Theme 3 — C Reinventing Rurality and Productive Heritage

Theme 3 — C

Reinventing Rurality and Productive Heritage

These sites are heritage-related, regarding previous forms of production or related to rurality. Part of the challenge is about taking care of such areas with little means of economy by revalorizing the existing as an asset to living and working in the countryside. Aalst (BE) 218 Auneuil (FR) 222

Beizama (ES) 226

Esparreguera-Colonia Sedó (ES) 232

SCALE — L URBAN + ARCHITECTURAL LOCATION — AALST, FLEMISH REGION POPULATION — 87,000 INHAB. STRATEGIC SITE — 70 HA / PROJECT SITE — 7.5 HA SITE PROPOSED BY — CITY OF AALST ACTOR(S) INVOLVED — STAD AALST AND ITS DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, NV MATIM, TRAGEL SPORT… OWNER(S) OF THE SITE — CITY OF AALST AND 2 PRIVATE ORGANIZATIONS

LIESELOT COLE — AGSA Aalst

1/ What are the main questions asked to the competitors for the transformation of the site? The Tragel Zuid site is a former industrial site, within the strategic project of “de Kaaien” of Aalst, close to the main train station, along the Dender River and a ring road viaduct. The city aims to refrain this site from generic development. How innovative living-work typologies can be combined with the necessary respect for the industrial past and its valuable heritage? Due to its unique infrastructural location, the site delivers a promising set-up for new activities within the recycling, manufacturing and creative economy. How to imagine here a circular hot spot, a dispatch centre for parcel delivery services, social economy companies such as a recycling centre or a bicycle courier? How can people also live here? How could the landmarked buildings be repurposed? How can the banks of the Dender River be a place to stay and a valuable ecological link, leaving room for the necessary distribution and local flows? How can a higher building density rhyme with more open-spaces and a more robust blue-green network? The masterplan must enable a phased development: an adaptive program mixture, with space for urban experiment, temporary interpretations and local initiatives.

2/ How is the site linked to the two subtopics of “metabolism” and “inclusivity”? The masterplan aims to coordinate the future daily urban systems of its users (cyclists, walkers, residents, recreationists, fauna and flora), induced by the proposed mixed functions in a mainly car-free setting. How can new streets be combined with green missing links, overall biodiversity, and a robust green system on the quay? How can climate be considered when designing a qualitative future-proof environment? Health-protecting (air quality, noise pollution, heat) and health-promoting measures (exercise, mental well-being, cooling areas) should structure the design. The design should also allow the accessibility for young, old, people with disabilities, cyclists, pedestrians. Participation and co-creation are crucial for building sufficient societal support. An integrated strategy should enhance the creation of a network of actors and stakeholders, transcending the boundaries of private and public.

3/ Have you already defined a specific process for the territorial and/or urban and/or architectural development of the site after the Europan competition? Do you expect a proposal of process from the competitors linked to what they proposed in their prize-winning projects? The prize-winning teams will be invited to present their design to the site representatives and to further develop their projects and approaches. Both teams will support the joint partnership of the City of Aalst and the private developers of the Tragel site to elaborate the spatial vision for the site. They should be integrated into the current local and regional study processes (Robust Open Space Structure, Interweaving II and Quick Scan).

PEDRO PITARCH ARCHITECTURES & URBANISMS PALMA 59, BAJO B, 28015 MADRID (ES) MAIL@PEDROPITARCH.COM WWW.PEDROPITARCH.COM / @PEDROPITARCH

A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall

Team point of view — Instead of defining a rigid formal master plan for the whole site, the project embraces time as an architectural tool. The project for Tragel Zuid is the first step of a wider strategical activation that involves the entire De Kaaien area and the riverbanks of the Dender. Tragel Zuid will act as an Urban Prototype, serving as a testing ground from where to define an urban model where the dichotomies between work vs. life, and nature vs. urbanity are no longer so rigid, but blurred into intermediate states where leisure and labor overlap in time within the same spaces, contexts and atmospheres. Informal architectural devices will activate the site, supported by protocols of appropriation of the existing architectures and followed by the insertion of ecologies in the form of vegetation, energies and soft industries. They will operate as testers for future architectures.

