The final exhibition of DOWN TO EARTH, the 9th edition of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, opens on July 3 in the Biesboschhal in Dordrecht. THE HIGH GROUND, curated by chief curator George Brugmans, demonstrates how the city's number 1 priority, flood risk management, can be used as leverage for the Drechtsteden 2030 Growth Agenda and Dordrecht's sustainability ambitions.

Download the full press release here or at the bottom of this page

^{THE HIGH GROUND - Live on the Water - PosadMaxwan}

^{drawing: Merel Corduwener for IABR–Atelier Dordrecht}

Water safety as priority
Dordrecht is a not only a city, it’s also an island. Due to its location in a sea-river transit zone, the Island of Dordrecht is very vulnerable to flooding.
Today, 600 years after the legendary Saint Elizabeth’s Flood, Dordrecht is still vulnerable to flooding, which is why the City of Dordrecht is constantly working to improve its flood protection measures. Here, water safety has the highest possible priority.

Water safety as leverage
Located outside the dike, the high ground of district De Staart – currently an isolated area with many problems and few prospects – constitutes a safe haven: it can accommodate many evacuees in the event of a flood.
Over the past two years, the IABR–Atelier Dordrecht and its lead designer Adriaan Geuze (West 8) has investigated how the future need to realize mass accommodation for evacuees on De Staart at a moment’s notice in the event of a major flood can be deployed in the search for an answer to the current sustainable area development challenge: How can water safety be used as leverage?

The results of this investigation are presented in the exhibition THE HIGH GROUND, curated by DOWN TO EARTH Chief Curator George Brugmans.
These results clearly show that De Staart can play an unexpectedly important role in the realization of Dordrecht’s water safety agenda. If Dordrecht decides to go with the water-safety-as-leverage approach, this will create unexpected opportunities for the sustainable development of an attractive living and working area, including new forms of housing, water-safe facilities, innovative work concepts and a unique river-bound tidal park, all in harmony with nature and including new connections for slow traffic that can also serve as escape routes.

Hitting many pins with one ball
On De Staart, the City of Dordrecht can hit many pins with one ball: increase water safety while at the same time building housing and stimulating employment, optimizing connections in the city and region and increasing the quality of life and recreational opportunities for all inhabitants. Thanks to the water-safety-as-leverage approach, the Map of Opportunities of De Staart presented in THE HIGH GROUND reads like the chance in a lifetime to seriously contribute to the Growth Agenda Drechtsteden 2030 and the sustainability ambitions of Dordrecht.

For more info about THE HIGH GROUND, click here

Download the full press release at the bottom of this page

After months of lockdown, DOWN TO EARTH reopens on 9 June 2021 with two exhibitions: RECLAIMING THE COMMONS and WATERSCHOOL M4H+.

^{DOWN TO EARTH}

^{photography: Aad Hoogendoorn}

DOWN TO EARTH
While there is no denying the seriousness of the current pandemic, the climate and biodiversity crisis is increasingly and urgently confronting us with the fact that we have pretty much ruined our relationship with the planet.

Science warns us: we’re almost at the tipping point. This puts us on high alert and forces us to radically change how we think and act, to create design solutions that will concretely and sustainably allow us to land.

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

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

Presenting the exhibitions RECLAIMING THE COMMONS and WATERSCHOOL M4H+, the IABR is once again on top of current affairs: climate crisis, mass extinction, global warming, and rapidly growing inequality. It is here that the IABR believes its key challenges lie.

You can download the full press release at the bottom of this page.

DOWN TO EARTH, the 9th edition of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, the IABR, is a biennale in times of pandemic. It is an anti-biennale, averse to peak hour tendencies, with a program that will incrementally unfold over the next ten months, until the summer of 2021, in a series of exhibitions and activities, their form and planning adapted to the challenging circumstances.

DOWN TO EARTH will start on 19 September with a first exhibition, DROUGHT IN THE DELTA. The second exhibition, WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY?, will open on 30 October. Both exhibitions will take place in the IABR’s new home, the Keilezaal, in the Merwe-Vierhavens District in Rotterdam.

artist impression of the animation of Droogte in de Delta in the Keilezaal

^{© IABR, SMV}

IABR director and DOWN TO EARTH lead curator George Brugmans: ‘Without wishing to detract from the seriousness of the current pandemic, these two exhibitions show that the IABR is on point with regard to what we see as today’s most pressing challenge: that of climate change. Insidiously, yet almost daily, it confronts us with new challenges and their consequences. Take the Netherlands. After three extremely dry summers in a row, the Dutch suddenly realize that freshwater shortages are imminent and that we have to re-design our delta. And we know we have to stop using natural gas in our homes. However, we don’t really know what to do to meet these challenges in a way that keeps everyone on board and ensures that people will get to co-own the transition rather than just be presented with the bill. These are issues that our research has been focusing on.’

