Design As Politics

16/05/2022

Upcoming Research-by-Photography studio "THE ROTTERDAM DREAM" at Independent School for the City exploring Americanism in Rotterdam with charlie_koolhaas on 10/11 & 17/18 June 2022.

Check it out, the studio is already happening next month!! More info here: https://www.schoolforthecity.nl/therotterdamdream/
Picture by Ernst Wagensveld

Introducing: THE ROTTERDAM DREAM, a research-by-photography studio exploring Americanism in Rotterdam with Charlie Koolhaas on 10/11 & 17/18 June 2022.

In this studio, we will investigate the hypothesis that Rotterdam is the most American city in the Netherlands (and possibly even Europe. By focusing on Rotterdams American influences, alliances and synchronicities - whether it be in the many urban cultures that permeate the city - the fashions, the musics and arts - to the cities housing typologies, and infrastructure, we will look at how this remote Dutch city sometimes unashamedly appropriates Americanism. And though American imperialism imposes its culture on much of the world, Rotterdammers seem to embrace their connections to the US wholeheartedly.

During this research-by-photography studio, the artist, photographer and writer Charlie Koolaas will take us out into the city to explore the Americanism in Rotterdam, what it means and for whom. Armed with a camera we will search for iconic places, hidden gems or just regular scenes of daily life that distinguish Rotterdam from other Dutch cities and simultaneously connect it to many US-cities. Charlie will explain the methodologies behind her photographic urban research, and based on her way of telling stories in her publications, the workshop will edit and design a book that explains our findings around the hypothesis.

Excited yet? The studio is already happening next month, so register soon! The participation fee is 250 euro. More info here: https://www.schoolforthecity.nl/therotterdamdream/

Picture by Ernst Wagensveld

06/05/2022

Join the Independent School for the City for their yearly School Party! Expect Anthropocene-themed cocktails and bites, performances, an amazing punk-rock band, DJ's, cold drinks and many like-minded people. Also, we'll give you a glimpse of our upcoming activities.

Get your tickets here: https://schoolforthecity.stager.nl/web/tickets/111180447

The preparations for our School Party are in full swing! Expect Anthropocene-themed cocktails and bites, performances, an amazing punk-rock band, DJ's, cold drinks and many like-minded people. Also, we'll give you a glimpse of our upcoming activities. Get your tickets here: https://schoolforthecity.stager.nl/web/tickets/111180447

More info will follow soon!

27/08/2021

Last chance to register for the Film & Architecture Studio by Independent School for the City and Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam

The course takes place online in the evenings so that you can combine it with your daily activities and join from all around the world. Between the 7th and 28th of September, there will be six online meetings guided by Jord den Hollander and with contributions by the internationally awarded DOP Thomas Kist who worked together with directors as Theo van Gogh, Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci and who has been involved in many documentaries on architecture and the city. And by the Italian antropologist and filmmaker Elia Romanelli, who is involved in many cinematographic research projects in Rome and Venice and who will be presenting his latest film at AFFR 2021.

There are still some places left
Registration deadline: 01 September 2021

24/06/2019

Our friends at the Independent School for the City have invited the amazing Georgeen Theodore of Interboro Partners for a talk this Friday evening in Rotterdam.

Georgeen will provide a dispatch from Detroit, the ever-fascinating and always changing Motor City. Through presenting a number of recently completed Interboro projects, she will cover topics including, but not limited to, arrival suburbs, artists’ enclaves, Bangladeshi migration, blots, Black Bottom, burek, cottage industries, energy, ethnic enclaves, exclusion, factory vans, farmers’ markets, farming, foreclosure, goats, housing and economic development, ice cream trucks, inclusion, inclusive development, John Portman, land banks, Mies van der Rohe, neighborhood planning, one-way streets, participatory processes, post-fordism, public space, segregation, shrinking cities, signage ordinances, skate parks, snow piles, social resiliency, tactical preservation, temporary interventions, and uneven development.

Get your tickets now at School's Out! #6 - Georgeen Theodore (Interboro)

Check out www.interboropartners.com to learn more about their work.

20/02/2019

From social media check-ins to government statistics, data is being weaponized by a new industry called 'PropTech' to predict which areas in our cities look ripe for new investment.

From social media check-ins to government statistics, data is being weaponized by a new industry called 'PropTech' to predict which areas in our citie...

27/01/2019

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, over 40 countries around the world have built fences against more than 60 of their neighbours

From the archive

04/11/2018

Great news! Design as Politics alumnus Serah Calitz has been shortlisted to compete in the Archiprix, the leading annual competition for upcoming design talent.

Her project Sino-African Counterpoints presents an alternative to the copy-paste deployment of China financed Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Africa. In the business of creating urbanity ex nihilo the SEZ demands the emptying of context, of contingency. Thus, for every Special Economic Zone there exists a Special Sacrifice Zone: a messy prelude marked by environmental destruction and enforced resettlement.

Congratulations Serah!

Serah-Ingrid Calitz Design as Politics Foothold implantation: negotiating Bagamoyo Sino-African CounterpointsSino-African Counterpoints presents an alternative to the copy-paste deployment of China financed Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Africa. In the business of creating urbanity ex nihilo the S...

25/10/2018

We're very proud that Design as Politics' PhD candidate Nurul Azlan is defending her dissertation ‘Seditious spaces: Protest in post-colonial Malaysia’ on Monday 29 October at 15:00h at the Aula of TU Delft.

In her thesis Nurul analyses the urban design and architecture of Malaysia. Her research shows that ‘colonial architecture’ did not disappear after the departure of the colonisers. In fact, the same building style was continued. In addition, she notes that ‘post-colonial amnesia’ provides selective choices in the design of public space. For example, it focuses on the formation of the Islamic identity of the new state - while the Malaysian population does not just consist of Muslims. Furthermore, there is ‘postcolonial mimicry’: the postcolonial society uses building styles of the former coloniser to organise the public space and to radiate modernity.

For her dissertation, Nurul also mapped out the digital space on the basis of Twitter behaviour at the Bersih 4 demonstration in Kuala Lumpur. Although websites are easy to block, it appears that communication in post-colonial Malaysia is easier in digital space than in Putrajaya's urban space. Azlan: "Of course communication in the physical space has more impact. It’s time to design it in a better way. "

Democratic design wanted for post-colonial Malaysia News - 25 October 2018 - Communication BK Malaysia has not been a colony since 1957, but this is not reflected in public space. Just like the British time, urban planning is all about controlling the masses, says PhD candidate Nurul Azlan. It’s t...

10/10/2018

With the current stock market bull run reaching nearly 10 years in length, it’s understandable that many investors are nervous about the end of the party coming sooner than later.

UBS says cracks are starting to show at the top end of the property market, according to the bank's recent analysis of the biggest real estate bubbles globally.

25/09/2018

Rebuilding cities from the Internet up - Google's plan to Turn Toronto's waterfront into what they envision as a high-tech living laboratory for solving urban problems. ?

Here's what you need to know about the company's grand urban experiment.

04/09/2018

‘The wrong side of the tracks’ - an interesting article by Julia Cornelissen about spatial segregation and infrastructure in the Dutch magazine Vrij Nederland with contributions by Design as Politics' Wouter Vanstiphout. Check it out here (in Dutch).

‘The wrong side of the tracks’ is in de VS een metafoor met een letterlijke herkomst: Amerikaanse ontwerpers van infrastructuur gebruikten treinsporen en snelwegen om steden onder te verdelen in klasse en ras. Maar ook in Nederland bestaan ‘verkeerde kanten van het spoor’: onuitgesproken bar...