Jury point of view — The project shows a solid intellectual background proposing 3 types of ecologies and puts nature as driver for design. It can provide something uniquely different that Aalts would need. The jury appreciates the liberation of the ground for activity and the clear statement about the infrastructural character of the existing road. This is a proposal from zoning to hybridization and with a creative waterfront development.

MARIUS GAMAN (RO) ROMINA POPESCU (RO) ANA-MARIA BRANEA (RO) ARCHITECTS :STUDIO, TIMIȘOARA (RO) +40 732154918 GAMAN.S.MARIUS@GMAIL.COM WWW.DOUA-PUNCTE-STUDIO.COM

Living Heritage

Team point of view — How can a productive city embrace adaptability and sustainability to achieve social, economic and ecological resilience? What happens when you put the green and the blue first, and existing buildings second? Are cities for people, for profit, or for all living within? The project’s main idea is the weaving together of different strands of production, land uses, habitats —for people and animals in an ever-adapting tapestry centring the river Dender. Two urban toolkits are proposed, rejecting the classical urban planning approach to empower private owners to collaborate and adapt to an ever-changing physical and economic context. Each toolkit, the Tabula plena for urban conservation, or Living quays for the riverfront redesign, have 12 alternatives to be chosen from based on the area of implant.

Jury point of view — This project proposes an interesting process with phases strategy and temporary uses. It proposes coproduction strategies with a strong consciousness of how to work in the future with the different stakeholder. It is a catalogue of proposals that proves that the team can work at the scale of the area in combination with an inclusive strategy. The project has a holistic approach, and the care is an important aspect for the future: No tabula rasa; Different possible future; Diversity; Mobility; Climate.

Resource cycle

Existing section

Proposed section

SCALE — L URBAN + ARCHITECTURAL LOCATION — AUNEUIL, OISE (60) POPULATION — 2.864 INHAB. STRATEGIC SITE — 250 HA / PROJECT SITE — 12.7 HA SITE PROPOSED BY — CITY OF AUNEUIL, BEAUVAISIS AGGLOMERATION, DDT 60 AS PART OF THE PROGRAMME “PETITE VILLE DE DEMAIN” ACTOR(S) INVOLVED — CITY OF AUNEUIL, BEAUVAISIS AGGLOMERATION, DDT 60, UDAP OISE, EPF LOCAL OF OISE OWNER(S) OF THE SITE — CITY OF AUNEUIL, PRIVATE OWNERS

JAN DUDA — Deputy Mayor, responsible for education, school catering, cultural heritage presentation, city of Auneuil

1/ What are the main questions asked to the competitors for the transformation of the site? The competitors had to respond to a triple challenge. How to highlight the rich industrial heritage of our town? How will the rehabilitation of the site allow to revitalize the communal life? Finally, how will the project presented promote the reception and integration of new inhabitants?

2/ How is the site linked to the two subtopics of “metabolism” and “inclusivity”? Our site, which used to be the industrial heart of our town, is destined to become its lung by breathing new vitality into it From this point of view, we expected a dynamic project that would allow the regeneration of these places. To make sense, the proposals had to perfectly integrate the existing buildings in and outside the site. But also the nature and the biodiversity which are part of the identity of our town.

3/ Have you already defined a specific process for the territorial and/or urban and/or architectural development of the site after the Europan competition? Do you expect a proposal of process from the competitors linked to what they proposed in their prize-winning projects? We are looking forward to meeting the different winning teams. It is at the end of these discussions, which will undoubtedly be fruitful, that we imagine building a planning process for our territory together. Obviously, after this phase of discussion, it will be a matter of developing and amending the various proposals of the teams.

