Article 1 of the Europan 18 Results Catalogue
Check out the articles of the Europan 18 catalogue!
Learn more about each theme and sub-theme, through the articles of the catalogue.
Towards a Regenerative Sustaining of Inhabited Milieus
The article “Towards a Regenerative Sustaining of Inhabited Milieus,” published in the Europan 18 winners’ catalogue and written by Chris Younes (FR) anthropo-philospher, and Didier Rebois (FR) architect, General Secretary Europan, shows how the awarded projects respond to environmental and social crises. Regeneration is framed not just as using natural systems, but as giving back to them—cultivating symbiosis between human and nonhuman life.
Five strategic orientations emerge:
1-New local naturocultural alliances: reconnect settlements to local materials, ecosystems, and bioregional resource cycles, with reuse, microparks, and civic participation.
2-Renaturing infrastructures and industrial sites: transform obsolete networks and brownfields through ecological restoration, biodiversity, water systems, soft mobility, and adaptive reuse.
3-Symbiotic inhabited parks: create interconnected park systems that reinforce water–soil–vegetation cycles while supporting resilient public life.
4-Reestablishing largescale ecological continuities: repair fragmented territories via corridors, restored water networks, and links between cities and their landscapes.
5-Regenerative forwardlooking scenarios: develop adaptive responses to climate risks—sponge landscapes, productive ecosystems, participatory governance, and circular economies.
Overall, the projects move away from extractivism and rigid modernism toward approaches that acknowledge interdependence, vulnerability, and coevolution. Regenerative sustaining becomes a way to inherit existing conditions, care for living environments, and open new beginnings grounded in diversity, locality, and ecological responsibility.
>> Click here to read more about the article from Chris Younès and Didier Rebois