Video

Productive Space by Design

São Paulo - The Need For New Development Strategies. Photo: Joachim Declerck
São Paulo - The Need For New Development Strategies. Photo: Joachim Declerck
    • June 12, 2014

On June 12, 2014 the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam held its international conference Productive Space By Design. The conference was part of IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE’s public program of events parallel to the exhibitions at the Kunsthal Rotterdam.

The conference brought together designers, administrators, entrepreneurs, decision makers and experts to look ahead to an alternative and innovative model for urban development. In keynotes and round table discussions, with stories and concrete examples, the rol that design can play was explored.

Now that the financial crisis has exposed the weakness of the funding models of traditional planning, and now that climate change, increasing scarcity of resources, and environmental issues require new approaches, new development models are crucial. The conference Productive Space By Design offers inspirational presentations and engaging debate sessions about how design can contribute to finding innovative models for urban development.

Introduction by George Brugmans, director of the IABR, and Joachim Declerck, director Architecture Workroom Brussel and moderator of the conference.

Dirk Sijmons, landscape architect and curator of IABR 2014 gave a lecture about the theme of Urban by Nature.

Lectures by:

Samuel Carter, Associate Director Resilience of the Rockefeller Foundation

Maarten Hajer, director Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving (PBL)

Peter Swinnen, Vlaams Bouwmeester

Other participants were: Pierre Bélanger, Associate Professor Landscape Architecture Harvard Graduate School of Design; Roelof Bleker, Dijkgraaf Waterschap Rivierenland; Fred Van Beuningen, director Rotterdam Partners; Floris Alkemade, architect and urbanist; Eric Frijters, architect at .FABRIC; architect Mark Brearley, project leader ‘Design for London’; Hans Tijl, director Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Milieu; Kristian Koreman, landscape architect at ZUS; Guilherme Wisnik, curator of the Architecture Biennale São Paulo; Patrick Janssens, former mayor of Antwerp.