URBANITY Twenty Years Later was a research project, organized by the Centre for Central European Architecture, focusing on critical analysis of the transformation, which took a place within Central European region in the last twenty years.
The project involved different activities from exhibitions in public space to lectures, student projects and conferences, round tables, symposia’s. Architects, politicians, photographers, anthropologists, sociologists and philosophers from seven European capitals /Berlin, Budapest, Bratislava, Ljubljana, Prague, Warsaw and Vienna/ were attempting to point out their contemporary urban problems and develop a platform, which would enable future cooperation between the cities and experts.
The Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre was the local partner in the project coordinating the research in Budapest.
The city is a mirror of social changes and their reasons. But what does the national capital mean in today’s Europe? What is the representation of power in cities today? How have Central European capitals changed under the power of the transforming structure of society? What was the effect of the changes which happened in the last twenty years? What is the role of an architect nowadays and who decides about the city?
URBANITY student projects were focusing on developing new concepts for Central European capitals, which could be flexible enough to take into account the different speed of social, demographic and political changes.
URBANITY large scale photographs in busy public spaces tried to activate the public and question the negative impact of contemporary development strategies and tactics.
The outcome and the lessons learned throgh this interdisciplinary research project were published in a book called URBANITY Twenty Years Later.
