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L ook at a satellite photograph and it’senough to understand the new face ofurban Europe. But as Bernardo Secchi

puts it, while European cities are changing,fragmenting and spreading out, new spacesare being created within, places are beingcreated not out of large urban projects, butfrom the habits of daily life.And while the changes of European urbangeography, in the West and in the East,mirror and absorb the major economic, socialand technological transformations that tookplace over the last decades, what is missingtoday is an idea about the city itself, acommon plan that looks to the future andrationalizes the creative excesses that, like aswollen river, are sweeping away the newexperiences of urban life. Because recoveringthe civil commitment of architecture andurban planning can help in facing the newissues related to energy and the sustainablecity, and lead to a new way of experiencingcity life.

The transformations occurring in theEuropean habitat have often been seen asindicating epoch-making breakdowns. Isthis true also in Central and EasternEurope after the fall of Communism?

Certainly the events that took place on theEuropean scene from the end of the 1960s tothe end of the 1980s gave birth to a process bywhich economy and institutions, socialrelations and lifestyles are all beingrestructured and this could not but have animpact on the creation of the new urbangeography. In Western Europe, these changesresulted in a number of common features.First of all, a gradual reduction of the city, anarrowing that follows a trend referred to byeveryone as the shrinking city, due to thedisinvestment of large industrial plants andthe resulting deindustrialization of vast urbanareas, with a large part of their facilities andinfrastructure being abandoned.But perhaps the most obvious change is thephenomenon of dispersion that can be seen inFlanders, and in Italy as well, especially in theNorth East, and that we find to an evengreater degree in many countries of Centraland Eastern Europe. Here we can see howthe scattered city has developed in a

Berlin is perhaps the most famous case. But all of Central and Eastern Eu-

rope is becoming an open construction site. New urban life experiences

are being created and the most innovative architectural projects are beco-

ming almost routine. One of Italy’s leading architects explains that there is

no lack of creativity, but there is also no overall plan. And now it’s the

time for institutions and urban planners to begin thinking seriously

Secchi: A New Ethic for a New Idea of the City

edited by Alessandra CipollaEUROPE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

_The European city transforms itself, rethinks its spaces

and replaces traditional meeting places with new ones.

Facing page, the Sony Centre of Postdammer Platz in

Berlin, designed by Helmut Jahn

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fragmented way, meaning that there are vasturbanized areas where single family dwellingswith private yards are the rule, the sign of anew pursuit of comfort but also an indicationof a new individual autonomy. The scatteredcity also reflects a society in search of positivewell being, that relies on the concrete andimmediate availability of goods, services andsituations. The city is becoming fragmented,first toward the suburbs, and then aroundthem; it reinvents its oldest areas and changesthe more modern parts, creating new centrallocations that show a certain amount ofnostalgia for the previous models.

Dispersion, fragmentation, a new conceptof space, a city inhabited by a less andless stable and homogenous population,with different cultural roots. How are allthese changes being managed? What roledoes the modern day architect play in thiscontinual process of renewal?On the one hand we are seeing an attempt

by many local governments to imagine a newrole for the city, while on the other hand wesee an architectural style that has assumed arole perhaps best defined as exhibitionist. Anarchitecture that concentrates almostexclusively on monuments as places of globalworship: airports, shopping malls, sportsstadiums and cultural venues, theatres, butalso gardens and theme parks. These areconsidered the “basic facilities” of the newsociety that likes to present itself as beingclassless and multicultural. And almosteverywhere in Europe in these puzzle-likecities we see the development of hugebusiness areas, ethnic neighbourhoods, citiesmade for entertainment. And the idea of“home”, for example, is set aside and replacedby projects that, while designed as somethingexisting apart and by itself, sometimes end upbeing a modern cathedrals in the desert.

Berlin, Dresden, Warsaw… Central andEastern Europe is a vast open constructionsite. How do architects operate in thisspace?

Actually, the really big construction site todayis China, and architects from all over the worldare converging there and building what theyhadn’t been able to build in the West.Turning to Central and Eastern Europe, thereare wonderful schools of architecture and verytalented architects that hadn’t had an

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opportunity yet to express themselves freely.Following the fall of the wall there was aperiod of absolute deregulation. The mostblatant case was in Budapest, but also aroundPrague, and in Poland as well, there was aninstant proliferation of small homes, at timesquite wretched, and then there was anattempt, first by the local governments andthen by the regional authorities, to stop theprocess. Pressure from below was so strongthat at a certain point the State had to admitthat it was unable to stop this movement andthus in a series of laws (somewhat the inverseof our amnesty for building code violations) ittried not to stop it but at least to slow it down.The Balkans, however, have seen a differentphenomenon develop: here the war left deepmarks and much fear and the people haveclustered together in the urban centresinstead of moving farther out. In both caseshowever, we are talking about spontaneousmovements.

