While the historic cities in Europe are seen as the places of culture and history, the New Towns are often seen as cultural wastelands. However, though New Towns are young cities, by now they have a history of 50-70 years which defines their identity. This is being appreciated by more and more New Towns, which study their history as a means to create their own narrative. This is not only a narrative which deals with the original planning and architecture (top down) but also a history of their inhabitants (bottom up). Oral history collects the stories of the original and new population, including the stories of immigrants and minorities. The main challenge is the enforcing of the exclusion discourse, between early dwellers and newcomers, between insiders and outsiders, between owners and renters, intellectuals and working class. The narrative of the city needs to be a participatory narrative in which all residents are able to recognize themselves.
As most New Towns are now in the phase of reinventing themselves and want to transform in more equitable and fair places, a proper understanding of the history of the city functions as a stable basis on which to build towards the transformations of the future. In the transition towards a more positive identity, the history of (all groups in) the city needs to take a central role. What is necessary to understand the history of the New Towns, whose history is it and what methods can be used?
images by Maarten Laupman
Programme
20 March 2024
Afternoon:
Arrival participants during the day in Rotterdam, the Netherlands
13:00 – 15:00 Walk through Rotterdam Centrum (optional)
16:00 Meet at INTI HQ. Introduction of the theme of the Lab
Evening:
18:00 Diner at INTI HQ
After diner, walk to James Hotel, Aert van Nesstraat Rotterdam
21 March 2024
Morning:
8:45 Collect participants from James Hotel in Rotterdam, by bus
9:00 Bus-tour to Spijkenisse
11:00 Walking-tour through neighbourhoods Waterland/De Akkers
12:30 Lunch at community centre De Akkers
Afternoon:
13:30 Interactive workshop at community centre De Akkers with presentations
by Kohtla Jarve and Dimitrovgrad
17:30 Departure for Spijkenisse City Centre
Evening:
18:00 Visit library De Boekenberg
19:00 Diner at restaurant in Spijkenisse
21:00 With metro to James Hotel in Rotterdam
22 March 2024
Morning:
9:00 Gather at James Hotel, together in metro to Spijkenisse
10:00 Workshop at the City hall with input by all partners, experts
Afternoon:
12:30 Lunch at the City Hall, evaluation of the Lab
14.00 End of the Lab around 14.00 hrs
With metro to Rotterdam or other directions
Participants
Simone Rots, Michelle Provoost, Caterina Tioli, Misko Papac, Govert Buijs, Magriet Panman, Marcus Heinke, Jochen Becker, Constanze Musterer, Yoana Mitvichina, Yasho Minkov, Alex Axinte, Ioana Tudora, Marius Toma, Mihai Balint, Costin Muraru, Gabriella Zsinka, Csaba Gyöngyössy, Kinga Kotras, Béatrix Goeneutte, Wilfried Pingault, Irfan Salihagić, Elša Turkušić, Anton Makarjev, Henri Kaselo, Blaž Kosovel, Miha Kosovel, Jarosław Klas, Monika Kozioł, Oksana Denisenko, Giulia Piacenti, Oksana Beliakova, Oksana Denisenko, Shane Downer
Evry and Senart are two New Towns in the municipality of Grand Paris Sud that are both in transition to improve their equity and sustainability. They have very different characteristics and issues: Evry is more urban with a dense urban centre; its challenge is linked to the renovation of the urban core and its attractivity. Sénart is a ‘city in nature’ with a need to develop a strategy to better consider its green assets. Both towns have ‘priority’ neighbourhoods with large migrant populations, in which Grand Paris Sud is focusing on the reduction of inequality by social programs and urban renewal. Grand Paris Sud is working on different strategies to make its municipalities more sustainable. It is developing Eco-neighborhoods, heating networks, a bicycle plan and active public transport links, strategies for the reuse of brownfield sites and the reuse of soil and materials, and it is creating the CAAP, Centre for Art Architecture Landscape Heritage (https://caapp.fr/), which will offer a place of experimentation to architecture schools and become an exhibition space.
Next to that, it is developing strategies to make the green transition as just and inclusive as possible especially for the most vulnerable groups such as (migrant) women, for instance by offering language programs and bicycling courses. The city aims to raise awareness among residents (positive energy families, composters, etc.) and to modify the inhabitants’ habits so that they become greener. Also, the city is using tactical urban planning as a way of experimentation which is inexpensive, extensible and reversible, as a tool for iterative planning.
