New Neighbourhoods in Europe

Università di Roma, Department of Urban Studies
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Planum The Journal of Urbanism

A variety of new ‘neighbourhoods’ have been built in Europe in the last 30 years. The building market has grasped the opportunities of marketing a variety of ways of living, entire working class neighbourhoods (besides old historic centres, and some sparse villages) have been gentrified; some new ones have been build, attempting to define a new ideal of ‘sustainable’ living. Besides, the rehabilitation of city centres, brown fields or derelict lands is instrumental to the strategies of economic development. These neighborhoods are often aimed at experimenting with the urban space, innovating the local economy, sometimes supporting the project of a 'creative' city.
Most of the innovations heralded by these neighbourhoods are related to planning, environment or urban design; yet, some others address the larger issue of liveability, combining social and material requirements. For instance, mixing functions and activities, hosting cultural institutions, providing affordable housing or new housing types, experimenting with technologies.
Critical notions of these new experiments are the idea of social variety, of knowledge and culture districts, a supposed sequence between liveability-creativity-innovation. Such neighborhoods are thus inherently ambiguous: historical centres are re-tuned by the tourism and entertainment industry; gentrified working class areas become cultural districts; reverted industrial zones host universities and research centres...

The objective of the project “New Neighbourhoods in Europe” was to produce a volume with contributions of PhD researchers from both institutions reflecting on the emergence of new neighbourhoods in the European City.

FOR MORE INFORMATIONS AND CONTACTS
E-mail: mfrank.eckardt@archit.uni-weimar
E-mail: m.cremaschi@uniroma3.it