Program
Thursday 28th January 2010
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Moderators :
Annick Colybes (Les Echos),
Charles Lambert (Urbanistic Architect),
Francis Ampe (Urbanistic, Engineer)
10h-12h :
51°12-51°49 North
6°22-7°59 East
“Essen for Ruhr 2010”, European Culture Capital.
Marc Grandmontagne, Head of Executive Office,
Vera Schernus (marketing).
An agglomeration made up of 53 towns inhabited
by 5.3 million people, the third largest in Europe after London and Paris. It
offers 100 concert halls, 250 festivals, 120 theatres, 1000 industrial monuments,
200 museums, 19 universities and institutes of learning. Nowhere else can you find
so many closed-down factories, coalmines, and industrial areas transformed into
museums and event venues by top architects: Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas, David
Chipperfield, Herzog & de Meuron, Ortner & Ortner, etc. It is the most concentrated
collection of cultural venues in Europe and the world.
It is an area where twenty-one
billion Euros have been invested in the world’s largest reclamation project, including the
greening of the iconic river Emscher, which was formerly used as an industrial rubbish dump.
And let’s not forget the creative economy that has, for the first time, been incorporated into
its bid by a European culture capital.
A thousand events are in preparation. There
will be a performance by the biggest choir of all time, with 70,000 singers from all
over Europe and, on a Sunday in July 2010, the A40 autobahn that crosses the Ruhr will
be closed to traffic so that 30,000 tables and 60,000 benches can be set up for the most
gigantic picnic ever.
Questions
14h-16h :
Shanghai / Shanghai 2010
“Better city, better life”
Françoise Ged (provisionally),
Emilie Cam & Rémi Ferrand,
Jean-Marie Charpentier,
Vicente Gonzalez Loscertales,
Martin Robain,
Jacques Ferrier
“A Better Town for a Better Life”, the theme of the 2010 World Expo to
be held in Shanghai, is a good match for the problems faced by this “world-city”,
this “metapolis” whose population density and enormous growth are so great
that any distinction between town and country is lost, in the view of the town-planner,
François Ascher.
We will begin with a portrait of this city by Françoise Ged, head of the
Centre for Contemporary Chinese Architecture, and the picture will be completed
by “Shangwhy”, the work of two young architects, Emilie Cam and Rémi Ferrand: a
recent, subjective study of this city that could perhaps, one day, be the world’s
capital.
Ever since the time of the Concessions (from 1849 onwards), this “Paris of
the Far East” has shown pronounced Francophile tendencies that have encompassed
French culture in all its shapes and forms, but more particularly architecture.
We have invited Jean-Marie Charpentier (Arte-Charpentier), the architect of the
Shanghai Opera, the Avenue of the 21st Century in Pudong, and other creations,
to give us his views.
And finally, the innovations of the World Expo will be presented by Vicente
Gonzalez Loscertales, Secretary-General of the International Expo Office (BIE),
by Martin Robain (Architecture Studio) for the overall organisation of the
Exhibition (its site plan), and by Jacques Ferrier, the architect and concept
designer of the French Pavilion.
Questions
General Conclusion : Charles Lambert, Honorary President of the European Council of Town Planners