Programme
29 May 2024
Morning:
Arrival participants during the morning in Grand Paris Sud
12:30 Official welcome at the agglomeration headquarters followed by a lunch
Presentation on Grand Paris Sud
Afternoon:
14:00 - 16:00 Visit to the urban centre of Évry-Courcouronnes
Visit of the energy-efficiency renovation of housing project in the neighbourhood “Pyramides”
16:00 - 18:00 Introduction to the lab by INTI and presentation of 2 co-referent New Towns
Evening:
19:00 Dinner
30 May 2024
Morning:
8:15 Departure
Cycling tour on the 3 themes: sustainable food, energy, and green urban planning
9:00 Visit eco-district “Les Docks” in Ris-Orangis – example of green urban planning
11:15 Visit urban farm “Saint Lazare” in Grigny
12:45 Lunch at CFP (“centre de formation professionelle” = training and professionalisation centre)
Afternoon:
14:00 Visit neighbourhood “Grande Borne”
16:00 Train back to Évry-Courcouronnes
Evening:
19:00 Dinner
31 May 2024
Morning:
9:00 Collaborative workshop with inputs from participants about 3 topics :
energy, sustainable food and green urban planning
12:00 Lunch
Afternoon:
End of the lab and departures
Participants
Simone Rots, Michelle Provoost, Caterina Tioli, Ilyass Benkhattab, Gauke van Rij, Misko Papac, Yoana Mitvichina, Magriet Panman, Marcus Heinke, Jochen Becker, Constanze Musterer, Inge Breugem, Magriet Panman, Roxana Maria Triboi, Georgi Marhov, Alex Axinte, Ioana Tudora, Gabriella Zsinka, Csaba Gyöngyössy, Kinga Kotras, Béatrix Goeneutte, Wilfried Pingault, Maja Pličanić, Samna Durmo, Anton Makarjev, Aivar Kamal, Blaž Kosovel, Elżbieta Urbańska-Kłapa, Serena Pappalardo, Jadwiga Bryś, Oksana Beliakova, Oksana Denisenko, Shane Downer, Joris Vermeiren
Drumul Taberei district is one of the most remarkable achievements of the socialist-modernist collective housing project in Romania. The 1960s’ initial planning was based on the principle of the microraion, as a low density, organic and clearly defined urban unit, freed of major traffic, providing access to public facilities and to generous green spaces to the pedestrianized inhabitants. However, due to economic reasons and planning shortcomings, not all the green spaces were completed on time, especially in between the blocks behind the big boulevards. Thus, more out of necessity than desire, the socialist state encouraged a “productive citizenship”, by transferring some maintenance activities to the population. Thus, carrying for the in between green spaces was residents’ responsibility, who were even stimulated to transform other district’s unused spaces into productive gardens.
With the 1989 systemic changes, entailing state’ withdrawal and the radical privatization of public housing stock, the informal practices expanded and took over the district’s in-between spaces at scale. But since the 2000s, such practices were progressively dismissed by the dominant “civilization” discourse, being discouraged, forbidden and sometimes evicted by various local administrations. Nevertheless, gardening by the block survived, rather as an individual and discrete practice, but always ready to bloom again, as it happened during the recent pandemic. The ambivalent and changing attitude in dealing with informal gardening in the past decades results from the contradictions generated by the superimposition of the aesthetizing market-oriented regulatory project on the remains of the socialist institutional heritage and over the legacy of a situated practice of living together.
Without being specific only to Global South contexts, a carefully disobedient form of “urban informality” slowly encroached over the prefabricated modernist built environment and subsequent political projects of the East, emerging into a shared dwelling practice. The informal green practices thrived and have been depicted as a positive phenomenon similar throughout post-socialist CEE countries. Described as “quiet sustainability”, they achieve environmental and social outcomes, without specifically aiming for them, while taking place outside market relations. Moreover, (green) informality evidences the presence of “latent commons”, as a less visible, explicit or affirmative version of commoning. Thus, as a local form of latency, “discreet commoning” is mostly assumed by the dwellers as a way of life and is enabled by an ecosystem of informal practices, which sometimes spatialize as gardens by the block.
The third Network Lab in Drumul Taberei aims to address the narratives, the tools and the policies around informal (green) practices in the context of climate change and of diminishing public participation. By focusing also on challenges and risks when dealing with informality, from the lack of any regulatory framework that can lead to privatizations, exclusions and conflicts, to their suffocation by overinstitutionalized measures and formats, the partners of the Network will share lessons and tools that are learned or used in their own New Town. Therefore, participants are invited to envision how research-driven initiatives can lead to concrete actions to improve dwellers participation and their quality of life by supporting and enabling informal (green) practices.
