EUROPAN, EUROPEAN FEDERATION FOR NEW ARCHITECTURE


 Founded                                                              1988

Structure                                                               President: Enrico Vinci
                                                                                Secretary General: Didier Rebois

La Grande Arche
Paroi Nord
92 044 Paris-La Défense cedex
France

In each of the 21 countries represented within EUROPAN, there is a national structure (whose legal status is that of an association), formed by representatives of: public services/ authorities; clients/commissioning bodies; architects and the institutions that represent them; cultural personalities; researchers in the fields of architecture, sociology, planning, or anthropology; and members of the university fraternity.
Each national structure has its own secretariat.
These different national structures are grouped under an umbrella "EUROPAN" European association, whose general assembly is composed of four representatives from each of the different countries. The role of this European association is to decide EUROPAN's overall orientations, the rules of the architectural competition, and the programme of European events.
A research committee, composed of European experts, has as its brief the formulation of proposals on the competition themes, on those of the comparative analysis of the results, and the definition of the main thrust of strategic reflection on European towns' urban development.

A general secretariat organises the work of the European Association, co-ordinates the activities of the national secretariats, and is responsible for the implementation of European events and the competition.
The Association's president is Mr. Enrico Vinci, former secretary general of the European Parliament.

 Aims With the prospect of a Europe that is opening up, and of increasing co-operation within an enlarged European community, EUROPAN aims at deepening knowledge and thinking in the field of housing and urbanisation, and at placing emphasis on exchanges within this sphere, between different European countries.
EUROPAN's aim is to help young European architects to develop and to make known their ideas on a European and international stage.
EUROPAN's objective is to aid towns and developers who put forward competition sites, to bring to light innovative urban and architectural responses.
EUROPAN wants, therefore, to promote the implementation of experimental operations concerned with housing and the putting into place of innovative planning processes.
EUROPAN organises architectural calls for ideas, followed by experimental implementation of these ideas, which are generated in the context of given themes that embody questions linked to new urban lifestyles, to housing, to architecture and to urban planning. These calls for ideas are made in the context of sites put forward by 70 European towns. They are addressed at young architects and professional designers under the age of forty.
  Finance and Support The European Commission, through its cultural programmes, actively supports the EUROPAN competitions. International institutions, such as UNESCO, and European ones, such as the European Parliament, Committee of the Regions, and the Council of Europe, have equally shown their interest in these actions by giving them moral support.

The budget is financed by subscriptions from EUROPAN national organisations, and European Commission cultural programme funding.
 

 Partnerships EUROPAN has developed relationships or partnerships with:

- The Council of Europe: since 1991, the EUROPAN sessions are placed under the high patronage of the Council of Europe Secretary General (first that of Ms Catherine Lalumière, and then of Mr Daniel Tarschys);

- The European Commission (EUROPAN has the high patronage of the European Commissioner Marcelino Oreja), with DG10 - cultural programmes, and the DG16 - URBAN programme;

- UNESCO, heritage section;

- UIA;

- The European Council of Architects;

- Heritage without Frontiers;

- The "Equilibre" NGO;

- The World Bank;

- EBRD;

- OHCR;

- The culture and environment ministries of the different member countries.
 

 Publications Publications concerning the themes, rules and sites of the European architectural competition.

For every session of the EUROPAN competition, an 80-page thematic book is published in several languages (F, GB, E, I, D, GR, and NL).
It contains accounts of seminars, and articles stating the different points of view of European experts on the problems set by the competition.
Five such books have been published to date.

A detailed, 300-page catalogue (published in several languages), of all of the sites put forward by the 70 European towns participating in the competition.
Four such catalogues have been published to date.

A collection of monographs on experimental operations that have been implemented in Europe.
Eleven such monographs have been published to date.

Leaflets announcing the competitions or events, published in three languages, with print-runs of between 15 000 to 20 000. Posters.

National catalogues published by each EUROPAN member's national structures.

A European web site: www-europan.gamsau.archi.fr
 

 Geographical representation EUROPAN, is represented in 21 countries

*Austria
*Belgium
*Bosnia Herzegovina
*Bulgaria
*Cyprus
*Croatia
*Estonia
*Finland
*France
*Germany
*Greece
*Hungary
*Italy
*Netherlands
*Portugal
*Romania
*Slovakia
*Spain
*Sweden
*Switzerland
*United Kingdom

 Networks and themes EUROPAN has at its disposal a network of European experts, who are professionals in the fields of architecture and town planning, and who for many years have worked on themes concerning the urban development of European towns. These experts have elaborated a system of comparative analysis. The EUROPAN network also includes approximately 250 European towns which have worked in a tangible way with the Association, by proposing a site, and have at their disposal resources of information and experience in these fields.

