This is the first post in a new series called ‘The Consequences of Modernity’. In this series we will try to shed light on several large-scale, comprehensive social engineering practices and the related key figures which lay at the foundation of modernist urban planning. We will further try to use this practices as windows for…
HOWTOPEDIA
Zürich based howtopedia provides an excellent collaborative Internet platform for practical knowledge and simple technologies which can be of use in all areas of daily life. Read articles about stuff like how to build a no-dig garden, about basic beakeeping principles, about how to set up a publication or how to build a biomass roof….
Frascati presents Utopia/Dystopia
Frascati International presents Utopia/Dystopia, a programme made up of Dutch and international productions in which theatre-makers explicitly relate to our times. They speak out in an attempt to create order in a world from which the big ideologies have disappeared. You could call it documentary theatre in which the personal and the political meet. Between…
Urban Fruit and Vegetables
I just came across two great initiatives which could be very useful on the way towards a more integrated urban farming strategy for Amsterdam Noord. In terms of mapping potential (semi-)public green spaces in the city the idea behind the Urbana-Champaign Fruit Map, initiated by the people from La Casa Urbana, is interesting. This Google…
Urban Century Audiovisual Archive
That’s how we like it. Tons of movies, documentaries, lectures and discussions on the urban condition, all availible for free. As part of the Urban Century project the VPRO provides an excellent, ever evolving audiovisual archive. The footage is accessible as free download, stream, torrent or podcast. You can select content wheather by geographical location,…
all over the kiez
all over the kiez is a photographic exibition taking place in St. Pauli, Hamburg, that in fact is not a photographic exibition. It is a project that focuses on the concept of giving and taking. All photos on the website can be geolocated through Google maps. The coordinates of the city grid become the titles…
2059 Speculative Peculiars
Futureology is going strong lately. 2059 Speculative Peculiars is initiated by Femke Lutgerink en Partizan Publik Urgestein Christiaan Fruneaux. The series is an imaginary and visionary glance at the future of urban landscapes. It is an interdisciplinary program about the possible and the impossible, the politics, subcultures, developments and conventions that will govern and shape…
The Freestate of Amsterdam
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,…
Maakbaarheid at the IABR
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…
Moving Movement
We haven’t been posting for a while right now, and the same will be true for most of august. This is mainly due to our insatiable need for holiday. But also, after the well deserved holiday break, our office will be moving to this great new location in the Tolhuistuin (former Shell headquarters), right behind…
Interview with James C. Scott at Masters of Intervention IV
This seasons’ Masters of Intervention series culminated in the last lecture hosted by Yale sterling professor James C. Scott. The lecture focused on his recent research on the hill people of Zomia in South East Asia. Scott presented the argument that the practice of living dispersed and mobilised, which historically was all coded as being…
Final Presentations at Amsterdam City Hall
Last week the university minor program ‘Social Engineering in the Amsterdam Metropolis’ reached it’s ‘official’ tipping point at the Amsterdam City Hall. The students presented the results of their 16 weeks lasting full time research trajectory to the mayor of Amsterdam Job Cohen and an elaborate jury of professional social engineers. The jury consisted of…
Engineering Society 