Programme
Wednesday 2 October 2024
Morning:
Arrival of the participants in Bucharest, at the hotel
13.00 – 15.00: Walk from the hotel through the city centre (optional)
Afternoon:
16.00 – 18.00: Meet at USAMV. Introduction to the theme to the Lab #3 by INTI
and the presentations of the 2 co-referent cities
Evening:
19:00 Dinner
Thursday 3 October 2024
Morning:
09.00 Meet at the Hotel. Transfer to Drumul Taberei district (by public transport)
09.30 – 12.30: Visit Drumul Taberei part 1: Cvartal, Favorit, Moghioros Park, Market, local
stakeholders
13.00 – 14.00: Lunch
Afternoon:
14.00 – 17.00: Visit Drumul Taberei part 2: Bucla, Garage, Flat, local stakeholders.
17.00 – 17.30: Transfer to Văcărești Delta (by public transport)
17.30 – 19.30: Visit Văcărești Delta
19.30 – 20.00: Transfer to city center
Evening:
20:00 Dinner
Friday 4 October 2024
Morning:
09.00 Meet at the Hotel. Transfer to USAMV (by public transport)
09.30 – 12.30: Collaborative workshop and final presentations
Afternoon:
13.00 – 14.00: Lunch.
End of the Lab and departures
In 1883, Chemnitz surpassed 100,000 residents, growing to 320,000 within 30 years. However, WWII bombing devastated key industries. Post-war, Soviet-occupied East Germany built modest housing, and in 1952, the GDR renamed the city Karl-Marx-Stadt, prioritizing Plattenbau over historic preservation. The city remained a machine construction hub until the 1990s. In 1990, it was renamed Chemnitz, leading to urban redevelopment while East Germany faced mass migration westward. Many historic buildings were demolished to modernize the city.
Now home to 244,000 people, Chemnitz is preparing to be the 2025 European Capital of Culture (ECOC), with the former Fritz Heckert Gebiet as a key focus. The Fritz 51 project seeks to foster identity and community using a Citizen Science Approach, organizing events with the area’s diverse population, including migrants from Eastern Europe, Ukraine, and Syria. Challenges include poverty, unemployment, declining infrastructure, and vacant buildings, yet the area retains a vibrant cultural scene and strong community spirit.
Fritz Heckert is a large housing estate built from 1974 as part of Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz). It housed 90,000 people in 1990, but its population declined to 43,000 by 2004 after German reunification. In 2025, as Chemnitz becomes the European Capital of Culture, the area will mark its 51st anniversary with Fritz 5*, a cultural initiative. Fritz Heckert faces challenges: isolation, weak social and cultural ties to the city center, racism, poverty, high unemployment, declining infrastructure, and vacant properties. Many residents are immigrants from Eastern Europe, Ukraine, and Syria. Despite its negative reputation, the community is stronger than perceived.
The manifestation Fritz 51 uses new methods such as citizen science, artistic urban research, oral history or psychogeographical writing and combines these with classic scientific approaches such as archive research, building surveys or inventories. The aim is to create a kaleidoscopic historiography of great vitality, depth and connectivity, which can serve as a model for a future approach and presentation of the historical heritage in New Town Fritz Heckert, to strengthen awareness, identity and community.
Programme
Wednesday 5 March 2025
Morning:
Arrival of the participants during the morning in Chemnitz
13.00-15.00: Walk through the city centre to Rosenhof, to Neefestraße with Gunzenhauser Museum, vehicle museum, industrial museum, to Zwickauer Straße with Garage Campus and tram museum, return on TRAM 1 to Center, Walk to Hartmannfabrik
Afternoon:
16:00 - 17:45 Welcome by the mayor and the director of ECoC Chemnitz 2025.
Introduction to the theme of the Lab #4 by INTI, presentations of the 2 co-referent
towns, presentation about Chemnitz and Fritz-Hekcert Area
Evening:
18:00 Dinner
20:00 Afterwork drinks (optional)
Thursday 6 March 2025
Morning:
9:00 Meet at the hotel lobby
9:15 Group picture in front of Karl-Marx-Statue
10:30 - 12:30 Visit Fritz-Heckert Area - Construction area 0 and 1 with Norbert Engst
(historian, writer, event manager), interior view
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
Afternoon:
Groups splits in 2
14:00 - 16:30 Critical Walk/Visit Garage Project
16:45 - 17:15 Transfer to Hartmannfabrik
17:30 - 19:00 Presentation of ECoC-projects - How to build up a new narrative with
the artistic projects Fritz 51, #3000Garages and Living Neighbourhood
Evening:
19:00 - 19:45 Predrinks at Hartmannfabrik or resting at hotel (optional)
19:40 - 20:00 Walk to restaurant
Meeting at Hartmannfabrik
20:00 Dinner
Friday 7 March 2025
9:00 Meet at the hotel lobby
9:30 Walking to Schmidtbank
9:30 - 12:30 Collaborative workshop and final presentations
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch
Afternoon:
End of the Lab and departures
