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The European Urban Renaissance is an architectural movement aiming at developing European cities according to traditional urban design principles and architectural styles. The movement is contemporaneous with the American New Urbanism movement.
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 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:
The catalogue, published by Grafis, Bologna, 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 in England (1988–2007) master-planned by Leon Krier to the new Medina of Hammamet (2000–2005) designed by Tarak Ben Miled, from the new town of Potsdam Kirchsteigfeld (1993–2002) in Germany designed by Rob Krier and Christoph Kohl to the new urban neighborhood in Lisbon Bairro Alto (2000–2007) designed by José Baganha, from the Borgo Città Nuova new urban neighborhood in Alessandria (1995–2002) designed by Leon Krier and Gabriele Tagliaventi to the new town of Val d'Europe (1995–2007) built near Paris according to the master-plan by Cooper-Robertson to the new village of Pitious at Spetses (1992–96) designed by Demetri Porphyrios, from the Richmond Riverside neighborhood (1987–1992) in London by Quinlan Terry to the new urban neighborhood of Sankt Eriksgaten in Stockholm (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 & Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk with buildings by Demetri Porphyrios, Piotr Choynowski, Tagliaventi & Associates, Hammond Beeby Rupert Ainge, Robert A. M. Stern, Calvin TsaO, the reconstruction of the historical centre of Palermo (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, Xavier Bohl, Marc and Nada Breitman, the new urban centre of the Via della Pietra Neighborhood in Bologna by Tagliaventi & Associates (2002–2007).
While many assume urban design is about the process of designing and shaping the physical features of cities, and regional spaces, it is also about social design and other larger scale issues. Linking the fields of architecture as well as planning to better organize physical space and community environments.
The Heysel Plateau or Heysel Park, usually shortened to Heysel or Heizel, is a neighbourhood, park and exhibition space in Laeken, northern Brussels (Belgium), where the Brussels International Exposition of 1935 and the 1958 Brussels World's Fair took place.
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 influenced many aspects of real estate development, urban planning, and municipal land-use strategies. New urbanism attempts to address the ills associated with urban sprawl and post-Second World War suburban development.
The year 1949 in architecture involved some significant events.
Demetri Porphyrios is a Greek architect and author who practices architecture in London as principal of the firm Porphyrios Associates. In addition to his architectural practice and writing, Porphyrios has held a number of teaching positions in the United States, the United Kingdom and Greece. He is currently a visiting professor at the Yale School of Architecture.
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk is an American architect and urban planner based in Miami, Florida. She is considered to be a representative of the New Urbanism school of urban planning, and an advocate of the New Classical school of architecture. She is also a co-founder and principal of the firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ).
Léon Krier CVO is a Luxembourgish architect, architectural theorist and urban planner, a prominent critic of modernist architecture and advocate of New Classical architecture and New Urbanism. Krier combines an international architecture & planning practice with writing and teaching. He is well-known for his master plan for Poundbury, in Dorset, England. He is the younger brother of architect Rob Krier.
Alireza Sagharchi RIBA FRSA is a United Kingdom-Iranian architect. He received his Diploma in Architecture from the University of Westminster, London in 1986. Before setting up his own practice, Sagharchi was for 15 years the Senior Associate at Porphyrios Associates, a firm whose work follows the principles of traditional architecture and urbanism.
The Yale School of Architecture (YSOA) is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University, and is generally considered to be one of the best architecture schools in the United States. The School awards the degrees of Master of Architecture I, Master of Architecture II, Master of Environmental Design (M.E.D), and Ph.D in architectural history and criticism. The School also offers joint degrees with the Yale School of Management and Yale School of the Environment, as well as a course of study for undergraduates in Yale College leading to a Bachelor of Arts. Since its founding as a department in 1916, the School has produced some of the world's leading architects, including Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, and David Childs, among others. The current dean of the School is Deborah Berke, and the current faculty comprises many noted individuals, including Peter Eisenman.
The University of Notre Dame School of Architecture was the first Catholic university in America to offer a degree in architecture, beginning in 1898. The School offers undergraduate and post-graduate architecture programs.
Gabriele Tagliaventi is an Italian architect and a figure of the movement for the European Urban Renaissance and the New Urbanism in Europe.
In architecture, Rationalism is an architectural current which mostly developed from Italy in the 1920s and 1930s. Vitruvius had claimed in his work De architectura that architecture is a science that can be comprehended rationally. The formulation was taken up and further developed in the architectural treatises of the Renaissance. Eighteenth-century progressive art theory opposed the Baroque use of illusionism with the classic beauty of truth and reason.
Townshend Landscape Architects are a London-based Landscape Architecture practice established in 1988 by Robert Townshend. The practice specialises in landscape architecture, public realm masterplanning and urban design in the UK, Europe, Middle East, and Far East.
Gabriel Van Dievoet was a Belgian decorator and Liberty style sgraffitist. He was the brother of the architect Henri Van Dievoet.
The Driehaus Architecture Prize, fully named The Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame, is a global award to honor a major contributor in the field of contemporary traditional and classical architecture. The Driehaus Prize was conceived as an alternative to the predominantly modernist Pritzker Prize.
New Classical architecture, New Classicism or the New Classical movement is a contemporary movement in architecture that continues the practice of Classical architecture. It is sometimes considered the modern continuation of Neoclassical architecture, even though other styles might be cited as well, such as Gothic, Baroque, Renaissance or even non-Western styles.
Pier Carlo Bontempi is an Italian architect.
The Art Nouveau movement of architecture and design first appeared in Brussels, Belgium, in the early 1890s, and quickly spread to France and to the rest of Europe. It began as a reaction against the formal vocabulary of European academic art, eclecticism and historicism of the 19th century, and was based upon an innovative use of new materials, such as iron and glass, to open larger interior spaces and provide maximum light; curving lines such as the whiplash line; and other designs inspired by plants and other natural forms.
Hankar House is the residence built by the Belgian architect Paul Hankar in 1893. It is located at 71, rue Defacqz/Defacqzstraat in the Saint-Gilles municipality of Brussels, Belgium. It is considered, along with the Hôtel Tassel by Victor Horta, built at the same time, one of the first houses in the Art Nouveau style.
Jean-Jacques Winders was a Belgian architect.