Life in europe’s urban sprawl
By Charlotte Stace
The CCCB welcomes an international seminar that brings together experts from all over Europe to discuss the phenomenon of urban sprawl.
Despite its history of compact towns and cities, Europe has increasingly become a continent of sprawling urbanised landscapes. Urban sprawl is not as dense as city centres and often lacks tight-knit fabric and communities. Although suburbs have always traditionally been understood as peri-urban spaces directly linked to an urban centre, the current expansion spreads further in the territory and is, therefore, rarely understood as truly urban.
Even if urban sprawl does not look like a city, it is still urban in character and has forms, patterns and its own logic. What is the urban reality of today's Europe? What remains of compact cities and what new scenarios are being opened up by the growing prevalence of urban sprawl? This discussion aims to answer these questions and many more.