IABR-

IABR–2018+2020–THE MISSING LINK

With its two editions of 2018 and 2020, the IABR wants to contribute to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and of the objectives stated in the Paris Climate Agreement by further exploring how to make resilient cities.
Contribute we can by making use of the instruments that, as a cultural organization, we have: the power of the imagination and the forcefulness of design. That is, if, as an organization that is active in the field of architecture and urban design, we aspire to future resilient cities, to living environments that will be socially inclusive and infrastructurally climate-proof, we need to apply creativity and design to explore the future that we actually can want. A future we therefore need to research, imagine, design and, quite literally, test to provide us with the leverage we need to work towards our goals in a structured, concentrated and concrete way, with real world results

Our future in the delta, the delta of the future
Arguing that spatial design is crucial leverage, the IABR–2018+2020–THE MISSING LINK focuses on the question of how we can effectively realize the urgent acceleration and scaling of the transition to a resilient future.
The Missing Link

picture: George Brugmans

Initially, in 2017 and 2018, we concentrated on the Delta of the Low Lands, among many other things by establishing and implementing collaborative research projects with partners, provinces and municipalities in the Netherlands and in Belgium. What and how can design contribute to our future in the delta and to the delta of the future?

Water and Fire
In 2019 and 2020 the IABR highlights two very urgent challenges, water and energy, that is, the water challenge and the energy transition as leverage for transformative comprehensive city making.
Water as leverage: make use of the water challenge -too much water, too little water, too dirty water– to explore solutions that have a wide impact in terms of the quality of living conditions pf many millions of people.
Energy transition as leverage: make use of the inevitable energy transition and conceive of it as a tool for inclusive cities.
And while doing this, we will not just focus on our own Delta anymore, but reconnect the IABR to the world.

What’s stopping us?
In other words, from 2017 until 2020 we will address the missing link: we know what we have to do, so what is keeping us from making a successful transition to a resilient future? How to connect the plans to the projects, and the projects to the plans? What's stopping us?

We won’t we stopped
The Missing Link - the exhibition

picture: Ivo Haarman

The IABR won’t be stopped though. In the IABR–Atelier Rotterdam, for example, the City of Rotterdam and the IABR together with the Delfshaven Coöperatie and housing corporation Havensteder are working in Bospolder-Tussendijken to create one of the first energy neighborhoods in the Netherlands. Also, the IABR together with the City and Port Authority are exploring ways to turn former city harbor M4H and the surrounding neighborhoods into a testing ground and showcase for a technologically and socially successful energy transition in Rotterdam. The IABR and the Province of East Flanders explore in the IABR–Atelier East Flanders Core Region how rapid demographic growth can be turned into an opportunity for resilient city making. And then there's Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities: Asia, initiated by the Dutch Water Envoy, IABR, AWB and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
On 1 June 2018, the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam launched its eighth edition, part one of IABR–2018+2020–THE MISSING LINK, in one go in two cities: Rotterdam and Brussels.

picture: Aad Hoogendoorn

In Rotterdam, the main exhibition was on show in the HAKA Building, a national industrial monument in the Merwe-Vierhavens area (M4H), until 8 July 2018, with an extensive program of activities.
During that same period as well as in the fall, the World Trade Center in the Noordwijk area in Brussels, Belgium, is the location for the second exhibition and another extensive program: You Are Here.

For the complete event agenda of IABR–2018: click here
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◂IABR–ATELIERS (2017 - 2020) /

IABR–Atelier Rotterdam

Energy Transition as leverage for socially inclusive city making

Space for Energy in Rotterdam

picture: Frank Hanswijk

The energy transition is one of the key challenges of the coming decades. One important issue is how the transitions will actually take shape. How the advantages and disadvantages will be distributed is not yet clear. The energy transition will involve more than infrastructure and the most important question may well be: What kind of new urbanity will the energy transition allow us to create?

The IABR–Atelier Rotterdam will turn the opportunity created by the energy transition the city and port face into a driver for inclusive urban development and an engine for other important challenges regarding food, the productive city, living, social equality, and others.
This means the Atelier considers energy transition not only a goal, but also a means to work on an attractive future and a resilient and inclusive Rotterdam.

