Article 2 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.
Water Territories : From Resistance to Resilience
The article is published in the results catalogue of the European competition Europan 18 written by Annelies De Nijs (BE) urban designer, co-founder of Atelier Horizon and Céline Bodart (BE) PhD architect, lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture of Liege University (BE) and at the Paris-la-Villette School of architecture (FR).
The authors argue that contemporary urban design must move from controlling water to inhabiting its logic, especially as climate instability intensifies. Europan 18 projects show how water can become the structural backbone of territories rather than a decorative feature or hidden utility. The authors describe three key dimensions of this shift.
1-Landscape foundations: projects begin by engaging with soils, topography, and geomorphology. They restore natural hydrological functions—such as infiltration, flood resilience, and river continuity—and use them to guide new forms of urban development. Several examples show how polluted soils, riverbanks, and valleys can be reactivated throughecological strategies like phytoremediation and seasonal water systems.
2-Territorial solidarity: rethinking water requires new governance models and ethicalframeworks. Some projects propose watershed-based management, others introduce moral or civic contracts between humans and rivers, or address water justice by ensuring equalaccess to water and restoring water cycles.
3-Living metabolisms: many sites suffer from ecological and social exhaustion due to pastindustrial use. Projects therefore work with long-term regeneration processes, new temporalities, and unexpected ecological “allies,” such as waste materials or insects, to rebuild resilient waterscapes and socio-ecological systems.
Overall, the article shows that Europan 18 projects shift from managing water as a threat to designing resilient, interconnected territories where water becomes the vital connective tissue linking environment, society, and urban form.
>> Click here to read more about the article from Annelies de Nijs and Céline Bodart