The Why Factory

22/11/2022

https://youtu.be/5eAww3HJW2E

"Art is essential to understand our societies and cultures beyond the political vagaries of a certain moment. It can be critical through beauty (or through ugliness), it is one of the world's places of autonomy, reflection, production of alternatives, seduction, and hope. In this sense, the PAN Amsterdam campaign we conceived is a call for action for both the public and the private sector. Let's protect art.

"Our contribution to PAN is based upon the idea of bringing art to the urban scale, enlarging the role of art. Inspired by the work of Claes Oldenburg, whose public art installations featured large replicas of everyday objects, we claim for a city that is full of art. Let's make cities of diversity that become true living art biennials.

"PAN's art collection is the base for our visualisations. This art collection forms an enormous cloud of knowledge growing constantly as time goes by, just like the endlessly growing amounts of information gathered in data centres. How to accumulate all the art that is produced? Where to locate it in the future? Myriad options are possible: from a flat city of art spread across the plains, to a compact and dense one. From a tower of art on earth to a cloud of art in the sky, to a donut, to a puppy, to a spider... To a planet... How to evaluate the best direction in which to go? How to 'urbanise' with art? We can design a city where streets are organised in alphabetical order: from A as in Abramovich to Z as in Zurbarán. Otherwise, if the city is designed in a chronological manner, then legacy of Ancient Egypt might be displayed in plazas surrounded by Dutch Golden Age area quarters with Rembrandt courtyards.

"Sorting is a free exercise allowing us to organise information and hence this art city in many ways: from dark to light, from black to white, from porous to compact, from flat to vertical, from light to heavy. And the list goes on...

"Let's think together how to sort all the art. Isn't sorting an art in itself? "

Welcome to the art of sorting. Welcome to the city of arts. Welcome to PAN."

— Winy Maas With MVRDV and Why Factory

Shall we consider everything as art? What if bridges, buildings, gardens, or public squares – in short: the entire built environment – had artistic value? Ou...

05/10/2022

The Why Factory students at CTU Prague take over one of the atriums with slogans for a Bio World.

21/09/2022

Some moments from the studio Bioworld Kickoff at CTU Prague.

Winy Maas, the recently appointed visiting professor at the Faculty of Architecture of CTU in Prague, will instruct, together with Javier Arpa Fernández, Adrien Ravon, Lex te Loo and Šimon Knettig, two semesters during the academic year 22/23 with the The Why Factory, the think-tank he directs at TU Delft in the Netherlands.

During the Winter semester (Next Planet design studio), The Why Factory will look at the current planetary urgencies and to possible interventions to construct alternative futures for our planet (please see description below). In the Spring semester (Czech Checks design studio), the focus will be put in the analysis of the Czech Republic and the proposal of a myriad interventions aimed at triggering a discussion around the country’s future (description of this studio will follow shortly).

Fall Studio:

Earth is our home; Earth supports us and contains all known life in the universe. But our home is threatened: climate breakdown, population growth, deforestation, pollution, income disparities – just to name just a few – are accelerating tremendously. These urgencies demand action and -more than ever- imagination from all of us, from citizens to designers to policy makers.

It is obvious that it is time to begin thinking about our planet in completely new ways. Both the built and the non-built environment have become fundamentally different in many aspects, but we are still trying to physically define it in the same way as before. And we are almost paralyzed in what seems to be a splintered and contradictory reality. On the one hand cities and communities are highly individualistic and increasingly based on the individual unit, and on the other hand global connectivity and awareness is proliferating in almost all our daily activities. There is a need to find ways of bringing together these two extremities – the individual and the collective – from both ends and both conceptually and practically, into possible constructions.

tudelft

.

02/09/2022

Winy Maas, the recently appointed visiting professor at the Faculty of Architecture of CTU Fakulta architektury ČVUT] in Prague, will instruct, together with Javier Arpa Fernández, Adrien Ravon, Lex te Loo and Šimon Knettig, two semesters during the academic year 22/23 with the The Why Factory, the think-tank he directs at TU Delft in the Netherlands.

During the Winter semester (Next Planet design studio), The Why Factory will look at the current planetary urgencies and to possible interventions to construct alternative futures for our planet (please see description below). In the Spring semester (Czech Checks design studio), the focus will be put in the analysis of the Czech Republic and the proposal of a myriad interventions aimed at triggering a discussion around the country’s future (description of this studio will follow shortly).

Fall Studio:

Earth is our home; Earth supports us and contains all known life in the universe. But our home is threatened: climate breakdown, population growth, deforestation, pollution, income disparities – just to name just a few – are accelerating tremendously. These urgencies demand action and -more than ever- imagination from all of us, from citizens to designers to policy makers.

