EU Week of Regions and Cities: ACE workshops 12/10/2021

As part of the EU Week of Regions and Cities, the Architects’ Council of Europe has co-organised two workshops to debate with and promote high-quality architecture towards local and regional public authorities.

Quality architecture for all cities and regions: exchange of good practice
In the context of the European Green Deal and in particular of the New European Bauhaus, designing and building beautiful, sustainable and inclusive living spaces has gained increasing importance. As part of the Council Work Plan for Culture 2019-2022, 39 experts have been nominated by Member States to discuss High-quality architecture and built environment for everyone. This workshop presents the resulting report, which builds on the eight quality criteria defined by the Davos Baukultur Quality Tool and makes recommendations for local/regional authorities and other stakeholders wishing to improve their built environment. The findings are illustrated through good practices from various cities/regions, notably from the Navarra region in northern Spain.
Quality architecture and principles promoted by the New European Bauhaus should matter to all places and projects, whatever their size, and be a priority for local and regional authorities as it contributes to quality of life, citizens' well-being and ultimately the common good.
Organised in collaboration with the EU Commission (DG Education & Culture) and the Delegation of Navarra to the EU.

New European Bauhaus: Achieving aesthetics, sustainability and inclusiveness at local level 
The New European Bauhaus (NEB) reflects an ambition that is shared by many practitioners, citizens and local decision-makers: making our habitat more sustainable, inclusive and beautiful – in short designing and building quality places. In recent years, many institutional documents at international and European levels have set objectives and defined principles to achieve this ambition (UN Sustainable Development Goals, Davos Declaration, the Mannheim Message, etc.). This workshop brings together local decision-makers, architects and representatives from arts schools to discuss how this ambition and these principles can be translated into tangible initiatives, projects, and processes at local level. Key areas of the New European Bauhaus are explored, namely:  the intertwined drivers of sustainability, aesthetics and inclusiveness the difficulty in balancing these often conflicting goals with limited resources the relationships between the world of science and technology and the world of art and culture  the role of local governments. 
Organised in collaboration with ICLEI Europe, Local Governments for Sustainability.