IABR

DOWN TO EARTH reopened on June 9, and with two exhibitions: RECLAIMING THE COMMONS in the Keilezaal, and WATERSCHOOL M4H+ at Studio Makkink & Bey’s and in the public space, both in the Merwe-Vierhavens area in Rotterdam.
A third exhibition,THE HIGH GROUND, will open on July 3 in the Biesboschhal in Dordrecht.

All dates are still subject to change, so check this website and our agenda regularly, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Please note that, given the pandemic, IABR follows the guidelines of the Dutch Health Authority. This way, we can ensure that there are never too many people present at the same time and that every visit is a safe visit. Therefore, visitors have to reserve times slots, which you can do by clicking here

RECLAIMING THE COMMONS

^{RECLAIMING THE COMMONS}

^{image: Aad Hoogendoorn}

The exhibition RECLAIMING THE COMMONS is the 2.0 version of WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?, the exhibition we had to close after only three weeks, last December, because of the lockdown.
WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY? focused on the energy transition at the district level, on the energy district as an energetic district. In RECLAIMING THE COMMONS the curators, George Brugmans and Thijs van Spaandonk, go a step further. Their starting point this time is the observation that energy was once part of the commons: that which belongs to all of us and that we take care of together. And that we might want to look at it that way again: after all, since the sun, wind and hydrogen belong to everyone, the transition to sustainable energy should belong to us all, too. So how can we reinvent the commons for the twenty-first century?
The energy transition is the elephant in the room of politics. It’s high time to say: No energy transition without social transition – RECLAIM THE COMMONS!

For more info about RECLAIMING THE COMMONS please click here.

^{Reclaiming the Commons}

^{foto: Aad Hoogendoorn}

WATERSCHOOL M4H+

^{Waterschool M4H+: Artist's Impression Mushroom Production Landscape}

^{image: Studio Makkink & Bey with Juhee Hahm}

WATERSCHOOL M4H+ is a working exhibition in Studio Makkink & Bey's workspace that illustrates what a new living and working environment in the Rotterdam city harbor Merwe-Vierhaven may look like if the planning takes as its departure the sustainable use of raw materials and resources by the future residents of the area .
In addition, at five outdoor locations in the area, as many spatial installations depict how people may live and work here in the future: five different stories about new ways of using raw materials and their impact on Merwe-Vierhaven.

The objective of the curators of WATERSCHOOL M4H+, Rianne Makkink and Jurgen Bey, is to increase our awareness of our gigantic water footprint and what we can do about it. And to take that as a starting point for an alternative "learning by doing" area development in the Merwe-Vierhavens area. The (awareness of) water is used as a lever for exploring a learning production landscape, a learning environment for the future that we can want in an area which the City of Rotterdam wants to turn into a sustainable and challenging living environment for mostly small business and 6,300 new residents.

For more info about WATERSCHOOL M4H+ please click here.

^{Waterschool M4H+ @Studio Makkink & Bey}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

THE HIGH GROUND

^{Artist's Impression The High Ground, model of De Staart in Dordrecht (Made by Mistake)}

THE HIGH GROUND presents the results of the IABR–Atelier Dordrecht in the Biesboschhal in De Staart in Dordrecht. The exhibition will be open to the public from Saturday July 3 through the end of August.
More specific information will follow soon.

For more info about the IABR–Atelier Dordrecht click here.

^{picture: Melany van Twuijver}

DOWN TO EARTH is a biennale in times of pandemic – an anti-biennale. Instead of compressing a multitude of activities – concentrating them in time and place, inviting as many people as possible, from far and wide, through the same door – we will unfold the program over time. A biennale true to form is simply not possible under the current atypical circumstances.
From September 2020 until the summer of 2021, the IABR will present a series of relatively small exhibitions and other activities. We will also find safe ways to organise a limited number of events, such as work sessions and lectures.

Read the introduction to DOWN TO EARTH by chief curator George Brugmans here

^{Whose energy is it, anyway?}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

Because of the pandemic, all plans and dates are subject to change. So, check our website and agenda regularly, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on twitter and instagram

Crucially however, make sure to stay healthy, safe and sane!

View full program ▸▸▸︎

Due to the pandemic and the consequent prolongation of the 9th edition of the IABR, DOWN TO EARTH, of which he also took on the chief curatorship in view of the crisis situation, the current president of the IABR foundation, George Brugmans, stayed on longer than he intended.
Now it's high time for someone else to take over. After directing the IABR for almost seventeen years, George is leaving after the summer. And that is why the IABR is looking for a new president.