ALICE BARTHÉLÉMY (FR), DIANE DUSSER (FR), ARCHITECTS RAFAEL COMBY (FR), ARCHITECT, URBANIST LAURA DESMARIS (FR), URBANIST, CONSULTATION ENGINEER OLIVIER CHENEVIER (FR), KARIM LAHIANI (FR), LANDSCAPERS COLLECTIF CALAME 14, RUE BELGRAND, 75020 PARIS (FR) +33 630780692 PROJET.CALAME@GMAIL.COM

École des arts de la terre

Team point of view — A place for training and exchange based around the living surroundings, the School of Clay Arts allows for the creation and progressive consolidation of new environments through the intensification of the territory’s pre-existing dynamics. Open to the city and its inhabitants, this place of learning situated in the former Boulenger factory cultivates new urban centralities, vectors of dynamism and regeneration. Focusing on history, and the current potential of the site of the Pays de Bray, the school’s purpose is to facilitate the transmission, the diffusion, and the development of a new savoir-faire around geo-sourced materials. The project, for which the soil becomes a unifying element, encourages new ways to imagine how a city is formed in accordance with the organic dynamics of the site.

Jury point of view — The project seeks to re-establish links with the productive past of the site and the region, by proposing a revival of education associated with the bio sourced materials sectors. It is an ambitious choice, but makes sense in this territory and seems very relevant to the site and to the theme of the session. The strength of the project lies in its architectural proposal and its embeddedness in the area. The idea of a school is a source of new attractiveness while at the same time involving local people. The jury emphasised the project’s potential for programmatic, architectural and technical innovation.

Continuum

ISABELLE MARCHAL (FR) OCTAVIO PINEIRO ARAMBURU (AR) LOÏC PONS (FR), GAUTIER REY (FR) SACHA VILLEMIN (FR), ARCHITECTS GAUTIER REY 17 RUE AUGUSTE ORTS, 1000 BRUXELLES (BE) +32 489154591 REYGAUTIER.A@GMAIL.COM

Team point of view — Continuum questions the capacity of transformation of a diffuse territory and the conditions of production and habitat in rural areas. Continuum claims the establishment of a continuous narrative through the understanding of pre-existing built and landscape structures. Continuum considers architecture as an elementary language that speaks to the paradigms of its time and whose principles of contemporary comfort, flexibility and sustainability establish essential conditions for Living. Continuum seeks to establish a structuring framework that generates synergies, relationships and new potentialities.

Jury point of view — Well adapted to the territory, the project seems complete in several programmatic aspects and meets the requirements of the Municipality with regard to housing. It makes detailed proposals at the architectural scale, for refurbishment and construction, and provides close and precise definition of the public spaces. It successfully reintroduces the industrial heritage into the day-to-day life of the town and stands out in this session of Europan as a proposal for the creation of living neighbourhood. In addition to the formal and graphic qualities of the project, the jury emphasised its detailed work on the use and management of land.

Grouped housing _Re-affirm the environment Usine Boulenger_Organic mix

Grouped dwellings_ Promote flexible housing

CLÉMENT BESNAULT (FR) CHLOÉ COFFRE (FR) ARCHITECTS ATELIER BESNAULT ET COFFRE, GENTILLY (FR) +33 146205112 CONTACT@ABC-ARCHITECTES.EU WWW.ATELIERBESNAULTETCOFFRE.FR

Inter-Tenement

Team point of view — This reflexion involves the analysis of the existing parcel division in order to identify its weak points and make them its strong points. Any territory is divided into spaces belonging to different owners. These spaces are materialized by limits which are physical or administrative. It reflects the past evolutions of the territory but also makes it possible to project oneself in the future development of the city. Our methodology consists in identifying the uses of each of these plots. The resulting mosaic reveals the division of the territory by typology. It highlights the tensions between spaces (open and built) and possible developments. In order to offer sustainable alternative development, our reflexion must overcome these limits and establish new ones.

5 2 4

SCALE — S ARCHITECTURAL LOCATION — BEIZAMA (GIPUZKOA) POPULATION — 143 INHAB. STRATEGIC SITE — 2.4 HA / PROJECT SITE — 0.5 HA SITE PROPOSED BY — TERRITORIAL PLANNING, HOUSING AND TRANSPORTS DEPARTMENT. BASQUE GOVERNMENT ACTOR(S) INVOLVED — BEIZAMA CITY COUNCIL + TERRITORIAL PLANNING, HOUSING AND TRANSPORTS DEPARTMENT OWNER(S) OF THE SITE — PUBLIC (BASQUE GOVERNMENT ASSIGNED BY THE BEIZAMA CITY COUNCIL)

