Open City: Designing Coexistence
September 25, 2009 - January 10, 2010
Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI)
Curator: Kees Christiaanse, co-curator: Tim Rieniets
The main exhibition of the 4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam takes place in the Netherlands Architecture Institute. With a new and direct link from the street into its largest exhibition hall, the NAI will literally open itself up to the city of Rotterdam. Visitors enter into a dynamic public forum. A large-scale walk-through model of the Open City fills the space of the Forum, mixing introductory exhibitions with public activities. The theme of the 4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam is the Open City, a city that is diverse, lively and socially sustainable, where people can productively relate to each other culturally, socially, as well as economically.
More specifically, with the theme Open City: Designing Coexistence, the 4th IABR raises the question of social cohesion in the city from the point of view of its designer: how can architects and urbanists make realistic contributions to the sustainable quality of the urban condition.With three exhibitions, a unique collaboration with a public broadcaster and an extensive side program of lectures, film screenings, debates, workshops, an international master class and other events, the fourth edition of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) embraces the theme of the Open City, a city that is diverse, lively and socially sustainable, where people can productively relate to each other culturally, socially, as well as economically.
For 12 consecutive weeks the Forum is the arena for an interdisciplinary program of events. The program is organized as 12 thematic clusters of activities featuring lectures, documentary films, workshops, conferences, book launches, guided tours and excursions, and an “Open Podium”—a platform for interdisciplinary performances, presentations, and debates hosted each week by a different local “ambassador.”
The cluster-topics include both Open City sub-themes—Maakbaarheid (“Makeability”), Refuge, Reciprocity, Community, Squat, and Collective—and other subjects related to the Open City such as Connectivity, Fear, Migration, Access, and Source, about Jane Jacobs and the origins of the Open City concept.
The Open City Event
Program contains the following event-types:
- Keynote Lectures
The international lectures given by an esteemed group of specialists,
theorists, and other thinkers from various disciplines form the core of
the weekly program. The NAI’s ongoing lecture series, held on Thursday
evenings at 8 pm, is temporarily integrated with the 4th IABR. Speakers
include Kees Christiaanse, Lars Lerup, Eyal Weizman, Abdou Maliq Simone,
Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Roberta Brandes Gratz, Robert Neuwirth, and Saskia
Sassen, among others.
- Film Program
The IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) is the world’s
largest documentary film festival. At the IABR's request, IDFA has organized
a special documentary film series on the city, to be screened in the Forum
on Wednesdays at 3:30 pm and on Sundays at noon. IDFA presents both classics
and new documentaries during the series, selected in relation to the cluster
themes.
- Workshops, Debates, and Symposia
Held on Fridays, workshops, conferences, seminars, and symposia bring
together practitioners, academics, and special-interest groups for presentations
and knowledge-exchange on topics related to the cluster themes. ?These
include the Berlage Masterclass presentation, a symposium on the relevance
of Jane Jacobs in the Dutch context organized by Trancity, a workshop
led by Eyal Weizman, a participatory “Gotong Royong” workshop
and performance, a roundtable on “The Right to the City,”
and a seminar with Ethiopian students in Rotterdam. In addition, the Rotterdam
housing corporation Woonstad, partner of the 4th IABR, is organizing a
debate entitled “Who Makes the City?” on the occasion of its
100-year anniversary. During the opening weekend, the symposium “Squat:
Urbaninform” will take place.
- Open Podium
The Open Podium explores how disciplines other than architecture take
on the challenges and dilemmas of “designing coexistence.”
Each Friday afternoon, a local “cultural ambassador” hosts
a performance, presentation, or discussion related to the theme of that
week. The contributors are encouraged to leave behind “residue”
of their acts—a small, temporary exhibition that remains until another
ambassador claims the podium on the following Friday. Open Podium events
begin at 5 pm.
- Curators’ Tours
Guided tours by the sub-curators of Maakbaarheid, Refuge, Reciprocity,
Community, Squat, and Collective are held during the weekend of each respective
cluster. Each tour is introduced with a presentation in the Forum.
- Weekend and other Events
On the website,
an extensive overview of the Open City Event Program, and updates on book
launches, special film screenings, musical and theatrical interventions,
as well as VPRO radio and film events are published and kept up to date.