Transition is the challenge
The new president will face a substantial but exciting challenge. Because transition will be the key word for the IABR in the coming years. Working on major transition challenges is and will remain central to its long-term policy. The next biennial, SHOCK AND ROLL, will put the link between design and transition in city making practice on the agenda. And the IABR itself faces a sweeping internal transition process.
On the subject of internal transition: the IABR proves to be more than adequately resilient and versatile as it faces the current, extremely difficult circumstances. It is financially healthy and in terms of content it is totally conversant with the spirit of the times. It is becoming increasingly clear how necessary and important it is to harness the connecting, imaginative, and creative strength of research by design, design, architecture and urbanism to collaboratively explore a path to a sustainable future.

Making a difference, in a new way
The IABR can continue to make a difference in line with its objective to contribute to the best of its ability to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The three core values of the SDGs, equality, inclusiveness and sustainability, remain central to the policy. But the IABR must implement that policy in a slimmed-down and completely new form. And under new leadership.

For more information (only in Dutch), i.e. the profile and the procedure, please click here

Core values such as equality, cultural diversity, social inclusiveness and sustainability are self-evident to the IABR. We endorse the Cultural Governance Code, the Fair Practice Code and the Diversity and Inclusion Code. The IABR strives for diversity in its teams, activities, partners and audience reach. We expressly invite anyone who thinks she or he can contribute to our goals to respond.

Downloads

210609_functieprofiel_bestuurder_directeur_iabr.pdf

^{RECLAIMING THE COMMONS}

^{image: Aad Hoogendoorn}

The transition to renewable energy is urgent, but also almost unimaginably far-reaching. Urgent because the petroculture that characterizes modern civilization contributes greatly to global warming and climate change. Far-reaching because the way we live and care, learn and live, consume and produce; because what we eat and how we eat, how we move around and how we interact with each other and with nature – in short, because how we organize our living environment and our coexistence and whether everyone has equal opportunities, is largely determined by access to and use of energy.
Our use of energy has an impact on our economy and our culture. But the era of petroculture, the feast of fossil expressionism, is coming to an end. The energy transition is now the elephant in the room of politics. It is therefore crucial that we reconsider ownership of the transition to a sustainable energy supply. That we underline that the energy transition cannot take place without a social transition.

^{Toolbox: The World and the Neighborhood (work in progress)}

^{image: OOZE, IABR–Atelier Rotterdam}

RECLAIMING THE COMMONS
The exhibition RECLAIMING THE COMMONS is the 2.0 version of WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?, the exhibition we had to close after only three weeks, last December, because of the lockdown.
WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY? focused on the energy transition at the district level, on the energy district as an energetic district. Because it is in the district that it is best to explore how the energy transition can be used as a lever for broader, sustainable, truly transformative change. That is, as the exhibition showed, the level of scale at which technical, infrastructural and social tasks come together. It is therefore also where major and minor players – governments, businesses, social initiatives, housing corporations, owners’ associations, and residents – must come to an agreement. But how can this be achieved? The discussion on this subject was extensive during and after the exhibition.
In RECLAIMING THE COMMONS the curators, George Brugmans and Thijs van Spaandonk, go a step further. Their starting point is the observation that energy was once part of the commons: that which belongs to all of us and that we take care of together. And that we might want to look at it that way again: after all, since the sun, wind and hydrogen belong to everyone, the transition to sustainable energy should belong to us all, too. So how can we reinvent the commons for the twenty-first century? The energy transition is the elephant in the room of politics. It’s high time to say: No energy transition without social transition – RECLAIM THE COMMONS!

Click here for more info about WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?

^{WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

IABR–Atelier Rotterdam: the energy transition as a lever for change in the urban district
In the Netherlands, according to the National Climate Agreement of 2019, circa 5,000 districts will have to become gas-free. Initial experience shows that this is not at all easy. There are many complications, for instance with implementation and, above all, financing and local support. Actually, we just don’t know yet how to wean our districts off of natural gas.
In Rotterdam too, all districts have to be weaned off of natural gas. The city pointed to five to lead the way. One of these is Bospolder-Tussendijken, also known as BoTu, one of the poorest districts in the Netherlands. But it is not only fragile, it is also resilient: culturally diverse, empowered and self-aware. That is why the IABR chose BoTu.

