A conversation with Tallinn City Architect and ACE Executive Board Member Andro Mänd 

El 22 April 2026, Brussels will host the City and State Architects Meeting, bringing together leading urban practitioners and policymakers from across Europe. The event is organised by the Architects’ Council of Europe & the ARCH-E project.

Taking place at the Swiss and Estonian Embassies, the programme will explore how cities can ensure high-quality architecture through policy, design competitions, and governance models. Highlights include discussions on the ARCH-E White Paper, presentations of best practices from across Europe, and a preview of the ACE–UIA addendum on architectural design competitions.

Participants will also take part in a guided architectural tour of Brussels, visiting recent projects such as Kanal, Gare Maritime, and Tour & Taxis, alongside smaller competition-based developments that support emerging practices.

Ahead of the event, we spoke with Andro Mänd, City Architect of Tallinn and member of the ACE Executive Board. The event will gather over 20 participants, among them 18 city and state representatives representing 11 countries (Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden).

ACE: Ahead of the Brussels meeting, what are you most looking forward to, and what would make the conversations with your European peers truly impactful?

Andro Mänd: ” We see how the importance of cities is growing. Cities have always been leaders in innovation. At the same time, the world has never been changing as fast as it is now. Therefore, it is extremely important that city architects have a common platform where they can share their new initiatives, success stories and also failures, so that others can learn from them. We all have a common goal and that is the best living environment. Therefore, it is essential to create a platform for systematic and regular information exchange, which must also have a support structure. Because things based solely on enthusiasm, unfortunately, do not last long”.

ACE : In a context of shared urban challenges across Europe, what role do collaborative platforms like the Architects’ Council of Europe and the ARCH-E project play in strengthening the impact of city architects?

Andro Mänd: “To be honest, ACE’s role in relation to city and state architects has been modest so far. Fortunately, the new ACE board has now taken city and state architects into its focus. City architects have been a bit fragmented and often alone with their problems. This is partly because many cities do not have a position like a city architect, and in the remaining cities they have very different roles and positions. At the same time, we see how important it has become, as cities compete very vigorously for talent, and when attracting talent to their city, high-quality urban space has become one of the keywords. If we can get this to work systematically, I believe that the impact of ACE and ARCH-E will be very important for European cities”.

ACE: Cities across Europe face similar pressures—housing, climate, development—but operate in different contexts. Where do you see the biggest opportunities for shared approaches, and where must cities remain distinct?

Andro Mänd : “Common approaches are largely due to a changing climate, an aging society, a housing crisis and an economy that is lagging behind the rest of the world. These are problems that most of our cities share. We can share each other’s success stories and take them over and adapt them to suit our cities. Our cities will remain distinct from each other in any case, because the greatest value of European cities is the different strata they contain. In addition to historic old towns, we actually have a lot of interesting strata from the 20th century. In addition, we have a lot of old industrial architecture, which in many places has been transformed into something new. It is precisely these strata that create the greatest and most interesting differences between our cities. In addition, of course, the climate is what creates the difference between our cities”.

ACE: Architectural competitions are a central theme of this event. From your perspective in Tallinn, how effective are they as a tool for achieving better urban and architectural outcomes?

Andro Mänd: “This is the best tool. Since Estonia has a very strong tradition of organizing public architectural competitions, we also have a fairly good overview of the benefits of this tool. Our statistics show that conducting an architectural competition adds only 0.5-0.7% to the cost of the entire building, but in return we get a large number of different projects, where we can choose the most suitable project. If the competition organization system is properly built, then conducting the competition does not add any extra time. The sketch project is already obtained through the competition, and from there you can immediately move on to preparing a preliminary project”.

ACE: Looking ahead, how do you see the role of the city architect evolving?

Andro Mänd: “I see that the importance of this role is growing. The role of cities is becoming increasingly important in Europe. If we want to compete with Asia and America, we must invest more in the development of our cities. Urban space and the living environment are very important competitive advantages. We must work to ensure that all major European cities have strong city architects”.

Bringing together perspectives from cities including Vilnius, Lahti, Groningen, and Tallinn, the Brussels City Architects meeting aims to strengthen collaboration and reinforce the role of architectural design competitions as a key tool for achieving high-quality built environments across Europe.