Shirin Rohani (MUD '08), Talal Rahmeh (MUD '07), and Adrian Phiffer (MUD '07, Sessional Lecturer 09-10) have been announced a winning team in Europan's Europan 10 competition. Their scheme for housing 3,000 people on a 62 ha site in the outskirts of Nurnberg, Germany proposed a primal approach to urban design. The jury report states:
 
"The authors have a problem with the urbanity required in the call for submissions. By taking a critical look at the task they arrive at an unusual and at the same time astoundingly simple solution, which on closer inspection is by no means convincing in every detail.
It is the only entry to formulate a relevant question to the site and supplies an answer which – although it is in part expressed in polemic terms – is nevertheless highly appropriate: Must we transfer the same metropolis to any and every location? And even if we wanted to: does it function everywhere?
NO.
Can urban density and agricultural use coexist?
YES.
If density is not to be understood as an abstract value which deposits an arbitrary bulk on a site, but “real houses” shoulder to shoulder, it works! And as long as these can breathe towards the rear, there can be no objection.
If doubt is cast on the quality of the margins of Tiefes Feld for residential use and thus only the central zone is used consistently, that is correct. It may appear strange to use the centre of the street for double parking, but it is very realistic and imitates wellknown metropolises. Who wants to escape the city? Only the carless who want to see green fields?
NO.
The target group wants to lie on the grass, trample it underfoot and ride over it – with the car right in front of the house. The underground accesses are thus not acclaimed – again very metropolitan – but carefully integrated. They are no more, but also no less than, a very logical prelude to a streetscape. Unfortunately this lacks a well-designed end, but the strategic thinking behind it is correct!"
 
More info:
http://www.europan.de/europan10/sites/nuernberg_results.html

www.europan-europe.com