everybody knows about the millennia of tradition in the culture of European urban construction. However, in the course of urban modernisation in the 20th century, this tradition went off the rails - in the truest sense of the word. The so-called new city was a city based on visions. It was the one of cars and mass accommodation, technical gigantism and waste of energy - technological ideology dominated both east and west, despite all political antagonisms.

By the middle of the 1970s, Professor Kegler reported, the Council of Europe had launched its "Future for our past" project and the movement that became known as critical reconstruction began to critique the technocratic approach to cities. This movement provided a jumping off point for the Inaugural Congress as again we consider how to apply the lessons of contextualism to today�s urban problems. For Professor Kegler, bridge building was a key metaphor for the Congress - between Berlin's past and its future and between the city and wider world. As he noted, a new way of understanding is coming in, gained from the study of the traditions of the European city.

The sessions in Day One considered in detail Berlin's urban experiences since the 1970s. Berlin was studied both over time and at many scales, from the very local to the broadly regional. The city - both east and west - was understood as an open experimental field rather than a closed laboratory of urbanism, in which social movements from below may have been as influential as more top-down initiatives.

Professor Harald Bodenschatz (right) next took participants on an erudite and beautifully illustrated tour of "Berlin in the context of European City Development". He showed how Berlin's rapid urbanisation had led to the development of a series of highly dense, compact urban neighbourhoods with a fabric composed of streets and squares (on a model bringing to mind to this writer the figure grounds of Camillo Sitte). Professor Bodenschatz showed too that the urban structure of Berlin by the mid 19th century was already diverse, with typological distinctions between poor and rich areas and more spacious neighbourhoods composed of villas counter-pointing tenement housing and industrial �zones�.

The "transit oriented developments" of the 1890s were a particular pleasure to observe as were the famous Taut and Wagner designed housing estates of the 1920s. We considered the architecture of Hilberseimer, in the context of the Bauhaus group, with each intervention trying to outdo the other in overcoming the now disparaged heritage of tenement typologies that had previously dominated urban housing areas across the city. Over and underground railway infrastructure was seen to play a critical part in structuring Berlin's "metroland" in the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries, just as exclusionary zoning dominated the urban armature post war and today major infrastructure interventions again have a profound impact on shaping the city.

One of Professor Bodenschatz�s most interesting points - and one later echoed by other speakers - was the remarkable similarity between the urban development trajectories of east and west. Despite being the global capital and symbol of the cold war, both sides of divided Berlin were caught in the grip of the same technologically driven ideology of modernism in city planning and architecture. Post 1970 the same process of morphologically informed renewal and reinsertion of urban fabric challenged the earlier tabula rasa strategy of wholesale demolition and redevelopment. We heard how re-unification was reflected in the physical development of the city - in a process described as euphoria, followed by sobering up and finally paralysis.

Professor Bodenschatz cited Spanish Square in the massive residential area of Hellersdorf, Rob Krier and Christoph Kohl�s work on Potsdam�s new town, and the reconstructed urban grid of the Planwerk Inmenstadt as notable efforts in regeneration broadly following the path of critical reconstruction today.

Participants next considered in review the theme: "Goodbye to Modernist Urban Development in Divided Berlin". We looked at Berlin in many ways:

Erhart Pfotenhauer suggested that exclusionary spatiality was dead but that this was simply the starting signal for a new modernity in which rehabilitation replaced demolition as the mode of redevelopment. (Above top, buildings destroyed by war or demolished(blue) and new buildings (red) in the period 1940-2001.) The story of Berlin's inner suburb, Kreuzberg, showed it becoming "an open air museum of rehabilitation models" and thus a paradigm of this approach. It was suggested that a new grammar of the city was thereby created in which principles covering issues as diverse as urban design, financing, governance, and social inclusion were all integrated within a series of individual regeneration projects.

Berlin: planned high-speed roads and motorways, 1965

In this and later sessions in Day One, regeneration was a key theme: in the centre, in the suburbs, on the urban edge, and within the region. Afternoon Session Chair, Professor Hildebrand Machleidt noted that fairly radical post war visions within a Corbusian paradigm (above, plan showing planned (orange) and built (yellow) motorways in 1965) had led to an urban expansion of Berlin characterised by massive dormitory suburbs, spaghetti junctions, super grids and the loss of agricultural land. However, following an initial exodus to the suburbs there was a more recent revival of the idea of the city as a place to live and again critical reconstruction was viewed as a key shift underpinning this change of heart.

The little known (elsewhere) history of urban development of the 1980s East Berlin was explored by Councillor Dorothée Dubrau and others, and we learnt about the activism that characterised those who stood out against the massive urban development �modernisation� process rolled out under a planned economy. Courageous attempts to establish urban design guidelines were described, both to revitalise the inner city (right, finishing touches to the DDR restoration of the Berlin Cathedral) and overcome the monotony of massive edge city housing estates. As Heinz Tibbe noted, these opportunities also posed challenges as renewal turned away from large housing estate construction as a method, with the privatisation of social housing for private investors and the over provision of office space as unwelcome consequences.

Berlin: current plans 2005. Yellow, approved developments; Red, planned developments

With Berlin becoming the new capital, as Florian Mausbach explained, key public buildings have created both a new urban armature and a new centre of gravity to the east. Discussing "The New Berlin: City Development since the Wall: Results and Conclusions" we heard about a series of major infrastructure initiatives at the centre and in the inner ring (above, plan showing approved (yellow) and proposed (red) developments in 2005) in which the public realm has been taken seriously at the big scale as in Potsdamer Platz and "urban repair work" at the small scale as at Hackerscher Markt where a "gastronomic quarter" had been revitalised in ways that suited residents, business and visitors.

In a session in which discussion of architecture rather than urbanism was dominant, it was noted that the 1990s saw a context of tremendous pressure to hand out building permits although there was still a focus on critical reconstruction. Christoph Sattler pointed out that the compact city was still an explicit aim, with the term "European city" based on existing ground plans beginning to be used programmatically as the basis for new development, rather than "hysterical high-rise intensification". Formal guidance was provided but with freedom within that for different architectural signatures. In fact, some speakers argued that it was only the dialogue the building has with the street that mattered, not its height. Dr Matthew Hardy reminded participants that the Congress theme was a review of the modernist project using critical reconstruction as both critique and alternative approach. Dr Hardy spiked the notion proposed by another speaker in this session that new development in Berlin needed to be "of its time" architecturally, arguing that this was shorthand for defining modernist style as the only appropriate architectural response.

Day One also dealt with urban issues in outer Berlin, on the peripheries and in the wider region. Chief among these was the redevelopment of the �slaburbs�, leftover public housing on a mammoth scale that was still being built well into the 1970s and now required wholesale regeneration into more humane urban fabric. With vacancy rates over 20%, and well over a million housing units standing empty, this is no small problem. Dr Heike Liebmann explained how some East German prefabricated housing estates were being reconfigured both spatially and in terms of housing typologies, to lessen the block's massive bulk and reshape them into lower rise (six storey), more diverse forms that re-used building materials and contributed to redeveloped street patterns. A fascinating aspect of this process was the way that residents themselves had moved into and designed apartment "shells" to suit their own needs rather than being passive recipients of preordained housing types.

Christoph Kohl described the creation of a new town in Potsdam on which he worked with Rob Krier. Potsdam New Town is based on sound urbanist principles to create a place with its own genus loci. Key to the approach was the breaking up of large sites into smaller plots to allow a fine grain of architectural responses from a range of practitioners within a strict urban master plan framework. As Christoph Kohl said, making a new suburb that felt familiar was "not a question of ability, more of methodology".

Professor Undine Giseke showed how a new type of regional park in Berlin-Brandenburg was being created using principles of landscape ecology and public access; and combining traditional greenspace uses with more productive agricultural and "everyday" landscapes on the urban edges of the Berlin conurbation.

From a very full roundtable discussion that closed Day One, the comments made by John Norquist stood out as memorable. John Norquist, ex Mayor of Milwaukee, and now president and CEO of the CNU, argued that for Berlin to get involved in place wars with other German and European cities was dangerous and silly.

Instead, Norquist said, Berlin should concentrate on making life better for its citizens and network with other towns. He argued that design is a good use of a Mayor's time. "In a democracy it's better to create beauty with the people".

Themes from Day One "Berlin: An Experiment in European Urban Development" - in Summary

A number of themes seemed to emerge from the detailed discussions in Day One and some are captured below:

Berlin provides a master class or urban approaches over time and at many scales from the building to the region. A 20th century history of large scale modernist interventions was rightly challenged by critical reconstruction. In fact, the city has been a laboratory for social movements from below as well as transformation from above.

Berlin can be understood in many ways:

Prospects for the future are on balance good. Despite a range of shorter term - especially economic - issues and problems, there is cautious optimism about the medium to longer term. Berlin seems to concentrating on improving liveability for its citizens rather than embarking on "place wars" with other cities and this is a good strategy for its viability in future.

Day Two: Learning from the rest of Europe and the world

Day Two "New Perspectives in City Development: Europe and Beyond" began with an opening statement from Dr Manfred Stolpe, Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Housing, who set the scene for the very broad ranging discussion to come. Dr Stolpe introduced the Congress�s special keynote speaker, the UK�s Deputy Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Mr John Prescott, whose leadership role in the UK covers a range of urban areas in an integrated way. John Prescott said participants had heard how Berlin, which was cut in two by fear and ideology for 45 years, had become the focus of a remarkable programme of regeneration and renewal. He suggested that Berlin showed how superb new architecture can lift confidence in our cities and give people a real sense of pride in where they live.

John Prescott (right) expressed solidarity and compassion with America after the havoc of Hurricane Katrina. He noted that as European negotiator at the Kyoto climate change convention, he was fully aware that climate change is changing weather patterns and raising sea levels. He went on to say that the horrific flood of New Orleans brings home to us the concern of leaders of countries like the Maldives, whose nations are at risk of disappearing completely.

Prescott said he believed US Government resistance to Kyoto was wrong but on a recent visit to the US was delighted to see that city mayors are taking their own environmental initiative on Kyoto.

In a wide ranging talk John Prescott pointed out some of the stark statistics about cities, arguing that mass urbanisation is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. In Europe, he said, we have created superb towns and cities, and not just for the last 30 years. Despite slums and poverty, European cities offered safety and security to people and gave rise to an astonishing expression of human creativity through magnificent art, culture and architecture. Then in the 20th century we somehow lost our way: millions of people gave up living in cities. "They got in cars and left for the suburbs".