Maybe more justified in the East thanelsewhere…Certainly, one of the errors made by the

communist regimes was to not understandthat at a certain point the standard of livinghad to be raised. When a little light was letin, there was an immediate outpouring, anoverflow that we cannot consider unjustifiedand that certainly should not be imputed to alack of civic responsibility. But I feel thatnow the river is returning to its banks. Fromthis point of view, the governments werecorrect and honest, perhaps in contrast towhat happened over here on our side, and ofcourse not only in Italy.

Fascism and Nazism left a “style”. Wasthis also true for Communism? Whatimpact did it have on Europeanarchitecture? In both cases power was represented in

monumental fashion: there is a number ofpublic buildings that testify to this. If wereally want to find differences, we can saythat at least technically, there was greater

_Sometimes new architectures merge harmoniously with ol-

der parts, reinventing them. Facing page, the new bridge on

the Danube and below, the central covered market (end XIX

century) at Vasarsamok in Budapest. On the right, Bernardo

Secchi and the model of his new project in Rennes

refinement in Fascist architecture than in theStalinist type. Looking at housing, regimearchitecture produced an enormous quantityof homes with the same French and Germanmodels that today are dogmatically rejected.In the post-war period we witnessed heavyindustrialization with the accompanying“invasion” of reinforced concrete.

Commenting on the exhibition Memory andthe Future, Stefano Boeri has written:“The invention of a new urban reality, of anew housing typology, does not requiremaking a tabula rasa, but depends insteadon the re-use and the reconversion ofexisting urban material”. Is this idea stillvalid today in the so-called New Europe?History has always been the result of

innovations and resistance to change, and soeven the contemporary city is not beingcreated from a clean break with previousexperience, but rather as its continuation anda declination, at times negative, of thatexperience. Even the most violent and radical

breakdowns never completely sever all theties that bind the future to the past. Onealways starts from existing material and thismaterial drives innovation and encourages thetaking of new paths. One adapts to neweconomic, political and social situations, butone always starts from something thatalready exists, which is what happened withthe architecture of the former East Germanyand Czechoslovakia where old housingmodules are being taken apart and put backtogether using new concepts.

If we look at any typical, average sizeEuropean city, we see a nebula ofbuildings and infrastructure that is a bitchaotic, with no coherency or style. Is thequality of our planning so poor or is theproblem at a higher level?I fear that the real reason is the lack of

professional ethics. Architecture has alwayscombined a civic engagement with its ownprofessional commitments. Today we aresuffering from not having enough rules that

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need to relate to a civic plan in order to belegitimate.In the absence of a plan, an excess ofcreativity is offered that very often expressesitself in uncontrolled dispersive, chaotic andincoherent ways.The city is submerged by a flood of images,each architect proposing his own. In thisdisorder, it becomes difficult to express anopinion, to distinguish what is good fromwhat is bad and all of this feeds theimagination of the people who are just asconfused. I believe that what we need to do isreturn to thinking a bit more seriously aboutwhat kind of plan we want for the city andthe country, not in terms of restrictions orregulations, but in positive terms.

Could the European Community play apositive role in this regard?I am personally very dissatisfied with

what the European Community is doingbecause it could say a lot of interesting thingson these issues and could develop researchand even guidelines, but it doesn’t do it.Moreover, in all the political campaigns, andnot only in Italy, (I travel a lot to France andBelgium for work) the city and the countryare given no consideration, while they are thedaily experience of the people.We should not tolerate that the relationshipwith the city and the country be reduced tothe banality of the tramway station or thepharmacy down the block. These are thingsthat do not require major political projects;they can be placed within a properadministrative policy. But all of us need tothink more carefully about this new citythat is now taking form.Because if we architects, and our economistcolleagues as well, would just stop for amoment and do a quick calculation, we would

_Contemporary city starts from an existing material to

transform it. Fine examples of this are the Berlin Parlia-

ment dome (facing page) and the Marriott Hotel in Buca-

rest, made from a former ministerial building (below) part

of the People’s House from Ceausescu times

EUROPE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

realize that the living conditions of somecities cause an enormous drop inproductivity given the disproportionatephysical and psychological efforts requiredof our citizens. A simple example: theperson who tries to escape the chaotic trafficof Milan – or another city – pays for hischoice with an hour and a half of driving togo from home to work. What is needed atthis time is a very careful study of differenturban situations. They are quite different,culturally and politically.The living conditions in our cities have nowbegun to pose serious problems.