It is obvious that it is time to begin thinking about our planet in completely new ways. Both the built and the non-built environment have become fundamentally different in many aspects, but we are still trying to physically define it in the same way as before. And we are almost paralyzed in what seems to be a splintered and contradictory reality. On the one hand cities and communities are highly individualistic and increasingly based on the individual unit, and on the other hand global connectivity and awareness is proliferating in almost all our daily activities. There is a need to find ways of bringing together these two extremities – the individual and the collective – from both ends and both conceptually and practically, into possible constructions.

Fakulta architektury ČVUT]tudelft

.

15/07/2022

The building industry has made a great progress in the development of more efficient, faster or greener prefabricated architectures. We are witnessing great advancements in customization, structural systems, building efficiency or waste control, to name a few.

But our Planet can’t wait: we need to accelerate research and become truly circular. How can we help such ‘pixel’ industry make better architectures and better environments? Can we develop a true pixel economy that makes the users’ life more cost effective? Shall we develop a true pixel ecology that makes life on Earth more CO2 reductive? How about a pixel society where living in pixels is ideal? Let’s create a true utopia, a Pixeltopia.

.tudelft
....

20/06/2022

Join us on the orange tribune for the final presentation (Every)Body is Urbanism, the current MSc2 Design Studio at the TU Delft.

.tudelft

17/06/2022

Architecture taking action: The Why Factory and MVRDV exhibition in Paris positions design as a tool to make the world a better place.

Visit now!:
Agir! will open to the public on June 10 at the ArchiLib Gallery in Paris (located at 49, Boulevard de la Villette). The exhibition will be on show until July 26; the gallery is open Monday-Friday from 09:30 to 18:00.

“Architecture and urbanism are calls to action” – that is the central principle behind MVRDV’s newest exhibition, Agir!, that will open at the ArchiLib Gallery in Paris on June 10. Taking its name from the French verb meaning “to take action”, the exhibition examines MVRDV’s work through an explicitly activist framing. The ideological underpinning for this framing comes from a “bucket list” developed by MVRDV, comprising 44 goals for the future of our world, from “biodiverse”, “self-sufficient”, and “green” to “collaborative”, “democratic”, and “beautiful”.

The first exhibition focused primarily upon MVRDV’s broad portfolio of work in France, Agir! presents over fifty projects, positioning the firm’s French work within their broader oeuvre of international projects and research. Each project is accompanied by a punchy “slogan” – inspired by the language of activism and protest – that captures the essence of the project, highlighting how each design challenges the status quo and paves the way for a better future.

The exhibition also includes the work of The Why Factory, the think-tank established at TU Delft by MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas in 2007. Forming a symbiotic relationship with the designs of MVRDV, the research at the Why Factory investigates the future of the city and the planet to produce observations, hypotheses, and statements in a visual and direct manner. The exhibition gives special focus to a presentation of the think-tank’s newest publication, (w)Ego, which will be launched during the exhibition.
tudelft

16/06/2022

A great excursion day with the students to the Valley by in Amsterdam. Including a review with Winy Maas in one of the appartments, class on the outdoor staircases of the building and a visit to the new Sapiens museum by the Naturalis Biodiversity centre.
tudelft

16/06/2022

Winy Maas hands over the first copy of (w)Ego to our Dean Dick van Gameren on the rooftop of the HNI in Rotterdam during a very successful book launch.

Order your copy via nai010 publishers :
https://www.nai010.com/en/publicaties/wego/245785

On (w)Ego:

Why are we condemned to live in mass cages, multiplied to towers and slabs? Why should we want to live in profitdriven spaces that reduce our options in life to limited variations of the same basic floor plans? Where is our freedom? How can we improve on this? Can architecture take on our egos and shape a future with more and more responsible options?

(w)Ego investigates the freedom of designing and building our dream home in the dense city. (w)Ego explores the potential of desire-based design processes, prioritizing residents’ wishes in the process of constructing and adapting housing and the city itself. It expands the possibilities of individual fantasy in a dense world by means of negotiation with our neighbours and the environment. In short, freedom and imagination meet responsibility and collaboration.

Ego becomes (w)Ego. Moving from fear to curiosity, rigidity to adaptability, egoism to (w)Egoism, (w)Ego explores and pushes the limits of domestic architecture, looking for new ways to live together in density.

.tudelft

01/06/2022

THE WHY FACTORY PUBLISHES “(W)EGO: DREAM HOMES IN DENSITY”, EXPLORING PARTICIPATION AND GAMING PROCESSES IN HOME DESIGN

How can we turn every dwelling into a desirable home? The latest book by The Why Factory, (w)Ego: Dream Homes in Density, investigates participatory processes and applies them to housing design. These processes establish a negotiation between the desires of each of the residents of a housing block and help determine the design of their units. (w)Ego explores these negotiations through the development of gaming processes that leverage the specific dreams of each resident and transform them into spatial requirements. This way, novel housing typologies emerge within a truly human-driven, dreamy architecture.

This book brings together research undertaken by students from The Why Factory at TU Delft and students from IIT Chicago, RMIT Melbourne and Bezalel Academy Jerusalem who collaborated with The Why Factory.

https://thewhyfactory.com/news/the-why-factory-publishes-wego-dream-homes-in-density/

25/05/2022

Architecture taking action: MVRDV and The Why Factory exhibition in Paris positions design as a tool to make the world a better place.

