Rotterdam: Productive City
Manufacturing is increasingly considered as an answer to the question how to bring back to the city an economy that adds value locally, is circular and socially inclusive. For Rotterdam, this is a development that offers welcome opportunities. The manufacturing economy is still an important economic pillar in this former industrial city, though when dominant sectors won’t innovate it is vulnerable, too.
IABR–Project Atelier Rotterdam has explored which (spatial) opportunities emerge when the Metropolitan region Rotterdam The Hague is looked at from the perspective of the next manufacturing economy. The Atelier proposes seven development perspectives that can strengthen the regional manufacturing economy. What do these perspectives mean for the urban development of Rotterdam?
Program
After a welcome from Ronald Schneider (Alderman for Urban Development, City of Rotterdam) and George Brugmans (general director IABR), chief curator of IABR–2016– Maarten Hajer will elaborate on the theme the Next Economy. Atelier Master Daan Zandbelt and the design offices De Zwarte Hond, L'AUC and marco.broekman will present the main results of IABR–Atelier Rotterdam.
In the afternoon the development perspectives are further elaborated in workshops, focussing on the question how Rotterdam should continue with the results.
Workshops:
1. Making Public (language English)
2. Circulair Landscapes
3. Highstreets Revisited
4. Growing, Living, Working
5. Productive Service Stations (language English)
6. Learning City
7. Repositioning Working Districts
TUESDAY 14 JUNE
Time: doors open 9.30, program 10 a.m. - 6.30 p.m.
Location: Fenixloods II, Paul Nijghkade 19, Rotterdam
Language: morning: English, afternoon workshop: mainly Dutch, two workshops in English
Admission fee: € 30,- including lunch, drinks and a ticket to the exhibition.
More information: through rotterdamproductievestad.nl
Registration: through this link
IABR–Project Atelier Rotterdam: The Productive City
More and more cities are reconsidering their role in the manufacturing economy under the influence of developments like reshoring, the emergence of new smarttechnologies, the ambition to develop a circular economy and an increasing social interest in (local) craftsmanship. This is also the case in Rotterdam, where different actors are researching and exploring how the city can make better and more productive use of the opportunities available for socio-economic development, by focusing on the making economy. How can Rotterdam profit from the large flows of cargo that move through the port and city on a daily basis? Can large scale industry and small scale making-initiatives be connected in such a way that mutual (knowledge) exchange and innovation are fostered? Which role can education play? And how can public actors facilitate an ‘ecology of the making economy’?
The IABR–Project Atelier Rotterdam has researched what the making economy encompasses for Rotterdam, what the most promising components are how the making economy, by fostering new connections and crossovers, and by building on the specific spatial characteristics of city and region, can add value locally. In recent years large investments have been made in the global economic agenda, with little regard for whether these activities really add any value locally, to the city and to its inhabitants.
Project Atelier Rotterdam is a collaboration of the IABR and the Municipality of Rotterdam. The atelier master is Daan Zandbelt (De Zwarte Hond). The offices De Zwarte Hond, marco.broekman and L'AUC (Paris) have been commissioned to do the design research.