John Prescott invoked Jane Jacobs' survey of the disastrous results of 20th century planning and urged us to rediscover the art of making places where people can mix and meet. Jane Jacobs, said John Prescott, defined what he calls sustainable communities, where social, economic and environmental concerns are balanced, meeting the needs of existing and future generations and respecting the needs of others. This was not just about making buildings and public spaces look good. They have to feel safe and secure as well. Sustainable communities must have good local economies and transport services - providing jobs, schools, health and other service that are accessible to all. In 2003 John Prescott published the Sustainable Communities Plan and he spoke of some of the specific initiatives to establish sustainable communities in the UK in existing declining urban areas, in places suffering low demand, on brownfields sites and in major urban growth areas like the Thames Gateway east of London.

To achieve sustainable communities, John Prescott gave support to improvements in governance, to planning systems, to the use of design coding, and to end silo thinking in government and administration that was bad for cities. He congratulated the Council for European Urbanism for organising such a major event at an important time in the debate on the future of cities in Europe and across the world.

Audun Engh, from the CEU secretariat, then described the ways in which the CEU is taking forward a programme of reform for urbanism across Europe. He suggested that the charrette process (sometimes know as Enquiry by Design) was key to improving city development processes in a community based and responsive way. Charrettes he said could be neutral on architectural style but needed to be based on contextual urban design principles as set out in the CEU Charter as a method for social integration. Codes and guidelines could be employed to help manage urban change in a predictable way. Audun Engh also spoke about the CEU�s support for INTBAU�s proposed new European School of Urbanism and Architecture which would take forward the vision set out in CEU�s 2004 Viseu Declaration on Education.

Following Pierre Laconte on "Brussels: The Impossible Capital of Europe", the rest of the morning on Day Two covered a wide range of examples of projects in two parallel sessions, from a diversity of European towns and cities. (I attended the session on perspectives from Sweden and the Netherlands and would be happy to hear from anyone who went to the Bella Italia session to fill in details for this report). I can say that the "Bella Italia" session was devoted to recent urbanism in Italy including "Recent Developments in Traditional Urbanism in Italy" from Professor Luigi Mollo; "A Successful Story: The Reconstruction of the Historical Centre of Palermo" from Professor Giovanni Fatta; and "Urban Architecture in Italy: An Alive Tradition" from Professor Enrico Dassori.

Peter Elmlund explored "Perspectives in Sweden: Between the Baltic Corridor and Pre-Fab Conversion" while Mieke Bosse and Peter Drijver considered "Randstad� and New Towns: Un-Modern Strategies for the Netherlands". As Peter Drijver and Mieke Bosse noted, the Dutch Randstad, the Ruhrgebeit and connected urban areas in North West Europe function as "one big overheated city". It is one in which super-modernist architects are practising and dormitory suburbs are still being built, but there are also others doing good work that is largely ignored by the architecture schools and glossy magazines. Peter Drijver and Mieke Bosse showed a range of these projects and referred to a �flip-over book�, guiding a kind of urban morphological approach that deals with the stratification or urban typologies over time and gives practitioners contextual clues for their architectural language. Work shown included traditional streets as well as intriguing "castle", village and big box wrapping typologies. As Peter Drijver and Mieke Bosse put it, the aim is to create architecture that is more invisible as an object.

In the afternoon of Day Two, under the direction of Professor Wolfgang Christ, we moved further afield into eastern Europe, with Tomasz Gamdzyk and his colleague describing "The New Warsaw: City Development Perspectives in Poland". Again the twin tracks of modernism in Eastern and Western Europe were well demonstrated in relation to a range of modernisation projects. Again there was a similar critique beginning to emerge to challenge these approaches from the late 197os onwards.

John Norquist, CEO of the CNU then most entertainingly and insightfully compared the 20th century trajectories of Berlin and cities in Middle America, demonstrating the destructive power of modernist ideology in both places. He traced the thinking behind among other things massive freeway building and wholesale urban neighbourhood demolitions in both Berlin and Detroit to their pre-war intellectual antecedents and showed their disastrous effects on post war cities on each continent.

The issues said John Norquist were the same in both places: sprawl. As he explained, when CNU formed urbanism was stigmatised. Yet urbanism is sophisticated and complex. It creates culture whereas sprawl is stupid. What else can you call a spatial arrangement that sites office buildings so that they have no pedestrian access and so makes it illegal to walk to lunch, or sites parking so that cars have prime riverfront views to enjoy all day?

John Norquist suggested that the Corbusian derived ideal of towers in a green park is still seductive even though it has now been conclusively shown that, for instance, big box, interior facing malls don't work. While big box developments are still popular in the US they are now more like big department stores of the early 20th century, again located in main streets within proper urban fabric.

John Norquist also talked about the spaghetti of major roads and freeway systems that damage many American cities and spoke of his experience as Mayor of Milwaukee in removing a freeway and overcoming blight. In a context where "balanced transport policy means half asphalt and half concrete" this was a major paradigm shift. Instead of seeing transport flows as dendritic, the street grid should be approached as a kind of urban wetland soaking up capacity in a more sustainable way. The slides of Detroit�s decline, from a proud down town to a devastated urban core, were a testament to the terrible urban mistakes of the post war years.

George Ferguson, of the Royal Institute of British Architects, was equally passionate about the need for urbanism as a basis for good city form, in addressing "Urban Renaissance in England". He pointed out that what has become New Urbanism is actually old urbanism as practised in Europe for millennia. The city he said is a work of art although he questioned the notion of the �wow factor� in making good places. He worried too about how to avoid making places into urban deserts for security reasons and the march of the chain stores making places all feel the same. George Ferguson used his home town of Bristol of an example of successful urban renaissance and closed with some information about the UK�s new Academy of Urbanism, an initiative of the RIBA, whose 100 members aim to provide leadership in order to promote urbanism in the UK�s cities in future.

Irit Solzi and Yodan Rofe then discussed "Beyond Tel Aviv: Legacy and Challenges", showing that city�s wonderful Bauhaus architectural heritage and the problems of urban growth that it now faces. They demonstrated that the flight to the suburbs is not just an American issue but one facing countries like Israel too. They noted the twin problems of the inadequate quality of the housing stock in traditional centres and towns and the outdated planning practices that undercut urbanism. Israel, they reported, had some way to go to catch up in applying urbanist principles to its urban development. Participants were formally invited to the Inaugural Congress of the Movement for Israeli Urbanism to be held in Beer-Sheva on December 12, 2005 followed on December 13 by an urban design charette with members from the community, the municipality and the university.

Next in this session Professors José Baganha and Javier Cenicacelaya discussed "Bilbao and Lisbon: The Iberian Peninsula Setting the Mark". They spoke of Spain and Portugal's inheritance of compact cities which showed the need for, and respected, urbanity. Javier Cenicacelaya used the metaphor of the school report card for "conduct". He discussed how we might judge the civility of places in the same way that he was judged in terms of civility as a school child. He decried the development of the city as a "cacophony of objects" and showed a number of poor uncontextual examples that were intentionally disruptive of urban form. Jose Baganha feared the rash of golf course centred ghettoes for rich people now emerging in Portugal and the increasing segregation of social (public) housing. He asked whether we were experiencing the "wow factor" or a "wow factor plague" of architectural objects. As José Baganha said, we need conviviality, and his beautiful watercolour wash line drawings seemed to distil the essence of this quality.

Ray Gindroz of the CNU Board also provided some distilled essence, with very pertinent lessons from the experience of New Urbanists in the United States in bringing more urbanist principles to bear on the development process. Among other things he noted the need to tackle the issue of architectural style head on rather than denying it was central to the urbanist debate.

The day's last session was a podium discussion on "Perspectives for CEU" led by Dr Matthew Hardy and involving Robert Adam, Peter Drijver, Dr Herman Scheer, Michael Stojan and Professor Gabriele Tagliaventi. As Dr Hardy noted in his introduction to the discussion, the CEU must deal with a series of challenges to the city especially in the area of environmental sustainability, including declining supplies of oil, not enough water or too much water. Just as the Congress had looked back 30 years to see what could be learned from the review of modernism in the 1970s, he asked the panel to look 30 years into the future and consider what CEU should be doing to meet these and other urban challenges.

Notable in this session was Robert Adam's point that one thing we do know is that we cannot be sure about what will happen. In this lies an essential paradox. The further forward we look the less certain we can be. Past predictions about energy use such as those made in the energy crises of the 1970s had not come to pass, so we should be very careful about being too prescriptive about the future.

Among a number of pertinent points made, speakers agreed that CEU was well placed to work with other partners in government and among urban stakeholders to pursue its Charter aims. European cities had a long term urbanist framework and traditions, and there was growing recognition of the need to revive those traditions and practices of urban place making, which as the Congress demonstrated, provided a valuable basis for the future.

Professor Harald Kegler, Chair of CEU Germany, and Susan Parham, Chair of CEU Europe, made very brief closing statements and introduced the draft Declaration of Berlin, the final form of which will be posted on the CEU and CEU Germany websites shortly.

Themes from New Perspectives in City Development: Europe and Beyond - in Summary

There were a number of messages from the sessions in Day Two that seem worth summarising:

Cities matter. Profound demographic change will mean an urban future for many of the world's population, making urbanism increasingly important. With this urban growth comes a range of sustainability challenges that we have not yet come to grips with.

Within an overall context of urban expansion, cities are experiencing growth and decline, with shrinking and growing both causing problems and opportunities for urbanism.

European cities are labouring under an inheritance of modernist ideology. Sprawl is stupid. Detroit is a paradigm from the new world of what can go wrong. Urbanism by contrast is sophisticated. It creates culture and quality of life. And there are plenty of examples from the scale of the individual building to the city region that demonstrate that.

Urbanism is hot. Urban morphological approaches like critical reconstruction are valuable. Urban principles need to be articulated and followed to create or retrieve fine grained, human scaled places, but a high urban density alone is not sufficient for good place making.

Berlin and the other cities we studied during the Congress demonstrate how action is needed in all kinds of urban conditions from reshaping public housing through reviving public space to building new mixed use, sustainable communities.

In so doing we should avoid confusion between modernity and modernism as a style. There is lots of good work being done quietly that doesn�t feature in the architectural magazines as it intends to be more or less invisible but makes a profoundly positive contribution to the urban fabric.

Process matters. We must end silo thinking and integrate across sectors and disciplines. We have a range of techniques to call on for place making including charrettes and design coding. We also have a range of instruments to use including new financing, regulatory and governance models and systems. We should look critically at the rules that affect urban space.