PABLO GARCÍA ASTRAIN — Director of Housing, Land and Architecture of the Basque Government and Enrique Guinea de Andrés, Architect of the Basque Government

1/ What are the main questions asked to the competitors for the transformation of the site? Beizama is one of many inland municipalities in the Basque Country that usually get left out of housing initiatives and, in this particular case, almost destined to be abandoned due to mass departure by its young people. The aim was to focus on the issue of reactivating the life of small towns. The site called for research into small-scale forms of inhabiting, adapted to today’s needs, raising the value of a rural environment that has a well-established social and environmental base, revalued by COVID-19. The aim was also, to further explore the potential of houses as productive spaces, with new housing models in response to the demands made by small-scale locations.

2/ How is the site linked to the two subtopics of “metabolism” and “inclusivity”? Beizama is in an eminently rural environment heavily influenced by its orography, and with an urban structure that has changed little in recent centuries. It is a municipality with a large surface area but a quite sparse population, part of which is employed in agriculture and livestock farming while the rest of the residents only sleep in the town and leave to work outside. This is thus a living territory yet with rural identity, inherited from its pre-industrial structure. The issue to be tackled focuses on inclusivity with the urgent need to maintain the local population and reverse the ageing trend caused by population abandonment. The current houses in the municipality, mostly of them traditional and linked to the exploitation of the rural environment, cannot meet the kind of demands by young people who want to live and, if possible, work in their place of origin.

3/ Have you already defined a specific process for the territorial and/or urban and/or architectural development of the site after the Europan competition? Do you expect a proposal of process from the competitors linked to what they proposed in their prize-winning projects? As this is a small-scale project which, moreover, does not require changes to the urban planning guidelines, the process is direct and is about the development of an architectural project and its construction. This process will start just after the competition by contracting the winning team to draft the overall design of the project and will end with the direction of works, also part of the commission, lasting about 5 years. The awarded idea, that shows great respect with the environment, gives a solid base for the development of the project. Although some changes are expected to be done, they will not affect the idea, neither its image. We expect it to be an action that really achieves to reactivate Beizama´s life and economy.

JUAN CARLOS MARTIN FLORIT (ES), CLARA ALSEDÀ RODRÍGUEZ (ES) ANDRÉ DEL RÍO ARES (ES), POL MENSA BIOSCA (ES) JORDI OLIVELLA CIRICI (ES), CYNTHIA ROSALIA RABANAL LLAUDY (ES) ARCHITECTS

Ongi Etorri

Team point of view — Beizama welcomes 12 new homes as an opportunity to bring back the services lost with depopulation, in turn attracting even more inhabitants and thus starting a new cycle of growth and development. The project turns the steep slope of the plot into a virtue, drawing a path that saves the height difference and connects it with the existing social poles of the village. This path is established as a public street and surrounded by workshop spaces that, in their positioning, configure new balconies and public squares. Above these squares and closely related to them, the same cells group together to form dwellings capable of adapting to multiple lifestyles. Due to their direct access to the surrounding landscape and multiple façade orientations, each dwelling becomes a house.

Jury point of view — The project is based on an analysis of the typology of the caserío, from which it extracts a series of elements that will later be incorporated into the proposal. It approaches the intervention on the plot by means of four pieces placed on the ground organizing new accesses and paths that allow to go around the new settlement, as well as communicating it with the centre of Beizama. The use of the ground floors, with covered spaces that can sometimes be opened and sometimes closed, allows an approach to this new interpretation of the typology of the caserío as a productive space capable of being incorporated into the urban fabric.

Rhizoma

VICTORIA COLLAR OCAMPO (ES) JON GARBIZU ETXAIDE (ES) GONZALO PEÑA SANCHO (ES) ARCHITECTS GARBIZU COLLAR ARCHITECTURE, BASEL (CH) MAIL@GARBIZUCOLLAR.COM / WWW.GARBIZUCOLLAR.COM KRI STUDIO, MADRID (ES) KRI.ARQUITECTURA@GMAIL.COM / WWW.KRI.ARCHI

Team point of view — Rhizoma proposes a new model that can be adapted to other rural situations through 3 strategies: 1. A housing typology, referred to the concept of the “Baserri” as a productive, social and historical entity in the Basque Country. 2. The re-naturalisation of Beizama through micro-actions in order to create a symbiotic environment for its residents, fauna and flora. 3. A metabolic system capable of mutating according to the programmatic, social and economic needs of its environment and its dwellers. As a consequence, Rhizoma will serve to generate a new bond with nature and its effect, through a democratic and flexible infrastructure that multiplies the possibilities of organizing living and productive spaces, depending on the needs of the users and their new family models.

