English version
INTRODUCTION
ACE MATTERS
CORE ISSUES
OTHER MATTERS
PUBLICATIONS
EVENTS
COMPETITIONS
USEFUL LINKS
EDITOR’S NOTE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Welcome to the fourth
issue in 2005 of ACE Info, the monthly update from the Architects'
Council of Europe that will give you, at a glance, information on current
issues, highlighting emerging areas of activity and informing you of matters of
interest in the field of architectural policy.
This issue is also
available in French.
The ACE General Assembly
Adopts new By-laws for the Organisation
On the 23rd
April, at its first General Assembly of 2005, the ACE adopted new By-laws for
the organisation. The need to adopt new By-laws arose following the adoption of
new Statutes of the ACE (AISBL) at the General Assembly in November 2004. The
new Statutes and By-laws will enter into force on the 1st January
2006 and they will deliver improved efficiency to the ACE in the pursuit of its
priority goals.
At a Special Session of
the Assembly, held on the 22nd April, the ACE delegates debated the
strategic objectives of the Organisation, reaching consensus around the
detailed work that the Executive Board had undertaken on the subject in the
first quarter of the year. This work will now be consolidated and it is
intended that a multi-annual strategic plan for the ACE will be adopted during
the next Assembly meeting in November 2005 in Luxembourg, and that it would
subsequently be published.
The ACE Attends the
First Meeting of the ECSF
Following the signing of
the Bilbao Declaration in November 2004, the ACE attended the first meeting of
the European Construction Safety Forum (ECSF) on the 10th May in
Brussels. The ACE was represented by the Chairman of its new Workgroup on
Health and Safety, John Graby, and by its Senior Adviser, Adrian Joyce. Other
organisations attending the first meeting include the two engineering
organisations, ECCE and EFCA, FIEC, the European Construction Industry
Federation and the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA), who organised
this first meeting. The ACE has been highly critical of the provisions of the
Health & Safety on Temporary & Mobile Sites Directive (92/57/EEC) and
of the manner of its implementation across the EU. Notably it is
concerned about the disproportionate responsibility that the directive seeks to
impose on clients and designers for safety on construction sites – a matter
that has been reflected even more disproportionately in many Member States
national laws following transposition of the Directive. It remains very
critical of these matters, but believes that the time is right to engage in
constructive dialogue with the other partners in the sector so as to seek to
improve the situation for all parties that share responsibility for health and
safety matters in the built environment. The outcome of the first meeting
promises to permit the ACE and the other partners in the ECSF to achieve an
improvement in the Health and Safety reputation of the industry.
UNESCO Planning to drop
Architecture from its Programmes
The ACE has learnt that,
as part of its restructuring exercise, UNESCO is making cut-backs in its
programmes and that it has decided that architecture will be dropped from the
list of priority topics in its Human and Social Sciences section. The ACE
has also been informed that UNESCO also intends to discontinue the support of
the UIA-UNESCO Prize in Architecture as well as the IFLA-UNESCO Prize in Landscape
Architecture. Alarmed at these developments, the ACE General Assembly
adopted a resolution calling on UNESCO to reconsider its intentions to keep
architecture as a priority issue in the UNESCO working structure and work
programme. This resolution has been transmitted to those concerned in UNESCO,
and in addition, the ACE President specifically wrote to the Director General
of UNESCO to express concern.
Pan Hellenic
Architectural Exhibition – Awards of Architecture
The Association of Greek
Architects (SADAS-PEA) is promoting an action programme for the renewal of
architecture, aiming at the improvement of the quality features that affect and
shape the built environment and the country’s cultural awareness. To this
end it has established an “Awards of Architecture” scheme that aims to promote
contemporary architecture in Greece. The SADAS-PEA appointed a jury to
select projects for the awards and the ACE, following an invitation, nominated
Rania Kloutsinoti to be a member of the jury with Inis Messare as substitute.
The awarded projects
will be displayed at the “Pan Hellenic Architectural Exhibition – Awards of
Architecture” to be held in Athens from the 3rd to the 12th
June 2005.
