The exibition ‘The Freestate of Amsterdam’ (dutch website), which is the contribution of the municipality of Amsterdam to the 4th IABR, curated by DRO director Zef Hemel, opened its gates to the public yesterday. The exibition takes place in our backyard, the Tolhuistuin.
Nine Dutch urban design offices present their visions on the future of Amsterdam, in nine large models for sections of the future metropolis. The offices were given, as it is said, a free hand to make their designs without predetermined rules or restrictions. Their models intend not to show plans or blueprints for the city as such, but rather inspirational ideas for the long term.
Urhahn Urban Design
Rietveld Landscape I Atelier de Lyon
Already twee weeks ago Dutch public broadcaster VPRO screened a documentary entitled Amsterdam Makeover 2040, where at least some guys dropped some critical notes on the vision of the Physical Planning Departement. VPRO also initiated the Urban Century project, which is really taking off at the moment en forms a nice platform for divers information on the urban cauldron.
Filed under: Architecture, Design, National Practice, Social Engineering , IABR, Vrijstaat Amsterdam
Yesterday the 4th edition of the IABR opened it’s doors for the public. The theme of the 2009 edition Open City: Designing Coexistence raises the question of social cohesion in and access to the city in relation to the contributions architects and urbanists can make for improving the quality of the urban condition. The curator of the exibition is Kees Christiaanse. The main exibition will take place at the NAi in Rotterdam until january 10 2010.
One of the highlights of the exibition, at least in terms of relevance for this blog, is the Maakbaarheid (makeability) exibition sub curated by Crimson Architectural Historians. As part of the exibition Crimson, together with numerous local and international partners, reveals the persistent belief in the makeability of urban society that has infomed urban policies and projects throughout the Netherlands for more than half a century. ‘Facts on the Ground’ is a case study of the post war urban landscape of Rotterdam in which the large scale social engineering projects from the 1950s onwards, form the inspiration for nine bottum-up design proposals for existing locations in Rotterdam. Other parts of the exibition are the ‘Make No Big Plans’ Manifesto, which argues that the time is not yet right for the Big Solution, but rather argues for architectural interventions on a scale that still allows for perspective, and the film ‘Story of an Open City’ which shows, how time has left its mark on the city’s structure.
Anyway, there’s plenty of stuff going on at the IABR the coming months. Check the exibition calendar for detailed information. The event program will focus on Maakbaarheid from 21 to 25 October.
Filed under: Architecture, Design, Social Engineering , IABR, Research, Rotterdam
