IABR

^{Dave van Toor}

^{Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design, 2021}

The exhibition NOW! has been set up but cannot be opened to the public due to the lockdown. However, 150 students, two academies and one IABR are hell-bent on bringing you its content.

NOW! FROM APRIL 5 THROUGH MAY 26 ON INSTAGRAM
@downtoearth_now

and
@iabr_downtoearth
@kabkdesign
@ravb010

NOW! Designing in times of climate crisis
IABR–DOWN TO EARTH asks the question: Where can we land? In response, the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design (RAVB) and the Graphic Design (BA) and Non Linear Narrative (MA) departments of the Royal Academy of Visual Arts (KABK) dedicated their education programs in the autumn of 2020 to an exploration of how designers can relate to the climate crisis and what action they can take.
How can we design our lives and our living environment in such a way that the future is sustainable? How do we deal with the shortcomings of "modernity as a project"? What values should we embrace and what should we say goodbye to?

^{NOW! - workshop February 2021}

^{picture: RAvB}

^{Setting up NOW!}

^{image: IABR}

In a three day workshop at the end of February, a group of students from the KABK and the RAVB curated the exhibition NOW! Designing in Times of Climate Crisis, an exhibition with contributions from almost 150 students and made for the Keilezaal.

For additional information on NOW! please click here

^{NOW! DESIGNING IN TIMES OF CLIMATE CRISIS}

^{posters by students of KABK and RAvB}

^{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!

The board of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) has appointed director of Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT) and professor of Socioeconomic Transitions at the Erasmus University Rotterdam’s Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences DERK LOORBACH as chief curator of the next edition of the IABR, SHOCK AND ROLL.

Derk Loorbach

^{picture: Gaby Jongenelen}

SHOCK AND ROLL will open in the fall of 2022 and is the first in a new series of biennales that will go all out for transition. The series will focus on the urgent need to put into design practice the all-embracing change to which science incites us, which the Paris climate objectives call for, to which the global community committed itself in the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and with which the reality of the climate crisis confronts us every single day.

SHOCK AND ROLL will also initiate a long-term collaboration of the IABR, DRIFT, and the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design (RAvB), an alliance of imaginers, transitionists and designers.

IABR director George Brugmans: ‘With the appointment of Derk Loorbach the IABR wants to take a crucial next step in actively helping to put into practice what the climate objectives are crying out for: everything has to change. This is all the more urgent now that the corona crisis has revealed our inadequacy and made it clear that we really have to organize society differently if we want to be able to face the rapidly increasing threat of the much more serious climate crisis before it’s too late. I have asked Derk to bring together the fields of design and transition with the aim of taking us from research by design to development by design. Supported by a team of young curators, it is up to Derk to turn the IABR into a transition design practice. So that we can accelerate. So that there’s more action, with a greater socioeconomic impact. To show what everything has to change means, that we have to let go of a lot, but also that we can move forward, and how: shock and roll.’

Derk Loorbach: ‘The pandemic has acted as a magnifying glass and is contributing to a significant growth in support for transformative change. Now it’s a question of linking the momentum to competencies: unlocking the lessons and experiences of effective transition practices for a large audience. Showing people that it works and how it works. This is what we need to do. In concrete terms, it means that we are going to make transition as well as make transition practice visible. SHOCK AND ROLL will be one big transition experiment and action research project.’

To download the full press release, click here

Downloads

View full program ▸▸▸︎

^{Dave van Toor}

^{Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design, 2021}

The exhibition NOW! has been set up but cannot be opened to the public due to the lockdown. However, 150 students, two academies and one IABR are hell-bent on bringing you its content.

NOW! FROM APRIL 5 THROUGH MAY 26 ON INSTAGRAM
@downtoearth_now

and
@iabr_downtoearth
@kabkdesign
@ravb010

NOW! DESIGNING IN TIMES OF CLIMATE CRISIS
IABR–DOWN TO EARTH asks: Where can we land? In response, the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design (RAvB) and the Graphic Design (BA) and Non Linear Narrative (MA) departments of the Royal Academy of Visual Arts (KABK), in The Hague, are devoting their educational programs to exploring how designers should relate to the climate crisis and what action they can take.
How can we organize our lives and our living environment in such a way that the future is sustainable? How do we deal with the shortcomings of "modernity as a project"? What values should we embrace and what should we say goodbye to?