“Architecture and urbanism are calls to action” – that is the central principle behind MVRDV’s newest exhibition, Agir!, that will open at the ArchiLib Gallery in Paris on June 10. Taking its name from the French verb meaning “to take action”, the exhibition examines MVRDV’s work through an explicitly activist framing. The ideological underpinning for this framing comes from a “bucket list” developed by MVRDV, comprising 44 goals for the future of our world, from “biodiverse”, “self-sufficient”, and “green” to “collaborative”, “democratic”, and “beautiful”.

The first exhibition focused primarily upon MVRDV’s broad portfolio of work in France, Agir! presents over fifty projects, positioning the firm’s French work within their broader oeuvre of international projects and research. Each project is accompanied by a punchy “slogan” – inspired by the language of activism and protest – that captures the essence of the project, highlighting how each design challenges the status quo and paves the way for a better future.

The exhibition also includes the work of The Why Factory, the think-tank established at TU Delft by MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas in 2007. Forming a symbiotic relationship with the designs of MVRDV, the research at the Why Factory investigates the future of the city and the planet to produce observations, hypotheses, and statements in a visual and direct manner. The exhibition gives special focus to a presentation of the think-tank’s newest publication, (w)Ego, which will be launched during the exhibition.

“When I founded MVRDV alongside Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries, we were strongly motivated by a desire to do things differently, to make the changes in the world that we thought were necessary,” says Winy Maas. “I am proud to say that almost 30 years later, that spirit is still fundamental to our office – even while the challenges that we face as a species only grow more urgent. This was part of the reason for the foundation of The Why Factory: I wanted something that was independent, so we could research without thinking about the immediate needs of an architecture firm, but which nonetheless could help inform the future vision of the company. With this exhibition we want to challenge our colleagues, in a way: what kind of future do you want to see?”

The projects are printed in chronological order on a 78-metre-long fabric curtain that is tightly folded into the gallery’s small floorplan. This density of information highlights the intensity of action required to tackle the challenges afflicting society, the environment, and the world at large. To magnify this sense of urgency, the exhibited works are accompanied by graphics on the floor that show the condition of the polar ice caps at various moments in the project timeline.

Despite the seriousness of this framing, the tone of Agir! is, at its heart, optimistic. It shows how, through their work, architects can fight against global injustices and presents idealistic architecture not as a mere utopian speculation, but as a pragmatic possibility. This is underscored by the exhibition’s final component; connected to the ArchiLib gallery, via a patio at the rear of the space, the exhibition continues into the ground floor of MVRDV’s own Paris office, which during the exhibition will be open to the public for the first time. Here, the exhibition presents models of projects currently in progress, following the style of Parisian ateliers d’artistes. In this way, visitors not only experience MVRDV’s history of architectural action, but also see actions which are still being taken, in the place where they are being carried out.

Agir! will open to the public on June 10 at the ArchiLib Gallery in Paris (located at 49, Boulevard de la Villette). The exhibition will be on show until July 26; the gallery is open Monday-Friday from 09:30 to 18:00.

18/05/2022

Come and join this lecture by Winy Maas in the occasion of the launch of the most recent book by The Why Factory (TU Delft): (w)Ego on June 14.

(w)Ego is the thirteenth book in The Why Factory’s Future Cities series, and follows The Why Factor(y), Visionary Cities, Green Dream, Vertical Village, Hong Kong Fantasies, City Shock, We Want World Wonders, Barba, Absolute Leisure, Copy Paste, PoroCity, and Towers of Choice. Come and join this lecture by Winy Maas in the occasion of the launch of the most recent book by The Why Factory (TU Delft): (w)Ego.

About (w)Ego

(w)Ego investigates the freedom of designing and building our dream home in the dense city. (w)Ego explores the potential of desire-based design processes, prioritizing residents’ wishes in the process of constructing and adapting housing and the city itself. It expands the possibilities of individual fantasy in a dense world by means of negotiation with our neighbours and the environment. In short, freedom and imagination meet responsibility and collaboration. Ego becomes (w)Ego. Moving from fear to curiosity, rigidity to adaptability, egoism to (w)Egoism, (w)Ego explores and pushes the limits of domestic architecture, looking for new ways to live together in density.

Practical info
This event takes place on The Podium, on top of the roof of Het Nieuwe Instituut. The Podium is designed by MVRDV and forms the Festival Heart of the Rotterdam Architecture Month ’22 during June. Book your free ticket through the ticketlink below. Upon arrival, go to the pink RA Month information desk. Visitors for RA Month events in the Festival Heart have automatic acces to The Podium and do not have to book a seperate timeslot.

https://rotterdamarchitectuurmaand.nl/programma/item/wego-book-launch-2/

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/tickets-wego-book-launch-343015537707