^{Reclaiming the Commons}

^{foto: Aad Hoogendoorn}

In BoTu the IABR–Atelier Rotterdam, a collaboration between IABR and the municipality of Rotterdam, has spent the past two years exploring how the energy transition that is inevitable can be a lever for what is aspired to. Can residents really become co-owners of the transition and in such a way that it contributes to social inclusion and the sustainable improvement of their living environment and quality of life?

From building blocks to Local Energy Action Plan
Atelier Rotterdam first researched the spatio-energetic building blocks needed for a future, truly resilient BoTu, for it to become clear what the specific energy challenge in BoTu actually is. Then, an anthropological exploration by the Atelier of the known and unknown, often invisible social networks in BoTu provided insight into the potential power of residents. To what extent can and do they want to be co-producers of their living environment and take responsibility for the transition? An identification of the social building blocks needed to link the energy transition to other, more integral local challenges, such as the sustainable improvement of quality of life and the living environment.

^{Towards a LEAP}

^{© IABR, Ooze}

In order to actually realize a transition that is broadly supported and implement it spatially, a LEAP is required, a Local Energy Action Plan, which the IABR–Atelier Rotterdam has developed together with a growing number of partners in and residents of Bospolder-Tussendijken.

^{Virtual workshop LEAP}

^{picture: Yonca Özbilge}

The LEAP was presented in WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY? and discussed in workshops and other settings, and with experts as well as with stakeholders from Bospolder-Tussendijken. Consequently, the LEAP was further developed and a Toolbox for the District was designed which will be presented in RECLAIMING THE COMMONS.
Therefore, the exhibition is also conceived as a launching pad for activities which we float in the summer of 2021 in BoTu itself.

^{Whose Energy Is It, Anyway?}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

RECLAIM THE COMMONS!
Clearly, this exhibition is a snapshot, taken on the road from Local Energy Action Plan to local energy action. The aim is to provide Bospolder-Tussendijken with a plan and a toolbox with which more and more residents can lay claim to the energy transition and appropriate it – as such, but especially as a lever for integral change.

^{WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

But that won’t just happen. Action perspective and action competence are one thing, acquiring ownership is another. In addition to plans and tools, residents must also be given a real position and be taken seriously by the authorities and the business community as co-owners of the transition. After all, this is about their living environment. Private-public cooperation is imperative, but then residents have to be able to become real players, too.
Residents will only be able to secure a real position if what they contribute is actually appreciated and has real value. In other words, if not only economic but also social and ecological gains are considered as increases in value, as income added to the books.

Everything has to change
The way capitalism works and the relationships between government, businesses and civil society must change, especially the underlying power structures. We need a new balance of profit and loss that takes into account the importance of future generations and other forms of life without irresponsibly mortgaging the future. This requires profound transitions and a structural systems change. Only then can we reclaim the commons – what belongs to us together and should remain so, and what we take care of together, now and for the future.

Curators
The curators of the exhibition are George Brugmans (IABR) and Thijs van Spaandonk (Bright and Head Master Urban Design of the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design).
Currently, the lead designer of the IABR–Atelier Rotterdam is Eva Pfannes (OOZE Architects and Urbanists), who designed the LEAP and the toolboxes.

^{from the left: George Brugmans, Eva Pfannes and Thijs van Spaandonk}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

DOWN TO EARTH: RECLAIMING THE COMMONS is open to the public from Wednesday June 9 through Sunday July 11, 2021, from Tuesday to Sunday, from 11 am to 5 pm. The exhibition is closed on Mondays.

BECAUSE OF COVID-19 ALL DATES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Please note that, given the pandemic, IABR follows the guidelines of the Dutch Health Authority. This way, we can ensure that there are never too many people present at the same time and that every visit is a safe visit. Therefore, visitors have to reserve times slots, which you can do by clicking here

For all other pertinent visitors information, click here

More on Exhibition: RECLAIMING THE COMMONS ▸▸▸

DOWN TO EARTH

Program

Exhibition

Location

Keilepand

People

WATERSCHOOL M4H+ is the next step in the development of the Waterschool, a long-term research project by Studio Makkink & Bey (SMB) that was also part of the previous biennale, THE MISSING LINK. Curators Rianne Makkink and Jurgen Bey started exploring Merwe-Vierhavens (M4H) as a learning production landscape that was being developed to meet the water challenge in 2018. Now, two years later, they proudly present WATERSCHOOL M4H+: the culmination of their research in a working exhibition in their own studio, complemented by five installations at five different outdoor locations in former city harbor area M4H.

