Robert Adam Involved in creation of The Council for European Urbanism
in Brussels and Bruges, April 1-6, 2003
In April, in a cellar in the historic city of Bruges, 75 urbanists and architects from Europe and United States including Robert Adam, created a new pan-European urban movement: the Council for European Urbanism.
For five days in Brussels and Bruges, representatives from most of the major European countries debated the urban crisis of the western world with representatives of the hugely successful American movement, the Congress for New Urbanism. They found much common ground and significant differences but the success of the Congress for New Urbanism inspired the European contributors to create a sister organisation dedicated to the creation of more humane cities, towns and villages in Europe – the Council for European Urbanism.
Contributors to the debate included members of the International Network for Traditional Building Architecture and Urbanism, the Princes Foundation, A Vision of Europe, the Norwegian Foundation for Urban Renewal, the Institute of Classical Architecture, the Technische Universität Berlin, and schools of architecture at: the University of Viseu in Portugal; San Sebastian in Spain; Ferrara and Naples in Italy; Glasgow in Scotland; and Miami and Notre Dame in the USA.
Delegates from Germany led the debate on the misery of post-war mass housing and the social crisis created by huge areas of soulless slab-block housing in Eastern Europe. The Brussels and Bruges location also directed discussion to the value of European urban heritage and its vulnerability to destructive redevelopment. During this time Robert Adam presented a paper "Urban and Regional Identity: Settlement Patterns in Europe."
Leon Krier, the renowned urban designer and theorist, who took part in the Bruges meeting said: “The built wastelands of 20th century Europe and the USA were not the result of anarchy and lawlessness but the realisation of an erroneous doctrine. The Council for European Urbanism is a reaction against this fiasco by planners and architects who build ecologically and aesthetically sustainable human environments based on traditional European models of cities and villages.”
Amidst vigorous and impassioned debate the participants drew up the Declaration of Bruges and created the Council for European Urbanism. The Declaration identifies 12 challenges for European Urbanism. In the coming months the Council for European Urbanism will set up national chapters and meet in a number of European cities to develop a programme, organisation and strategy. A full Charter will be presented and agreed in Stockholm in November this year.