Jury point of view — An intelligent project, with a very elaborate narrative, which interprets the typology of the caserío from a functional point of view, avoiding the use of it as a formal model. It proposes a single linear block of two floors, for the 12 dwellings, with a ground floor open to the road, which is proposed to be for pedestrian use. The main challenge of the project lies in the use of the ground floor as an infrastructure, placing a productive space of open approach, which can be easily incorporated into the system of public uses of Beizama.

CRUZ + CAMPOS, MADRID (ES) +34 680545762 OSCARCRUZGARCIA@OUTLOOK.COM @CRUZ_CAMPOS.ATELIER

Basoko Herria

Team point of view — BASOKO HERRIA reflects on the recovery of rootedness as an awareness of a territory in symbiosis with nature. Through the evocation of a recognisable formal model, a memory is generated, full of images, smells and details that connect us with nostalgia. How can we implant the rhythm of today and the versatility of socio-productive housing in a model that has endured over time? The strategy for inhabiting the hillside explores its possibilities of adaptation and accessibility by responding to the logical structure of the traditional houses transformed through a process of dispersion, repetition and superimposition of layers structured through the open spaces. The standardised design through the use of natural resources enables economic viability based on self-sufficiency and low environmental impact. A project that links emotional interests to the preservation of the natural environment.

Beizama (ES) — Special mention

AUTHOR(S)

MATTEO BASSO (IT) DAVID TANTIMONACO (IT) ARCHITECTS ALEXANDRA COUTSOUCOS (IT) SERVICE DESIGNER CONTACT

MATTEO BASSO AELBRECHTSKADE 120B 3023JE ROTTERDAM (NL) +31 621910029 MATTEOTEOBASSO@GMAIL.COM

Being Beizama

Team point of view — We propose a replicable strategy consisting of a combination of architecture and service design, creating “enabling” spaces informed by qualitative research on the territory and with target users. The research identified a set of values that life in Beizama could offer to its inhabitants. Our design complements Beizama’s situation through a small architectural intervention consisting of four three-story buildings, based on a shared ground floor. The public programs of workshop, library, co-working spaces, and communal kitchen activate the town through its inhabitants. This process of activation is enabled by service interventions that connect and integrate inhabitants and territory.

MADRID (ES) +34 640274312 JUANMATEOSCORONA@GMAIL.COM

KURBI

Team point of view — The project is proposed as the contemporary continuation of the traditional Basque farmhouse, whose codes of the past and community values that emerged a solid rural identity are revalidated by the incursion of technology at all levels of our life, which have diluted productive spaces in the domesticity of the home and enhanced citizen collaboration networks. Not only constructive honesty and respectful reading of the natural environment of the traditional farmhouse serve as references, but also the participatory self-management of community spaces and neighbourhood ties that in general around the new productive activities of the domestic space.

Beizama (ES) — Special mention

AUTHOR(S)

MARIA DIMITROUDI (GR) JOÃO SALSA (PT) SOFIA STAVROU (GR) ARCHITECTS CONTRIBUTOR(S)

BIEL SANCHEZ (ES) VISUAL RENDERS CONTACT

+34 675678258 UP.THE.HILL.EU16@GMAIL.COM

Up the Hill

Team point of view — Up the Hill is a social housing project that seeks to actualize an innovative residential model that combines multiple working-living scenarios with a direct relation to the rural context of Beizama. To maintain the scale of the local built environment, three separate volumes 13m x 15m are introduced, placed partly inside a steep hill and interconnected by exterior paths. The slope around the buildings remains mainly untouched, so that the volumes appear as if emerging from the landscape, resulting in an organic relationship between the built and the unbuilt. The housing typologies follow the idea of adaptable and flexible spaces, where the various needs of inhabitants are reflected and a hybrid indoor/ outdoor working space is introduced.