^{Petra Eros, Visual Essays TIME'S UP}

^{Graphic Design BA, Royal Academy for the Arts, The Hague, 2020}

400 Posters
This exhibition centers on the more than 400 posters that, arranged in a horizontal grid, almost fill the entire space of the Keilezaal. This field of posters is mounted between four notions to which design should relate: the extremes, the other, the commons, and the departure – the four thematic lines of the exhibition.
The grid also accommodates ecological elements. The posters question, each in a different way, how design, designing, and especially designers relate to the climate crisis.
The posters were made by more than 150 students, 120 from the RAvB and 30 from the KABK. The KABK students were inspired by texts by, among others, American philosopher Timothy Morton as the basis for their visual essays. The RAvB students used, among other things, Korean director Bong Joon Ho’s film Snowpiercer to reflect on their own design projects.
In addition to the posters, the exhibition includes a number of animated films and there is also a library that includes the sources that were consulted.

^{Angéla Kortleven}

^{Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design}^{, 2021}

The Four Thematic Lines

The Extremes
The climate crisis leads to more extreme weather conditions. What extremes in terms of water, drought, and temperature can we expect and what adaptations will current and future extremes ask of our living environment? Also, how will we relate to these extremes? Should we perhaps also allow a more manifest experience of these extremes in our living environment, to increase our awareness of the crisis?

The Other
We are all part of a single biosphere. There is no escaping this. Our actions as humans affect other organisms in the biosphere and therefore ourselves as well. A (lack of) action in Rotterdam affects the prospects for action of people and animals in other parts of the world.

The Commons
The climate crisis is the result of an extractive approach to the environment for the sake of perpetual economic growth. We are increasingly aware of the fact that we need a different value model. Such a model would need to be based on reciprocity and on solidarity with places and communities. What will urban development on the basis of the idea of the commons look like?

Saying Goodbye
We have to say goodbye, not only to certain resources and fuels, but also and especially to certain routines. Saying goodbye can hurt, but also involves reflection on and appreciation of, or perhaps even nostalgia for, elements of the past.
Eventually, we may well conclude that things have become better for everyone. Letting go makes room for reorientation, because we’re no longer weighed down by the past. Looking back, we may well think: ‘We should have done this much sooner!’

^{Elina Ersdorf: Visual Essays Time's Up!}

^{Graphic Design BA, Royal Academy of the Arts, The Hague, 2020}

Realization
The narrative, arrangement of available materials, spatial layout, and visual identity were developed during a three-day workshop at the end of February 2021. Together with the RAvB head of the Urban Design Master Program and IABR–DOWN TO EARTH co-curator Thijs van Spaandonk, 12 KABK and RAvB students put together the materials of the various institutes and translated these into a narrative and spatial concept.

^{NOW! - Workshop February, 2021}

^{picture: RAvB}

Concept, Curation, Design and Realization

KABK
Ieva Gailiušaitė
Petra Erős
Abel van As
Lulu van Dijck

RAVB
Amal Habti
Samil Kahraman
Tom Koetsenruijter
Lotte de Koning
Angéla Kortleven
Sven Schouten
Petula de Smit
Nancy Smolka
Thijs van Spaandonk
Anneke Wisse
Milou van Zomeren

Graphic Design
Petra Erős

Initiative
This exhibition is an initiative of Thijs van Spaandonk (RAvB), Roosje Klap, Marthe Prins (KABK) and George Brugmans (IABR).

Multiyear Collaboration
This exhibition is part of a multiyear collaboration between the IABR and the RAvB that was launched on 28 August 2020 in the Keilezaal, during the start of the past academic year. Connecting the exploratory capacity of design education to the free cultural space of imagination, the two institutes jointly explore ways to relate to the climate crisis and which transitions we have to go through.