DROUGHT IN THE DELTA and WHOSE ENERGY IS IT, ANYWAY? present the results of research by design carried out over the past two years by the IABR and its many partners. As the exhibitions include concrete proposals and striking imaginations of practical solutions, the IABR, as a knowledge institute and cultural platform, purposefully contributes to real change toward more sustainable cities.

You can download the full press release at the bottom of this page

First of all, on behalf of all of us here at the IABR I would like to express my heartfelt sympathy with all of you who have been hit by the corona crisis. We wish you, your loved ones, friends and colleagues all it takes: stay healthy, sane and safe!

Given the current circumstances, business as usual is not an option, of course, and that goes for the IABR as well. So, it’s not surprising that many have asked us how the Covid-19 pandemic will impact the planning of IABR–2020–DOWN TO EARTH. In this newsletter I want to inform you of where we currently stand.

The coronavirus has put the whole world on hold and given mankind a truly unique opportunity to take a good hard look at where we’re at. Evidently, we’ve made a mess of our relationship with the planet. As with the climate and biodiversity crises, the pandemic is a direct consequence of human activity, particularly our global economic and financial systems with their stress on endless compound growth and the necessity to exploit nature to its limits. But unlike these other crises, threats that gradually sneak up on us, the pandemic is a grim warning of how nature can suddenly surprise us at any moment. What the coronavirus tells us is that we should no longer fool ourselves and stop clinging to the notion that we’re able to create an autonomous ecosystem, separate from the rest of the biosphere. It’s just not sustainable.

Though not much of a silver lining, the pandemic also shows that DOWN TO EARTH’s core questions are spot on, and more urgent than ever. Indeed, how do we recover our just place on earth, and in harmony with nature? Where can we land?But ‘told you so’ is not a very productive approach for a biennale to have. Exactly because our core questions stand, the pandemic forces us to rethink how to express and frame them, and to focus even harder on the how now­ part of bringing about the comprehensive transformational change that’s so urgently needed.

How? I have no trouble admitting that I don’t know yet, because trying to run ahead of ourselves would surely be counterproductive. But what I do know is that Covid-19’s deep impact clearly communicates the need to strongly resist scurrying back to normal as soon as we think it’s safe again. Because, and this has been pointed out by many others, normal is exactly the problem.

What’s more, trying to run ahead of ourselves would also be imprudent given that we as well as most of our partners are working at home and in various stages of lockdown all over the world. We’re in the midst of what feels like a global game of Chinese whispers and right now is not a good time for us to prepare for the complicated logistic operation that every biennale is.

We have therefore decided not to keep planning for the opening of the biennale in the first weekend of September, meaning that DOWN TO EARTH will be rescheduled.
This decision is confirmed by the most recent resolutions of the Dutch government. While new rules for relaxing the current physical-distancing restrictions will take effect in the coming weeks, festivals and other events that bring a lot of people together remain prohibited until 1 September. In other words, whether opening the biennale in the first weekend of September would have been viable at all would have remained uncertain for at least another two or three months.

What does this mean for the timing of and approach to DOWN TO EARTH?
The honest answer to this question is that, once again, I don’t know. We are now exploring different scenarios and keeping our options open, both in terms of planning and of the form the biennale will take. The only thing that is certain, if – and that’s a big if – circumstances allow us to organize a proper international exhibition at all, it will not open until very late in the year or, much more likely, even be postponed until the spring of 2021.

However, we may still decide to start in September or October, but initially only in very small settings and/or in an online environment, to find out what works and what doesn’t, and then decide whether we can still move towards a physical exhibition that is adaptive and corona proof. An exhibition that will subsequently end with its Opening, that is, an opening towards the future that we would want DOWN TO EARTH to conclude with.

In the next weeks, we will further explore the different scenarios and expect to secure the ongoing support of our funders and partners for every possible course of events. We will have narrowed down our options by the end of May and we hope to be able to make ‘final yet expiration date unknown’ decisions by the middle of June. We’ll keep you posted.

Again, stay healthy, sane and safe!

