MULTIPLAYER CITIES. EUROPAN Implementations and Innovation through the Experimental Production of the City.

The material object of this research, which is intended to be developed within the framework of the Doctorate in Architectural Projects, is the Europan competition program for young architects, which for three decades has served as a laboratory, showcase and debate forum for numerous ideas in around the production of the contemporary city and habitat in the European context.

Throughout its history, Europan’s role has not consisted exclusively of the organization and management of a series of more or less successful contests, but has resulted in the creation of a much more complex ecosystem of activities and content. As well as a competition, Europan is a biennial congress, a generous source of exhibitions and publications, a discussion forum (between architects, between clients, and between architects and clients), a shuttle for young architects, a network of academic, institutional and labour, etc. But perhaps above all, Europan has sought from its beginnings to be a source of ‘experimental achievements’, capable of generating and testing models for the development of housing, the city and the landscape through its implementation.

The research seeks to approach the Europan phenomenon in the light of experimentation with the real production of the city. The use of the implementation of real urban projects of a certain scale as an experimentation tool –which differs from other innovation methods based, for example, on prototypes or pilot projects–, forms an essential part of the concept of innovation that underlies Europan. The dynamic relationship between the architectural idea –urban, landscape–, the implementation process and what is built ultimately defines its unique character.

From there, this work aims to generate a contribution to the study of Europan, through an approach that has not existed until now in critical literature outside the program itself. This approach will allow Europan to be framed more precisely both conceptually and historically.

In addition, the work aims to extract, distil and structure the corpus of innovative knowledge that Europan has generated through the implementation processes themselves, from the exhaustive archive that has been generated as a result of them and from the critical apparatus that has accompanied them through numerous publications, exhibitions and forums. In this sense, and in parallel to the critical work, the research aims to include an exhaustive cataloguing of the critical materials produced by Europan, which may be valuable for future studies.

Finally, and through this critical corpus, the research aims to shed light on the very nature of the architectural process -the sensitive transition from the idea to the built-, on the role that the architect has in it and on the evolution that both have had in the fast-paced three decades of Europan’s life.

Cover image: Socrates Stratis, Map of sites participating in Europan during its first 15 sessions.