In addition, the architectural competition themes on European sites are developed and analysed by international juries, then by European experts, to produce a comparative analysis:

Themes of EUROPAN competitions to date:

EUROPAN 1: "Changing lifestyles and the architecture of housing "
EUROPAN 2: "Living in the town - requalification of urban sites"
EUROPAN 3: "At home in the city - urbanising residential areas"
EUROPAN 4: "Constructing the town upon the town - transformation of contemporary urban sites"
EUROPAN 5: "New housing landscapes, travel and proximity"

Research and experimentation themes developed by EUROPAN include:

- Reconstruction
"Reconstruction of destroyed towns", a seminar held in Udine in 1993 under the patronage of the Council of Europe, in collaboration with the association "Heritage without frontiers";
"What urban and architectural future for Sarajevo?– 1998 - from reconstruction to revaluation", held in Sarajevo with the support of the Bosnia-Herzegovinian authorities, the French ministry of culture, the World Bank, the European Commission;

- Modern architecture and heritage
"Constructing in the constructed" a seminar held in Rhodes in 1992, organised under the high patronage of UNESCO;

- Urbanisation of derelict sites (industrial and suburban wasteland, disused harbours)
"Constructing on the waterside": seminar held in Zaanstad in 1992;

- Architecture/lifestyles connection
"The town of all the senses": seminar held in Prague in 1993 under the high patronage of the European Commission and the Council of Europe;

- Mobility and the town
Seminar held in Lisbon in 1997 with the aid of the European Commission's cultural programmes;

- The operational processes of planning/architectural projects
Seminar held in Santiago de Compostela in 1993, and in Thessaloniki in 1996, based on the experimental projects implemented in Europe as an outcome of the EUROPAN competitions.
 

 Development actions In addition, EUROPAN is sought after by organisations and towns in order to produce a European appraisal of specific urban situations and to elaborate a development and action strategy, according to EUROPAN's tried and tested methods.

Consultations of this nature include with/have involved:
- Thessaloniki, European cultural capital in 1998, with the West Arc competition;
- Genoa, an action that was part of the programme presented for its 2001 European candidature;
- the French overseas departments, with the organisation of the EUROPAN DOM competition, as well as seminars and publications;
- the reconstruction of the town of Sarajevo under the patronage of the Council of Europe and the European Commission, and the French ministry of culture;
- with the "Year 2000 celebration" committee, and the Architecture and Heritage department of the French ministry of culture, the organisation of the urbano-architectural competition "Habiter en l'an 2000" [Living in the year 2000].

Currently EUROPAN is developing complementary training for young European architects, in collaboration with a number of schools of architecture: Clermont-Ferrand, Barcelona, Genoa, Amsterdam, and London.

Finally, EUROPAN has, since its creation, continually developed its special relationships with professionals concerned with the town and with architecture in Central and Eastern European countries (elected representatives, technicians and architects). This is in order that young architects in these countries can take part in the European debate on these themes, and that the towns' administrators can profit from the exchange of experiences as part of a network. Since the first EUROPAN sessions, Prague, Zagreb, Belgrade, Vukovar, Zadar, Osijek, Rostok (during the GDR era), Cakovec, Nova Gorika, Zgorzelec, Budapest, Timisoara, Sofia, Bratislava, Tallinn, Rovinj, and Kosice have taken part in the EUROPAN competitions. European appraisal and cross-analytical procedures have been set up in these countries. Seminars have been held in Prague, Zagreb, Bratislava, and Sarajevo.
 

 A unique diffusion network in Europe
  The EUROPAN network is Europe-wide, not just in terms of architectural professionals, but also in terms of its coverage of town policies, public authorities, researchers, universities, as well as investors, clients/commissioning bodies, and developers.
EUROPAN's audience is around 10 000 young architects, 250 towns throughout Europe and their elected and technical representatives, as well as the private and public developers who have already built with EUROPAN in Europe, a hundred or so experimental operations, as well as the media, and schools of architecture.

EUROPAN's activities are founded on a strong policy of communication and exchange, and on its European network, with its publications, seminars, events, exhibitions, etc.
Partnerships have also been developed with European architectural magazines – Techniques & Architecture, Quaderns, Arquitectos, AMC, Arch+, Architecture et comportement, etc.