George Brugmans
president IABR

On 1 June 2018, the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam will launch its eighth edition, part one of IABR–2018+2020–THE MISSING LINK, in one go in two cities: Rotterdam and Brussels.
In Rotterdam, the main exhibition is on show in the HAKA Building, a national monument in the Merwede-Vierhaven area (M4H), until 8 July 2018. In Brussels, the IABR will partner with Architecture Workroom Brussels for an exhibition at the World Trade Center, open until 30 September 2018.

HAKA building

^{© Hannah Anthonysz}

Arguing that spatial design is crucial leverage, the IABR–2018+2020–THE MISSING LINK raises the question of how we can effectively realize the urgent acceleration and scaling of the transition to a resilient future, initially with a focus on the Delta of the Low Lands.
The 2018 work biennale will concentrate on research, exchange, debate, and brainstorming. The work will continue across 2019, and the results will be presented in 2020.

The press release can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.

During the weekend of 23 and 24 April 2016, the IABR will kick off IABR–2016–THE NEXT ECONOMY in former coffee warehouse Fenixloods II in Rotterdam Katendrecht. This seventh edition of the IABR visualizes the city of the future in the next economy and invites everyone to actively participate by joining the extensive WHAT’S NEXT? program, consisting of lectures, conferences, workshops, meetings, brainstorms and debates. The IABR will present the main conclusions of eleven weeks of knowledge exchange to the public with a closing debate and in a publication on Sunday 3 July.

The IABR–2016–THE NEXT ECONOMY exhibition shows a range of possible futures: from radical scenarios for the energy transition to examples of experimental, cooperative area development; from mega projects on the North Sea and in Africa to local initiatives in South America, China, and Rotterdam. Apart from an exhibition, IABR–2016 is also a workspace that encourages ongoing participation.

Urban Africa: What's Next?

During the weekend of 23 and 24 April 2016, the IABR will kick off its seventh edition: IABR–2016–THE NEXT ECONOMY. The opening weekend marks the beginning of an exhibition and a continuous program of activities in and around former warehouse Fenixloods II in the Rotterdam district of Katendrecht.
Chief curator Maarten Hajer and an international Curator Team will once again focus on the future of the city, investigating the relationship between urban design and tomorrow’s economy.

Until 10 July 2016, IABR–2016 is a platform for creative coalitions of designers, administrators, businesses, citizens, and other agents of change with fresh ideas and imaginations of the twenty-first century city. The IABR will share the most important conclusions of eleven weeks of debate with the audience in a closing debate on Sunday 3 July.

The IABR has published a list of 96 projects that together will make up the main exhibition of its upcoming edition, URBAN BY NATURE–The list includes projects by renowned designers and design offices such as Piet Oudolf, OMA, BIG, MVRDV, West 8, ZUS, JCFO, .FABRIC, LOLA, Floris Alkemade, H+N+S, Wim Quist and Benthem Crouwel; by organizations such as the World Wild Fund for Nature Netherlands and the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency; companies such as Shell and the Port of Rotterdam Authority; and universities such as Delft University of Technology, MIT, Harvard, and ETH Zurich.

Over 40 companies, civil organizations, authorities, research facilities, and cultural institutions are intrinsically contributing to IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE–. The IABR (International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam) is using research by design to tackle the task of creating a healthy balance between humanity, the environment, and prosperity. Our world is urbanizing fast, and the dividing line between city and nature is fading just as rapidly.

During the IABR–2014–, the IABR and its partners are investigating the changing relationship between city and nature. They believe that the environmental problems of the world can be solved only if the problems of the city are solved first. As of 29 May 2014, the results of this joint investigation will be on show in a major exhibition held in the Kunsthal Rotterdam – which will be dedicated to a single theme for the first time in its existence.

‘To resolve the world’s ecological problems, we first have to work on the problems facing our cities.’ This observation by landscape architect Dirk Sijmons is the premise of the sixth edition of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam: IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE– and it earned him the curatorship of this edition.

A major exhibition, URBAN BY NATURE– will guide visitors through the contemporary urban landscape to experience the metabolism of the city. For the first time in its history, the now sustainable Kunsthal will be used in its entirety for a single exhibition.
IABR–2014– opens on 28 May 2014 and is open to the public from 29 May 2014.

Dirk Sijmons has been appointed curator of the next edition of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam.

The 6th IABR has the working title URBAN by NATURE and opens in May 2014. It focuses on the ‘natural’ character of the city as human biotope. By examining the metabolism of the urban organism, the 6th IABR explores the relationship between city and nature whilst also reflecting on city as nature. The city as nature, as a metabolism, not only comprises the built environment, but the broader context: the landscape that is the material condition for our urban society.