Europan 7: Suburban Challenge: Urban Intensity and Housing Diversity

by Maarten Kloos

Europan, the biennial competition for young architects organized by a dozen European countries, reaches its seventh edition with a call for ideas to revitalize suburban life in Europe. With 68 sites across the continent to choose from, the design theme this time round Suburban Challenge, Urban Intensity and Housing Diversity. The transformation of post-war growth areas into enduring urban districts with a diversity of housing types and up-to-date amenities is an issue of great relevance in Europe today. The jury will select the winners of Europan 7 in Graz, Austria, and the winning designs will be announced at the end of January 2004. The book, Europan 7: Suburban Urban Intensity gives an overview of the prizewinners, exhaustively documenting their design proposals with model photographs, plans, and conceptual sketches. Interviews with the designers shed further light on their projects. The project section of the book also includes an essay on the central theme of urban intensity, an analysis of the entries from an international perspective, and a description of the four Dutch Geuzenveld-Zuid in Amsterdam, Morgenstond Midden in The Hague, O? in Hengelo and Zuidwijk in Rotterdam, each of which is informed by an initial master plan providing for ample space and communal courtyard gardens. Also included is a CD-ROM which features the prizewinning and runner-up design proposals.

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 2, 2004