Our prospects look good. [CEU] can learn from the American experience of the Congress for New Urbanism to establish alliances and energise the urban development process. Governments do see a key role for organisations like the CEU and we must make use of this social and political capital to pursue our Charter aims.

Education matters.   We have to better teach ourselves in order to more effectively share our Charter message. CEU should continue to work with partners like INTBAU, and like minded organisations like the Academy for Urbanism and the Sustainable Communities Programme to bring urbanism into the mainstream of European place making.

Finally, participants from many disciplines, traditions and places share a lot of common ground and a high level of energy to pursue more humane urbanism across Europe in future. We need to build on that for the good of all.
- Susan Parham, CEU Chair, 24th September 2005

INTBAU was a co-founder of the Council for European Urbanism in 2003 and an official partner organisation of the CEU Congress in Berlin. Maps courtesy Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau- und Wohnungswesen.

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Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Award
For the preservation of Islamic cultural heritage
Call for entries for the first award

The Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA) of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) undertakes activities relating to research, publication, documentation, restoration and conservation concerning the arts and cultures of the Muslim world. One of its objectives is to record, preserve and make known the assets of the Islamic cultural heritage, including fixed assets related to archaeology, cities and architectural monuments and movable tangible and intangible -assets such as manuscript works, library and archive items, audio-visual objects and materials, traditional arts and other products and forms of expression of Islamic cultures. With this aim, the Centre publishes references, maintains data banks and organizes competitions and exhibitions.

The present competition is planned as a major activity relating to the Islamic architectural heritage. The competition is dedicated to the memory of the late Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, who was the Chairman of the International Commission for the Preservation of Islamic Cultural Heritage (ICPICH).

The purpose of the competition is to support the revival of Islamic heritage - preservation of monuments in order to give them vital functions, either historical or contemporary. The competition is open to completed projects of extraordinary contribution to the preservation of Islamic cultural heritage realized in the last five years. The competition will be organized every three years, starting with the first cycle in 2005. The subsequent competitions will be devoted to other themes concerning the preservation of Islamic cultural heritage.

Governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as individuals are invited to apply to the competition. Every effort in this respect will be properly recognized and will be stated in the conditions of the competitions. Three equal awards will be presented to the best projects. The exhibition of the participating projects will be organized and a catalogue of this exhibition could be published. All projects should be presented in Arabic or English.

AWARD PROCEDURES

Project Eligibility
The Award seeks out the broadest possible range of preservation interventions: restoration and social efforts are considered, as are contemporary design projects in corporation with historic sites and those demonstrating the use of appropriate technologies. Although there are no fixed criteria as to the type, nature, location, or cost of projects to be considered for the Award, eligible projects must be designed for or used by Muslim communities, in part or in whole, wherever they are located.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURES

Application
Applications are the official means of enrollment of projects to be considered for the Award. The identities of applicants will be strictly confidential, as are the names of applied projects.

Identification programme
In addition to the application procedures, the Award has developed a project identification program which is open to all Governmental, Non-governmental and individuals who wish to bring projects to the attention of the Award. The project identification program ensures a broad geographic and architectural representation of projects, and updates the Award archives on building activity in the Muslim world. To register a project, preliminary documentation forms may be obtained by contacting the Award Office or by completing the on-line form.

Documentation
The architects of projects enrolled through the nomination program will receive an Award documentation package which describes the standardized presentation requirements. In addition to submitting photographs, slides, and architectural drawings, architects are asked to complete a detailed questionnaire pertaining to use, cost, environmental and climatic factors, construction materials, building schedule, and, more importantly, design concepts and each project's significance within its own context.

REVIEW AND SELECTION PROCEDURES

Master Jury
The seven-member international jury of the competition is selected from among world renowned prominent scholars and professionals as follows:

Awards Ceremony
The ceremony to honor the winning projects will be held in Istanbul on Friday 20 April 2008. A seminar to present the awarded projects to a wider public will be organized following the ceremony and provides a forum for the participants to debate architectural issues.  A major monograph bringing together descriptions of the winning projects, the jury deliberations, and essays by the Master Jury will be published on the occasion of the Award Ceremony.

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Berlin Calling Urbanists
First Congress of the Council for European Urbanism

Berlin, one of the most important cities in Europe, is to host the first Congress of the Council for European Urbanism. Berlin was a divided city for nearly a half a century as a result of the political agreements made at the end of the Second World War. Many traditional architects say that the transformation of the city from a divided one to a place of real urban reform in the sense of new urbanism is very exciting, while others see a loss of diversity in the newly gentrified Mitte and Prenzlauer-berg, with their chic bars and glossy new shops.

The participants at the congress will have the chance to get new information about the balance of the Berlin development of the last three decades and the outlook until 2030. The debate will be widened on topics such as new perspectives of urbanism around Europe. The event will also offer the participants be guided tours (in English) throughout the City. The first Congress of the Council for New Urbanism will be held in the German capital from 8-10 September 2005.

Council for European Urbanism

CEU wants to build bridges to prevent sprawl and promote the "New European City", a real model for the future of the City as a liveable place in a globalized world. Among the guest speakers is the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK, John Prescott. Leading urbanists from Europe, Israel and the United States will also attend the event.

The congress of the CEU celebrates the 30th anniversary of the rebirth of the "European City" as an important part of the way into a postmodern future. In 1975 the European Council initiated one of the most successful urban development programmes in history: "A Future for our Past, European Architectural Heritage".

Bargains for students and young architects

The organizers of the congress have announced special offers for "the next generation" of traditional urbanists. Students and young architects and urbanists can attend the event by paying just EURO150.

For more details on the congress please visit www.ceunet.de

For further details about the programme please click here.   The registration forms are also available online, in PDF format.

The International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism (INTBAU) is a supporter of the CEU Congress in Berlin.

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London Can Take It
Londoners get on with their lives after four blasts kill 50, injure 700

Thousands of Londoners - including INTBAU's staff - walked home on the evening of 7 July, but they were calm and composed, keen to get on with their lives, and far from being intimidated. The attacks which killed 37 commuters caused widespread disruption to transport, but not to the city as a whole.
Photos: Dorin Boila

Smoke could be smelt in the street outside INTBAU's head office, half a mile from Liverpool Street Station, but so far it appears that all INTBAU members in London are safe and well. We extend our heartfelt commiserations to all those who have lost family members and friends.

We also extend our thanks to to all those who have contacted us today asking after us. Thank you all very much for your concern. We will be back at work tomorrow as usual.
- Matthew Hardy & Aura Neag

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Scholarship Opportunity for Commonwealth Citizens
Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 offers new award
for 'the sustainability of cities'

After the successful award of early Fellowships for research into 'Landscape and Modernity', 'Urban Issues' and, more recently, into 'Human Habitation', 'Transport and the Built Environment' and Housing for the 21st Century', the Commission now intends to make a further, similar award.

Continuing their theme of important matters for study within the context of the Built Environment, the Commissioners have selected as the subject for this year's competition the sustainability of the cities. A broad, holistic approach is encouraged and entries will accordingly be accepted from individuals but also from formal and informal partnerships.

Entry requirements

Candidates should be UK or Commonwealth citizens, carrying out research over a 2 year period, culminating in either a personal mark of distinction (eg PhD) or a milestone work of significance. Projects that aim to inform the wider community are particularly encouraged. In all cases, candidates are asked to identify a mentor who can contribute to, and make expert and objective commentary of the candidate's work, and who will ensure linkage and promulgation of the work to the appropriate peer group.

The value of the award is �30,000 for each of the two years.

There are no application forms, but in the first instance candidates are asked to forward five copies of an application of no more than four pages of A4, to include a CV and an outline brief of the subject to be studied. Lavishly produced or illustrated submissions are not required. Based on these applications a short list will be selected and these candidates will be invited to provide a further, more comprehensive written submission before being interviewed.

Calendar

Closing date for initial applications - Thursday 28th July 2005
Short list promulgated - mid-September 2005-07-04
Closing date for further submissions - mid-November
Interviews and final selection - late November 2005

The Selection Committee will be formed of: Mr. Alan Baxter, Engineer and Chairman of the Committee, Lord Linley, designer, Mrs. Joanna Kennedy OBE, Civil Engineer and Mr. Ian Ritchie CBE, Architect.

The deadline for the entries is 28 July 2005. Entries should be sent to:
The Secretary, Royal Commission for the Exhibition of the 1851
Room 453, Sherfield Building, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ

For further details please contact
Malcolm Shirley
Tel. +44 (0)20 7594 8790
Fax. +44 (0)20 7594 8794
royalcom1851@commission1851.org.uk
http://www.royalcommission1851.org.uk

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INTBAU's Information and Training Centre opens in Laslea:
Available free of charge to NGOs in Romania

Above: INTBAU Romania's Information Centre during Transylvania Ecotourism Workshop, May 2005 Image: Claus Zappfe

The newly formed INTBAU Romania opened an Information and Training Centre in the Saxon village of Laslea, Transylvania, Romania, in May 2005. The Information and Training Centre, or Info Centre in short, is located in the Saxon area, 13 km away from the medieval city of Sighisoara and also not far from the administrative centre of the area, Sibiu, which has been nominated as one of the cultural capitals of Europe in 2007.

INTBAU's InfoCentre in Laslea is envisaged to offer support to the local community in restoring their traditional houses following traditional methods and to promote the maintenance of Saxon architecture. The centre will also disseminate information on the ecotourism and promote the development of organic agriculture.

The centre is open, free of charge, to charities and NGOs of Romania interested in promoting traditional architecture, eco-tourism and organic agriculture within the area. The premises can also be used for research and training purposes as it can accommodate courses for up to 25 students and craftsman.

Permanent Training Centre

Above: House 344 as it looks today Image: Claus Zappfe

INTBAU's permanent headquarters in Romania is envisaged to be house 344 of Laslea village. Over the past 15 years this Saxon building was completely ignored and now has severe structural problems. The house will be restored for INTBAU Romania by The Mihai Eminescu Trust and it will be used as a training joint centre for the unemployed local people as well as for Romanian and foreign students keen to learn traditional restoration techniques.

Local people say that the Saxon area needs such a training centre as many of its inhabitants lost their jobs under the austere economic policy of the government which cut subsidies. Many of the factories built under the communist regime, unprofitable and polluting, failed in recent years, being unable to cope with the pressures of the free market, developing in Romania. The unemployed now are looking for new jobs as well as training courses to enable them to start a new career.

Transylvania Ecotourism

INTBAU Romania undertook its first workshop at the new Info Centre, Transylvania Ecotourism, from 1-8 May 2005 in Laslea. Over 25 participants from Romania and Norway worked together in mapping the main attractions of the area. Their presentations focused on the beautiful architectural landscape of the Saxon villages, the traditional and often archaic way of life as well as on the unique pattern settlements.