Is it a positive sign then that today inEurope the need is being felt to beginthinking seriously about urban life, tohave a comprehensive debate on thecity? Many governments in the countries of

Western Europe as well as in Central andEastern Europe and even in the Balkans,which are the most problematic, are

realizing that they need to step back andreflect on the future of their cities.There was a period in the 1980s wheneveryone was calling for deregulation. Butthe breakdown that took place in the historyof the Western city required a change inurban planning, but not that the baby bethrown out with the bath water. There isnothing strange about urban planningchanging: we moved from baroquearchitecture to neo-classicism and then toeclectic historicism, and then to modernarchitecture. This is normal in all of thearts. Only now is it beginning to beunderstood – by some.It’s not a question of saying – that’s enoughthinking about the city – because urbanplanning is simply that: an idea about the

SECCHI: A NEW ETHIC FOR A NEW IDEA OF THE CITY

_The new european urban geography reflects the econo-

mic and technological changes of the last decades, so-

metimes suggesting interesting creative solutions. Below,

a building in the Hungarian vineyards.

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city. On the contrary, we need tounderstand that the problem is not justtechnical – engineering the transportationinfrastructure – which is of courseimportant, but there is a problem of formthat is of the utmost relevance to the city.

Our century has to come to terms withnew problems, issues related to energyand the sustainable city. How will urbanplanning, insofar as far you are involved,deal with these new realities? We have all become more aware of the

relationship between nature and the city,between ecological systems and the city.There are a number of new issues that makeus think in more general terms. We have inour paths a few bogeymen – called water,energy, green spaces. We cannot pretend thatthese problems do not exist. But what weneed to understand is that they, along withothers, can become the themes of urbanplanning, when a project is being developedfor the city. I believe that this concept is now

becoming familiar, even if only in thecountries of Northern Europe. Up there onefinds a greater ability to combine refinedthought with a healthy pragmatism. Not ablind pragmatism like what we find invadingour country, but one that compels us to bringour thoughts on planning down to reality.Even in this area the European Communityis not doing enough to shape the issue andto build consensus around it. We cannot actby simply issuing directives. The people,and not just the experts, must be able to seethe reason for each regulation and in thisarea there is still a lot that can be done. Theidea of a sustainable city, for example, hasbeen emptied of its meaning and become asterile publicity campaign. Moreover, wemustn’t forget that powerful interestsgravitate around the city. When theproblems of water or renewable energyhave to be contended with, the majorcompanies sweep in like vultures. This isnormal in our world, but even this is part ofglobalization.

Who is Bernardo Secchi

Bernardo Secchi is a tenuredprofessor of Urban Planning atthe University Institute ofArchitecture in Venice (IUAV).He has taught at the School ofEconomics in Ancona and atthe School of Architecture inMilan, where he was Dean

from 1976 to 1982, and has held seminarsand taught in many foreign universities.He has collaborated in the drafting of thenew General Regulatory Plan for Madrid,has studied and developed plans and projectsfor cities such as Jesi, Siena, Abano, AscoliPiceno, La Spezia and Val di Magra, Tirano,Pescara, Bergamo, Prato and Pesaro.He won (1990) the competition for the designof Hoog Kortrijk (Belgium), has studied theplan for the city of Kortrijk (1991) anddeveloped plans for the Main Square and thenew cemetery in that city. He won theEcopolis competition for the planning of anew city in Ukraine (a group directed byVittorio Gregotti, 1993) and the contest“Rome, City on the Tiber” (1993) – a plan forthe lay-out of the river walk. With Paola

Vigano he won the contest for designingSpoornoord Park in Antwerp as well as thedesign of Theatres Square in the same city.He also won the contest to design “thestructural plan” of Antwerp. Again withPaola Vignola he won the contest for thedesign of the Courrouze area of Rennes, VellePort and PetitMaroc offices in Saint Nazaire.He is one of the founders of the magazine“Archives of Urban and Regional Studies”and has been director of the magazine“Urbanistica”.He has organized many design competitionsincluding “Project Bicocca” in Milan and hasbeen on numerous juries for architecturaland urban planning competitions. (Bicocca,Staad aan de Stroom, Bologna: CentralStation, Como: Ticosa Area, Geneva: Palace ofNations, etc.) Some of his more recentpublications include: The Urban PlanningTale, A Project for Urban Planning and FirstLesson in Urban Planning. He has recentlyreceived an honorary degree from theUniversity of Grenoble and the Special JuryPrize of the Grand Prix of Urban Planning inParis.

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