The European Urban Renaissance is an

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

movement aiming at developing

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an cities according to traditional urban design principles and architectural styles. The movement is contemporaneous with the American

New Urbanism New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually inf ...

movement.

Typology of intervention

The first exhibition dedicated to the movement was opened in 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 (born 1960 in Bologna, Italy) is an Italian architect and a figure of the movement for the European Urban Renaissance and the New Urbanism in Europe. Biography Tagliaventi was coordinator of the EU Program on medium-sized c ...

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: # Reconstructing the area of the former Putterie/Putterij quarter that was destroyed for the construction of the

Brussels Central Station Brussels Central Station (french: Gare de Bruxelles-Central, nl, Station Brussel-Centraal), officially Brussels-Central (french: Bruxelles-Central, link=no, nl, Brussel-Centraal, link=no), is a railway and metro station in central Brussels, B ...

, 1985–95 # Continuity of the classical tradition in the construction of the American capital city

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, 1905–95 # Continuing the construction of a bourgeois city, 1985–95 # Urbanizing the suburbs # Extending the city with new urban quarters # Founding new traditional cities # Re-qualifying the urban space through the demolition of obsolete modernist buildings # Constructing new traditional public buildings # Reconquering the centre of the city # Reconquering the sacred space # Revitalizing the garden city # Healing the city

Works and main figures

The catalogue, published by Grafis,

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

, 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, Iñigo 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 is an experimental planned community or urban extension on the western outskirts of Dorchester in the county of Dorset, England. The development is led by the Duchy of Cornwall, and had the keen endorsement of King Charles III when h ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

(1988–2007) master-planned by

Leon Krier Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...

to the new Medina of Hammamet (2000–2005) designed by Tarak Ben Miled, from the new town of Potsdam Kirchsteigfeld (1993–2002) in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Rob Krier Rob Krier (born 1938 in Grevenmacher) is a Luxembourgian sculptor, architect, urban designer, and theorist. He is former professor of architecture at Vienna University of Technology, Austria. From 1993 to mid-2010 he worked in partnership with arc ...

and Christoph Kohl to the new urban neighborhood in Lisbon

Bairro Alto Bairro Alto (; literally: ''Upper District'') is a central district of the city of Lisbon, the Portuguese capital. Unlike many of the civil parishes of Lisbon, this region can be commonly explained as a loose association of neighbourhoods, with no ...

(2000–2007) designed by José Baganha, from the Borgo Città Nuova new urban neighborhood in

Alessandria Alessandria (; pms, Lissandria ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, about east of Turin. Alessandria ...

(1995–2002) designed by

and Gabriele Tagliaventi to the new town of

Val d'Europe Val d'Europe (; lit. ''Valley of Europe'') is the eastmost part of the new town of Marne-la-Vallée, located around to the east of Paris, France. The Walt Disney Company created the town near Disneyland Paris resort. The final area of the district ...

(1995–2007) built near

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

according to the master-plan by Cooper-Robertson to the new village of Pitious at

Spetses Spetses ( el, Σπέτσες, grc, Πιτυούσσα "Pityussa", Arvanitika: Πετσε̱) is an upscale affluent island in Attica, Greece. It is included as one of the Saronic Islands. Until 1948, it was part of the old prefecture of Argolis ...

(1992–96) designed by

Demetri Porphyrios Demetri Porphyrios ( el, Δημήτρης Πορφυρίου; born 1949) is a Greece, Greek architect and author who practices architecture in London as principal of the firm Porphyrios Associates. In addition to his architectural practice and ...

, from the Richmond Riverside neighborhood (1987–1992) in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Quinlan Terry John Quinlan Terry Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 24 July 1937) is a British architect. He was educated at Bryanston School and the Architectural Association School of Architecture. He was a pupil of architect Raymond Erith, with whom ...

to the new urban neighborhood of Sankt Eriksgaten in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

(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) master-planned by

Andres Duany Andres or Andrés may refer to: *Andres, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Will County, Illinois, US *Andres, Pas-de-Calais, a commune in Pas-de-Calais, France *Andres (name) *Hurricane Andres * "Andres" (song), a 1994 song by L7 See also ...

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk (born December 20, 1950) is a professor at the University of Miami's School of Architecture and an architect and urban planner in Miami, Florida. Plater-Zyberk is considered to be a representative of the New Urbanism scho ...

with buildings by Demetri Porphyrios, Piotr Choynowski, Tagliaventi & Associates, Hammond Beeby Rupert Ainge,

Robert A. M. Stern Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern (born May 23, 1939), is a New York City–based architect, educator, and author. He is the founding partner of the architecture firm, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, also known as ...

, Calvin TsaO, the reconstruction of the historical centre of

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

(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 Henry Spoerry (28 December 1912 – 11 January 1999) was a French people, French architecture, architect, developer, and urban planner that created the seaside town of Port Grimaud. He was an Officier of the Légion d'honneur and an O ...

, Xavier Bohl, Marc and Nada Breitman, the new urban centre of the Via della Pietra Neighborhood in

by Tagliaventi & Associates (2002–2007).

References

*Tagliaventi, Gabriele (1996),''URBAN RENAISSANCE'', Grafis - Bologna *Culot, Maurice (1995), ''THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE LAEKEN STREET IN BRUXELLES'', AAM Ed.- Bruxelles *Tagliaventi, Gabriele (2004),''NEW CIVIC ARCHITECTURE. THE ECOLOGICAL ALTERNATIVE TO SUB-URBANIZATION'', ALINEA - Florence, *Culot, Maurice (2005), ''XX ALTER ARCHITECTURE'', AAM Ed.- Bruxelles *Tagliaventi, Gabriele (2006),''FROM SLAB-URBIA TO THE CITY'', ALINEA - Florence {{ISBN, 88-8125-860-9

External links

A Vision of EuropeCongress for the New Urbanism
Urban planning by region New Urbanism New Classical architecture