However, they emphasised as main weaknesses of the area, poor tourism infrastructure and the lack of decent guest houses able to accommodate tourists. Participants spoke of a number of cases when local people seemed not to acknowledge the heritage value of the place. Some owners were seduced, apparently, by so called modern trend as they replaced the traditional wooden shutters of the Saxon houses with new uPVC windows.

Nevertheless, the area has its own charm. Each village is crossed by a river and defended by a fortified church. Some of the Saxon churches were founded 700 years ago, both as places of worship and as a way of protecting the population against invaders. A number of charities from Romania and abroad are operating within the area, promoting traditional architecture, training schemes and supporting the development of the local community.

For further details please contact:
Aura Neag
Communications Director, INTBAU
Tel. +44 (0)20 7613 8530
Fax. +44 (0)20 613 8599
aura.neag@princes-foundation.org

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European Union - Europa Nostra Awards:
Five top monetary prizes for exemplary achievements

Image provided by Europa Nostra

The European Union and Europa Nostra, the pan-European federation for heritage, has announced 38 awards for heritage. The laureates come from 21 European countries, both EU member states and acceding countries. Five top monetary prizes of EUR 10,000 were awarded for exemplary achievements.

The European Commission launched the European Heritage Awards in 2003, as a tool aimed to contribute to the enforcement of the so-called EU Culture 2000 Programme. The scheme has two objectives: to promote high standards and quality skills of conservation practice and to stimulate heritage exchanges between European countries.

Europa Nostra was selected to run this Awards Scheme, on the basis of its long experience in publicly recognising - on a European level - individual or joint excellence in the heritage field.

The Hill Church of Sighisoara

One of the top prizes was awarded to the The Hill Church of Sighisoara, Transylvania, Romania. The church of Sighisoara is located within the Saxon area, a generic name given to the region inhabited for centuries by Saxons, who mostly emigrate en masse after the collapse of communism in Romania, in December 1989. Most of the Saxon houses and fortified churches havedeteriorated in the past 15 years due to lack of funding.

The Hill Church of Sighioara was originally built in the 12 the century, within the medieval fortress, and it was nearly entirely reconstructed in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Saxon community still living in Transylvania dramatically diminished in the past decade and, as a result, the church of Sighisoara lost its function and gradually deteriorated to a deplorable condition. Rigt, The Hill Church of Sighioara Image provided by Europa Nostra

The restoration work started in 1992 and was completed in 2003. For the first time in Romania, tensioned steel beams were inserted in the walls to strengthen the building structure. The vaults were reinforced by a steel structure, anchored in the walls, which bears on the supporting columns. These structural interventions are completely invisible and reversible. Professional training courses were organised to restore the valuable mural paintings uncovered during the works and the delicately hewn Gothic stonework. The church has now acquired new life as the Romanian-Saxon Cultural Centre and Museum.

Call for Entries

The European Union and Europe Nostra launched a call for entries for 2005 Awards Scheme. The deadline is 1 August for outstanding studies and 15 September for conservation, restoration and rehabilitation projects in the area of: architectural heritage, cultural landscape, works of art and archaeological sites. Dedicated SERVICE to heritage conservation by individuals or groups is the third section of the EU/Europa Nostra Awards and the deadline for receiving the applications is 15 September 2005. For more details please visit:
www.europanostra.org/lang_en/0260_activities_new_awards_dossier.html

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Skyscrapers must be safer:
American experts say current standards for construction
and evacuation are inadequate

An American federal panel has called for major changes in the planning, construction and operation of the skyscraper in order to increase the chance of survival for those who might be victims of terrorist attacks, accidents or calamities.

The panel started an exhaustive study of the collapse of the World Trade Centre three years ago. According to this study a fundamental change in evacuation strategies for tall buildings it is required, to ensure that everyone has a way out in an emergency.

The current standard consists of providing evacuation capacity just for few floors, located near a fire emergency. The panel also found that the current standards for testing fireproofing of steel for tall buildings are flawed, and has therefore called for sturdier lifts and stairways.

The World Trade Centre, for example, relied on easily-damaged fire proofing, meaning that fires caused deformation much earlier than might be expected. The technique of sprayed fire protection is still used in tall buildings around the world, including new towers in the US, EU, Australia, South-East Asia, China and elsewhere.

As INTBAU reported in a previous news story in 2002, New York's fire chief warned against the use of lightweight steel floor trusses and sprayed fire protection (both thought to have been used at the WTC). Many fire-fighters are said to believe that they are safer fighting fires in traditional early 20th century buildings - which have durable concrete fire protection to steel elements - than in what they described as "semi-combustible" modern tower blocks.

International debate

Photo: Michael Mehaffy

The trade centre towers of New York collapsed on 11 September 2001 after they were hit by two planes, in the biggest terrorist attack which ever took place on American soil. The towers - where nearly 3,000 people were killed - were only one-third occupied that morning. Experts say that if the buildings had been full, up to 12,000 more people would have died because of the limited evacuation capacity.

Investigators determined that if the towers had been fully occupied, it would have taken about four hours for survivors to exit, more than twice the time either tower stood, and twice as long as planners had estimated. The recommendations also say that tall buildings should be designed to prevent "progressive collapse", avoiding a cascade of failures that can bring down a tower within seconds.

According to the New York Times newspaper, the recommendations are likely to open an intense international debate over the costs of such changes. The cost of the changes is not known, but structural engineers suggested that it would add 2 to 5 percent to the development cost of ordinary buildings.

Although the proposals are not compulsory, they are likely strongly to influence the policies in the United States and elsewhere. The proposed "Shard of Glass" building in London, for example, is understood to include larger fire exits and other provisions.

Other commentators have questioned whether tenants would wish to locate in such conspicuous buildings. Sears, for example, moved from their iconic tower (right), once the tallest in the world, to a suburban location some years ago.

Further information

For more details, please visit:
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/wtc_briefing_june2305.htm

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"Urban Lovers":
News-letter online from A Vision of Europe

A Vision of Europe in collaboration with CIVICARCH - University of Ferrara has launched "Urban Lovers" designed as an online magazine dedicated to all those who study, design, live and love the Traditional City.   This new webzine is also intended to be a tool of communication and information about the city, its architecture and the various projects that involve the future of the urban environment.

The editors say that the news-letter is addressed to those "who love strolling through the network of streets and plazas that make the Traditional City a unique place to experience (...), to all those who love having a drink or a cappuccino in a caf� within an urban context (...) to all those who love going to the theatre or to the cinema by walk, and then having dinner with friends in a nearby restaurant...".

Structure

Urban Lovers Newsletter promises to spread the "urban culture by enlightening the positive experiences that reinforce the status of the Traditional City as the most attractive and efficient form of settlement".   It will try to involve citizens, developers, authorities as well as practitioners in an effort aimed to achieve a better urban environment.

The newsletter is structured in ten sections: The Best Project of the Month, The Monster of the Month, The Conference of the Month, The Exhibition of the Month, The Competition of the Month, The Book of the Month, The Movie of the Month, Education, Masterpieces of 20th Century Architecture and Good News Agency.

The Exhibition trailed by the first number of the new webzine is the one of Robert Mallet Stevens, a Paris born architect, considered one of the most important European architect of the Art Deco Style.   The exhibition is hosted by the Centre Culturel Georges Pompidou, Beauborg, Paris.   Every section provides details and relevant images to the event as well as links for further details.

URBANLOVERS NEWLETTER is sent for free to all those who subscribe at: www.avoe.org/urbanlovers.html

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NewBohemia Webzine Closes
The webzine was the creation of the composer Rene Gruss

The NewBohemia Webzine - considered an encompassing online experiment for artists and supporters of the fledgling "new realist" movement in the arts - has come to a conclusion.

The NewBohemia Webzine was conceived, created and maintained on a voluntary basis by composer Rene Gruss for the past 4 years.  However, Rene Gruss' growing music commitments no longer allow him the opportunity to carry on developing the Webzine.  Ren� Gruss writes, produces and funds his own work independently. His music is well known and his audience is formed of a wide range of people from all over the world.

Bellatrix

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, to a Czech father and Greek-Romanian opera-singer mother, his international background is reflected in serious music with universal crossover appeal.  He lives and works in London.

Rene Gruss has launched recently his album Bellatrix, a culmination of ten years of work.  He composes music using traditional techniques.  The album was described by one music broadcaster as "an outstanding example of contemporary music at its harmonious best".  His work has been widely featured by the media, Bellatrix being reviewed as "a striking blend of traditional classical, folk influences and a strong contemporary beat".

Fans of the NewBohemia Webzine can now follow the evolution of the composer's vision for a 'NewBohemia' on his personal www.renegruss.com

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UNESCO to ban tall buildings:
Claims of "increased indifference" to historic context

The Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Francesco Bandarin, has recently claimed that contemporary architecture is increasingly "indifferent" to its historic context.  Bandarin proposed a set of measures whose effect would be to restrict permission for skyscrapers.  There must be a limit to designing tall buildings around world heritage sites, he said, adding that "a lot of these iconic buildings are designed with no sense of context".

During a major conference on world heritage, held in Vienna from 12-14 May, Bandarin emphasised the importance of the historic context in urban planning and development.  He called for an increased awareness of the public decision-makers and planners as well as for more involvement of the public and the associations in the planning process.

The impacts

As a result to the "increased indifference" he referred to during the conference, there are more tall constructions in historic areas, incompatible with historic patterns.  Mr. Bandarin also mentioned the "destruction of traditional typologies and morphologies", and the use of materials which break the continuity of historic context.

Bandarin also stated that conservation of the historic urban landscape must be a leading principle in modern city planning and development.  High quality design and execution is required, with consideration to scale, volume and heights, said Mr. Bandarin, concluding that "facadism is not an acceptable practice".

Mini-Manhattan projects banned?

These proposals might put an end to ambitions for "mini-Manhattan" type of development projects around world heritage sites.  Liverpool, recently awarded world heritage status, might be directed affected as its tall building projects might be banned.  However, according to the local media, the Liverpool City Council's head of planning Nigel Lee said he would defend the project as a suitable development on the edge of the city's world heritage site.

It is for the first time in 30 years that UNESCO is considering new guidelines for the management of heritage sites.  Some analysts say that this would not only make it harder to build close to heritage sites but would also protect views.

