Seville welcomed the New European Bauhaus back home

The city was the place where the grand initiative was first presented almost a year ago

Yesterday was the second day of the I Urban Forum of Spain and the III Forum of Local Governments, which is being held these days at the Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones de Sevilla (FIBES). The event featured the exhibition of projects from different cities and institutions around the world. The day was framed on the one hand by talks on the New European Bauhaus, and on the other, the pilots related to the Urban Agenda in small municipalities, cities and large metropolises. 

Seville’s authorities described the New European Bauhaus as making a ‘return’ to the Andalusian capital, given that this is where it was first presented as a new European initiative back in December 2020.

One of the NEP Prize winners hails from Seville

A large round table, made up of 13 representatives from Spain and Italy, served as the platform for a debate about what this process of reformulation of cities will entail based on its three values: sustainability, landscape and inclusion.

Marcos Ros, MP from the European Parliament, highlighted that with this movement "architecture is at the centre of the policies of the European Union for the first time", and reflected on the fruits it can give: "We know that architecture and urban planning can change our lives, but only good architecture and good urban planning can improve them”.

This was followed by a debate on the Mediterranean city model and global challenges – how the way of life and conditions of southern European countries are presented in the New Bauhaus. Isabel Ojeda, General Director of Culture of the Seville City Council, affirmed that "Seville has joined the New Bauhaus from the beginning: in fact, one of the first prizes has been for the Nomad Garden". 

The project she referred to was indeed one of the NEB Prize winners awarded recently. Officially known as ‘Gardens in the Air’, it won the category ‘Buildings renovated in the spirit of circularity’. Its essence is to counteract the hot and arid climate of the city.

It proposes to do so by hacking air conditioners through the prototype of a community urban DIY aimed at improving the thermal, energetic and aesthetic conditions of buildings by using the water discarded by the devices to create vertical gardens with species adapted to the local conditions and to bring about a cooler, more diverse and habitable outdoor landscape.

Ramón Picó, director of the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Seville, pointed out on his part that “the University of Seville wants to contribute to this need for these exciting pilot projects to refine their lines of work and become features that the administrations can make happen".