European Cities After Covid 19

This book develops key messages for city stakeholders: how can cities and properties adapt to this crisis and how can public and private actors help to make cities more resilient in the long run. The book is addressed to actors from the real estate industry and the city, to project developers, architects, planners, engineers, financiers, investors and asset managers - and to everyone who lives and works in cities.

As the world enters a new year, the Covid-19 pandemic is still upsetting our daily lives. And as 75% of EU citizens live in urban areas, cities are the most prominent stage both for responding to the health crisis, and for seizing opportunities to recover and move forward. Meanwhile, in 2020, EU countries agreed to Next Generation EU, a €750 billion recovery package that represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity.This report argues that cities should be given more say over how post-pandemic national recovery plans pan out between here and 2026, when all projects are supposed to be wrapping up. Indeed, the success of the EU recovery plans will hinge upon what cities do, or they don’t do over the next five years. How are cities rethinking their role within the “twin” green and digital transitions? How can they achieve gender parity, reduce inequalities, and preserve a vibrant cultural life?

Even before the spread of COVID 19 across the globe during the crisis of 2020, cities and regions acted as venues and drivers for a dualistic development dynamic by both creating and dissolving borders. The results obtained from various university seminars and a European summer school form the basis for a crisis manuscript, while serving to review the planning and design activities in different European cities and regions. For the first time ever, a network of students from the urban planning and design departments at 19 European universities have defined common requirements for crisis-resistant and people-friendly urban planning in Europe: On the one hand, crisis-related experiences act as catalysts for fundamental social, economic, and ecological changes, and, on the other hand, they accelerate changes that are already underway with regard to urban development policies. The crisis and border situations explored in this joint investigation extend beyond the mere operating principles of European cities and regions. In fact, as an endurance test and didactic example, they provide a guide for crisis-proof urban renewal in Europe. They lead the way in building a bridge between the European architecture and planning disciplines to create vibrant border landscapes. Bereits vor der weltweiten Ausbreitung des Covid-19-Virus im Krisenjahr 2020 waren Städte und Regionen Austragungsorte und Treiber einer dualistischen Entwicklungsdynamik von Entgrenzung und Abgrenzung. Ergebnisse aus der Hochschullehre und einer europäischen Sommerschule eröffnen ein Palimpsest der Krisen und eine Überprüfung europäischer Planung und Gestaltung von Städten und Regionen. Erstmals erarbeitete ein Netzwerk aus Studierenden von 19 europäischen Universitäten im Bereich Planung und Stadtgestaltung eine Formulierung gemeinsamer Anforderungen für eine krisensichere und menschengerechte Stadtentwicklung in Europa: Einerseits sind Krisenerfahrungen Impulsgeber für grundlegende Veränderungen in Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft und Ökologie, andererseits wirken sie als Beschleuniger bereits vorhandener Veränderungen in der Stadtentwicklungspolitik. Die gemeinsam hinterfragten Krisen- und Grenzsituationen zeigen nicht nur die Funktionsweisen europäischer Städte und Regionen auf. Vielmehr vermitteln sie als Belastungs- und Lehrproben einen Leitfaden für einen krisenfesten Stadtumbau in Europa. Wegweisend entwickeln sie einen europäischen Brückenschlag der Architektur- und Planungsdisziplin zur Gestaltung lebendiger Grenzlandschaften.

This book analyses case studies of heritage-rich cities that hosted mega-events to discuss emerging challenges, controversies, and accomplishments. The future of mega-events has never been more uncertain. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has introduced an unparalleled level of doubt regarding the kind of mega-events that will take place in the coming years. This book arrives at a quite unique moment of reflection. Prior to 2020, cities were already questioning the traditional format of mega-events (e.g. Olympics and Expo) while other cultural mega-events have been spreading and gaining popularity, thanks in part to typically lower costs of infrastructures and venues, far more adaptable arrangements, spatial distribution and time frame for hosting. In these ways, they have already been demonstrating higher flexibility in which to respond to future health and safety constraints. When it comes to the relation to the existing city, cultural mega-events have been planned, implemented, and studied far more than any other. By leveraging the richness of cultural mega-events, this multidisciplinary collection deepens the intersection between events and cultural heritage. The chapters in this book provide a new theoretical framework, critical questions, and relevant case studies to argue that the nexus between mega-events and heritage is a key challenge for many cities in Europe and beyond. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of European Planning Studies.

Empty cultural places, drastically reduced mobility and tourism blockade as an effect of COVID-19 confinement measures not only generate an evident economic damage to cultural institutions, companies and workers but also create a strong economic and social discomfort at city level. Although many EU member states are now entering into a de-confinement phase, many cultural places remain closed or subject to stringent physical-distancing measures. In these new circumstances, one main condition for the sustainability of most cultural and creative sectors (CCS) has been almost entirely disrupted: the possibility to have a public 'live' as a source of revenues to meet operating costs, putting more than seven million jobs at risk in Europe. Using cultural jobs statistics from Eurostat and the JRC's Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor, this report identifies highly vulnerable cultural jobs and creative cities. Despite the unprecedented challenges raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, some cities are already experimenting new event formats to better reach local inhabitants and nearby communities, while ensuring the financial sustainability of cultural activities. Both national and city governments have issued a wide range of policy measures (from compensatory grants to tax reliefs) to maintain alive Europe's cultural capital, while giving cultural institutions, companies and workers the time to get prepared to post-COVID times. Proximity tourism could indeed help compensate losses from international tourism, while new cultural services that meet societal needs (educational, health, environmental...) would help restore the European social fabric and people's well-being.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has arguably caused some of the most noticeable and influential societal and economic changes since World War Two. This path-breaking book investigates these changes and the subsequent responses of urban policy makers.