INTBAU Conference

INTBAU will run a conference early in 2006 with the aim of developing 21st century guidelines for new buildings in historic areas and additions to buildings in conservation zones, INTBAU Secretary Dr Matthew Hardy said.  Speaking from Kensington in South Australia, that state's first conservation area, Dr Hardy said that current guidelines had allowed needless destruction of heritage assets and the depreciation of countless conservation zones around the world.  "The current guidelines seem to be designed to ensure that only Modernism is approved in historic areas", he added.

The conference, to be entitled "The Venice Charter Revisited: Conservation and Development in the Post-War World", will be held in Venice in February or April 2006.  Further details will be available on the INTBAU website soon.

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Report from INTBAU Romania:
Transylvanian Ecotourism Workshop maps visitor opportunities in Laslea Commune

The INTBAU workshop on the eco-tourism in Transylvania explored the tourist possibilities of the Saxon commune of Laslea. Twenty five participants from Romania, Norway and the United Kingdom worked together for one week on mapping the tourist attractions of the historic area.

The municipality of Laslea is formed of five Saxon villages: Laslea, Malancrav, Floresti, Rondola and Noul Sasesc. Those villages - founded hundreds of years ago by the Saxons - are remarkable thanks to the traditional architecture and its unspoiled landscape.   The flora has also being noticed by the botanists as in this area the number of the growing plants is over one thousand, of which 200 represent rare species of flowers.

Remarkable tourist potential

Each village is crossed by a river and defended by a fortified church.  Some of the Saxon churches were founded 700 years ago as a way of protecting the population against the invaders.  Unfortunately, many of those churches are not used anymore as the vast majority of Saxons left the area after the collapse of communism in Romania, in December 1989. Today those villages are poor but they kept their charm.

The participants concluded that the potential of the four villages is very high. They also have the advantage of being located not far from two medieval cities: Medias and Sighisoara, a beautiful Baroques fortified town, listed as a UNESCU World Heritage Site.

Sibiu – the administrative centre of the Saxon area – is also an attraction point and has been declared as one of the cultural capitals of Europe in 2007.

However Laslea commune lacks good infrastructure as well as guest houses and restaurants. There was no information centre throughout the four villages and the maps are not available. Also, there are no signs and no guides but the locals are very happy to share information on particular heritage sites.

INTBAU Information and Training Centre

The population of Laslea commune is formed of over 3,000 people, many of them being Rroma (Gipsy). The number of jobs is very limited as the investment in the area is not significant. However, the local authorities acknowledged that a balanced development of the eco-tourism and organic agriculture could provide a sustainable income for the locals.

INTBAU opened an Information Centre in Laslea envisaged to offer support to the local community in restoring their traditional houses following traditional methods and promoting the Saxon architecture. The centre will also disseminate information on the ecotourism and promote an organic agriculture type of development.

The centre is functioning in a Saxon house, located next to the Major’s Office and can be used – free of charge – by all those charities interested in promoting traditional architecture, ecotourism and organic agriculture.

Restoration project

In the past 15 years many Saxon houses were completely ignored and started to decay. One of the best examples is the house number 344 of Laslea village, located very centrally, which is in a very poor state with severe structural problems. The story of this house tells almost the story of any damaged house of Laslea.  It belonged to an organised Saxon family, who left Romania and never returned.

For many years, house 344 has never been inhabited and eventually became a state property. Now it belongs to a local family, who has lovely memories of this estate, which used to be, in its years of glory, a centre point of the community life. The building was consecutively used as a shop and a primary school.

The house is envisaged to be INTBAU headquarters in Romania and used as an Information and Training Centre. The house will be restored by the Mihai Eminescu Trust and also will allow Romanian and foreign students to learn traditional restoration techniques. The first training course started in May, when a number of British students and their masters have inspected the house and started the restoration work.

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Crown Hall To Be Vandalised - To Save It:
Mies van der Rohe Society raises $US2,705 by auctioning the right to smash windows in the arch-Modernist's masterwork

A winning bid of $2705 was placed on eBay for the opportunity to shatter the first pane of glass removed from S. R. Crown Hall as part of the 17 May 2005 "Smash Bash," the kick off for the historic renovation of the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-designed National Historic Landmark at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). The renovation coincides with the 50th anniversary celebration of this Modernist architecture icon. The auction, which ended on 22 April, received 55 bids on the auction web site.

Granted National Landmark status in 2001, Crown Hall is the self-described "clearest embodiment" of Mies� architectural philosophy and the foundation of the Modernist style. S. R. Crown Hall (right) was completed in 1956 as the centerpiece of Mies� campus master plan and houses IIT�s College of Architecture.

The renovation of S.R. Crown Hall will begin with shattering the entire glass façade and includes the renovation and restoration of the steel structure, replacement of the glass and refurbishment of the building�s louvers and doors.

At the building�s dedication in 1956, Mies said, "Let this building be the home of ideas and adventures [...] then the building will be of great service to our students and in the end a real contribution to our civilization."   The building is home to the College of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology and is an architectural icon studied by Modernists around the world.

Bidders were offered the "privilege" of smashing a pane of glass with IIT�s president and trustees. The event will include a press conference and media coverage. Proceeds benefit the restoration of S.R. Crown Hall, which includes replacing all the plate glass.

Comment (updated)
The event raises serious questions about the nature of conservation. Those seeking to restore a listed traditional building are usually required to keep original materials, finishes and glazing where possible. How can listed Modernist buildings – and Crown Hall is a listed monument – be allowed a different set of rules?   I have been advised that the glazing is not the original, but the UNESCO Venice Charter and the US Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation require that evidence of change in the life of a building be treated with respect too.

The event also brings into relief the levels of inbuilt obsolescence in Modernist buildings. There are millions of traditional buildings in the world, including thousands many hundreds of years old, which require little maintenance. Such repair as they do need can be done easily with commonly-available materials. Crown Hall, it appears, has already had its glazing replaced once, and is now to have it replaced again.

Is this sustainability?   I suspect not. Crown Hall is the elegant relic of the wasteful, profligate mid-20th century, the age that generated a society which consumed resources and generated waste at an irresponsible rate. It should be preserved as a model of how not to build for the future. But it should also not be vandalised just for the fun of it. That will be a disgusting spectacle of violence towards a serious work of 20th-century architecture.
- Matthew Hardy

Event Details
5:45pm 17 May 2005
S.R. Crown Hall
Illinois Institute of Technology
Web: www.mies.iit.edu

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Mumbai Court Bans Mills Redevelopments:
Judgement is a stay of execution on demolition

In 1999 the Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG) suggested that the textile mill lands – recently the subject of an INTBAU India Design Workshop – should be divided into three, with a third going for open spaces, a third going for public amenities (hospitals, schools, maternity homes, dispensaries etc), and a third going to the mill owners. The proposal was gradually watered down, however. When Government enacted the Development Control Regulations in 1991 they made a 3-way split by which 1/3 was allotted for public housing, rather than for public amenities. In 2001 however, the Maharastra Government changed the regulation so that the calculation of 1/3 was based only on the current unbuilt open area. This effectively reduced the open spaces from 165/200 acres to 32 acres, and the public housing component from 160/222 acres to 25 acres.

BEAG filed a Writ Petition in February 2005 challenging this change. The mill owners and the State Government argued that BEAG had filed it after four years and hence that the petition should be dismissed. Several millowners/developers were allowed to intervene (opposing the petition). The matter was adjourned to 29th March.

The hearing, now finished, went on for more than 3 days. The mill owners and the Government brought in a number of legal heavy weights to oppose BEAG, including former Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley, former Union Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, Union Solicitor General Gulam Vahanvati, Additional Solicitor General Mukul Rohtagi, and State Advocate General Kadam. The recognised Union (Rashtriya Mill Mazdoor Sabha) also strongly opposed BEAG's petition.

Fortunately BEAG also fielded a good legal team, comprising three Senior Counsel (equivalent to Queen's Counsel), and four junior counsel. BEAG's normal solicitors also have mill owners as their clients and were hence not available. The lawyers, (who all donated their services to the public interest group) did a grand job.

The Additional Solicitor General alleged that Chandrasekhar Prabhu (a housing activist and politician) had wanted a design contract with the National Textile Corporation and since this had not been granted he opposed the mills. They alleged that he is a member of the Urban Design Research Institute and that BEAG's petition was a motivated one. Another argument used was that BEAG were petitioning at the behest of private developers who were afraid that the flat prices – almost equalling those in Manhattan – would crash if new construction is permitted on the Mill lands. Mill owners mounted a great deal of pressure on BEAG's counsel, who refused to back down, and on Friday 1 April the High Court issued an order by which, inter alia, they stayed grant of further development permissions. Nevertheless, rumours from Mumbai say that backdated permissions are being given.

The matter now seems likely to go to the Supreme Court, since BEAG has been informed that at least one of the parties is appealing. All this puts a huge strain on the group's limited financial resources, and may substantially reduce the group's capabilities in future.

Interestingly, heritage conservation was not included as part of our petition, in order to clarify the action. If the judgement is supported by the Supreme Court, all concerned will have to decide on the clash between keeping spaces open and preserving the built heritage structures.

Follow-up to INTBAU India Mills workshop

As a follow-up to the INTBAU India Mumbai Mills Design Workshop, held in early March, a group comprising mill owners, goverment officials and representatives of the environmental and heritage lobbies will shoon travel to the UK. The group will inspect regenerated mills in Bradford and Leeds, in the old industrial heartlands. Many, including the million square foot Dean Clough mill in Halifax, Yorkshire (right), have been regenerated, bringing offices, galleries, studios, apartments, shopping and recreation facilities to buildings once thought to be worthless.
- Shyam H. K. Chainani and Matthew Hardy

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Mumbai Mills Workshop Report:
Masterplan calls for future regeneration

INTBAU India and the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) brought together practitioners from India and abroad in an attempt to draw attention to the potential for regeneration that revitalising the mills of Mumbai would provide. The workshop, held from 7-11 March in Mumbai, was a five day charrette open not just to architects but to conservationists, urbanists, students, activists and the local community as well.

The aim of the workshop was to assist in the long term development of the mills area. The mills of Mumbai represent one of the finest collections in the world and they are located in the centre of the Indian city. The participants analysed the quality of the vacant mill sites and produced a masterplan proposing the integration of the heritage sites into a vibrant new city quarter of housing, offices, workshops and parks. Such a district would be unique in South-East Asia.

The participants also designed guidelines for new traditional buildings within the sites and their future extensions.