^{Waterschool M4H+ Artist's Impression Seaweed Production Landscape}

^{Image: Studio Makkink & Bey with Juhee Hahm}

WATERSCHOOL M4H+: The Working Exhibition
In their studio on the western edge of M4H, Makkink & Bey set up a working exhibition that illustrates what a new live-work environment could look like if the points of view and use of raw materials of future residents are taken into account. The exterior of the elongated building and the exhibition feature drawn future scenarios that also include existing projects by designers, artists, and architects. They portray a new relationship between all living organisms, including all residents, in a district that focuses on energy, water management, and food. These drawings of food, material, energy, and live-work landscapes demonstrate how M4H can be (re)developed. The work creates a cultural framework that serves as an addition to and is informed by the guiding principles formulated by the IABR–Atelier Rotterdam for the development of M4H that were integrated into the Spatial Framework approved by the Port Authority and the City of Rotterdam in 2019.

^{Waterschool M4H+: Artist's Impression Mushroom Production Landscape}

^{image: Studio Makkink & Bey}

The working exhibition will incrementally develop as more information comes in from the district. In this way, as the exhibition continues, it will address all of the subjects and results of the research by design into those raw materials that can serve as (building) materials or food and have a responsible relationship to water use.

^{Waterschool M4H+ @Studio Makkink & Bey}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

WATERSCHOOL M4H+: Five Interventions in the Public Space
WATERSCHOOL M4H+ investigates how a range of new raw materials and resources can contribute to a sustainable society as well as to how the district can function as a learning production landscape. Which new forms of food production are interesting, for example, and (how) can M4H make room for them? What part can food and material production even play in an area that is being developed as a future robust live-work district?
With (animal) species such as insects, the water intensity of meat production can be tested. Insects can serve as an alternative source of protein, the production of which requires much less water than the production of beef, pork, or chicken. Similarly, duckweed, seaweed, wood, or fungi are potential new food and material sources, the production of which leaves a smaller water footprint than current food production, although they will require new forms of (urban) agriculture, architecture, and energy supply. Can we perhaps extract the required energy from water, for example by the use of aquifer thermal energy systems? And what part can the existing port architecture play in these new forms of urban development?

^{Waterschool M4H+: Artist's Impression Plot 1: Living & Farming}

^{image: Studio Makkink & Bey}

At five different outdoor locations in the M4H district stories about, research into, and the impact of new resources are illustrated in spatial installations. Each installation has its own subject and material and their stories are integrated in the story of how people may live and work here in the future. Using a QR code, visitors can access a web application that introduces pioneers in the district, makers and entrepreneurs already locally active as well as future residents. 3D drawings illustrate what the future live-work environment can look like if it is constructed using wood.

^{Waterschool M4H+: Artist's Impression Calculating the Waterfootprint}

^{image: Studio Makkink & Bey}

Water Footprint
According to surface area, each of the five installations shows the amount of water consumed directly, that is, for daily use, by the average inhabitant of Rotterdam: 119 liters per day. In order to supply this using rainwater, the average Rotterdammer needs about 60 m² of space with a height of 72 cm, 43,435 liters for a whole year.
In addition, the installations show the impact that products such as food and clothing have on people’s water consumption and what this means in terms of water consumption worldwide. Because as a consumer, the average Rotterdammer indirectly consumes another 4,000 liters of water a day – 1.45 million liters a year. This means that the products we buy are responsible for 99 per cent of the water we consume. For the most part, such products are imported. This means we leave 95 per cent of our water footprint abroad, almost always in areas where the water conditions are much worse than in the Netherlands. The aim of the Waterschool is therefore to increase our awareness of our huge water footprint and to teach us what we can do about it, using the installations and in workshops and debates, and to continue to introduce the results in the central working exhibition.

WATERSCHOOL M4H+ was realized with the support of Programmabureau M4H, a joint venture of Rotterdam Port Authority and the municipality of Rotterdam

Rianne Makkink and Jurgen Bey

^{picture: Fred Ernst}

The curators of DOWN TO EARTH: WATERSCHOOL M4H+ are designer-architect Rianne Makkink and designer Jurgen Bey. Their design collaborative Studio Makkink & Bey is based in the M4H area in Rotterdam. Supported by a diverse design team, the Studio has been operating since 2002. The Studio's various projects include interior design, product design, public space projects, architecture, exhibition and shop window design, research projects and applied arts.