EsparregueraColonia Sedó (ES)

SCALE — XL/L TERRITORIAL / URBAN LOCATION — COLONIA SEDÓ, ESPARREGUERA MUNICIPALITY POPULATION — 22,551 INHAB. STRATEGIC SITE — 427.46 HA / PROJECT SITE — 19.33 HA SITE PROPOSED BY — INCASÒL ACTOR(S) INVOLVED — INCASÒL + CITY COUNCIL OWNER(S) OF THE SITE — 44% PUBLIC / 56% PRIVATE

PERE PICORELLI — Coordinator of Regeneration plan for neighbourhood. INCASÒL

1/ What are the main questions asked of the competitors for the transformation of the site? Competitors were invited to submit a strategic reflection on Colonia Sedó and propose lines of action, considering: the revitalisation of the industrial fabric as opposed to its obsolescence; mix city as opposed to specialisation of uses and typologies; and inclusivity and integration as opposed to urban and social segregation.

2/ How is the site linked to the two subtopics of “metabolism” and “inclusivity”? In the 19th century, Catalonia’s industrial colonies like Colonia Sedó were a new social and business model in which factories —especially the textile industry— coexisted alongside housing for their workforce. In the 1980s, the Colonia’s original productive activity was shut down, triggering its residential decline. Today, the Colonia is an obsolete specialised urban model that has become degraded and segregated, both internally and externally. However, the Llobregat riverside location and the historical value of the complex provide a unique environmental and heritage opportunity to move towards an inclusive, sustainable urban model.

3/ Have you already defined a specific process for the territorial and/or urban and/or architectural development of the site after the Europan competition? Do you expect a proposal of process from the competitors linked to what they proposed in their prize-winning projects? Firstly, the winning team will be invited to draft a strategic proposal for the renovation of the existing residential section, as well as a project for the conversion of the former inn into six dwellings which will be used for re-housing during the renovation stage and subsequently as social dwellings. Secondly, given that the Esparreguera City Council is drafting a new Masterplan for the municipality, along with the town’s Urban Agenda, the winners are expected to organise a series of thematic workshops on the Colonia which will investigate the ideas that emerged in Europan 16 in more depth with a view to their use in both the Urban Agenda document and future town planning.

EsparregueraColonia Sedó (ES) — Winner

IAGO PINEDA (ES) ANDREA LAS HAYAS (ES) ARCHITECTS TOMÁS CÁCERES (AR) RAQUEL MIRÓN (ES) ARCHITECTS LÄNK ARQUITECTES, BARCELONA (ES) +34 659327538 LANK@LANKARQUITECTES.COM WWW.LANKARQUITECTES.COM

Deconfining the Colony

Team point of view — Colonia Sedó was not conceived to fit into the ecosystem and preserve it. In fact, the colony generated a “wound” in the landscape that is still present today. The starting point of our proposal is the will of sewing the existing landscape discontinuity between the mountain and the river through the colony in order to achieve the maximum ecological continuity and to reconnect the colony with its surroundings. We believe that heritage preservation must go beyond preserving the physiognomy of the colony, we understand biodiversity and natural resources as a kind of heritage that must also be restored and preserved. Moreover, we strongly believe that the colony will become a place to live and work in the time to come as soon as nature takes a main role in it.

Jury point of view — The proposal reacts to the transversal topography discontinuity as it understands Colonia Sedó as a wound that creates a discontinuity between the mountain and the river. Sewing this wound becomes the main aim to achieve the maximum ecological continuity. There is a firm believe that nature must regain a main role in the colony for it to become a place to live and work in the times to come. An understanding of biodiversity as heritage together with a recognized great potential of interaction of industry and housing are the guidelines of a sensitive project that deals in depth with the pre-existing to revitalize the colony’s built environment with a richness of different means.