Qualifications Directive
The vote, in Second
Reading, on the Qualifications Directive in the Plenary Session of the European
Parliament took place on the 11th May 2005. The outcome has
been received by the ACE with satisfaction as the Parliament adopted amendments
that will ensure that the Commission shall adequately consult the professions
and report to the future regulatory committee (comitology) in the execution of
its duties. This goes further than the amendment that the ACE sought in
conjunction with the health professionals (see ACE Info 3-05) and represents a
significant shift towards the interests of the profession since the proposal
was first put to the Parliament and Council. In fact, the result is the
best that the ACE could possibly expect in line with the so-called “third way
strategy” it adopted three years ago. Twenty-three of the amendments adopted by
the Parliament were compromise amendments worked out between the tie of the
vote in the IMCO Committee (26th April 2005) and the vote in the
Plenary Session.
It now seems certain
that the directive will be adopted by Council as amended by Parliament, thus
avoiding conciliation.
Declaration on a
European Charter of Culture
At a two day meeting,
held on the 2nd and 3rd May, in Paris, held under the
high patronage of Jacques Chirac, a declaration in favour of a European Charter
of Culture was signed by the Ministers of Culture from the EU-25
countries. This initiative, which follows up a Conference held in Berlin
at the end of November last year, has grown out of a desire to elevate Culture
to a central place in the construction of Europe and it will be a valuable tool
for the architectural profession as it strives to ensure that the value and
quality of architecture has a fundamental impact on the cultural heritage of
Europe. At the event both Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker, current President of
the European Council and Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the Commission,
strongly called for more attention to be given to the cultural dimension of
Europe with a view to raising its importance to the same level as economic and
market-orientated considerations in the construction of Europe.
Further, follow-up
events are to be held in Budapest in November 2005, in Madrid in 2006 and in
Lisbon during the first half of 2007.
Five so-called
“co-operation groups” have been set up, in which architecture as a topic is a
noticeable omission. The ACE in liaison with the Luxembourg Presidency is
striving to obtain that this will be corrected, and that appropriate synergies
will be sought to link up this activity with the activities of the European
Forum for Architectural Policies.
The Directive on
Services in the Internal Market (SIM)
Mrs. Evelyne Gebhardt,
the rapporteur in the European Parliament on the SIM Directive, presented the
first part of her report to the IMCO Committee on the 19th April
last. In the report she has proposed making major changes to the
directive including doing away with the Country of Origin principle and
replacing it with mutual recognition and the country of destination principle,
the reduction of its scope by the exclusion of services of general interest and
by clarifying the services to which the directive will apply by the use of a “positive”
list of such services. The report got a mixed reception and will clearly need
more work before it will get Parliamentary support.
This fact was underlined
when, on the 26th April, the Committee on Industry of the
Parliament, adopted the report of the German Liberal Jorgo Chatzimarkakis on
the SIM Directive by a convincing majority. The significance of this is
that the report retains the Country of Origin principle, although it does
provide for a longer adaptation period of the provisions of the Directive in
order to allow highly regulated services to get ready to be opened up to
reinforced competition in a liberalised market. The next debate in the
IMCO Committee on the directive is scheduled for the 24th May 2005.
It is planned that a discussion on the second part of the report of Mrs
Gebhardt will take place om that occasion.
Commissioner Potocnik
Presents the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development to
the European parliament
The proposal of the
Commission for the 7th Framework Programme on Research and
Development (FP7), was presented, by the Commissioner for Research, Mr. Janez Potocnik,
to the European Parliament on the 6th April 2005. The proposal
provides for the doubling of Community financing for Research in order to
provide an incentive effect on investment by Member states and the private
sector. The Parliament welcomed the proposal and acknowledged the
important role that research can play in the future of Europe. A broad
welcome was also given to the proposal by the Member State Permanent
Representatives.