"A regeneration project of world significance"

INTBAU India - founded on 14 January this year - worked together for this event with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. INTACH is a non-governmental agency established in 1984, which works to create awareness among the public for preservation of Indian heritage. Four organisations from the United Kingdom were represented at this event: The Prince's Foundation, Regeneration through Heritage, The Prince of Wales Phoenix Trust and The Arkwright Society. Vivek Nanda of consultants Alan Baxter & Associates also contributed his time to the workshop.
Right above, participants at a workshop session

Fred Taggart, Director of Regeneration through Heritage, said that the participants were delighted that Mumbai still has a unique collection of cotton mills.  Fred Taggart added: "We think it presents a fantastic opportunity to regenerate that area of the city, retain the heritage buildings and create new opportunities and jobs for future. We think there is a real potential here to create a regeneration project, which is lead by heritage. It will be of world significance."
Right, Taggart talking to journalists

Media coverage

The event was widely publicised in Indian media. To read some of the stories covered by the Indian press please visit:
INDIA: Seminar held on "Revitalisation of Mumbai Mills"
INTACH takes steps to convert Mumbai mills into heritage sites
India: INTACH takes steps to convert Mumbai mills into heritage sites

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Shanghai turns to traditional architecture:
"China is growing self-confidence" say commentators

One of the biggest tourist attractions of Shanghai is Xintiandi, a two hectare (nine acre) complex of hip restaurants, bars and shops, in traditional style. The elegant complex, which cost �90 million, is considered as being one of China's best examples of preserving its traditional architecture.

Xintiandi's houses are traditional shikumen, which means "stone gate". They are built along narrow alleys of the kind that middle-class professionals flocked to for a sense of community and safety, and which made up three fifths of the city's residential housing in the period 1880 to 1940.

The developer behind this project is Shui On of Hong Kong and the responsible architect Mr. Wood, who have spent the last seven years preserving traditional materials like Shanghai's unique grey bricks and art deco features such as the 1920s lintels and columns.

The chairman of Shui On, Vincent Lo, says that Xintiandi had been originally a heaven for expatriates, but now is Shanghai's number one tourist attraction for Chinese visitors. While the preservation costs mean Xintiandi itself is not making money, it has had a halo effect, pushing property prices in the surrounding area to the highest in Shanghai, and hence in mainland China.

Further information
For further information and images of the development, please visit http://www.xintiandi.com/english/aboutus.asp

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Romania pledges assistance for Saxon Villages:
Ministers promise "immediate support" for protected areas

Three ministers of Romania's newly appointed government have pledged immediate support for a pilot Protected Areas Scheme, as envisaged by the Sighisoara Declaration, made on 17 September 2004.

The Protected Areas Scheme was developed by local councils and the Mihai Eminescu Trust over the past two years and presented at the International Conference, held in September 2004 in the medieval town of Sighisoara.

The Sighisoara Declaration aims to support the economic regeneration of the Saxon Villages of Transylvania by protecting the cultural treasures and the biodiversity of the place.

Most of the Saxon Villages were settled by the "Saxons" in the 13th and 14th century, the majority of them being still inhabited.  After the collapse of the communist regime, in December 1989, many of the Saxons decided to immigrate to Germany.  The number of the Saxon inhabitants has drastically diminished and many buildings are in advanced stage of deterioration.

Technical assistance and financial support

The Minister of Culture and Religious Cults, Mona Musca, the Minister of the Environment and Water Management, Sulfina Barbu and the Delegate Minister for Public Works, Laszlo Borbely, promised technical assistance for the establishment of the pilot protected areas by July 2005.  The Romanian Ministers have also pledged financial support for the Beautiful Romania Project in order to improve the local infrastructure.

The Ministers made their pledges during a special working lunch meeting in London, organised by the Mihai Eminescu Trust and the Romanian Embassy in the United Kingdom, on 16 February.  They met over 25 conservation and environmental protection experts.  Among the participants were members of INTBAU, the House of Lords, representatives of British institutions, and of the Anglo-Romanian Bank.

Meeting with The Prince of Wales

Afterwards, the three Romanian ministers and their advisers were honoured with a private meeting with His Royal Highness The Prince Of Wales, known as an active supporter of the regeneration projects of the Saxon Villages of Transylvania.   The Prince of Wales has visited a number of Saxon Villages many times, pleading for traditional methods of restoration and for organic farming in the area.

His Royal Highness has also actively and directly supported some of the restoration work in the medieval city of Sighisoara, located in Sibiu county.  Along with the charities under his patronage - such as INTBAU and the Mihai Eminescu Trust - The Prince of Wales helps and encourages any initiative aimed to train local practitioners in traditional architecture.

Work to begin on the INTBAU Info Centre

As part of these efforts, The Mihai Eminescu Trust, National Heritage Training Group (NHTG) and INTBAU are organising in May 2005 a masonry course in the Saxon village of Laslea.

The course is opened to two apprentices, sponsored by the Prince of Wales'S Craft Scholarship Scheme, a programme administered by The Prince's Foundation.  Under the guidance of a master craftsman, they will work on the restoration of the exterior of House 344, one of the biggest houses in Laslea, envisaged to be Information and Training Centre for INTBAU, MET and other NGOs.  The Centre will also provide tourism information.
- Aura Neag

Further information
The Mihai Eminescu Trust
+44 (0) 207 229 7618
Email: lholban@mihaieminescutrust.org

Matthew Hardy
INTBAU Secretary
+44 (0)20 7613 8620

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2005 Palladio Awards:
10 architectural firms rewarded for outstanding traditional work

The fourth annual Palladio Awards Design Competition has recognised ten traditional architectural practices for their high quality work in designing commercial, institutional and residential projects.  The awards are named in honour of Andrea Palladio, who the organisers explain created an architecture that was modern and of its time and drew on Classical models.

The Palladio Awards are sponsored by the US-based Traditional Building and Period Times magazines. The editor of the two publications, Michael Carey, described the latest awards as "the largest competition to date", adding that "We have winning projects from New York City to Switzerland and from Nova Scotia to Florida. The variety and quality of work is breathtaking."

The winners

A Palladio Award was given to each of four offices for commercial or institutional projects: Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture & Engineering of Boston, Schooley Caldwell Associates of Columbus Ohio, David Mayernik Ltd of South Bend Indiana, and Robert A. M. Stern Architects of New York. Robert A. M. Stern is also a member of the INTBAU Committee of Honour.

Another six offices were honoured in residential categories: Archer and Buchanan Architecture of West Chester, Barnes Vanze Architects of Washington DC, Cooper Johnson Smith Architects of Tampa Florida, Voith & Mactavish Architects of Philadelphia Pennsylvania, BKSK Architects of New York, and David Mayernik Ltd., a design consulting firm, with projects both in Europe and the US involving urban design, campus planning, architecture and fresco painting.

David Mayernik won the award for his design of the M. Crist Fleming Library at the American School in Switzerland. The frescoes of Ars and Scientia located on the first floor were painted by the architect himself. The project is located on the campus of The American School in Switzerland (TASIS), which overlooks Lake Lugano and is set within the larger Comune of Collina d'Oro and adjacent to the village of Certenago.  As the primary public part of the campus, the Library commands the building's greatest level of refinement of details and materials. Exterior details are rendered in granite, cast stone and stucco with secondary window trim painted. Construction began in January 2003 and was competed in time for the dedication ceremony on 21 May 2004.
- Aura Neag

Further information
For more details about the Palladio Awards please contact:

Michael Carey, Editor
mcarey@restoremedia.com
Tel: +1 718 636 0788

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INTBAU Is Four Years Old:
St Valentine's Day marks the 4th anniversary of the INTBAU Website

This website, and the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism itself, is four years old this week. The site first went public on 14 February 2001, and has since grown rapidly. Today's site comprises over 100 pages of directories, reports, news and information. INTBAU itself now has chapters in Scandinavia, Germany and India, with a chapter in Romania coming soon and others in preparation in Nigeria and Australia.

INTBAU was first known as the International Network for Traditional Building Arts & Urbanism. At that time we were advised to avoid putting "traditional" and "architecture" in the same sentence, but after a while we decided that if it really bothered people, then that's what we wanted to call ourselves. Education in traditional building, architecture and urbanism became our chartered objective.

On behalf of INTBAU I would like to thank all those hundreds of people who have helped us to grow over the last four years, and look forward to the next four with your help. We will gain strength, significance and scholarship by association, action and the dissemination of our principles. As a special treat, we've re-uploaded the original website as a memento of where we started from. Click here to travel back to 2001 and visit our first few faltering steps online.

Further information
If you are interested in knowing more about what INTBAU does, please join online today. It's free, and helps you to keep you in touch with our programs and with those of our partner organisations.
- Matthew Hardy

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English crafts not lost forever :
Many rural crafts revitalised since
the 1970s, says new report

Some of England's oldest building crafts - long thought lost - have survived and are even flourishing, a new survey reports.  The study, Crafts in the English Countryside: Towards a Future, paints a picture that is not as gloomy as had been thought.  Some crafts adapt to new markets and hold their own.  However, other ancient crafts barely survive amongst a few isolated practitioners, the report says, while a few have been entirely lost.

The report, being hailed as one of the most important studies done in the last 80 years, was edited by Professor E. J. T. Collins, a leading agricultural historian and former Director of the Museum of Rural Life at the University of Reading.

Rural crafts today in England still use essentially the same techniques and raw materials as in the past but the outputs, end-users, customers and practitioners are very different.  Where formally the crafts existed to supply the basic needs of agriculture, rural industries and the local cottage economy, their principal function today is to service the heritage sector.

Building crafts make an increasingly important contribution to the rural economy and national life, says the report, as they are an expanding source of income and employment in rural areas.  Some crafts provide an important creative space, particularly for women, in which craftwork and family commitments can be combined.

The craftsworkers community

According to this study the professional craftworkers currently number in England about 30,000.  When hobbyists and part-timers, casual and seasonal workers are added, the total number could be as high as 80,000.  According to one estimate, the UK community of functional, creative and artistic craftsworkers might number between 250,000 and 500,000 people.

Crafts in the English Countryside: Towards a Future is a comprehensive overview of the subject.  Crafts surveyed include: saddlery, farriery, wheelwrighting, blacksmithing, millwrighting, country-house gardening, basketry, and the woodland crafts, such as pole-lathe turning, besom and rake making.  A major section examines the skilled crafts vital for restoring traditional homes and country buildings, such as pargetting, thatching, walling, carpentry, joinery and masonry.

The survey concludes that there are skill shortages, some recruitment issues to be addressed and an urgent need for better training.  In Professor Collins's view a major role in the revival of the crafts could be played by the commitment of the government in funding the right training projects in order "to produce the skilled rural crafts-workers of tomorrow".

