following url – www.europan-europe.eu
It includes: the complete European rules for the Europan 16 competition; the session topic; the synthetic and complete site files grouped geographically or by themes; the juries compositions; and an organisational chart of all the Europan structures.
The website also offers the possibility to register to the competition and submit the complete proposals.
2.2. Team Registration
Registration to the competition is done through the European website (Registration section) and implies the payment of a €100- fee. There shall be no refund of the registration fee.
This fee includes one Complete Site Folder and the printing –necessary for the evaluation– of the panels on a rigid support by the national secretariats.
Payment is automatically confirmed on the website. The team can then access its personal area and the digital entry area and download the Complete Site Folder for the selected site.
Additional Complete Site Folders cost €50- per site.
Discover this edition project sites and read all about Europan 16 here!