The urban centre and its environment accessible to all

The purpose is to improve the quality and the attractiveness of the living environment in interurban areas. For example “a town centre” connected by “eco-friendly transport" to a ‘public square’ and to a ‘park’... served by an intercommunal transport network provides an answer to these concerns.

Description
Public services, shops and jobs are found in the centres of small towns of less than 20,000 habitants and large villages for reasons connected with the history of urban development and town planning. Small towns and village communities, where there is a strong potential for the quality-of-life with nature and national heritage, are areas where town planning and rurality can combine, respecting ecological constraints. Sustainable development in these territories will provide an alternative to the urban concentrations in large built-up areas’
The purpose of these developments is to improve the quality and the attractiveness of the living environment in interurban areas. For example “a town centre” connected by “eco-friendly transport" to a ‘public square’ and to a ‘park’ … served by an intercommunal transport network provides an answer to these concerns. Based on these existing situations, any improvements made to the quality of life will highlight:
- That conditions of access to the urban centres are specific to each territory (i,e, coastline, mountain, plain, large built-up areas) and take into account the location of centres for employment, services and public amenities
- The use of new means of transport aiming to reduce or replace the use of the individual car
- Easy and safe use of the urban centre and its environment by ‘everyone’.
Quality of life will be evaluated using the three criteria in the ‘Referential for the quality of life’ with priority given to the respecting references below :
- architectural quality: improvements to facilitate access to public buildings and areas
- quality of community life: possibility of easier access to the urban centre for everyone
- respect of the environment: savings in parking areas and energy could be made,
depending on the means of transport used.
Each professor chooses the study site in consultation with the local authority concerned (villages, boroughs, small towns, community of municipalities, public establishments…)

Jury
The Selection Committee comprising professional experts and the Internet Judges and the professors who participated in the competition

Prize
The International arturbain.fr prize: 1,500 €
The 3 distinctions (architectural quality, quality of community life, respect of the environment): €500 each

Entry Fee
None

Entries
The CD-Rom including an A1 format JPG file and an A4 format JPG file and 2 A2 portrait sections (in French and in the local language)

Language
French or English

Submission Address
S.R.A.
Grande Arche
92055 PARIS LA DEFENSE CEDEX

Timetable
Technical committee and Selection committee: March 2010
Publication of the pre-selected sketches on the Internet and distribution to professors who have taken part in the Competition : March/ April 2010
Transmission of the scores to the professors and publication of the results: May 2010
Award of prizes and exhibition in Paris: June 2010

Organizer
The Association for Urban Art

Official Website
http://www.arturbain.fr/
http://www.arturbain.fr/arturbain/concours/2010/r....