Location

Keilepand

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?

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

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 from early June onwards in the Biesboschhal in De Staart, an IABR–exhibition as part of the major St. Elizabeth’s Flood commemoration in Dordrecht.

^{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
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. 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}

^{image: DMVB, 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.

^{A new building typology for De Staart}

^{image: 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}

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 on the first exhibition, DROUGHT IN THE DELTA, click here

For more information on the second exhibition, WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?, 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.

Downloads

Waar kunnen we landen? (Dutch)

^{WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

The exhibition DOWN TO EARTH: WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY? focuses on the energy transition at neighborhood level. On the energy district as an energetic district. Urgent issues converge at this scale level and large and small players –governments, companies, civil society and residents– must reach a new covenant. In and with the neighborhood, it is also possible to explore how the energy transition can be used as a lever for broader, comprehensive transformational change.

^{WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

Natural gas-free neighborhoods for a post-fossil world
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.
At the same time, this operation is part of a much larger challenge, the global transition to sustainable energy, which is not only politically and ecologically urgent, but at the same time unimaginably far-reaching. Everything we do, individually and together - living and working, study and leisure - is largely determined by access to and use of energy. The energy transition is not only a technical and financial, but also a social and cultural challenge. The decisions that are made and will be made concern us all. The energy transition is the elephant in the room of politics. There can be no energy transition without a thoroughly democratic discussion about the ownership of that transition.

^{WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

The transition to sustainable energy can be readily used for such a debate. After all, sun and wind, and soon hydrogen, belong to everyone, why not the energy that we can generate with them? We have approach the energy transition as an opportunity, as a lever for much broader change. This requires new collaborations, new roles, at all levels of scale. The neighborhood is the scale at which these new collaborations can best take shape. There, the idea of a new energy commons can be explored, a playing field in which citizens can play their part in addition to governments and companies.

^{WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

IABR–Atelier Rotterdam in BoTu
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.

IABR in BoTu

Here, 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?

^{WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

From building blocks to action plan
Atelier Rotterdam first researched the social and 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. How much energy is used? How much less energy will be needed after the houses are modified? How much renewable energy can be generated in the district itself? Which spatial interventions will help? How much energy will still be needed and where will it come from? An investigation into the choices that still need to be made, and the possible returns.
An anthropological exploration by the Atelier of the known and unknown, often invisible social networks in BoTu provides 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 many partners in and residents of Bospolder-Tussendijken. The LEAP is presented in DOWN TO EARTH: WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY? which makes the exhibition also a launching pad for activities which we float in the spring of 2021 in BoTu itself.

^{WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

IABR–Atelier East Flemish Core Area
The exhibition also includes space for the IABR–Atelier East Flemish Core Area, which the IABR set up in 2017 together with the Province of East Flanders. Particularly for the Demonstratieproject Eeklo, an exploration in this East Flemish municipality of how the already built-up environment can be redesigned, as it were, by putting the opportunities that the inevitable energy transition offers in the lead.

^{WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

Curators
The curators of the exhibition are George Brugmans (IABR), Eva Pfannes (OOZE Architects and Urbanists) and Thijs van Spaandonk (Bright and Head Master Urban Design of the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design).

Brugmans and Van Spaandonk developed the narrative of the exhibition. You can download their key texts at the bottom of this page.

^{WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY? - the curators, from the left: George Brugmans, Eva Pfannes and Thijs van Spaandonk}

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY? is open to the public from Friday November 20 through Sunday December 20, from Tuesday to Sunday, from 11 am to 5 pm. The exhibition is closed on Mondays.

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 visitors information, click here

More on Exhibition: WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY? ▸▸▸

Location

Keilepand

People

Downloads

Key texts WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?