Exhibition

A forthcoming exhibition will celebrate the life and work of East Anglian rural building crafts.  The East Anglian Rural Building Trades project has been conducted by Norwich artist Malca Schotten over the last two years.

Speaking recently at a seminar on building crafts training, Schotten said that she started the project "because I was feeling distressed that there were no builders about".  A "culture of hiding skills" in depressed East Anglia meant that local young people had little idea of the possibilities in training, she continued.  "I wanted to promote skills and [also the art of] drawing, which is being lost too. Nobody learns drawing in art school anymore", Schotten added.

Training initiatives

In support of building crafts, Henry Russell of the Woodchester Mansion Trust reports that the Trust is involved in setting up a regional centre for crafts training in Gloucestershire.  In another initiative, the National Heritage Training Group (NHTG) has joined forces with the The Mihai Eminescu Trust and INTBAU Transylvanian Village Development Project to send British masters and apprentices to work on the restoration of a building in Laslea, Transylvania, that will be converted to use as a training and information centre. More detail of this project will be available soon.
- Aura Neag and Matthew Hardy

Further information
For further details please visit
www.craftsintheenglishcountryside.org.uk
Countryside Agency Publications 0870 120 6466
www.countryside.gov.uk
Malca Schotten
www.malcaschotten.net
National Heritage Training Group
www.nhtg.org

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Terry Wins The Driehaus:
Third annual Richard H. Driehaus Prize
is awarded to British architect Quinlan Terry

British architect Quinlan Terry has been awarded the third annual Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture. Terry, a principal of Quinlan and Francis Terry Architects (formerly Erith and Terry architects), will receive the prize in a ceremony on 19 March at the University Club of Chicago. The University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, which awards the prize, will honour Terry�s career achievements with $100,000 and a bronze and stone replica of the Choregic Monument of Lysikrates in Athens. The prize is timely recognition of decades of work in the traditional idiom, much of it in a climate of official disdain towards anything except Modernism.

Terry, who is a founding member of the INTBAU College of Traditional Practitioners (ICTP), has a distinguished career that included a long-running partnership with celebrated post-war classicist Raymond Erith. For a summary of Terry's career with illustrations of his work, visit Terry's ICTP page at www.intbau.org/ictp/Terry.

Work and education

Terry's work includes the redesign of three State rooms at No. 10 Downing Street, the office and home of the British Prime Minister; Merchant Square at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia; and the Richmond Riverside development in Surrey, UK (right, click to enlarge), a large urban redevelopment that includes offices, apartments, restaurants and community gardens. The redevelopment - which attracted the predictable condemnation of Modernist architects at the time of construction - was an instant success with the London public and has since become an icon of successful traditional urban design. Others of Terry's projects include a series of new villas in Regent's Park, London and additions to a Victorian church to create Brentwood Cathedral in Essex, UK.

Terry was educated at the Architectural Association, London, and won a Rome Scholarship from The British School in Rome. In 1984 he received the Philippe Rotthier Prize for Architecture for City and Town Reconstruction, and in 2002 was awarded the Arthur Ross Award from the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America. Terry�s library at Downing College, Cambridge, was named the "Building of the Year" by the Royal Institute of British Architects. A private house he designed in Dorset, UK, was named "Best Modern Classical House" in 2003 by the UK-based Georgian Group.

Richard H. Driehaus

Richard H. Driehaus, the founder and chairman of Driehaus Capital Management in Chicago and a Board member of INTBAU, endowed the annual award to honour major contributors in the field of traditional and classical architecture. He established the Driehaus Prize through the University of Notre Dame�s School of Architecture because of its reputation as a national leader in incorporating the ideals of traditional and classical architecture into the task of modern urban development.

In addition to Richard H. Driehaus, the selection committee included Tom Beeby, principal at Hammond Beeby Rupert Ainge and former dean of the Yale School of Architecture; Adele Chatfield-Taylor, president of the American Academy in Rome; Léon Krier, architect, urbanist and inaugural recipient of The Richard H. Driehaus Prize; Michael Lykoudis, Dean of the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture; and David Watkin, architectural historian and fellow at Peterhouse College, Cambridge.
- Matthew Hardy

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Classicism For Humanity in three US cities:
Institute for Classical Architecture & Classical America
set to collaborate with Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) and The Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America (ICA&CA) announced recently that the two organisations will collaborate on a national project to build affordable, classical style dwellings in historic districts across the United States. Partly funded by a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), the pilot project will design and construct a model house in each of three cities known for their distinguished historic districts: Savannah, Georgia; Rochester, New York State; and Norfolk, Virginia. "This project sets the foundation for classical architects to use thoughtful design to enhance the living space of families who could not otherwise afford it while preserving and strengthening the fabric of historical neighbourhoods," said Paul Gunther, president and project director for the ICA&CA. "It will provide cost-effective ways for Habitat affiliates to meet increasingly stringent landmark and zoning requirements and accelerating project approvals."   HFHI and ICA&CA received $50,000 from the NEA to help underwrite the cost of the project, which will begin January 2005 and is expected to end in June 2006.

Partners

Partners for the construction of the houses are:

The partnership will help Habitat for Humanity affiliates build classical and traditional houses that fit seamlessly into their context and reinforce the character of the surrounding communities. Ray Gindroz, co-founder and principal of Urban Design Associates, will oversee this aspect of the project. "This project takes Habitat for Humanity to a whole new level in home building," said Tom Jones, vice president and managing director, HFHI Washington Office. "Working with ICA&CA will enable us to access neighborhoods that have traditionally resisted the construction of Habitat houses and demonstrate that our homes can not only fit in, but improve these communities."

Conceived of as a long-term initiative, the ICA&CA will work with HFHI to identify additional architects and Habitat affiliates to replicate the program, allowing them to choose residential styles and motifs that best suit their neighbourhoods. The ICA&CA will also collaborate with the Habitat for Humanity University located in Americus, Georgia, to create an e-course or instructional design module using the three model homes as case studies. Upon completion of the dwellings, ICA&CA will develop and distribute a publication featuring an overview of design principles, architectural styles as well as community planning and landscaping concepts.

Habitat for Humanity International
Habitat for Humanity International, based in Americus, Georgia, is a Christian ministry dedicated to eliminating poverty in housing. By the end of 2005, Habitat will have built its 200,000th house and more than one million people will be living in Habitat homes they helped build and are buying through no-profit, zero-interest mortgages.

Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America
The Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America is the leading national nonprofit organisation dedicated to advancing the practice and appreciation of the classical tradition in architecture and the allied arts. ICA&CA fulfills its mission through four program areas: education, publications, awards, and advocacy. The national headquarters is based in New York, with a growing roster of regional affiliates located throughout the US.
- Matthew Hardy

Further information
For further information about the ICA&CA/HFHI collaboration, please contact:
Kathleen Moore, Habitat for Humanity International
Tel +1-202-628-9171 ext. 4918
Email kmoore@hfhi.org

Paul Gunther
Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America
Tel +1-212-730-9646, ext. 103
Email pwg@classicist.org

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INTBAU opens a new chapter in India
INTBAU India launched with a permanent office
in New Delhi

International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism is now present with a permanent office in India. INTBAU India was formally launched on 14 January 2005 and has its headquarters in the Indian capital, New Delhi.

A permanent base in India will enable INTBAU India to promote education in the economic case for traditional building skills and to help to maintain their relevance in the twenty-first century.

The launch of was honoured by the presence of a number of Indian Professors of traditional architecture. At the same event, ICTP member and founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Andres Duany, and INTBAU Committee of Honour member Elizabeth Plater Zyberk, Dean of the Miami School of Architecture, lectured on 'The New Urbanism'.

The official launch

A formal lamp lighting ceremony was undertaken by Professor Arvind Krishan, Mr Rana, Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater Zyberk (above) and the founders of INTBAU India. Afterwards, the Charter of INTBAU India - the 'birth certificate' of the new chapter - was signed (right).

The speakers focused on the critical problems of planning in India and gave a short overview of what should be done.

Kruali Uplekar, the Chair of INTBAU India, read out a message from His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, which was warmly received. The full statement is available here.

Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater Zyberk focused on the Indian urban conditions in general, relating these issues with their own experience from this trip to India. It was also stressed that INTBAU represents a strong network supported by other organisations which do similar work, such as The Prince's Foundation, Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America, the Congress for the New Urbanism, Council for European Urbanism, and A Vision of Europe.

INTBAU India committee

INTBAU India is run by a Management Committee formed of 8 members. Six of them have been appointed so far: Deependra Prasad (Director, Delhi), Pashim Tewari (Secretary), Shirish Gupte (Director, Mumbai), Jyoti Soni (Treasurer) and Suneet Mohindru (right, pictured at the launch in New Delhi). The Chair of INTBAU India is Krupali Uplekar.

INTBAU India will try to engage the business community to stimulate demand for traditional methods and products. It will also work with individual craftsmen to develop best practice and adapt to the demands of business and commerce. This will ensure that crafts are sustainable and that individual craftsman have a viable way of life.

Mumbai Mills

The first project INTBAU India will be involved in will be the Mumbai Mills Design Workshop, to be held in Mumbai / Bombay, India, in March 2005. The purpose of the Workshop project is to assist in preparing a strategy for the long-term sustainable development of the textile mills district of the city.

The participants will analyse the qualities of the vacant mills sites and associated workers' housing colonies and produce New Urbanism-based proposals for a future integration of heritage preservation and sustainable development.

Participants in the workshop will develop a draft masterplan for a future development of the textile mills district of Mumbai, producing guidelines for the integration of the substantial existing mill buildings, and design guidelines for new traditional buildings within the sites and in their future extensions.
- Krupali Uplekar and Aura Neag

Further information
India email group
INTBAU India has established an India email group for those interested in traditional architecture and urbanism in an Indian context.
Mumbai Mills design workshop
You can register for further information about the Mumbai Mills Design Workshop using the special online form on the Mumbai Mills Design Workshop page.
Contact
For more information or to join the INTBAU India email group, please contact INTBAU India Chair Krupali Uplekar, at INTBAU_India@gmx.net.

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ICTP Pages Now Online!
24 new pages of traditional design on the INTBAU website

INTBAU is pleased to announce the launch of 24 new pages featuring innovative, contemporary traditional building, architecture and urbanism designed by members of the INTBAU College of Traditional Practitioners. These pages can be viewed by following the links at www.intbau.org/ictp.

INTBAU has established ICTP as a peak international professional body for practitioners in traditional urban design, architecture and the building arts. ICTP is a separate professional association from INTBAU, set up in order to represent the interests of traditional practitioners at the highest level within their professions and trades.

