Europan is a European competition of ideas, bringing together design professionals, private stakeholders and public representatives of European cities to generate fresh solutions to today’s challenging urban questions. The competition serves a dual purpose: on the one hand it gives young architects, urban designers and landscape professionals the opportunity to turn their ideas into real projects, while on the other hand it offers cities and developers innovative approaches to local urban planning and development. These two functions combine to create a platform for ongoing debate and research on the transformation and mutation of today’s European city.
The competition spans over a two-year period in which some 15 to 20 European countries are involved. Each country provides a series of sites where conditions for future transformations are real. Competitors choose from these sites the one(s) on which they want to submit their projects.
The entries are judged by national juries composed of local and international specialists in the fields of architecture and urbanism.
Europan NL is the new Foundation responsible for the Europan competition in The Netherlands. The Board is formed by a collective of former Europan winners who are all firmly committed to invest their time, enthusiasm and experience to support to the next generation of city thinkers and designers, in the same way that Europan supported them in the past.
The 14th edition of the Europan competition launched with five great sites in Amsterdam on February 13th and is open for registration until June 19, 2017.
With the Europan14th edition, Europan NL wants to re-assign the urban designers a central role in the creation and refurbishment of the public urban quality. In recent years the relations between government and developers have changed and, as a consequence, the quality of urban development projects is at stake. Both parties share an interest in a long-lasting quality however disagreement prevails in many other aspects. In this context, the project of the architect or of the urban planner becomes a tool of mediation between the government and the developers bringing quality to the benefit of the public interest.
This requires a redefinition of the position of the spatial design: in the Netherlands in fact architects have been knocked out from the urban development’s debate with a consequent stagnation and even marginalization of the Dutch architecture. The aim of Europan NL is to report this trend and turn the tide!
For the latest updates and the next steps, check-out our website and follow Europan NL on Facebook and Twitter.
Europan NL Board
André Kempe Architect Atelier KempeThill
Anouk de Wit Programm manager Spatial Quality, Municipality Amsterdam
Arnoud Gelauff Architect Arons en Gelauff architecten
Jonathan Woodroffe Architect / Urbanist Studio Woodroffe/Papa
Sabine Lebesque Architectuurhistoricus Grond en Ontwikkeling, Gemeente Amsterdam
Europan NL Secretariat
Madir Shah (Director, Europan NL Secretariat) Architect / Urbanist URBANOFFICE Architects
Europan NL Team
Isha Joshi
Contact Europan NL
Secretary Europan NL
For questions regarding the competition process,
press information or for any other inquiries please contact us.
learn more about each competition location, ask questions, and interact with site representatives.
Europan is the longest-running and largest design competition in Europe for architects under 40 years old. The 51 locations of Europan 17 model the issues that are currently playing out in many parts of Europe. The Urban Region Breda-Tilburg (SRBT) is the host region for Europan 17 in the Netherlands. In the SRBT, nineteen municipalities, four water authorities, the province of Noord-Brabant, and the national government are collaborating on the sustainable development of the region. The region is participating with six locations (Groenewoud and Kenniskwartier in Tilburg, ‘t Zoet and Schorsmolen in Breda, the shopping center in Etten-Leur, and the Taxandriaweg in Waalwijk).
DAY PROGRAM |Thursday 20 April
During the day, competition participants will go on an excursion to visit the six locations and receive an in-depth explanation of the assignments. This will be followed by a Q&A session with project leaders representing the participating municipalities. The day will conclude with a public symposium, organized in collaboration with BLASt and CAST.
Site visits are open to all interested participants who want to learn more about each competition location, ask questions, and interact with site representatives. Please ensure that you arrive before 10:00 AM.After a brief introduction, each group will depart with their respective site representative to visit the competition locations, which include Groenewoud and Kenniskwartier in Tilburg, ‘t Zoet and Schorsmolen in Breda, the shopping center in Etten-Leur, and the Taxandriaweg in Waalwijk.
In the afternoon, we will reconvene at MotMot Gallery in Breda for six parallel workshops, where participants will have the opportunity to further deepen their understanding of the sites and competition assignments in detail with the site representatives.