The Energy Transition as an Urban Project
The energy transition is a technical challenge, of course, but at the same time it is also a spatial challenge that we have to integrate into a social agenda. After all, the reduction in the consumption of energy and the transition to renewable energy impact every aspect of daily life. From the way people travel to more energy-efficient dwellings and energy-producing neighborhoods. But is there a level playing field for everyone involved, can everyone keep up with the changes or even benefit by them? Energy poverty as a consequence of the energy transition is already imminent, especially in the more vulnerable neighborhoods.
Given the right approach, conversely, the energy transition can contribute to a high-quality, attractive future if it is used as a means to work on a resilient and inclusive Rotterdam in which citizens are enabled to be not only energy consumers, but also energy producers.
The question the IABR–Atelier Rotterdam raises is about what this new urban quality is that the energy transition will allow us to achieve. What ecological and social added value for the city, its neighborhoods, and every individual citizen will the energy transition be able to generate?

Experiment, Test, Develop
Against the background of the challenge of the energy transition the IABR–Atelier Rotterdam tests new methods for inclusive urban development and generates concrete spatial proposals with the intention of eventually realizing them. In the period between 2017 and 2020, research by design is used for different lines of action and at various scale levels.
At the building level, the Atelier has focused on the development of new building typologies for the energy transition, the results of which were presented at IABR–2018. At the district level the Energy District concept is tested. While Test Site M4H+ highlights integral area development.

The platform of IABR–2018 has mainly been used to present and exchange expertise and knowledge and to actively involve partners and actors (from the city and region as well as beyond) in shared knowledge development.
We are now working on further developing the "energy district"–concept, specifically in Bospolder-Tussendijken. The results will be presented at the IABR–2020, after which they will have to be implemented.

The IABR Atelier Rotterdam: Energy Transition is a collaboration between the IABR, the City of Rotterdam (Urban Planning Department and Resilient Rotterdam) and, at Test Site M4H+, also the Port of Rotterdam Authority.

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◂IABR–ATELIERS (2017 - 2020) / IABR–Atelier Rotterdam /

Collective Strategies for Energy Districts

​Energy Transition at the Neighborhood Scale

In the coming years, Rotterdam’s neighborhoods will switch from conventional to renewable energy one by one. The energy transition will be the largest conversion the city has faced since its post-war reconstruction. However, many of its neighborhoods also face other challenges – ones that their residents often consider much more urgent. Unemployment, school dropout numbers, debts and public security: these are the themes vulnerable neighborhoods set store by, not the energy transition. Other neighborhoods have yet other questions, such as how to climate-proof the neighborhood or how to find space for new dwellings.

Bospolder-Tussendijken

picture: Frank Hanswijk

Towards Energy Districts
It is on the scale of the district that large systems touch people’s immediate living environments. The energy transition will have consequences at the level of the neighborhood, the street and the dwelling. Fortunately, collective action can be organized at that very same level, that of the neighborhood. Is it possible to use the energy transition as a lever for simultaneous, solution-oriented work on other challenges in neighborhoods? To develop collective strategies that ensure that the large investments necessary for the energy transition also serve other goals, strategies that provide social added value in and for the neighborhoods themselves? This is the central question of the IABR–Atelier Rotterdam’s project Energy Districts, which examines and tests how urgent challenges can be addressed coherently and how the energy transition can thus be used as a lever for a more socially inclusive form of urban development.

Testing and developing in and with the neighborhood
The IABR–Atelier Rotterdam is testing and developing the concept of the energy district in Bospolder-Tussendijken (BoTu), working together with local stakeholders and using the local dynamics in and opportunities of the neighborhood. The aim is to develop a working model that can also be used in other neighborhoods as well as more widely, outside the city of Rotterdam.

Workshop in Bospolder-Tussendijken

picture by Frank Hanswijk

In the program of the recently elected Municipal Executive, Bospolder-Tussendijken is designated one of the neighborhoods eligible for an ‘integrated sustainable area approach’. In the coming years, plans will be drafted to make the neighborhood gas free. But BoTu is also a ‘vulnerable’ neighborhood that faces urgent social challenges. Therefore, and together with local stakeholders, the IABR–Atelier is now investigating how the energy transition can contribute to making BoTu a more inclusive and resilient neighborhood.

For more information about Bospolder-Tussendijken click here

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◂WATER AS LEVERAGE /

Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities: Asia

Spearheaded by the Dutch Special Envoy for Water Affairs Henk Ovink, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Global Center on Adaptation, 100 Resilient Cities, Architecture Workroom Brussels and the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam launched the collaborative project WATER AS LEVERAGE FOR RESILIENT CITIES: ASIA at the UN Climate Conference COP23 in Bonn, Germany, on November 9, 2017.


