UNIT PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Council of Urban Culture: An Itinerant Institute and its Project in the Post-City

The ``Council of Urban Culture``(CUC) challenges the notions of culture by proposing an itinerant department for architecture and urbanism. This office seeks to revive a lost optimism toward the regeneration of secondary cities within the Pan-European context. We need to extend existing institutions such as the European Capital of Culture Programme, criticised for its lack of direct action, strategic thinking and repetitive designations of host cities.
On a global scale, this institutional appendix of the European Capital of Culture Programme aims at reinserting a culture of intellectual and material production into the city.
Within the host city, the institutional program is divided into an internal program of the office and the external program of event structures.

In a local demonstration, the Institute addresses the role of urbanism in the Post-City of Luxembourg.
The Red Bridge is the Site and Non-Place for the office. It is explored as inhabitable typology, infrastructural link and part of the urban spectacle which activates the city from within. Hence it suspends a beam structure which functions as decking during the day and projection screen at night. Its programmed and motorised system reflects the dynamic character of the Institute.
The Bridge becomes a launchpad for the project on the city in which local experts are invited to participate – launching the project of 'Urban Stoppages' which is regarded as both an approach to strategic planning and actualisation in event structures.

European cities must adapt and respond to the physical manifestations of more extreme cultural variations. We need flexible institutes which are trying to better measure and evaluate the inputs and outputs of large-scale events; and we also need independent citizen to take ownership and not necessarily wait for cultural institutions to foster initiatives and craftsmanship.
The architect is no longer a distant visionary nor imposing physical presence, but acts as a facilitator operating in an expanded field.