[Image: Cover and contents of Europan 8. Photograph by Adib J. All copyrights of book belongs to their respective owners]

EUROPAN 8. European Urbanity
Edited by Europan Europe
Published by Europan Europe.
ISBN 2-914296-07-X
Book comes with CD-ROM of featured works.

—————

5 themes. 74 sites. 143 projects. Participation by 19 countries. 134 renowned European professionals and experts in 15 international juries. This is nothing more than a mega compilation of selected entries for a mega European competition.

Being a competition for young architects, the works featured in this compilation are truly fresh and delightful in ideas and presentation. Also, being of a cross-disciplinary theme: European Urbanity, the projects displays a sense of ingenuity, pushing the boundaries of various involved professions. (architects & urban designers, landscapers, engineers, sociologists, geographers, etc.) The young practices featured in this publication is perhaps a reflection of the dynamism of young European architects- with the will to experiment and venture into new territories.

The publication is organised into the 5 sub-themes of the competition namely: Building With Nature, Urbanising with Infrastructures, Recycling Urban Fabric, What Sort of Urbanity for the Inhabitants? and Generating the New. Each of these sections begins with an introductory essay, followed by key images and texts from the selected entries.

Seductive diagrams and renderings fill this publication and it is not surprising, considering that these were produced for a design competition. However, in order to showcase all 143 projects, the entries had to be distilled to its key imageries and texts limited to a few paragraphs. Some may find this frustrating as some of these diagrams while beautiful, are difficult to read by the mere fact of its size and/or lacking in informational clarity and this is where the accompanying CD-Rom makes up for it.

[Image: Contents of Europan 8. Photograph by Adib J. All copyrights of book belongs to their respective owners]

By now, one would note that the projects are sited in Europe, designed by Europeans and judged by Europeans who have a certain position on the concepts of urbanity (probably Eurocentric). One then wonders, why is such a book being featured in Five Foot Way Magazine, which is supposed to be ‘Exploring Asian Architecture’?

The answer is precisely because it is not Asian. By featuring such a book, I am proposing that we take a good look at how others are approaching their issues of urbanity. With a focused and concerted effort by professionals and intellectuals to think about the issues inherent within their region, Europe is attempting to critically examine themselves and push on to explore how they can evolve. What about us in Asia? What are we doing to examine ourselves and solve our urban issues? Do we know what we are dealing with or are we too busy looking at the images in these books and attempting to Asian-ize them? If there is such a thing as European Urbanity, then what is Asian Urbanity?

Undoubtedly, some of the ideas in the publication may be relevant for adaptation to us here in Asia, however, it would be a folly for us to use some of the ideas as precedents in dealing with issues of urbanity in our region. For this book to be truly useful, one must look at the projects with a filter. Approaching the projects with a clear understanding of the differences in climate, culture, socio-political climate and most importantly, a diffferent concept of urbanity that exist within the Asian region.

There is no doubt that the featured works are of a high quality but the responsibility is on us, the readers of such publications, to examine critically the relevance of these ideas to us for if we are not careful, the ideas that arise from us are merely derivatives and adaptations of what are still fundamentally European concepts. Lets stop Asian-izing European Urbanity.

S$138.00

Available at Basheer Graphicbooks
#04-19 Bras Basah Complex
Block 231 Bain Street
Singapore 180231

www.basheergraphic.com
Email: enquiry@basheergraphic.com

Singapore: (65) 6336 0810
Malaysia: (603) 2713 2236
Hong Kong: (852) 2126 7533
Thailand: (662) 391 9815
Indonesia: (6221) 720 9151

Review >> books

Do not Asian-ize European Urbanity.