The members of the INTBAU College of Traditional Practitioners have each produced a sustained output of traditional work of the highest quality over at least five years of practice. The ICTP web site pages present a short biography and images of each member's work.

The information presented on the web site was provided by the individual architects, urban designers, artisans and artists themselves and the images represent a wide range of completed projects. Each page includes references to the architect's work and contact details for further information.

INTBAU College of Traditional Practitioners

The INTBAU College of Traditional Practitioners is not intended as a restrictive club but as an open professional body for all those who design, make, maintain, study or enjoy traditional architecture and places. The ICTP is been founded with 24 architects, sculptors, urban designers, academics and artisans from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Italy, France and Portugal.

In alphabetical order, the founder members are: Claudio D'Amato, Nigel Anderson, José Franquiera Baganha, Julian Bicknell, Pier Carlo Bontempi, Maurice Culot, Andres Duany, Anne Fairfax, Michael Franck, Craig Hamilton, Paul Hanvey, Shaun Knight, John Malick, Alvin Holm, Liam O'Connor, Hugh Petter, Alireza Sagharchi, Nikos A. Salingaros, Richard Franklin Sammons, John Simpson, John Smylie, Alexander Stoddart, Quinlan Terry, and Carroll W. Westfall.

The architects from ICTP come from different schools of tradititional building, architecture and urbanism. However, they all guide their work on the principle that the architect, urban designer or artisan can contribute much towards improving the environment and increasing the public sense of well being. Much of the exquisite work preoduced by ICTP members has been awarded with a number of prizes, and widely exhibited and published.

Membership

Entry to the ICTP is subject to quality assessment by an international Entry Committee, drawn from members of the ICTP and the Board.

Application is by form, submission of portfolio, and payment of a non-refundable examination fee. Each applicant is required to submit a body of work of a high standard, created over a period of at least five years.

If you believe that you are eligible to apply to join the ICTP, in the first instance we recommend that you speak to your nearest Management Committee member for advice. You will also need to download the special MICTP application form which includes detailed instructions.

The application for 2005 intake will be accepted until the end of April.
- Aura Neag

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Philippe Rotthier Prize for Architecture 2005:
European Prize for Town and City Reconstruction
Call for entries - closing 15 April 2005

The Philippe Rotthier prize aims to reward those works which hold hands with history, establishing a dialogue between generations. The Prize will be awarded for the seventh time in October 2005. The prize is worth a total of 30,000 Euros, given in one or more awards. To meet the criteria for entry in the competition works must be completed, or be in the process of being completed, between 2002 and 2005.

The choices selected always tend towards works of architecture often unknown outside the small circles of the initiated. Over the years, institutions have also been rewarded, for example the town hall in Bayonne, France and the town hall in Havana, Cuba. The juries have not hesitated to look outside the frontiers of old Europe, awarding prizes to Egyptian, Tunisian and other architects.

The prize as envisaged by the Belgian architect Philippe Rotthier is not directed against modern architecture. Rather, Rotthier wanted to give a platform to works of quality which did not always attract the attention of the media for a variety of reasons. The main reason seems to be that the works do not pander to the changing tastes of the day.

The Philippe Rotthier Prize also accentuates the importance of ecological considerations. Too many architects spend without counting the cost, waste energy by using materials both expensive to produce and maintain, and waste land by not controlling the spread of building over the land. The juries take note of the materials used as well as how they are used, the conditions under which the buildings are built, social integration, training and the passing-on of the body of knowledge.

Jury and calendar

The jury will be composed of European architects: Pier Carlo Bontempi (Italy), Stephanie Celle (France), Maurice Culot (France), Eulalia Gonzales (Spain), Frank Hetherton (Ireland), Marcel Kalberer (Germany), Leon Krier (France), Elie Levy (Belgium), Rudy Ricciotti (France) as well as journalists Gilles de Bure (France), Francoise Lefebure (France), Martin Mosebach (Germany) Piet Swimberghe (Belgium), a builder Patrick de la Riviere (France), a photographer Christian Carez (Belgium) and philosopher, Toni Mari (Spain).   Philippe Rotthier, the architect and founder of the competition, will also take part in the jury's deliberations. The jury will sit in Brussels on 10 - 11 June 2005.

The official prize-giving ceremony will take place on 21 - 22 October 2005 at the Fondation pour l'Architecture, in the International Centre for Urbanism, Architecture and Landscape in Brussels.

The prizes will be awarded after examining careful materials such as positions, plans, cross-sections, building details, photographs all of which should be presented in an A3 folder. The entrants are required to show how their project fits into and enhances its environment. Entries must be submitted no later than 15 April 2005 to the Foundation pour l'Architecture.

A catalogue of the prize-winning entries and a book about the previous winners since 1982 will both be published after the jury has deliberated. The prize-winning entries will also be the subject of an exhibition to be organised by the Fondation pour l'Architecture in Brussels.

Previous prize winners are: Manuel Manzano-Monis, Quinlan Terry (1982) ;   Abdel-Wahed El Wakil, Jean-Pierre Errath, Manuel Iñiguez & Alberto Ustarroz, Ernst Schirmacher, Pompeo Trisciuoglio (1987) ;   Javier Cenicacelaya & Iñigo Salona, Piotr Choynowski, Robert De Gernier, Demetri Porphyrios (1992) ;   Jacques Leccia & Christian Parra, Guy Montharry, Pierre Sicard & Michel Authié, Daniel Staelens (1995) ;   François Spoerry, Société Immobilière de Mayotte, Pier Carlo Bontempi (1998) ; and Eusebio Leal Spengler (2002).

Philippe Rotthier — The Architect

Phillipe Rotthier was born in Brussels, in 1941. He decided to dedicate himself to the study of peasant architecture and became a specialist in archaic housing, seeking the knowledge and maturity of building houses drawn from a thousand-year-old tradition. Through his work he made an important contribution to the re-evaluation of vernacular architecture. In order to encourage knowledge of Classical and vernacular architecture he created the Prix Europeen pour la Reconstruction de la Ville in 1980. In 1986 he established the Fondation pour l'Architecture, based in Brussels.
- Aura Neag

Further information
Prix Philippe Rotthier
Fondation pour l'Architecture
55 rue de L'Ermitage
1050 Bruxelles/Brussels
Belgique/Belgium
Tel. +32 (0)2 642 2480
Fax.+32 (0)2 642 2482
fondation.architecture@skynet.be

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Indian Ocean Tsunami Appeals :
Donations urgently required to help survivors rebuild their lives

Aid organisations around the globe have launched urgent appeals for donations to help survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. More than 140,000 people are now feared to have been killed by the catastrophic waves. Millions more are homeless and lacking basic supplies.
Beach fishing in happier times. Photo Markus Krusche

The following is a list of charities and agencies around the world that will be happy to accept your donations:

The Disasters Emergency Committee is an umbrella group of UK aid organisations - including Action Aid, British Red Cross and Oxfam - working to provide clean water, food and shelter to thousands. To call from the UK, dial 0870 60 60 900. You can also make donations securely on their website.

The United Nations World Food Programme is seeking donations to feed victims of the earthquake.

Medecins Sans Frontieres is sending aid workers to the region, focusing on medical care for survivors and displaced people after the rescue operations.

The United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef is working to meet the "urgent needs of hundreds of thousands of people" affected by the tsunami disaster.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR which has been helping victims of conflicts in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, is delivering relief supplies to tsunami survivors in both countries.

Save the Children has already flown a plane out to Sri Lanka carrying plastic sheeting for temporary shelter, tents to run children's services from and essentials such as clothing and cooking utensils.

Anti-poverty organisation Care International has already provided food for thousands of affected people in Sri Lanka.

Cafod, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development is working with partners across Asia to provide shelter, food aid and medical assistance, and assessing what further relief is needed.

The Red Cross, with its sister charity the Red Crescent, is supplying blankets, cooking utensils and other crucial goods. It has had to set up a new site because of the unprecedented demand from people wanting to make donations.

The Hindu Forum Disaster Relief Task Force comprises 50 organisations and is raising money, clothes and medicines. Donations can be made online or by calling the ISKCON Disaster Appeal on 01923 856848 or Sewa International on 0116 261 0303.

Christian Aid has already allocated �250,000 from its emergency fund to help the victims of this disaster but says more money is needed.

Christian charity Tearfund and its partners in Sri Lanka and India are helping devastated fishing communities and coastal villages get back on their feet.

Islamic Relief has also launched an appeal to provide medical supplies, tents and sanitation facilities for those affected.

The Islamic Aid Emergency Relief Fund aims to provide immediate relief and long-term support to people in the affected areas.

Another Islamic charity, Muslim Hands is collecting money and sending volunteers to help in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Medair is providing emergency support to agencies with a long-term presence in Sri Lanka and its medical experts are assessing the likelihood of malaria and diarrhoea.

World Vision has also launched an appeal and has already delivered relief goods to thousands.

Concern is working with local partners to meet the needs of families in the devastated coastal villages of Tamil Nadu, the worst-affected state in India.

The International Rescue Committee is providing emergency supplies and materials to "people most affected by the crisis".

The Salvation Army has local teams working in a number of affected areas and is sending a team from its international headquarters on Wednesday evening.

Muslim Aid has already donated �100,000 towards the purchase of food, clothing and medicine in the region but wants to raise more.

Action Aid is the biggest charity working in south India. It is focusing its relief work on the coast of Tamil Nadu, where 7,000 people died. It is working on providing medical assistance and sanitation for the survivors.

Oxfam is active in Indonesia, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka and India. Their relief operations include distributing food packs and hygiene kits and setting up water and sanitation facilities.

Asia Quake Relief Appeal UK, a UK-based Sri Lankan organisation, is also raising money and can be emailed at asia-quakerelief@europe.com

Hindu NGO Baps Care International is working in villages around Chennai in Southern India distributing food, drinking water, tarpaulins, utensils, stoves, clothes and blankets.

Goal teams are at present working in Tamil Nadu in Southern India where they are distributing aid to 5,000 families. A large team of doctors, engineers and logisticians are also in Sri Lanka.

You can donate to all the campaigns via their websites.
List of organisations courtesy of BBC News

Tsunami updates

Images
This website has before and after satellite images of the destruction. Most horrifying are those showing the almost total destruction and inundation of the foreshore of the city of Bandar Aceh in Indonesia.

US charities
The USAID website gives a list of US charities collecting for the relief of the tsunami victims.

Canadian charities
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation website has a list of Canadian charities accepting donations.

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