Drought in the Delta

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

If scientists worldwide tell us change is urgently needed and on a scale for which ‘there is no documented historical precedent,’ then nothing is self-evident anymore. Even the fact that the Dutch, like no other people, know how to deal with water no longer offers any certainty.
In the delta that the Dutch live in, climate change is generating completely new problems. More and more often there is too much water, but we are also – and this is really new – now confronted with drought and shortages of fresh water. For hundreds of years, we’ve worked hard to make our country better at draining water as quickly and efficiently as possible for reasons of safety and agricultural productivity. But now we are suddenly facing a new challenge: how to retain water in order to be able to use it when we need it.

Building blocks for a new freshwater strategy
The dry summer of 2018 prompted George Brugmans, director of IABR and chief curator of DOWN TO EARTH, to start an investigation into opportunities and frameworks for the large-scale storage of freshwater, both aboveground and underground.
The IABR–Atelier Drought in the Delta was set up and lead designer Marco Vermeulen and his SMV-team were commissioned to map the situation and explore possibilities for increasing the delta's water buffering capacity and the opportunities that this would create. The aim of the research was to provide building blocks for a new freshwater strategy in conjunction with other transition challenges, such as the energy transition, food production, and urbanization, which always involve increasingly intensive use of the topsoil and subsoil. A new strategy is urgently needed, because, as Vermeulen puts it: "Climate change is forcing us to re-design the Dutch water machine back into a resilient delta."

Drought in the Delta

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

DOWN TO EARTH: DROUGHT IN THE DELTA
The results of the research by design done by the Atelier Drought in the Delta are central to the first exhibition of DOWN TO EARTH. They are visualized by means of an animation of a cross section of the Dutch Delta. Looking in the direction of Germany, France and Belgium, upstream along the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt, we see the Alps in the distance. In about seven minutes, Studio Marco Vermeulen en Tungsten Studio demonstrate how our delta is currently functioning, what problems have arisen due to climate change and what possible building blocks for a new freshwater strategy in conjunction with other transition challenges there are.

For more information about the presentation of the results of the Atelier in the exhibition, click here

Drought in the Delta

^{picture: Aad Hoogendoorn}

Four explorations
In addition to the results of the Atelier, the curator, George Brugmans, selected four other exemplary Dutch projects. These already, and very concretely explore aspects of the solution directions as proposed by the Atelier: COASTAR, Panorama Waterland, Water Mosaic Groene Hart and Sponstuin.

Viable proposals for action
DOWN TO EARTH: DROUGHT IN THE DELTA is also and foremost a call to action. It presents concrete proposals for solution directions, in order for local and regional authorities to appreciate opportunities and to make it possible for them to work on their own specific challenges, necessarily in such a way that they fit into the inevitably comprehensive transition of the entire delta.
The exhibition advocates a radical change in thinking and acting. We need to move from a naturally wet delta, which must drain excess water as quickly as possible, to a smart delta that can retain fresh water so that we can use it when we need it.

DROUGHT IN THE DELTA is another fine example of how IABR bridges the gap between research by design, public presentations and action by purposefully using the free cultural space for a continuous open and cultural development process aimed at the real-world implementation of results.

The key texts of the exhibition can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.

^{The Sponstuin, by De Urbanisten, with the Keilepand in the background}

Advance reservations needed
The exhibition took place in the Keilezaal and was open to the public from September 19 to November 1, 2020.

DOWN TO EARTH: DROUGHT IN THE DELTA

curator
George Brugmans

graphic design
ARK
Roosje Klap
Nora Bekes, Loes Claessens

curator assistant
Alexandra Sonnemans

text, narrative
George Brugmans

production and planning
Jolanda van Dinteren
Johanna Fuhler, Eva Knollenburg

events
Lisa Lambert, Yonca Özbilge

copy editing and translations
InOtherWords translation & editing
D’Laine Camp
Gerda ten Cate, Maria van Tol

construction and lighting
Bart Cuppens Tentoonstellingsbouw
Keilepand BV
Quintusbelichting
Tungsten Studio

Drought in the Delta

^{© IABR}

More on Exhibition: DROUGHT IN THE DELTA ▸▸▸

Due to the extension of the lockdown this exhibition could not be opened to the public.
HOWEVER, YOU CAN STILL TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR OF METEOPOLIS (THOUGH ONLY IN DUTCH) : CLICK HERE

Meteopolis, virtual tour

The City of Rotterdam’s program Weatherwise Rotterdam presented four design offices with a challenge: devise and design a future scenario for Rotterdam, keeping in mind that the city is facing climate change, extreme weather and rising sea levels. The designers were asked to take as their point of departure the decision to embrace the water, rather than continuing to fight it. And to consider whether or not we will be able to live in Rotterdam in 2060, and if so, how.

