European conference in Helsinki 19-21 October 2006
The international conference Celebrating the Everyday - Aspects of Architectural Policies was organized in the framework of the official activities of the Finnish Presidency of the EU and
in cooperation with the European Commission and the European Forum for Architectural Policies. The main hosts responsible for the event were the Ministry of Education and the National Council for Architecture. > Read more > See the Documents
A total of 262 participants from 32 countries - representing the three main pillars promoting architectural policies in the Member States, namely government, cultural institutions and the profession - experienced encouraging and visionary support from several prominent lecturers, exchanged experiences on innovative solutions, instruments and policies and helped the EFAP network to take a new step in its life and mission.
High-profile keynote lectures
The programme of the conference highlighted those strategies and policies promoting the understanding of the pervasive role that architecture plays in society and our day-to-day lives.
It was built round alternating international presentations and thematic discussion panels. The opening speaker, Lord Norman Foster of the UK, used carefully selected examples to provide irrefutable evidence of how responsible, intelligent planning is all-embracing and inclusive, and how ‘design’ only represents the tip of the iceberg in the planner’s work. His presentation culminated in a discussion with the Speaker of the Finnish Parliament, Paavo Lipponen. The lecture of the final speaker, Deyan Sudjic, the Director of the Design Museum in London, was at the same time part of the parallel Coup des Dés architectural conference by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation. An important aspect of the programme was presentations on the role of municipal and regional architectural policies, a distinct new trend in Finland that is close to local decision-making and citizens. > More about the programme
A many-sided complementary programme
The first conference day ended with a choir performance by 70 singers, An Invocation of a better environment, produced especially for the event. The picture of Finnish architecture was rounded off with half-day professional excursions and two important jubilee exhibitions: 130 Years of Finnish Architectural Competitions and the Finnish-American exhibition Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future. > More about the complementary programme
Towards stronger European networking
Two milestones were achieved in Helsinki in strengthening the operational potential of the NGO network the European Forum for Architectural Policies EFAP: a decision to maintain a permanent working relationship between future and past Presidency countries and progress on the idea of a support organization for the EFAP network. The conference also issued a Statement on the importance of architecture as a fundamental element of Culture and Cultural Policies, in the context of the Commission’s consultation “Culture for Europe – Europe for Culture”, which was sent to the European Commission and key EU officials.