In February 2025, the European Citizens’ Initiative HouseEurope! begins their voting period to propose legislation prioritizing renovation and adaptive reuse. To help make the case against demolition and vacancy, the Berlin-based magazine on architecture and urbanism ARCH+ will stage a “witness hearing” in the form of a conference at CIVA. Practitioners and theorists from all over Europe will exchange insights into successful approaches, but also economic, legislative, and architectural hurdles to a spatial practice of repair and care. In addition to spatial experts, members of the European Parliament are invited to directly address legislators. Speakers include Laurens Bekemans (BC architects & studies & materials / RWTH Aachen), Oana Bogdan (&bogdan / HouseEurope!), Iva Čukić (Ministarstvo prostora), An Fonteyne (noAarchitecten / ETH Zurich), Olaf Grawert (b+ / HouseEurope! / ETH Zurich), Gabu Heindl (GABU Heindl Architektur / Uni Kassel), Petra Hlaváčková (4AM Forum for Architecture and Media / Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien), Eva Prats (Flores & Prats / Università della Svizzera italiana), Marion Waller (Pavillon de l’Arsenal / HouseEurope!).
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The witness hearing is part of the project Tomorrow Is Already Built: Renegotiating the Future of Our Urban Space by ARCH+ together with the European Citizens' Initiative HouseEurope!, the Brussels landscape and architecture museum CIVA, the Munich activist group JustizzentrumErhalten/ AbbrechenAbbre chen, and the Munich theater PATHOS, in cooperation with the Allianz Foundation and the Hans Sauer Stiftung.
