2020 - 9th edition
DOWN TO EARTH
In 2020 Down to Earth, the 9th Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, sought to make an impact in practice, from changing the way we manage water in the Delta of the Low Countries to realizing an inclusive energy transition in a Rotterdam urban district.
In response to the United Nations’ alarming IPCC report that states that the world has until 2030 to avoid an impending climate catastrophe, the IABR, drawing on philosopher Bruno Latour, asked whether it is possible to ‘re-settle’ on planet Earth by redesigning our living environment in a sustainable balance with other life forms. The IABR explored the ways in which spatial designers and architects can contribute to this.
The 9th edition was a follow-up to 2018’s The Missing Link. The Biennale took place in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The exhibition program was interrupted by lockdowns and was therefore shown over a longer period.
Curators
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Photo: Aad Hoogendoorn George Brugmans
George Brugmans served as General Director of the IABR from 2004 to 2014 and then as President of the IABR until 2021. He was chair of the Curator Team of the 5th IABR: Making City and chief curator of IABR-DOWN TO EARTH. Inspired by what he had seen and recorded around the world as a film producer and documentary filmmaker, Brugmans took the future of the city as his guide for the IABR.
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Photo: Fred Ernst Rianne Makkink en Jurgen Bey (Studio Makkink & Bey)
Architect Rianne Makkink and designer Jurgen Bey hold that urban planning, architecture and landscape architecture are inextricably linked with product design. Studio Makkink & Bey works in various domains of applied art and includes public space projects, product design, architecture, exhibition design and applied arts.
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Photo: Fred Ernst Thijs van Spaandonk (Bright en hoofd Master Stedenbouw bij de Rotterdamse Academie van Bouwkunst)
Thijs van Spaandonk is an architect and partner at BRIGHT, an urban development research and development cooperative he founded in 2017 with Gerjan Streng. He is also head of Urban Planning at the Academy of Architecture Rotterdam.
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Photo: Fred Ernst Robbert de Vrieze (Transformism en voorzitter Delfshaven Energie Coöperatie)
Robbert de Vrieze is a social designer and architect. He operates at the intersection of design, society, politics and economics with his agency and network Transformers.
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Eva Pfannes
Based in Rotterdam, Eva Pfannes is an architect and urban designer working in Europe, India and Brazil. She co-founded the international design practice OOZE in 2003 with Sylvain Hartenberg, working across scales, from regional strategies to architecture and research, combining an elaborate understanding of natural, ecological processes, with technological expertise and deep insights in to the social-cultural behaviour of users of the built environment. The cyclic closed-loop processes found in nature are the foundation for each intervention and integrate the human scale within a comprehensive urban strategy.
Eva is co-curator of the ninth edition of the International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam (IABR), DOWN TO EARTH (2020 - 2021) and in 2020 she was the lead designer of the IABR–Atelier Rotterdam III, working on a Local Energy Action Plan (LEAP) to decarbonize a local neighbourhood. She is the team lead for the City of 1000 Tanks project in Chennai, part of the global Water as Leverage program of the Dutch Government. Her expertise covers urban, participatory and climate resilience strategies including Nature Based Solutions and developing multi system models with an interdisciplinary team.
Eva’s work was widely published, including in the Materials Book by Ruby Press, DOMUS, AJ and The Guardian and exhibited in the Venice Biennial, Studio-X-Rio, the Sao Paulo Architecture Biennial and the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam. Awards include the 2017 Landscape Institute Award UK for ‘Best Design for Temporary Landscape’ and the LafargeHolcim Bronze Award-Latin America 2017. In 2015, she was Practitioner in Residence at Central Saint Martins (UAL) and served on the jury for the Rotterdam Architecture Prize 2018. Eva is a Jury member for the 6th International LafargeHolcim Awards-Europe 2020.