The European Parliament
chose the former Polish Prime Minister, Mr. Jerzy Busek (now an MEP), as the
rapporteur on the proposal. The next meeting of FOCOPE (The Forum for
Construction in the European Parliament) on 1st June has this topic
on the agenda. To read the proposal go to:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/future/index_en.cfm
Commission to set up the
European Consumer Institute
On the 6th
April 2005, the Commission published a communication entitled “healthier,
safer, more confident consumers: a Health and Consumer protection strategy” in
which it presents its action programme for health and consumer protection for
the period 2007-2013. The creation of the European Consumer Institute
will be the cornerstone of the instrument to implement the actions outlined in
the communication. Among these are to improve information for citizens,
ensure the security of goods and services, tackle consumer vulnerability to
dishonest traders and ensure access to essential services. In order to see
the full communication go to:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/overview/programme_2007-2013_en.htm
EU Ministers Back Social
Housing
At their meeting in
Prague, held on the 14th and 15th March, European
Ministers rejected the European Parliament’s view that government support of
the social housing sector may distort competition and they called for
recognition that EU structural funds should be used to benefit housing.
In their final communiqué and in a letter addressed to the European Commission,
the Ministers argued that as social housing is “a local service with no
significant impact on trade in the internal market, but with strong added value
for social cohesion in the EU” the decision adopted in February 2004 by the
European Commission to exempt social housing providers from the obligation to
notify State subsidies at EU level should stand. In addition the
Ministers proclaimed themselves “willing to explore all possibilities
including the use of EU Funds under the existing financial framework, to
benefit housing, especially in relation to energy efficiency, the central means
of CO2 savings with respect to the Kyoto obligations of the EU”. To
see the final communiqué and letter of the Ministers go to:
www.cecodhas.org/rightclick.cfm?id=789
The RICS Launches Attack
on the Architects
The Royal Institute of
Chartered Surveyors (RICS), through the front page of its publication “RICS
European Alert”, has launched an attack on architects. Using the
debate on the qualifications directive, the RICS tries to argue that
“appropriately qualified” building professionals such as “building surveyors”,
so-called “technical architects” (!?), “building experts” and so-called
“constructing architects” (!?) should be permitted to design buildings across
Europe. The article bluntly states that the practice of the Member States to
restrict the design of buildings to those persons holding the qualification or
title of architect, is un-competitive. The RICS used these arguments to try to
undermine the provisions of the qualifications directive by proposing
amendments to the directive. The RICS was supported in its efforts by a
group calling itself the Forum of European Construction Professionals (FECP),
in which it is closely involved. Fortunately there was no support for the
proposed amendments in Parliament and they were withdrawn before the vote in
the IMCO Committee of the 26th April (see above).
STOP THAT NOISE!
The Occupational Safety
and Health Agency (OSHA) of the Commission has chosen the topic of noise at
work as its theme for this year’s European week for Safety and Health at
Work. The week of events will take place from the 24th to the
28th October, but the accompanying campaign is already well
underway. According to the World Health Organisation, noise-induced
hearing loss is the most prevalent, irreversible industrial disease and the OSHA
say that one-in-four workers across the EU are exposed to such a high level of
persistent noise at work that they have to raise their voices to be
heard. For more on the campaign go to:
Former EU Trade
Commissioner Pascal Lamy is Named WTO Director-General
On Friday 13th
May, Ambassador Amina Mohammed, Chairman of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
General Council gave a statement that announced the appointment of Mr. Pascal
Lamy as the next Director-General of the WTO for a period of 4 years starting
on the 1st September 2005. The ACE, through its membership of
the European Services Forum (ESF), enjoyed a good relationship with Mr. Lamy
when he was the EU Commissioner for Trade; this means that he is well aware of
the services sector and ts demands for the ongoing Doha negotiations.
