For over 20 years, the European Conferences on Architectural Policies (ECAP) have been a means of sharing, on an international stage, the main concerns regarding the quality of our built and unbuilt environment and its evolution. Over the past few years, these policies have been widely developed at European and national levels. As the climate transition gradually becomes part of political agendas, numerous declarations and initiatives stress the importance of considering this transition from a more cultural perspective than a technical-economic one, based on the development of a common, high-quality ‘Baukultur’. However, while tools have been created to provide a better understanding of this quality, the spaces where it can be tangibly established together have yet to be developed.

One of the many questions raised is indeed that of the ‘co-construction of public action’, in terms of the ability to mobilise the various actors in a project.

Although they have been invited to review their practices, many public organisations are still largely at a loss as to how to implement this renewal. In project development, how can public project leaders interact with such diverse actors as private developers, designers and, even more so, citizens? What role do these different actors play? When? And through what mechanisms? Above all, how can we make the question of project quality central to these interactions?

By looking at each of these actors in turn, the conference will aim to examine how they can be mobilised by the public authorities. Between official regulations and declarations on the one hand, and specific, positioned actions on the other, it will explore the intermediate spaces of interaction, between the legal and citizen action, between the economic perspective and the long-term experience of a region.

Plenary sessions and three themed workshops will address this issue in relation to: 1) the property development sector; 2) citizens; 3) designers.

Find more information here: https://belgian-presidency.consilium.europa.eu/en/events/european-conference-on-architectural-policies/