Quels outils et politiques pour garantir la qualité dans l'environnement bâti ?

Last year, European Ministers of Culture, along with other institutions and NGOs, highlighted in the Davos Declaration “a trend towards a loss of quality in… the built environment… all over Europe”, characterised by “the trivialisation of construction, the lack of design values, …the growth of faceless urban sprawl and irresponsible land use, the deterioration of historic fabric, and the loss of regional traditions and identities”.

Yet, as stated in the Declaration, a high-quality built environment makes a “crucial contribution… to achieving a sustainable society, characterised by a high quality of life, cultural diversity, individual and collective well-being, social justice and cohesion, and economic efficiency”.

The Council of the EU decided in November 2018 to create under the Work Plan for Culture 2019-2022 an expert group on High-quality Architecture and Built Environment for Everyone. Experts designated by EU Member States will exchange on best practices with respect to “multi-disciplinary and participatory governance models contributing to social inclusion and sustainable development of neighbourhoods”, putting focus on “architecture as a discipline that encompasses the right balance between cultural, social, economic, environmental and technical aspects for the common good”. 

We are happy to read such a quote from an official European institution. We want to build on this.

The creation of this expert group represents a huge step forward for the architectural profession in Europe. The OMC group shall start its work 2020, this year should be used to define topics for its work. The Innsbruck conference aims to put one topic on the table.

While there is a broad consensus on the fact that high-quality built environments have positive impacts on people’s everyday lives, the characteristics of a high-quality architecture need discussion and possible specification.

The conference brought together architects, academics and experts from local public authorities, national governments and the EU institutions in order to call into question the concept of quality architecture and discuss existing tools, policies and good practices that enable to ensure that high-quality architecture is actually achieved in the built environment. In particular, the following questions were discussed: 

- What does high-quality architecture mean? How can it be defined? What are its main features?
- What tools and policies at local/ regional/ national levels to assess and guarantee high-quality in the built environment?

Ultimately, this conference was designed to be a first opportunity to think about the key questions that the Council’s expert group will have to investigate and to place the topic of quality and quality assessment as an important topic for discussion.

>> Download here the programme <<


Déclaration de Innsbruck

Déclaration présentée le 4 mai 2019 à Innsbruck (Autriche) à l'occasion de la conférence du CAE " Quels outils et politiques pour garantir la qualité de l'environnement bâti ?"

POUR UN ENVIRONNEMENT BÂTI DE QUALITÉ

(cliquer pour lire la déclaration)

De gauche à droite: Henrik STJERNHOLM, Anne SCHMEDDING, Bart LOOTSMA, Ernst BENEDER, Georg PENDL, Stefan BALICI, Joao Ferreira BENTO, Gerhard FRITZ, Joël BAUD-GRASSET, Josef MATHIS


Videos & Presentations


Bart LOOTSMA
Chair for the Architectural Theory at the Leopold-Franzens University of InnsbruckIntroduction

Joao Ferreira BENTO
Researcher
Bartlett School of Planning
University College London

Architectural Policies developments across Europe

Dr. Anne SCHMEDDING
Deputy Director of the
Bundesstiftung Baukultur
Baukultur in Germany

Henrik STJERNHOLM
Former City Architect of
Vejle (Denmark)
Architectur Policy as a booster of Urban Development
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONSession 1: European policies and approaches
Moderated by Bart LOOTSMA

Josef MATHIS
Former Mayor of Zwischenwasser (Austria)
Board Member of Landluft
Bauen: Sicherung der Qualitat (only in German)

Ernst BENEDER
Architect
Chair in several Design Advisory Committees in Austria
The Urban Dimension in Design Advisory Committees

Gerhard FRITZ
Former City Councilor at the City of Innsbruck
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONFrom village to city - Urban and rural Baukultur in Austria
Moderated by Wojciech CZAJA, Author and Architectural Journalist

Stefan BALICI
Director of the Romanian National Institute of HeritageArchitectural Quality in Romania

Joel BAUD-GRASSET
President of the French Fédération Nationale des Conseils d'Architecture, d'Urbanisme et de l'Environnement (FNCAUE)Comment attaindre la qualité dans la construction: outils et systemes pour guarantir la qualité (Only in French)

Beat AEBERHARD
Head of the Architecture nd Planning Department at City of BaselWays to work on Baukulture
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONFrom Romania via Switzerland to France - Ways to architectural quality
Moderated by Georg Pendl, ACE President

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