Guide on new Definition
of SME’s
The DG Enterprise at the
Commission has published a new guide explaining the new definition of small and
medium-sized enterprise (SME), which took effect on the 1st January
2005. It was established on the basis of a Commission recommendation of
the 6th May 2003 and it will apply to all programmes, all policies
and Commission measures in favour of SME’s. The electronic version of the
guide, which can be used to determine whether or not a company can be described
as an SME, can be found at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/enterprise_policy/sme_definition/index_en.htm
Parliament Adopts
Directive on Eco-design of Energy Using Products
On the 13th
April 2005, the European Parliament adopted, in Second Reading, the proposed
framework directive of August 2003, setting ecological requirements for the
design of energy-using products, that aims to improve their energy efficiency
and limit their impact on the environment. The Commission, in a press
release from the Commissioner for Energy, Mr. Andris Piebalgs, welcomed the
vote saying “this directive will allow sustainable and growing energy
savings to the benefit of consumers, which will go to boost the EU’s security
of energy supply”. The directive, when transposed into national laws
is expected to have a beneficial effect on businesses, especially on SME’s.
MEP’s Back Mandatory
Targets for Energy Savings by End-users
On the 20th
April, MEP’s in the Industry Committee backed the report by Ms. Mechtild Rothe
(PSE, Germany) on energy end-use efficiency and energy services. The
draft directive covers the retail supply and distribution of electricity and
natural gas to end-users including households, transport, industry and the
commercial and public sectors. The MEPs supported the directive’s most controversial
provision of setting a mandatory 1% annual energy saving target for Member
States. If confirmed in Plenary this could lead to confrontation with the
EU Council of Ministers, which has stated a preference for less rigid national
indicative targets.
Online Architectural
Archives
The French Architectural
Institute (IFA-Paris) has established an online architectural archive that
contains a wide range of information on the architectural archives of Europe
and on the keeping of archive material. It is the result of a three year
research programme on the subject, which was funded under a GAUDI grant.
Of particular interest are the guidelines for architectural practices that can
be downloaded from the site on how and what to archive. The address of the
site is:
France Adopts an
Environmental Charter
The French government
has “enshrined” an environmental charter in the French constitution. This
has put the right to a healthy environment on the same legal footing in France
as human rights. It is seen as a pioneering move in environmental
protection and it covers the principles of prevention, precaution and
polluter-pays. It also obliges individual citizens to “prevent or at
least limit” actions leading to environmental damage. The charter can be
accessed at:
Rem Koolhaas Awarded the
2005 Mies Van Der Rohe Prize
On the 11th
April, the European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and
Multi-Lingualism, Jan Figel and the Mayor of Barcelona, Juan Clos, awarded the
EU prize for contemporary architecture to the Dutch architect, Rem Koolhaas for
the Embassy of the Netherlands in Berlin. The prize award amounts to
50,000EUR and a sculpture by the Catalan artist Xavier Corbero.
The Emerging Architect
Special Mention award of 10,000EUR went to Basketbar project in Utrecht (the
Netherlands) by architects Pieter Bannenberg, Walter van Dijk, Kamile Klasse
and Mark Linnemann. Further details can be found at:
http://www.miesbcn.com/en/award.html
Internet Portal on the
use of Steel in Architecture
A new, multi-lingual,
internet portal site on the use of steel in architecture has been launched by
the Arcelor Group. It contains links to many useful and informative sites about
the use of steel and it is currently seeking to establish links from the site
to architectural institutions around the globe. The site can be viewed at:
Commission Puts Improved
WTO Offer on Services to Member States
On the 20th
April, the European Commission proposed to Member States a new revised EU Offer
on services for multilateral negotiations at the WTO on the Doha Round.
The improvements in the Offer, over the Offer of 2003, lies mainly in the fact
that concessions on market opening which, in 2003, only covered the EU-15, now
covers the EU-25. Another change relates to environmental services.
The Commission is consulting Member States on the Offer before sending it to
the WTO by the deadline of the end of May.
The EU, which is the
world’s largest exporter of services (with a 24% share of the world market),
recently sent individual requests to the 103 member countries of the WTO asking
them to agree to greater opening in their markets for services. In doing
so, it hopes that the countries in question will take account of European
requests when making their own Offers between now and the end of May.
Benchmarking Pilot Study
The Enterprise and
Industry Directorate-General of the European Commission has appointed Bernard
Williams Associates (BWA) of the UK to undertake a pilot study to investigate
the factors, which influence the relative resource usage and competitiveness in
EU construction industries. The project will be co-ordinated by Michael
Packham who is a partner in BWA and is under the direction of Bernard Williams
who is a consultant to the practice. Completion is scheduled for the end of
2005.