DOWN TO EARTH: WATERSCHOOL M4H+ will be open to the public from Wednesday June 9 through Friday July 30, 2021.
Please note that we're open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 11 am to 5 pm. We are always closed on Mondays.

Due to the pandemic all dates are subject to change

Please note that, given Covid-19, IABR follows the guidelines of the Dutch Health Authority. This way, we can ensure that there are never too many people present at the same time and that every visit is a safe visit. Therefore, visitors have to reserve times slots, which you can do by clicking here

For all other visitors information, click here

More on Exhibition: WATERSCHOOL M4H+ ▸▸▸

DOWN TO EARTH

Program

Location

Studio Makkink & Bey

People

Rianne Makkink & Jurgen Bey

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

You are of course very welcome to attend the ninth edition of the IABR, DOWN TO EARTH, open from September 2020 until the middle of July 2021.
But please note that, given the pandemic, IABR follows the guidelines of the Dutch Health Authority. This way, we can ensure that there are never too many people present at the same time and that every visit is a safe visit.
Therefore, visitors have to reserve time slots, which you can do by clicking here

IABR–DOWN TO EARTH is a biennale in times of pandemic – an anti-biennale. Instead of compressing a multitude of activities – concentrating them in time and place – we will unfold the program over time. A biennale true to form is simply not possible under the current atypical circumstances.

From September 2020 until the summer of 2021, the IABR will present a series of exhibitions and other activities. We will, of course, follow the guidelines of the RIVM, the Dutch health authority. This means, among other things, that we will wait as long as possible to decide when and in what form the consecutive program components will be presented. Step by step, we will find the best way to exhibit projects

For the current agenda, our Covid-19 guidelines, opening hours, ticket reservations, locations, directions and other information, click here

More on Visitor Information ▸▸▸

Earthrise

^{photo by Bill Anders (1968), courtesy NASA}

EARTHRISE
On Christmas Eve 1968, as mankind first orbited the moon while millions of people watched it happen, astronaut Bill Anders took a special picture. To allow NASA to investigate possible locations for lunar landings, he was shooting images of the lunar surface. As Apollo 8 circled the moon for the first time, the astronauts suddenly saw the Earth ‘rising’. Anders didn’t hesitate and captured the view. It would turn out to be one of the most influential photographs of all time, later named Earthrise.

Against the pitch-black backdrop of an infinite and virtually uncharted universe, the Earth suddenly takes on color, depth and perspective. It’s an emotional and inspirational image. So, this is our home, a blue planet with a biosphere that makes it exceptionally suitable for life, an assurance of well-being and growth.
But it’s a vulnerable home, with a biosphere that we are all responsible for, warns the Club of Rome almost immediately, in 1972. With that new perspective of our home, glowing warmly against the backdrop of the dark universe, comes the understanding that the conditions under which our habitat thrives are not self-evident and, in any case, temporary. Our planet is not inexhaustible, it’s clear from the start: there are limits to growth.

ANTHROPOCENE
Fast forward to 2020. We can now all zoom in from ‘space’, anywhere, anytime. The blue planet has become Google Earth™. But what we see is not always that inspiring anymore. Our home is not in order. Rather than instilling responsibility, Earthrise made us arrogant. Drunk from the view, we’ve brought down the Anthropocene upon ourselves. Blind to the consequences, we’re exhausting the planet, as if we are its last inhabitants.

Since that Christmas Eve in 1968, the world population has doubled and the number of people living in cities has tripled. And in the last thirty years we have emitted more CO₂ than in all the previous centuries combined. The extractive fossil economy, which enables dizzying growth, places a huge burden on the land, on the Earth, and on the biosphere. And indeed, the planet is not inexhaustible. Climate and biodiversity are under threat, at least a million species will soon be extinct. We are the most dangerous poachers in the ecosystem on which we are completely dependent.

Exactly 50 years later, in the autumn of 2018, a second warning followed, this time from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. If we want to prevent a catastrophe, we have until 2030 to fully adapt the way we live on Earth. This lies at the heart of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the need for change on a scale for which ‘there is no documented historical precedent.’
We’ve taken out an irresponsibly large mortgage on our home. It’s imperative that we realize that we’re facing the greatest crisis humanity has ever known. And that there is no time to lose.

