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MESSAGE FROM HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES TO THE OPENING SESSION OF “A VISION OF EUROPE”, BOLOGNA, 9th MARCH 2000.
I am
sorry not to be able to be with you in person at this, the third
exhibition and conference organised by “A Vision of Europe”
– and the first of a
new century. I remember with pleasure my earlier visits to Bologna, in
1992 and 1996, when I was able to meet, and to see the work of, so many
people who think about building as I do. So I was determined to be with
you in some fashion this year
also, and I trust you will forgive the fact that I can only be with you on
video.
“A Vision of Europe”
began at the same time as I set out my own thoughts about architecture and
urbanism in “A Vision of Britain”, and in the eight years since it was
founded a remarkable amount has been achieved. “A Vision of Europe”
now regularly brings together, at gatherings like this one, like-minded
people from all over the world. It is encouraging to know that there are
now some hundreds of architects and town planners around the world seeking
to recover and reapply the principles which guided the creation of
traditional environments. Of course, these are still small numbers
compared with the many thousands for whom the past remains at worst an
irrelevancy, or at best the source for a “pick-and-mix” approach to
design, but the more that can be built
– the more concrete alternatives you can offer – the more influential
these few will become.
On another level,
“A Vision of Europe” has also shown itself to be effective at
spreading the word, with a version of the exhibition I opened in 1996
having been continually on the road since then, travelling to Norway,
Belgium, Germany, Spain, and Portugal. And there are even higher ambitions
for this current exhibition, which it is hoped, after making a start in
Berlin, will go through Central Europe, beginning with Prague. And then
there is the new, and growing, website, which has the potential of making
information about traditional environments, and about the professionals
able to deliver such environments, accessible to many millions of people. At present I am bringing together various of my organisations concerned with the built environment in a new Foundation, which is about to open in a converted warehouse in the East end of London. My new Foundation will, I hope, learn a great deal from what you are doing.
It was just a century
ago that a great English Man of Letters died, a man who did an enormous
amount to foster understanding between England and Italy, and for whom I
have always had the most profound admiration. The man in question was the
art and social critic John Ruskin, and it seems appropriate to mention him
here because he once argued that Italy had a unique role to play in modern
Europe – in his view it had to be the guardian of the memory
of this great continent. When industrialisation and commercialism had done
their worst, he believed, weary souls – who by then would only
half-remember the great things of which their culture was capable - would
return to Italy with gladness, to rediscover all they had lost.
I think he recognised a truth, and he would certainly rejoice to
see so many of you coming to Bologna to remember
what the city is, after a century of its dismemberment.
Bologna itself is, of
course, an object lesson in what a city should be, and not only because of
its impressive medieval and renaissance fabric. It is the epitome of the
city as a collective work of art in which, seemingly miraculously to our
eyes, manifold building projects of all shapes and sizes, initiated over
long periods of time, by all classes of people, under the most rudimentary
of building codes, produced something living,
a distinct organism, the wholeness
of which is readily apparent to us, as well as the beauty of its separate
parts. The beginning of the last millennium was marked by a wave of such
collective works of art – not only the city, but also the cathedral that
stood at its heart.
I would say above all
to the members of “A Vision of Europe”, “keep alert to what people
are saying to you”. I wouldn’t like to think that your passion for the
traditional will ossify, and lead to a fixation on form at the expense of
those manifold processes which go on at a grassroots level, and which make
and remake cities day after day. We should have the utmost respect for
these, and work with them as far as we are able. I believe that tradition
is not something that belongs to the past, but rather something that
should be continually renewed. What
“A Vision of Europe” has managed to put on the walls of its exhibition
shows clearly that there is another way, and that that way is a viable one,
one which is being practiced in increasing quantities. It is evidently
possible to construct new cities which are founded on timeless principles
of harmony and beauty. I am happy that I have been able to play some part
myself in bringing about this state of affairs, I look forward to doing
more to sustain it, and I am pleased to be able to send my good wishes for
a project, like “A Vision of Europe”, which is doing so much to offer
an alternative view of the future.
Thank you.
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