Davis Langdon Management
Consulting (DLMC) will be part of the BWA team with specific responsibility for
data collection. The team also includes an advisory panel of European
construction professionals and academics with a special knowledge of this
subject area on which the ACE has a seat. BWA would be interested to hear
from anyone who may wish to provide information of either a general or specific
nature, which will help them in the study. If you wish to contact them
then write to:
Demographic Change and
its Consequences for Cities
The German Journal of
Urban Studies (Vol. 44 (2004), No.1) has published five articles on this
subject. They look at the consequences that a shrinking and older
population pose for European cities. This is a particularly acute problem
for German cities. To view the articles go to:
www.difu.de/index.shtml?/publikationen/dfk/en/04_1/
Change, Brussels –
Capital of Europe
Published by Prism
Editions, this book takes the emerging role of Brussels as the Capital of
Europe as a stimulus to a number of large architectural practices who propose a
series of visions of what Brussels should become as Capital of Europe.
The City of Brussels, the book postulates, can act as a catalyst for the
essential incorporation of Culture into the European project, but only if it
develops and pursues a vision for the future development of the city. For
more information see:
UIA world congress - Istanbul
Time is short and the
UIA World Congress of architects is just two months away. You are invited to
look at the programme and events that are planned for this “Bazaar of
Architectures” at:
and to register to
attend the events.
Construction Safety 2006
A major international
conference that will address the wide range of issues that surround the Health
and Safety in the construction industry. It is being organized by the
Finnish Association of Civil Engineers and it will be held from the 10th
to the 12th May 2006 in Helsinki. The organisers have issued a
call for papers, which can be accessed at:
http://www.ril.fi/Resource.phx/english/index.htx
CIB 2005 Helsinki
Symposium: Combining Forces
The main objective of
this symposium, which will be held in Helsinki from the 13th to the
16th June 2005, is to put modern construction management and
economics into the perspective of modern real estate and construction
businesses and projects. Full information can be found at:
http://www.ril.fi:80/Resource.phx/seminaari/semi-cib2005/index.htx
An Estuary and its Towns
To be held in Nantes on
the 23rd and the 24th June 2005, this conference is being
organised by UNSFA (Union des syndicats français d’architectes) and it will
address issues of urban planning in the context of architecture and sustainable
development. Full details can be found at:
http://www.archilink.com/libre/S0022C60F-0022C621?WasRead=1
EFAP Event in Luxembourg
The European Forum for
Architectural Policies (EFAP) is holding its next plenary event in the context
of the Luxembourg Presidency of the EU. It is scheduled to take place on
the 27th and the 28th June and it will coincide with an
informal meeting of the European Ministers of Culture. This coincidence
will permit the participants in the Forum event to hold a joint session with
the Ministers on the morning of the 27th June. For further
information see the website of the EFAP at:
http://www.architecture-forum.net
Intensive Seminar on the
European Union
The College of Europe is
organising a training programme on the European Union for civil servants,
managers from private companies and NGO’s, lawyers and academics for whom
knowledge of the workings of the European Union is crucial to their work.