Symposium Living Cities | 19:30-21:15 (room opens at 19:00)
During the evening program, which is open to everyone, we will delve deeper into the importance of the SRBT and competitions such as Europan, as well as the six locations and their corresponding themes. We will talk to:
Bas van der Pol (Alderman of the Municipality of Tilburg) and Bas van Rijsbergen (Director of Urban Development of the Municipality of Breda) about the value and strength of Europan for the participating municipalities.
Ton Venhoeven (VenhoevenCS architecture+urbanism) will give a Keynote presentation on Living Cities.
Peter van Schie (Urban Planner of the Municipality of Breda) and Marco Visser (Urban Planner of the Municipality of Tilburg) will discuss the significance of participating in Europan for the SRBT.
Sabine Lebesque (Europan NL) with a brief introduction on Europan. What is Europan, and what does it stand for?
We will conclude the evening with a panel discussion in which we further delve into themes such as broad prosperity, new urbanity, and mobility.
The presentation and moderation will be conducted by Sophie Stravens. The language used for this evening will be English.
Europan NL and the Stedelijke Regio Breda Tilburg (SRBT) are proud to announce six locations in the region for Europan 17. These sites have been and designated as “prototypical development sites” due to their unique characteristics.
The kick-off of the six Dutch Europan Europe locations. Presenting, ‘t Zoet and Schorsmolen in Breda, Shoppingcentre in Etten-Leur, Groenewoud and Kenniskwartier in Tilburg and the Taxandriaweg in Waalwijk.
Looking forward to meeting participants at #sitevisit on April 20th.
Organised by BLASt and CAST Architectuurcentrum in collaboration with Europan NL.
Europan NL and the Stedelijke Regio Breda Tilburg (SRBT) are proud to announce six locations in the region for Europan 17. These sites have been and designated as “prototypical development sites” due to their unique characteristics. We are confident that these sites will provide a challenging and exciting context for the competition. The municipalities of Breda, Tilburg, Etten-Leur and Waalwijk believe that these locations hold tremendous potential for innovative and impactful design solutions.
We are happy to welcome Bas Lagendijk to the Europan NL team. Bas studied spatial design at the Willlem de Kooning academy in Rotterdam. Before joining Europan NL, Bas helped to develop the international profile of Beijing based MAD architects, was the press officer for OMA, and worked as a co-writer for the Lego Architecture Studio set (21050). He is a regular guest critic and taught at Tsinghua University in Beijing and the University of Technology in Xi’an.
During the forum, there was an opportunity to debate the “Productive Cities” theme and discover how some European cities have already put the topic into practice, by making some districts more dynamic through keeping or developing productive activities at the very heart of the city. During this debate Amsterdam city representative Sabine Lebesque and Europan NL Board members Madir Shah and Jonathan Woodroffe presented the five sites that have been selected for the E14 competition.
Voor het eerst bevinden alle prijsvraaglocaties van Europan Nederland zich in één stad. Voor Europan 14 (http://europan.nl/) zijn vijf plaatsen aangewezen in Amsterdam, variërend van een schoolterrein tot stationsplein. Het thema van deze editie is Productive cities.
De uitkomsten van Europan in Amsterdam moeten bijdragen aan de ontwikkelingsstrategie Koers 2025 (https://www.amsterdam.nl/bestuur-organisatie/volg-beleid/koers-2025-amsterdam /ontwikkelstrategie/), die de stad heeft uitgezet voor de bouw van 50.000 nieuwe woningen in de komende negen jaar. Ook bieden de plannen ruimte aan voorzieningen en bedrijven. Hoe deze ontwikkelingen vorm gaan krijgen, is een opgave waar onder andere de deelnemers aan Europan 14 zich over kunnen buigen.
Europan Europe is pleased to announce that a new Europan NL organisation has been selected to start the search for sites for the 14th session of the competition, which will be launched at the beginning of 2017. The new organisation shall also take responsibility for the follow-up of the Europan 13 winning teams to help them implement their winning projects.
Photograph: Madir Shah (URBANOFFICE Architects), André Kempe (Atelier Kempe Thill), Olof van de Wal (architecture curator), Helena Casanova (Casanova + Hernandez Architecten), Didier Rebois (Secretary General Europan Europe) and Jonathan Woodroffe (S333 Architecture + Urbanism).