Floods in Chennai, India

picture by OOZE team WaL/Asia

No time to waste
We have no time to waste if we want to safeguard our planet and our future, and achieve our climate goals, our sustainable development goals, and reach beyond. To realize the necessary changes we need to build strong and result-oriented coalitions with the ambition to proactively connect innovative and integrated design, good planning, and a strong process to financial commitment and implementation.
Taking up the challenge, the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, the Dutch Water Envoy and Architecture Workroom Brussels have initiated Water as Leverage.
In partnership with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), 100 Resilient Cities (100RC), UN-Habitat and Partners for Resilience, and supported by the UN/World Bank High Level Panel for Water and the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), we have launched our first project, Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities: Asia (WaL/Asia), on November 9, 2017 at COP23 in Bonn, Germany.

Asia
Nowhere on earth are water-related disasters as widespread and costly, both in terms of human life and loss of (social) wealth, as in South and South East Asia. Asian cities account for 83 percent of the population affected by sea level rise. That is why, together with the AIIB and 100RC Asia, we decided to test how water can be used as a lever for change in Asia first.

Workshop in Semarang, Indonesia

© Team One Resilient Semarang


Three cities, six design teams
After a short and intense period of thorough research, fieldwork, and workshops, the Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities: Asia–consortium partnered with the cities of Khulna (Bangladesh), Chennai (India) and Semarang (Indonesia). These partnerships are carefully chosen, based on the explicit articulation of water-, urban-, and climate-related challenges that these city regions have, the strategic position as a pilot for similar cases they could be and, as such, the potential in terms of sustainable solutions and transformative capacity.
In 2017 a worldwide Call for Action waas launched after which, in June 2018, the Advisory Board of WaL/Asia selected six design teams, two for each city.

Challenge
These three city regions are only a starting point: building on the outcomes a working methodology will be derived and continuously adjusted, as a foundation for following partnerships.
The challenge of Water as Leverage is to match long term comprehensive urban planning with short term innovative transformations ; ambitious climate adaptation plans with bankable projects; developing ever more knowledge of the water system with building more resilient cities; research, design and implementation with inclusive urban alliances. Result driven collaboration is essential, across all sectors, all layers of government, all stakeholders—from activists and vulnerable communities to private and public institutions.

WaL/Asia Regional Workshop Singapore

© UN Habitat, picture by Cynthia van Elk

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◂WEBSHOP / Books + Films /

IABR–2018+2020–The Missing Link

catalog 8th edition IABR (2018)


IABR−2018+2020–THE MISSING LINK
George Brugmans (ed)

2018, IABR, Rotterdam



ISBN: 978-90-825137-2-1

124 pages
english / dutch
paperback / full color

€ 15 plus postage and all transfer costs
order your copy directly from IABR

IABR–2018+2020+THE MISSING LINK
8th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam
1 June – 8 July 2018

There is a direct connection between the future of the city, the subject of the IABR since its founding, and the key challenges of our time, climate change
and rapidly growing social inequality. And as these challenges quickly become more urgent, the position of the IABR becomes increasingly firm and
action-oriented.
What then can the IABR, small player in a huge force field, actually do?
The tools that it has are the power of imagination and the ability of designers to show us what we can want. Nothing more – but nothing less, either.
For such an endeavor to be effective, an environment in which good plans can be turned into concrete projects is vital. It is already happening, but with difficulty and not nearly often enough. There is a missing link. In every respect, and everywhere. That is why, in the next three years, the IABR will fully focus on finding that missing link, on bridging the gap between innovative design and sustainable realization. To start with in the Delta of the Low Countries, with research and Ateliers taking place in the Netherlands and Belgium, and with exhibitions and programs in Rotterdam and
Brussels.
IABR–2018+2020–THE MISSING LINK: one program, two biennales, in two countries.

This bilingual catalog starts with a general introduction, the Curator Statement and the Research Agenda 2018-2020, followed by introductions to the IABR–Ateliers, the Delta Atelier, the main exhibition and the program in Rotterdam and the exhibition in Brussels.

With contributions by Floris Alkemade, Leo Van Broeck, George Brugmans, Joachim Declerck, et al.
Edited by George Brugmans

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◂IABR–2018+2020–THE MISSING LINK /

Main Partners and Strategic Alliances

The Dutch government, the City of Rotterdam and the Creative Industries Fund NL are IABR's main partners.

The IABR is a lead partner of the Dutch government in implementing the Action Agenda for Spatial Design (ARO) 2017 - 2020 of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. The IABR is funded in the Culture Plan 2017 - 2020 Budget of the City of Rotterdam and subsidized as part of the Grant Scheme for Multi-Year Architecture, Design and E-Culture Programs of the Creative Industries Fund NL (SCI).