Bleeding Tears, Study 3, Perth, Western Australia

^{Tailing ponds, the byproducts of mining, contain toxic substances and heavy metals such as lead, copper and mercury.}

^{© Yi Sun}

THERE IS NO PLANET B
In 2020, the coronavirus has put the whole world on hold. This offers a truly unique opportunity to take a look behind the backdrop of the Anthropocene.
We’ve virtually ruined our relationship with the planet. Like the climate and biodiversity crises, but with a much more immediate effect, the pandemic is a result of human activity. Especially of our global economic and financial systems, with their emphasis on endless compound growth and the need to exploit nature to the fullest, in an increasingly violent maelstrom of people, money and goods, with no regard for the consequences. But there is no Planet B. Behind the backdrop, we realize, there is no behind the backdrop.
Covid-19 uncomfortably exposes how shockingly unequal and vulnerable we have become. We can no longer fool ourselves and cling to the idea that we function in an autonomous ecosystem, independent of the rest of the biosphere. It is simply not sustainable. Things have to change completely. The choice is now ours. But how are we supposed to proceed? Can we still pay off our mortgage? And how do we find a new way to live in our home, in time?

^{Jakarta, Rising Tide, 2018}

Rewind back to 1968. Earthrise. Let's imagine coming from behind the moon and seeing the blue planet looming in front of us. The image is emotional and inspirational. Where can we land? Can we re-settle on Earth, as it were, in a sustainable balance with all other lifeforms? Can we, as philosopher Bruno Latour puts it, redesign our living environments ‘as that on which a terrestrial depends’ and always ask ourselves ‘what other terrestrials also depend on it?’
For this is now inevitably our new political mission, we have to redefine all of our actions as that which takes us back to earth. DOWN TO EARTH

LEVERS FOR CHANGE
DOWN TO EARTH endeavors to help find an answer to the question: Where can we land? Yes, the situation in which we find ourselves is scary. We have reached the point where it is all or nothing. Yet that’s precisely what sharpens our focus, puts us in survival mode. Forces us to think and act in a radically different but still concrete and solution-focused way, insisting on real world change, on research by design that wants to truly and sustainably ground.

The research by design carried out by the IABR–Ateliers focuses on water- and energy transition-related challenges. Highly topical subjects both in the Netherlands and around the globe. The Dutch Delta is drying out, all Dutch homes must become gas-free – these are some of the very concrete challenges that we’ve taken as our starting point.
We’re well aware that everything we do eventually has an impact on the entire biosphere, so our approach is an integral one. That’s the only way for us to contribute to comprehensive, truly transformative change. It’s why, in the Ateliers, we design solutions for the water and energy transition challenges in such a way that we also explore how those solutions can help us solve other problems at the same time. In other words, we use specific current challenges as levers for change, so that in fact we are always working on the much broader, structural and social transition that is at least as urgent.
What has to be done needs to be done in such a way that, at the same time, we do much more. And there’s no time to waste. So the question of how to do things differently, smarter and better has to be asked again and again and again, while we’re at it.

George Brugmans
chief curator DOWN TO EARTH

In the fall of 2018, the IPPC, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, raised the alarm: to avoid catastrophe, human societies have 12 years to completely transform the way we use energy and land. Change is urgently needed and on a scale for which ‘there is no documented historical precedent’, scientists from all around the world warned .

That is why we think it's best to assume that we are facing the deepest crisis in human memory. And that we have no time to waste.

And that is why IABR–DOWN TO EARTH asks: Where can we land? Can we re-settle on planet Earth, as it were, in a sustainable balance with other lifeforms and one with nature? Can we, as philosopher Bruno Latour puts it, redesign our living environments ‘as that on which a terrestrial depends’ and always ask ourselves ‘what other terrestrials also depend on it?’

For this is now inevitably our new challenge, politically, socially and culturally, we have to redefine all of our actions as that which takes us back to earth. DOWN TO EARTH.

Read the introduction to DOWN TO EARTH by the chief curator, George Brugmans, here

How now?
There are plenty of good plans and ideas, also from spatial designers and architects, to achieve a more sustainable balance between people, other species and nature, but they rarely become concrete projects. There is a gap, a missing link, between plans and projects, between knowing and doing, an incredibly persistent issue that the 2018-edition of IABR, THE MISSING LINK, has put on the agenda.

DOWN TO EARTH wants to examine how we can tackle the issue in concrete terms: how now? For one thing, the IABR does this by urging that we apply existing, major and urgent challenges as a lever both in exploring the integrated transformation of our urban landscapes and societies and in the public debate on the nature, quality and property of the transformation.