EsparregueraColonia Sedó (ES) — Runner-up

CARLOS ZARCO SANZ (ES) ZUHAL KOL (TR) ARCHITECTS, URBANISTS ZEYNEP KÜHEYLAN (TR) OZAN ŞEN (TR), ARCHITECTS BERNA YAYLALI (TR) LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT OPENACT ARCHITECTURE MADRID (ES) / ISTANBUL (TR) INFO@OPENACT.EU / WWW.OPENACT.EU @OPENACT.STUDIO

The ways of Sedó

Team point of view — With its company-town origins and historic role in the region’s textile industry; Sedó has the immense potential to emerge as a vigorous gravitational point —a campus of socio-cultural, socio-ecological and socio-economic encounters, and an experimental pilot project for the future projections of Llobregat’s colonies. Offering a strategic scheme to foster and promote the Colony by placing it at the central node where the routes flow through both in physical and digital form, the project proposes a contemporary template for a co-evolving system of mutual interconnections, altering the current mono-functional operational structure, combining diverse macro/micro-economies and restoring its natural ecosystem to create a future-proof, resilient framework.

Jury point of view — The project addresses the site complexity with a holistic approach addressing the social, cultural and energetic agenda. It looks at the Colony as a bracket that disrupts the connection with the two neighbouring towns of Olesa and Esparreguera. The colony becomes a hybrid system, a cluster of programs with the aim of weaving again the context as an interconnected system of routes that reinforce its socio-economic, socio-cultural and socio-ecological reality. Through a most comprehensive analysis of the area, the proposal creates a digital tool, a virtual infrastructure as a kind of curatorial device for a wide diversity of activities that would re-activate the area.

EsparregueraColonia Sedó (ES) — Runner-up

ADRIÀ GUARDIET (ES) SANDRA TORRES (ES) ARCHITECTS 08014 ARQUITECTURA, BARCELONA (ES) +34 932693703 ESTUDI@ESTUDI08014.COM WWW.ESTUDI08014.COM

Re-colonizar

Team point of view — Re-colonizar is an urban regeneration project for the Colonia Sedó that is based on four principles: energy, water and food self-sufficiency; reprogramming of some buildings with the aim of obtaining a more complex, intense and sustainable urban fabric; pedestrianisation, renaturation and improvement of the accessibility of the public space; enhancement of the architectural heritage. The main goal of the project is to define the bases for the social and environmental regeneration of a vulnerable and depressed urban fabric, transforming it into a vibrant place of exchange, reconnecting it with the cycles and rhythms of the natural environment and betting on circular processes to minimise the ecological footprint and the consumption of non-renewable energy.

Jury point of view — The project is an urban regeneration project based in three concepts: self-sufficiency, re-programming, accessibility and enhancement of cultural and architectural heritage. It acknowledges the ecological agenda by dealing with cyclical water that optimize the resources, energy and food production or by increasing the soil biotical index. The implementation of a sustainable transport system as well as a modal interchange node at the entrance of the complex, or the re-naturalization of the public areas aim to deal also against the heat island effect.

EsparregueraColonia Sedó (ES) — Special mention

JAVIER ROCAMONDE (ES) ARCHITECT NATALIA ALVAREDO (ES) ARCHITECT, URBANIST TALLER BIVAQUE BARCELONA (ES) +34 646286273 TALLER@BIVAQUE.NET

Barrejant Colonia Sedó

Team point of view — Merging systems, domains and functions to boost synergies. Among many other relevant aspects, Sedó Colony clearly shows the efforts made during industrialisation to specialise productive processes, which resulted in the segregation of functions, spaces, and users. However, if we analyse its territory in more depth, we will discover that this segregation is an exception in comparison with the long historical period in which the triad of dwelling, socialising, and producing were solidly merged in the everyday life of the local communities. Can Broquetas Masia and its flour mill were vestiges of a territorial model in which all life domains were spatially integrated. These examples can be a very useful reference at a time when the modern dichotomies of rural vs. urban, production vs. reproduction, public vs. private… need to be merged once again.