Meteopolis

^{picture: Dewi Baggerman}

The four future scenarios will be presented at METEOPOLIS, an exhibition that offers visitors a look at Rotterdam in 2060, in the context of IABR–DOWN TO EARTH and its core question: Where Can We Land? The aim is to further an informed, open and pointed discussion about the complex problems that climate change will confront us with and to influence decision-making processes in such a way that we will still be able to live in Rotterdam in 40 years’ time.

Meteopolis

^{picture: Dewi Baggerman}

The four scenarios:
Verveeld Verward: Individually + Prepared
De Zwarte Hond + Strootman Landschapsarchitecten: Collectively + Prepared
Marieke Vromans & Floor van den Bergh: Collectively + Coming Through
Walden Studio: Individually + Coming Through

^{METEOPOLIS: Panorama Harbour}

^{image: De Zwarte Hond}

Meteopolis

^{artist impression: Strootman Landschapsarchitecten}

Rotterdam, the IABR and Water
For Rotterdam, a low-lying delta city, water has always been friend and foe. But against the backdrop of climate change, more and more, a sense of danger threatened to predominate. The consequences of global warming gave the water challenge Rotterdam faces a new urgency. Soil subsidence, water safety, extreme precipitation, heat, and drought are major and acute challenges.

^{ROTTERDAM WATERSTAD 2035}

^{image: Maarten Laupman, IABR 2005}

Water has also been the blue thread connecting the programming of successive IABR editions. In 2005, during the 2^nd IABR, The Flood, the concept of Rotterdam Waterstad 2035 was advanced. From a new perspective at the time, Waterstad 2035 emphasized ‘water’ as an opportunity, rather than as a threat or expense. It introduced the idea that, for Rotterdam, the water challenge offers a unique opening towards a more resilient agenda for urban design.
The plan was adopted in its entirety in the Urban Master Plan Rotterdam 2030, served as a source of inspiration for the Rotterdam Adaptation Strategy and helped lay the foundation for Resilient Rotterdam and Weatherwise Rotterdam.

Water as Leverage
15 years after The Flood, the city is now ready to take the next step. In the context of DOWN TO EARTH, Weatherwise Rotterdam explores the opportunities once again. METEOPOLIS: which approach to the city’s water challenges can best create climate-adaptive levers for the sustainable spatial and social development of a resilient Rotterdam?

METEOPOLIS is produced by Weatherwise Rotterdam, a program of the city of Rotterdam, a partner to whom the IABR gladly gives the floor in the context of DOWN TO EARTH.

^{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

IABR-

05.04.2021

400 POSTERS, 150 STUDENTS, 2 ACADEMIES, 1 IABR: NOW!

29.03.2021

DERK LOORBACH APPOINTED CHIEF CURATOR 10TH IABR, SHOCK AND ROLL (2022)

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Program

NOW! DESIGNING IN TIMES OF CLIMATE CRISIS

Partner exhibition

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DOWN TO EARTH: Curator Introduction

Atelier Dordrecht is wrapping up

results and exhibition

DOWN TO EARTH

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Exhibition: WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?

The energy district is an energetic district

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People

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Exhibition: DROUGHT IN THE DELTA

Building blocks for a new freshwater strategy

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People

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Partner exhibition: Meteopolis

Scenarios for Rotterdam in 2060

Visitor Information

05.04.2021

29.03.2021

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Partner exhibition

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results and exhibition

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The energy district is an energetic district

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People

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Building blocks for a new freshwater strategy

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People

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Scenarios for Rotterdam in 2060

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