There are two possibilities to take the course. The first is the
“classic” approach lasting from the 4th to the 22nd July
2005. The second is the “compact” formula, lasting from the 11th
to the 15th July 2005. Full details on costs and booking at:
www.coleurop.be/content/rd/devoffice/prof/training/Intensive_Seminar_2005/IS_2005.htm
URBAN Future Conference
What place should
“Integrated Urban Regeneration” be given within the future EU Cohesion
Policy? This will be the question that will be at the heart of debates at
the URBAN Future conference for URBAN cities and networks. The conference
will take place in Saarbrucken (Germany) on the 8th and 9th
June 2005. For futher information see:
http://www.urbact.org/srt/urbacten/flb/minisite/show?flbid:=597
Rural Landscape and
Architectural Quality
The Alma Mater Studiorum
– University of Bologna and the International Network of Building Art and
Urbanism, under the patronage of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, has
announced the International Summer School in Architecture on the above
theme. It will be run at the Atelier at Morciano di Romagna in Rimini
from the 18th June to the 2nd July 2005. Full
details at:
www.unibo.it/Portale/Relazioni+Internazionali/Summer+School/summer/Architecture.htm
Global Summit on
Construction Industry R&D Strategies
To be held in Helsinki
on the 15th and 16th June 2005, this conference will seek
to integrate thinking from across the globe on various ways to accelerate
technological integration and automation in the construction industry. It
is being held in conjunction with the CIB2005 Conference (see above) and more
details can be found at:
http://www.ce.gatech.edu/research/GlobalSummit/
Competing and Caring:
Urban Research for European Urban Policy
To be held from the 14th
to the 17th September 2005 in Amsterdam, this conference is designed
to assist cities with practically orientated research and concrete policy
instruments to reinforce the economic and social strength of cities. For
full information go to:
San Agustin 2005
International Ideas Competition
This competition is
being organised by the Tenerife, La Gomera and El Hierro District of the
Official Association of Architects of the Canary Islands. The main
objective of the competition is to begin the process that will culminate in the
recovery of the city’s emblematic complex and, as a first stage, to select the
best idea within those participating in the Competition. Full details at:
http://www.coactfe.org/sanagustin/?language=english
Children in Scotland –
International Award for Architecture 2005
With the support of the
Scottish Executive and the OECD International Award (with the support of the
Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland), Children in Scotland is
inviting submissions from architects for an award for the most successful
building or space providing for children aged 0-10. Projects should have
been completed in the period December 1999 – December 2004. The deadline
is the 17th June 2005 and full details are available at:
European Commission
homepage
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/index_en.htm
Search page for
Commission documents
http://www.europa.eu.int/prelex/rech_simple.cfm?Cl=en
The Barroso Commission:
Http://europa.eu.int/comm/commission_barroso/index_en.htm
Website of the
Luxembourg Presidency
(then choose your
preferred language)
European Forum for
Architectural Policies
http://www.architecture-forum.net
Sustainable building
website
COAC international
relations database:
http://www.coac.net/internacional/default_w.html
CNAPPC database -
ArchiEurope:
http://www.archieuro.archiworld.it
Website of the European
construction technology platform:
EU impact assessment in
practice
Consult a list of impact
assessments that the EU has carried out on various legislative packages at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/impact/index_en.htm
ACE website
In the website addresses
given in ACE Info for the documents of the EU, you will frequently see
the following near the end of the address: “_en”. These two letters
define the language of the document (English in the case of “en”) and you can
usually change these two letters in order to bring you to a different language
version as follows:
French _fr German
_de Danish
_da Swedish
_sv
Italian _it Spanish
_es Greek
_el Dutch _nl
Portuguese _pt Finnish
_fi Czech _cs Maltese _mt
Estonian _et Latvian
_lv Lithuanian _lt Polish
_pl
Hungarian _hu Slovene
_sl Slovak _sk
The editorial board for
the compilation of ACE Info is:
The ACE President:
Marie-Helene Lucas
The Secretary General of
the ACE: Alain Sagne
Senior Advisor to the
ACE: Adrian Joyce
ACE Info is normally issued
around the second Wednesday of each month. You are free to circulate the
document as widely as you wish, to translate its contents for use in your
publications and to refer to the information it contains once you credit the
ACE as the origin.
If you wish to receive
ACE Info regularly and you are not on the mailing list, you can register online
at: http://www.ace-cae.org/Public/fsPublicNetwork_EN.html
If you have information
that you wish to have included in the next issue then e-mail it (in English or
French please) to adrian.joyce@ace-cae.org
Deadline for submissions is the first Friday of each month.
The editorial board
wishes to acknowledge the sources of information for this issue of ACE Info
which include Cecodhas, the RICS European Alert, EFLA Newsletter, ECTP
Bulletin, Bernard Williams Associates, le journal de l’architecte, the Euractiv
website (www.euractiv.com) and Bulletin
Quotidien Europe.
adrian.joyce@ace-cae.org
- Comments and contributions welcome