Europan

thumb | right | alt=Europan housing unit, Favaro Veneto | Europan 1 (1990), 18 housing units in Favaro Veneto (Venice) by Ruggero Lenci, Nilda Valentin. Europan is a biennial competition for young architects under 40 years of age to design innovative housing and urban planning for sites across Europe. It is considered the world's largest (and the smartest) competition in the field. The competition encourages architects to address social, cultural and economic changes occurring in towns and cities and offers the opportunity for cross-cultural learning and networking for the architects and site promoters involved.

== Structure == The initiative was founded in 1989 and is supported by 19 European countries. The organizer of these competitions is the “Europan Europe” association, based in Paris, which forms the European umbrella organisation for a network of national European organisations. The President of the association is currently Manuel Blanco, and the General Secretary is Didier Rebois. The respective national organisations consist of representatives of public administrations, cities and municipalities, as well as representatives of the clients and architectural associations.