Europan 17 – Living Cities 2: Competition open from March 2023

The thematic competition Europan 17 is aimed at young experts in urban planning, landscape architecture and architecture under 40. Applications for this year’s edition of the competition are open from March 2023.

As a tool for European cities and urban stakeholders, Europan offers the opportunity to develop innovative strategies for transformation. Participants in the competition submit their ideas for defined locations, which, if successful, are followed by implementation. In 2023, the Europan 17 competition is entitled “Living Cities 2 – Lebendige Städte”. It asks how we can tackle climate change in the urbanized spaces of our cities and municipalities. Social, economic and cultural inequalities are also to be addressed with innovative, integrative projects and new planning processes.

The Europan competition also aims to turn neglected, empty, derelict or stigmatized areas back into attractive urban spaces using new ideas. The aim is to create vibrant, integrative and mixed urban spaces. Applications open in March 2023.

Europan has been held across Europe since the end of the 1980s. The competition takes place every two to three years with a new thematic focus. There are various locations in the participating countries for which teams from all over Europe can propose forward-looking ideas.

The representatives of a location can be cities or public institutions, although collaboration with private partners is also possible. With the Europan 17 competition, they are looking for answers and projects for the transformation of locations. They support the realization of the winning competition entry. To this end, cities and municipalities can propose a location for the competition that requires a strategic approach and innovative ideas for transformation, which cannot be achieved with a “conventional” competition.

Europan organizes an international planning and architecture competition every two years. This is an ideas competition that aims to bring together European cities with new generations of architects, urban planners and open space planners. For each competition, the international organization, which has an office in Germany and elsewhere, sets a current theme. This theme is always of central importance for the development of the European city. The theme for 2021 was also “Living Cities”.

Over 50 European cities and more than 2,000 teams take part in each Europan competition. International formats accompany the competition in order to promote exchange and networking at European level. The aim is to fulfill these two purposes:

• Developing new solutions for local urban development
• National and international networking for young planners

This creates a platform for an ongoing debate on the transformation of the European city. Europan also facilitates the development of planning processes and pilot projects. The Europan network consists of European experts in the fields of architecture, urban design, urban planning and landscape architecture. Around 250 cities and municipalities in Europe support the network with their practical knowledge.

The Europan competition is organized by a regional organization in each participating country. In Germany, it is the non-profit organization Europan Germany. Its aim is the further development of housing and urban development and the promotion of competitions for urban development and architecture at European level. The association has been in existence since 1989 and is one of the eight founding members of Europan. Today, the following 13 countries are permanent participants in Europan: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

In the last 30 years, there have been a total of 15 Europe-wide Europan processes. These have resulted in numerous innovative and award-winning projects that open up new perspectives and transform existing “difficult” locations. To date, 25 countries and over 600 cities have been involved in the competition process. Anyone within Germany who would like to take part in the Europan 17 competition can send an informal expression of interest by e-mail or telephone to the German Europan Association. This is followed by an initial meeting with further information.

In 2021, the German locations Ettlingen, Landshut, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Selb and Wernigerode took part in the Europan 16 competition. Read more about the Europan 16 locations in Germany here.

Applications for this year’s competition can be submitted from March. The Munich City Council, among others, has already approved participation in the Europan 17 ideas competition. It is now looking for ideas from young planners from all over Europe. The competition is about the future of a section of Munich’s Europark on the Helene-Wessel-Bogen. These areas are currently heavily sealed and have a monofunctional use. They are to become a sustainable, future-proof and resilient urban building block.

In Norway, four locations have already been chosen for Europan 17, including the town of Larvik. This has an old fishing port that has since fallen into disrepair. Together with the surrounding area, it is set to become an attractive urban district. In Italy, the town of Cantù in Lombardy is one of the locations. And in Spain, the Chiva Gorge near Valencia is one of the locations taking part in Europan 17. The focus there will be on riverbed regeneration.

There will be up to 50 locations across Europe for the Europan E17 competition. The results should be finalized in December 2023 and will then be presented to the respective city or local council. This opens up the opportunity to incorporate project ideas into structural concepts.

By the way: You can find out more about the location call for Europan 17 here.