Strategic alliances
As part of its multiyear policy plan 2017-2020, Towards a Resilient City, the IABR has entered into two action-oriented collaboration agreements.
One is with the Special Envoy for International Water Affairs of the Kingdom of The Netherlands (Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management). The aim is to globally explore potentially viable projects for which "water" can be the key to finding integrated and innovative solutions to existing challenges. One focus is on South East Asia where water related problems are most urgent. In partnership with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Global Center of Excellence on Climate Adaptation and 100 Resilient Cities, IABR, the Special Envoy and AWB have initiated the project Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities: Asia. The Special Envoy and the IABR, together with Deltares and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, have also initiated the World Water Atlas.
The second agreement is with Resilient Rotterdam (Department of Urban Development, City of Rotterdam), resulting in the IABR–Atelier Rotterdam 2017 - 2020, in which a second active partner is the Port Authority of Rotterdam.

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◂ABOUT THE IABR /

Mission Statement

The International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) was founded in 2001 on the conviction that architecture and especially urban planning are of great social importance. Since 2004, when George Brugmans became its director, the IABR therefore mainly focuses on the future of the city where, in a couple of decades, nearly 80 percent of the world’s population will produce more than 90 percent of our wealth—and this will have to be done sustainably.

In its multiyear policy plan 2017-2020: Towards a Resilient City, the IABR expressly places the future of the city in the context of climate change and increasing social inequality. In any way it can, the IABR wants to contribute to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and the achievement of the objectives set out in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. That means well-designed, socially inclusive, resilient cities are of key importance. We can only solve the climate problems if we solve them in the cities first. And to achieve this, good design is crucial.

Objective
The IABR is a knowledge institute as well as a cultural platform and its main objective is to generate real world change, using the power of imagination and design as its main instrument.
How does the IABR do this? By bringing together key disciplines and sectors to carry out result-oriented research by design into the city of tomorrow, both in the Netherlands and abroad. By adding value to policy making and decision making and by influencing the social agenda. By bringing the results – knowledge, plans and projects – extensively into the limelight in an international setting once every two years. And, last but not least, by actively contributing to the realization of these results and actually ‘making city’.

The two most important tools the IABR uses to achieve its objectives are the IABR–Ateliers and the Biennale itself.

Ongoing research in IABR–Ateliers
An IABR–Atelier is a long-term research by design project that is always established in collaboration with governments and other stakeholders to work towards concrete, applicable solutions to existing problems. An Atelier uniquely enables involved governments to carry out actual research by design, to bring in extra quality, to explore new ideas and unexpected options, to test and to try, to learn and to exchange knowledge in a free and international setting and concretely take their challenges to the next level.
To achieve this, the IABR has developed a sustainable and open methodology. Every edition, it looks for a new position and a new perspective, but it always builds on what was learned and developed in previous editions. Knowledge and results add up in a continuous research trajectory to ensure that each Atelier can stand on the shoulders of a previous Atelier.
In recent years the IABR produced successful Ateliers in the Netherlands (on Texel, in Brabant and Groningen, Utrecht and Rotterdam, and together with the central government, businesses and environmental organizations in the North Sea) and abroad (in São Paulo, Istanbul, Brussels and Albania).

Bridging the gap between research and action
Cities have to explore the road to a sustainable future together. Even if they can rarely take over each other’s solutions one-on-one, it is imperative that they know how to learn from each other and exchange experiences as resourcefully as they can.
The Biennale is one place where this can happen, and where research and researchers, design and designers, administrators and policymakers, doers and thinkers, performers and customers, builders and citizens, the Dutch and foreigners, and professionals and their audiences meet.
The first two editions, Mobility (2003) and The Flood (2005) have put the IABR on the map internationally, profiling it as a manifestation focusing on the future of our cities. The editions Power (2007), Open City (2009) and Making City (2012) have explored ongoing rapid urbanization and its consequences, while staking out a position for urban design and making a case for how it can tangibly contribute.
The 6th and 7th editions have taken this agenda one step further. The need to design our future habitat in terms of a sustainable balance between demographic, ecological and economic concerns, between people, planet and profit, have given direction to IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE and IABR–2016–THE NEXT ECONOMY.

Now, rather than a goal in itself, the Biennale is a means: an international podium for the transfer of knowledge among designers, among cities, among governments, and among professionals and the general public to bridge the gap between research and action, between imagination and realization.
Instruments the IABR uses to that end include exhibitions, conferences, films, books, lectures, debates, workshops, and master classes that together comprise the Biennale program.
Using the free cultural space this way – coupling research by design to public presentations in a work process that is always insisting on concrete application – makes the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam unique in the world.

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