Water and Energy Transition as Leverage
The two that we have chosen to work on in our IABR–Ateliers are water management and energy transition-related challenges. How can design driven responses to these challenges help us to develop new approaches to inhabit the earth, in a much more balanced way, one that helps us realize the Sustainable Developments Goals?

How can we tackle water issues - too much, too little, too polluted - in such a way that they become also the starting point for working on resilient cities? We research this in particular in our two Water as Leverage Ateliers, the IABR–Atelier Dordrecht and the IABR–Atelier Drought in the Delta.
For more information on our Water as Leverage agenda, click here

And (how) can we help realize the energy transition so that we can simultaneously use it as a lever for socially inclusive urban planning? We investigate this in particular in our IABR – Atelier Rotterdam, Energy Transition as a Lever for a Socially Inclusive City.

Curator Team
To address these issues in a biennale in times of pandemic, an anti-biennale that will unfold from September 2020 until mid-July 2021, a Curator Team has been appointed, consisting of chief curator George Brugmans, Rianne Makkink and Jurgen Bey, Eva Pfannes, Thijs van Spaandonk and Robbert de Vrieze.
Under the heading DOWN TO EARTH, they will curate a series of exhibitions and other activities. We will wait as long as possible to decide when and in what form the consecutive program components will be presented.

For more information about the exhibition DROUGHT IN THE DELTA click here

For more information about the exhibition WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY? click here

For more information about the partner exhibition METEOPOLIS click here

For more information about the partner exhibition NOW! DESIGNING IN TIMES OF CLIMATE CRISIS click here

For more information about the exhibition RECLAIMING THE COMMONS click here

For more information about the exhibition WATERSCHOOL M4H+ click here

Location: M4H + BoTu
The locations of DOWN TO EARTH are the Merwe-Vierhavens area (M4H), a city harbor that is a breeding ground for the new circular economy, and the adjacent Bospolder-Tussendijken (BoTu), a self-reliant and culturally very diverse but socioeconomically vulnerable Rotterdam district.
M4H + BoTu: two adjacent areas we jointly designated as IABR–Test Site M4H+ during the previous biennale. Together, they are representative of the many challenges facing not only the city of Rotterdam but also many other cities. The water challenge and energy transition play a part here, but here we can also explore the new circular economy, the housing challenge, accessibility, and social inequality. Here, the poor and unemployed live alongside start-ups and enterprising artists. Old and new meet, city and port, rich and poor, local and global.
M4H+BoTu is an exemplary Test Site for the transition: challenges and approaches come together in the now and how, and in a very provoking manner as well. This is why we moved our office to the Keilepand, centrally located in the area. It is an ideal location for the IABR, for DOWN TO EARTH and for future biennale editions.

As of 2016, the IABR has fully committed itself to contribute to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and of the objectives stated in the Paris Climate Agreement. It has firmly anchored its commitment to the SDGs in its mission statement and its multi-year policy plan 2021 - 2024, Where Can We Land?
What does that mean in concrete terms? That the IABR, as a cultural institution, wants to contribute to solving the great challenges we face with the most appropriate means available to us as a research and development institution as well as an international cultural platform: research by design, the power of the imagination and the efficacy of design.

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Waar kunnen we landen? (Dutch)

This year marks the 600^th anniversary of Dordrecht being hit by perhaps the greatest water disaster in Dutch history: the St. Elizabeth’s Flood of 1421. It turned the city into an island, which it still is to this day, making it very vulnerable to flooding. Water safety therefore has the highest possible priority. In the IABR–Atelier Dordrecht, with Adriaan Geuze as lead designer, the IABR and the municipality of Dordrecht are exploring how water safety can be used as a lever for sustainable area development. The IABR–Atelier shows that De Staart, now an area with many problems and few prospects, can play an unexpectedly important role in realizing the Dordrecht water safety agenda if sustainable and inclusive urban development of new living-working environments is set in motion there.
The first results of the study were immediately and enthusiastically received by both the Safety Region and the City Council of Dordrecht. The final results will be presented in the Biesboschhal in De Staart: THE HIGH GROUND, an IABR–exhibition as part of the major St. Elizabeth’s Flood commemoration in Dordrecht, open to the public from July 3 through the end of August.

^{De Staart, Dordrecht - current situation}

Flexible City
The water-safety-as-a-leverage approach requires there to be flexible space in De Staart at all times, so that the extra square meters needed for peak water capture during a disaster can quickly be realized. By including the space needed to accommodate evacuees and other emergency facilities in the design process, an urban environment can be developed in which people not only live, but where there’s also ample space for recreation, education, and other public facilities. West 8’s system analysis reveals the contours of what is possible on De Staart: an inclusive and sustainable city, with functions and facilities close to where people live.