SCALE — L URBAN + ARCHITECTURAL LOCATION — CITY OF ETTLINGEN, BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG POPULATION — 39,000 INHAB. STRATEGIC SITE — 64 HA / PROJECT SITE — 16.4 HA SITE PROPOSED BY — CITY OF ETTLINGEN ACTOR(S) INVOLVED — ALBTAL-VERKEHRSGESELLSCHAFT (AVG), CITY OF ETTLINGEN, DEUTSCHE BAHN AG OWNER(S) OF THE SITE — ALBTAL-VERKEHRSGESELLSCHAFT (AVG), CITY OF ETTLINGEN, DEUTSCHE BAHN AG

WASSILI MEYER-BUCK — Head of the Planning Office, City of Ettlingen

1/ What are the main questions asked to the competitors for the transformation of the site? — How can the former commercial brownfield site be transformed into a vibrant urban district? — How can lively urban spaces succeed whose use is predominantly characterized by work? — How can the use of the new depot be well integrated into the new urban structure? — How can the new urban module also offer added value for the adjacent neighbourhood?

2/ How is the site linked to the two subtopics of “metabolism” and “inclusivity”? Metabolism: The most important aspect is certainly the reuse of formerly commercially (under)utilized space. The planning is intended to create space for about 2,000 jobs and 200 apartments, to provide green and open spaces, and to create opportunities for climate-neutral and climate-adapted neighbourhood development as well as for city-compatible mobility. Inclusivity: The formerly enclosed commercial area is to be made accessible to the urban community again. The “loose ends” of the adjacent urban structures are to be brought together. The new planning should also represent added value for the adjacent neighbourhood and be identity-forming for the district (“from the edge to the centre”). Beyond that, new forms of “factory housing” in the sense of low-cost living are to be developed.

3/ Have you already defined a specific process for the territorial and/or urban and/or architectural development of the site after the Europan competition? Do you expect a proposal of process from the competitors linked to what they proposed in their prize-winning projects? The city of Ettlingen and the property owner of the Albtal-Verkehrsgesellschaft intend to conduct a workshop procedure with public participation with the four works/teams selected as the “shortlist”. The conception of this procedure is currently still being worked out.

ISABEL GIEROK (DE), NINA PFEIFFER (DE) MARLEEN WENKOW (DE), ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS TODOR NIKOLAEV NACHEV (DE), ARCHITECT

Ettlingen Querbeet

Team point of view — Sustainability and climate protection are the key themes of our time, on which the concept for the new ELBA site is based. A quarter will be developed, which brings together different people and aspects of the great topic of human and earth health and lives on synergies between them according to the motto “Querbeet”. Overriding themes are living and working, but the heart of the district is the research campus, which deals with the production of food, energy, but also with the production and transmission of knowledge. In addition to the university, biotechnology companies also benefit from the various facilities dedicated to research.

Jury point of view — The work Ettlingen Querbeet convinces with the staggering of the spaces into an arrival zone as an urban forum east of the train station, commercial in the north, a research park on the roof of the bus and train depot and residential in the southeast. The dimensioning of the building structures, the proportions of the resulting urban spaces and also the differentiated consideration of the outdoor spaces of the individual quarters depending on the use are assessed as generically clear and sustainable in the chosen scale.

SABINE TASTEL (DE), ARCHITECT, URBANIST FABIUS KERSTEIN (DE), TIM PERTL (DE), TOBIAS TRUTZENBERGER (DE) SABINE WITTMANN (DE), MILENA ZAMPICH (DE) URBAN PLANNING STUDENTS JANNIK MAUSE (DE), BJÖRN SIMON (DE), ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS MULTILAYER STUDIO TIM@PTL1.DE +49 15257245461

Multilayer City

Team point of view — Multilayer City consists of the three concept layers NEW WORK, MOBILITY and CIRCULAR SYSTEMS as well as BLUE and GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE. Space is created for new and future forms of work. Internal circulation systems ensure sustainable and local production of energy and food. Adaptation to climatic trends makes the district resilient. Together, the project creates a vibrant district that will remain livable far into the future.

Jury point of view — The work Multilayer City creates with the arrangement of solitary courtyard houses of different size and density a permeable-spatial transition from the city centre in the northwest over the station forecourt to the neighbouring quarter in the southeast. The large blocks are rounded off into smaller quarters and public pocket parks are formed within them as well as city squares of different sizes between the quarters and a larger park centrally to the south.