We need to radically change the way in which we make room for work in the city. By prioritizating the accommodation of housing and offices over industry and manufacturing, these activities and jobs have been driven out of the city, into the peripheries. However, a socially inclusive and resilient city needs industry: from manufacturing that links thinking, making and innovation, to circular economies that invests in shorter and more sustainable economic chains.
Metropolitan regions benefit from an economy that invests in local production and employment and that is sustainable because it invests in recycling and short cycles. How can industry once again help to build the city? And how can the manufacturing economy contribute to a more socially inclusive city? In Brussels and Rotterdam, as well as in other cities, the focus on the productive city has grown in recent years. What can we learn from recent research by design trajectories and projects on the productive city? What are the next steps if we want the productive city te become a reality?
With a keynote by Marco Broekman (marco.broekman urbanism research architecture) on IABR–Atelier Rotterdam: The Productive City and other projects.
THURSDAY JANUARY 12
Time: 19.00 - 21.00
Location: Atelier Flemish Government Architect, Ravensteingalerij 54-59, Brussels
Language: English
Admission: free. Register via this link.
Designing the Future sessions
This debate is part of the debates program Designing the Future and is organized by AWB and IABR, with the Flemish Government Architect, the Flemish Association for Spatial Planning and the Brussels Government Architect.
Various global and local challenges present themselves increasingly as complex spatial issues: energy transition, the socialization of health care, sustainable mobility, and others. This has resulted in a renewed belief in the potential of design based on the assumption that it can help us realize the future that we want. At this point in time, there is a need to merge the knowledge, insights and experiences that have been produced. What are the lessons learned? And more importantly, what are the next steps? How can we translate intentions into practice? How and with whom do we start? The Designing the Future sessions are devoted to the development of a shared agenda for designing a better future.
