On October 7th the 4th edition of the "A Vision of Europe Triennale" dedicated to New Civic Architecture opened in Bologna, comprising an international conference and exhibition. The Exhibition presented more than 100 projects and built works from various countries that showed the very best in sustainable development as an alternative to sub-urbanization. Various projects by Robert Adam and Nigel Anderson of the practise were featured in the exhibition, including Poundbury, Bear Wharf in Reading, the Western Harbour masterplan at Leith and new offices in Piccadilly, London.

The accelerated growth of commercial malls, from the US to the rest of the world is threatening many cities, impoverishing the historic centres and extending the size of residential suburbs, causing high levels of congestion and air pollution. In contrast, New Civic Architecture represents a new attitude towards urban development. As opposed to the conventional sub-urban system of residential suburbs, office skyscrapers and shopping malls, all connected through a sprawl of motorways, it proposes a balanced development of retail and high quality urban spaces built upon traditional patterns of building. Its approach respects local traditions and typologies and promotes strong civic values, providing communities with a real alternative to the conventional, globalised building activity. The exhibition has hopefully shown that is possible to build new plazas and squares, public buildings, and urban residential settlements, to an ecologically oriented attitude.

The International Conference explored issues surrounding the construction of traditional urban spaces, presenting study cases and debating successful strategies for future developments. Robert Adam was a pariticipant in one of the expert discussion panels. An English-Italian catalogue edited by Gabriele Tagliaventi accompanies the exhibition and includes texts from Javier Cenicacelaya, Maurice Culot, Andres Duany, Michael Lykoudis and David Watkin.