^{De Staart, Dordrecht - capacity study}

^{image: West 8, IABR–Atelier Dordrecht}

Choosing to Connect
The water-safety-as-a-lever approach also emphasizes the need for good connections, because De Staart must always be easily accessible to evacuees. The IABR–Atelier therefore argues for three new bridges over the Wantij, which would increase accessibility to De Staart for slow traffic and break it out of its current isolation. VenhoevenCS investigated what this would mean for the daily mobility system and designed a new, very recognizable route that better connects De Staart with the rest of Dordrecht and, in case of a disaster, can function as a safe and familiar escape route. In the event of a calamity, new facilities along this route (such as a theater or a mobility hub) function as the first shelter for evacuees, while, on a daily basis, they serve as a connecting element in the urban fabric.

^{New connections}

^{image: VenhoevenCS, IABR–Atelier Dordrecht}

Increasing Potential
Choosing to connect goes beyond the urban area of Dordrecht. West 8 designed a new recreational (cycling) route, from the center of Dordrecht across De Staart to Gorinchem, which connects various locations in the region. This increase in scale causes what are now local places to acquire an urban significance. For example, a community center becomes a pavilion with a beach that attracts people from all over the region. Moreover, thanks to the water-safety-as-a-lever approach, all these small-scale places for recreation acquire a second function: during an evacuation, for example, they can be used as central distribution points that many people know how to find easily. The Atelier’s leverage approach ensures an increase in the attractiveness and potential of such places.

Outdoor Space as a Starting Point
True to IABR's mission, the IABR–Atelier carried out a system analysis based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which demonstrated that the development of outdoor space should be a guiding principle in the design process.

^{De Staart, Dordrecht - public space as a mechanism}

^{picture: DVMB, IABR–Atelier Dordrecht}

The research by Studio Donna van Milligen Bielke (DMVB) shows that outdoor spaces are becoming even more important in the water-safety-as-a-lever approach because they will play a double role. In daily use they function as accommodations with specific qualities, but in case of flooding they can easily be transformed into infrastructure for evacuation. Designing a high-density, multifunctional city with water safety and the SDGs at the heart of the program of requirements therefore starts with designing the outdoor space.
Separate from the IABR–Atelier, but inspired by its approach, students of Eindhoven University of Technology investigated all kinds of variants and their outcomes.

^{De Staart, Dordrecht - public space as a mechanism}

^{picture: DVMB, IABR–Atelier Dordrecht}

Flexible Building
The IABR–Atelier makes an analysis at the city and neighborhood level, but also conducts research at the level of the building. If De Staart is to become a city with high density and many additional functions, and serve as a temporary refuge in case of an emergency, a flexible building typology is required. EGM architects designed a multifunctional building that can be produced cheaply and quickly. It has a modular structure that consists of a standard unit that can be divided and combined in different ways. The result is an affordable and sustainable building with a multifunctional base, ideal for start-up companies because rents can remain low – a rich and diverse live/work complex that can also accommodate a large number of evacuees in times of crisis.

^{De Staart, Dordrecht - The High Ground}

^{picture: EGM, IABR–Atelier Dordrecht}

Living on the Water
If a lot of people have to be temporarily accommodated in De Staart during a disaster, ensuring that there is always sufficient clean drinking water is an important issue. Halving the present, partially contaminated De Grote Rug Reservoir will result in higher water quality in the future. This will make a large expanse of water available for development of both nature and housing. Design office PosadMaxwan conducted research into how to realize high-density living on the water here, with an emphasis on the quality of the outdoor space and the relationship with the water. This resulted in a realistic and rich variety of outdoor space typologies that would result in a diverse city on the water.

^{De Staart, Dordrecht - De Grote Rug}

^{image: Posad.Maxwan, IABR–Atelier Dordrecht}

IABR-

11.06.2021

GRAND FINALE DOWN TO EARTH

three more exhibitions

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The IABR is looking for a new President

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Exhibition: RECLAIMING THE COMMONS

no energy transition without a social transition

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Exhibition: WATERSCHOOL M4H+

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Visitor Information

Curator Introduction to DOWN TO EARTH

DOWN TO EARTH

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Atelier Dordrecht is wrapping up

results and exhibition

11.06.2021

three more exhibitions

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no energy transition without a social transition

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