After the preparatory convention held in Bruges (April 2003), the foundation
meeting held in Stockholm (November 2003), and its conference and Declaration on
Education in Viseu (May 2004) the Council for European Urbanism (CEU) has held
its first international congress in September 2005 in Berlin organised by CEU’s
German Chapter. At the end of the Congress the following “Berlin Declaration”
was published:
De-industrialization, sprawl, increasing traffic, social polarisation, ageing,
the energy crisis and shrinking populations confront the European city with
enormous challenges to their urban development. Politicians, investors, experts
and citizens’ initiatives in many European countries have tried a variety of
strategies to respond to the social, environmental and economic changes in the
globalised world with more or less success in their efforts. These different
experiences need to be assessed and space given for a range of views, the
exchange of best practice examples, and finally the discussion of the
fundamental question: What kind of city do we want to have? This is not simply
an academic question but one that determines the everyday life of cities and
communities.
Berlin’s urban policy provided Congress participants with an example for other
European cities. The "critical reconstruction" of the reunited city’s
traditional urban structure has provided a viable alternative to post WWll
modernist planning in both East and West Berlin.
More broadly, we know that European urbanism should counteract urban sprawl, the
devaluation of urban areas and the social, economic and cultural erosion of
cities, towns, villages and the countryside. Furthermore it should help to
improve the quality of urban space, support local identity, reduce social gaps
and save resources. It is also important to promote efforts to handle our
natural resources responsibly. For example, the European city region must try to
lessen its dependence on oil. Urbanism is a key to the form of our future life,
our economy, our culture, and our society. So the future of European urbanism is
important not only for experts and specialists; but for everybody living in
urban space and should involve all the stakeholders in European urbanism.
The Congress demonstrated that the fundamental changes to our cities, towns,
villages and countryside require us to build bridges in many areas. We need
bridges:
● between European cities, towns, villages and the countryside,
● between all the stakeholders in urban development,
● within planning, urban design and architectural professions,
● between urbanist institutions and networks, and
● between Europe and the rest of the world.
1. Bridges between European cities, towns, villages and the countryside
The strength of Europe lies in its cultural variety, in the richness of its
cities, towns, villages and countryside and its cultural landscapes. Cities and
regions are in competition with each other, but at the same time they need
mutual cooperation, in order to be able to compete world-wide. The exchange of
experiences about the development and reconstruction of European cities is of
outstanding importance but this exchange has not yet developed enough. The CEU
can act as a medium to make it possible to intensify the exchange of experiences
and ideas in the field of urbanism within Europe in ways summed up in its
Charter.
2. Bridges between all the participants in urban development
Discussions on urban development issues often take place in a very isolated way
between different sectors and groups. Different stakeholders have their own
language and their own central ideas. The exchange of ideas between different
groups is still underdeveloped. The CEU can be a medium for ideas exchange
between different stakeholders, in the dialogue between policy makers,
administrators, economists, social scientists and other urban experts, between
practical planners, urban designers, architects, landscape architects,
scientists in various fields, investors, real estate managers and community
groups.
3. Bridges between architectural, design and planning professions
Experts in urban design, planning and architecture are divided into many
different blocs. When it comes to urbanism such blocs are not very helpful.
Above all, CEU says, through its charter, that architecture and planning must be
decisively subordinated to urbanism. All the urban professions need to work
together for the improvement of city regions, peripheries, existing suburbs and
historic city cores. The CEU supports urbanism that considers city regions as a
whole but works at a fine grain and a human scale.
4. Bridges between urbanist institutions and networks
The Council for European Urbanism (CEU) believes that only with others can we
work on urbanist issues in a constructive way. That is why the Council for
European Urbanism strives for cooperation with networks and institutions which
care for urbanism explicitly or implicitly. We want to cooperate with
associations in the fields of architecture, urban design, landscape planning,
city and regional planning and urban development, with government institutions,
with scientific institutions and networks, with associations and institutions
dealing with real estate, as well as with community initiatives and
non-governmental organisations. Such cooperation should put joint objectives to
the fore, and allow different views to be discussed constructively within the
context of the approach advocated in our Charter.
5. Bridges between Europe and the rest of the world
The CEU stands as a partner with organisations and movements that promote
urbanism in the rest of the world. We intend to continue to work in close
collaboration with the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) in the USA especially
to promote joint efforts in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans
and its region. We also support the development of urbanism movements in other
parts of the world, as for example in Australia and New Zealand, and the
Movement for the Israeli Urbanism (MIU).
Proposal in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
The city region of New Orleans has been largely destroyed by a natural disaster
- this is a large-scale human tragedy. We declare our solidarity with New
Orleans and its people. It will be a great challenge for everybody to
reconstruct this city. We propose to erect a transatlantic bridge of specialists
from the United States and Europe, to search for ways to restore the city of New
Orleans within the urbanist framework of our Charter. Furthermore we suggest the
organization of an interdisciplinary Urban Congress with CNU and possibly other
organizations in future, in order to concentrate efforts and to discuss
strategies for renewal. Individual members of CEU also offer support in regional
and social planning, water management and housing construction.
Inaugural Urbanism Award
During the Congress, the CEU made its first Award -The CEU Award for Achievement
in Urbanism - 2005 to Dr Hans Stimmann, Director of the Berlin Senate
Administration for Urban Planning.
<a href="http://www.ceunet.de">Council for European Urbanism</a>