The traditional city is the sublime, complex and popular manifestation of civility and conviviality. It is the perfect synthesis between territory, culture and human communities. It is a stable and stimulating " Patria " for individuals, for locals and strangers, for residents and hosts, for industry, business, crafts, art, for communication and interaction, for social, cultural, intellectual and commercial exchanges, activities and inventions.

Despite of our century's quick and dramatic and unprecedented changes and innovations, the traditional city has remained a good and desirale place to live. It has proven to be perfectly compatible with modern life...It is both an experiencable reality and a realistical project of contemporary civilization.

Elevation study of new Kaltreis Quarter in Luxembourg (1984)

" To work within a tradition requires a certain acceptance of the limitations it brings: but if those limitations are understood to be inevitable consequences of man's position within nature outside of Paradise, outside of utopia, they will be perceived not as constraints but as the simple and natural containment of human action, including creativity. As Quinlan Terry puts it, the rules of classical architecture have the neutrality of a grammar, of the colours of a palette: what you can do with them is the result of an enquiry into their infinite possibilities. There is no constraint here which is any greater than the natural scope of an individual to utilise all his ressources of feeling and imagination. "

Robert Maxwell

" Quinlan Terry ", Academy Editions (1981)

Reconstruction of "Alter Markt", Stadtschloss and Lustgarten
Potsdam, Germany (1996-1997)


Prince of Wales's Urban Design Task Force (1996) with Brian Hanson, Victor Deupi, Jason Montgomery and Lucien Steil

Existing situation Potsdam (1996) with the impressive presence of Schinkel's Nicolaikirche on the Alter Markt.
The Stadtschloss has been deliberately demolished after the second World War as a symbol of monarchic absolutism whereas the church has fortunately been rebuilt.

The Prince of Wales's Urban Design Task Force adressed the reconstruction of the historical city in its integrity and its capacity to reconcile a contemporary urban conviviality with collective memory.

Model of the Prince of Wales's Urban Design Task Force
Potsdam, Germany in 1996

Paternoster Square, London by John Simpson

Kaltreis Counterproject Poster

Axionometric view of Kaltreis Counterproject by Lucien Steil.Instead of the low-density suburban official project, Lucien Steil proposes a complex and mixed-use quarter built according the principles of the traditional European city.

El Naranjo, View of New Town Center
by Correa, Valle, Valle