Europan 15 – Productive Cities 2
Europan 15 – Productive Cities 2 now is over!
The Europan 15 – Productive Cities 2, hosted by Europan Norway is architecture competition recently opened for entries that explores the topic of productive cities, addressing the issues of resources, mobility and equity, in spatial and social terms.
About Competition
Europan Norway is hosting 15th edition of its architecture competition titled Europan 15 – Productive Cities 2 dedicate to students and young professional architects and urban planners under the age of 40 years. This competition explores the topic of productive cities, addressing the issues of resources, mobility and equity, in spatial and social terms.
Europan is an idea competition bringing together European cities and young urban and architectural design professionals (under the age of 40). The competition spans over a two year period in which over 50 European cities and over 2000 teams are involved. The entries are judged by national juries composed of specialists in the fields of architecture and urban planning.
Europan Competition serves a dual purpose: it offers cities and developers new and innovative solutions to local urban planning and development and provides an opportunity for young architects to get commissions by presenting new ideas.
In this session of Europan, organizer take the competition to Norwegian towns in rural areas and look at the effects of centralisation. In this regard, Europan 15 offers challenges at both territorial and local scales: Can young architects find solutions that contribute to a productive balance between urban and rural areas?
Introduction:
There are three Norwegian sites in Europan 15 which, each in their different ways, raise complex issues about the interaction between the rural and the urban, the local and the global. While the Norwegian sites are scattered throughout the whole country, they share some similarities. Each town inhabits a unique position in a network of relationships within collective knowledge, industries and ecosystems.
Rivers and waterways are central landscape elements in all of this year’s project areas. Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino) originated as a trading place in a bowl in the terrain, and the river was important both as infrastructure and livelihood. Raufoss would not have the leading industry it has today without the river which made it possible to produce electricity to operate the emergent factories. Rødberg is a significant supplier of hydropower to the common European market.
Networks constitute a very important issue in Europan 15, as urban settlements have their unique advantages and challenges in this regard. In
As architects, you should enter the competition with an open mind for resources available on the sites. By creating new links between existing on-site resource elements, something new may be formed. For Guovdageaidnu, it is essential that the architects recognise that reindeer husbandry, which employs over 370 man-years, is closely linked to vulnerable nature that is strongly under pressure from other forces. In Rødberg, the competition participants may propose concepts that strengthen the primary industries throughout the area of Numedal. Raufoss represents manufacturing excellence with a hyper-modern, but gated, industrial park, producing space rockets in a town in the middle of a fixed agricultural territory.
Raufoss is the only site this year anticipating population growth in the near future, making it necessary to build a denser town to accommodate greater numbers without expanding outwards onto arable land. The densification effort starts in the core of Raufoss, on the project site; the municipality expects to be presented with ideas for vibrant social public spaces as a starting point for this scheme. As of now, the high-tech milieu of the manufacturing industry is not mirrored in the town centre of Raufoss, which lacks activity, public amenities and places for people to socialise.
Rødberg is on the brink of becoming an outpost in the mountainous regions of southern Norway. Still, the inhabitants have everything, in their own way: The farming community is vital, the quality of the natural surroundings attract a flux of thousands of second home dwellers, and the digital knowledge networks in the Kongsberg region result in concepts such as ‘the green corridor’ which runs through Numedal. What’s lacking is ideas or how to activate the town centre. This comes down to introducing attractive programmes, well-functioning public spaces and an improved flow of movement, both within the town itself and in the wider context.
Guovdageaidnu is ‘the heart of Sápmi’, home to the indigenous Sámi people. Guovdageaidnu is important to the world as a stronghold of Sámi language and culture; the inhabitants fight to reorganise and enhance the role of the place as a linguistic bastion. The town is a melting pot for global competence in education, reindeer herding and creative industries. The Siida is a Sámi concept for organising both social and productive activities. While the concept itself is ancient, it may be reimagined for Europan 15. Situated near the Arctic, Guovdageaidnu is also a place where climate change is clearly noticeable. For Europan 15, we have commissioned ‘Voices of Guovdageaidnu,’ a reader made by the community itself, to provide a better understanding of the place and culture.
For the Norwegian sites, the backdrop of the competition is the ongoing restructuring of municipalities and counties, and how the urban areas participating in the competition can position themselves for the future. How can urban settlements become, and remain, attractive meeting places and locations for innovative industries? How can rural towns step up in order to keep their valued inhabitants around, rather than losing them to the pull of bigger cities? Keeping an eye on the themes of resources, mobility and social capital, the competitors need to work within the context of each site to examine new forms of mobility and connectivity, while keeping in mind how designing public space can contribute to value creation both socially and economically.
The entries are judged by national juries composed of specialists in the fields of architecture and urban planning.
Entry fees:
Registration to the competition implies the payment of a 100 Euro fee. Additional Complete Site Folders cost 50 Euro per site.
Eligibility
The competition is open to every young professional of the urban, design and architectural fields under the age of 40 years and this year, for the first time, student admission is allowed!