The European Urban Renaissance is an architectural

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 movement aiming at developing the Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an cities according to the principles of the Traditional City and the New Urbanism

New urbanism

New Urbanism is an urban design movement, which promotes walkable neighborhoods that contain a range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually continued to reform many aspects of real estate development, urban planning, and municipal land-use...

.

Typology of intervention

The first exhibition dedicated to the movement was opened on March 1996 by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales at the “A Vision of Europe” Bologna Triennale II.
The exhibition has been curated by Gabriele Tagliaventi

Gabriele Tagliaventi

Gabriele Tagliaventi is an Italian architect and a figure of the movement for the European Urban Renaissance and the New Urbanism in Europe. Coordinator of the EU Program on medium-sized cities in 1993–1996, visiting professor at the University of Miami-School of Architecture in 1995–1997...

 and assembling more than 150 projects and built works in 24 countries. Both the exhibition and the accompanying English/French/Italian catalogue were organized by using an order of typology of intervention:

1. Reconstructing the Belgian capital city Brussels
   Brussels
   Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
   
   , 1985–95
2. Continuity of the classical tradition in the construction of the American capital city Washington, D.C.
   Washington, D.C.
   Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
   
   , 1905–95
3. Continuing the construction of a bourgeois city, 1985–95
4. Urbanizing the suburbs
5. Extending the city with new urban quarters
6. Founding new traditional cities
7. Re-qualifying the urban space through the demolition of obsolete modernist buildings
8. Constructing new traditional public buildings
9. Reconquering the centre of the city
10. Reconquering the sacred space
11. Revitalizing the garden city
12. Healing the city

Works and main figures

The catalogue, published by Grafis, Bologna

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

, contains a foreword by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales and essays by Gabriele Tagliaventi, Leon Krier, Maurice Culot, Dawid Watkin, Carroll William Westfall and featured for the first time the largest operation of Urban Renaissance in Europe: the new mixed-use urban block of Rue de Laeken (1989–1995) designed by Tagliaventi & Associates, Atelier 55, Sylvie Assassin, barthelemy Dumons, Philippe Gisclard, Nathalie Prat, Jean Philippe Garric, Valerie Negre, Javier Cenicacelaya, Iñ igo Saloña, Liam O’Connor, John Robins, Joseph Altuna, Marie Laure Petit.

Since 1996, the movement for the Urban Renaissance spread all over Europe, from the new town of Poundbury

Poundbury

Poundbury is an experimental new town or urban extension on the outskirts of Dorchester in the county of Dorset, England.The development is built on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. It is built according to the principles of Prince Charles...

 in England (1988–2007) masterplanned by Leon Krier to the new Medina of Hammamet (2000–2005) designed by Tarak Ben Miled, from the new town of Potsdam Kirchsteigfeld (1993–2002) in Germany designed by Rob Krier and Christoph Kohl to the new urban neighborhood in Lisbon Barrio Alto (2000–2007) designed by José Baganha, from the Borgo Città Nuova new urban neighborhood in Alessandria (1995–2002) designed by Leon Krier and Gabriele Tagliaventi to the new town of Val d’Europe (1995–2007) built near Paris according to the masterplan by Cooper-Robertson to the new village of Pitious at Spetses (1992–96) designed by Demetri Porphyrios

Demetri Porphyrios

Demetri Porphyrios is a Greek architect and author who currently practises architecture in London as principal of the firm Porphyrios Associates. In addition to practice and writing, Porphyrios has held a number of teaching positions in the United States, the United Kingdom and Greece. He is...

, from the Richmond Riverside neighborhood (1987–1992) in London by Quinlan Terry to the new urban neighborhood of Sankt Eriksgaten in Stockholm (1995–2004) designed by Alexander Wolodarski.

Due to the success of these operations of re-urbanization of both suburban and central areas, many new interventions are actually under construction all around Europe, including the Quartier am Tacheles in Berlin-Mitte (2000–2007) masterplanned by Andres Duany

Andrés Duany

Andrés Duany is an American architect and urban planner.Duany was born in New York City but grew up in Cuba until 1960. He attended The Choate School and received his undergraduate degree in architecture and urban planning from Princeton University...

 & Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk is an American architect and urban planner of Polish aristocratic roots based in Miami, Florida...

 with buildings by Demetri Porphyrios, Piotr Choynowski, Tagliaventi & Associates, Hammond Beeby Rupert Ainge, Robert A. M. Stern, Calvin TsaO, the reconstruction of the historical centre of Palermo (1996–2007), the new Beguinage at Valenciennes (2002–2007) by Styles Architectes, the new urban centre of Plessis-Robinson, France, (1992–2007) designed by Jean François Spoerry

François Spoerry

After the war ended, he opened his first architectural firm in Mulhouse where he associated with a significant number of reconstruction projects. In Mulhouse, he was the planner of the new town centre. He also built in Mulhouse the Tour of Europe, the largest structure in contemporary France whose...

, Xavier Bohl, Marc and Nada Breitman, the new urban centre of the Via della Pietra Neighborhood in Bologna by Tagliaventi & Associates (2002–2007).

External links

• A Vision of Europe
• Congress for the New Urbanism
• American Planning Association New Urbanism Division