The seventh edition of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, IABR–2016–THE NEXT ECONOMY, opened on Saturday 23 April, the day after the UN assembled in New York to sign the Paris Climate Agreement. This immediately highlighted the topicality of the theme of this Biennale. As IABR director George Brugmans underlined at the opening of IABR–2016: the Next Economy starts today!

Driven by the question WHAT’S NEXT? the exhibition IABR–2016–THE NEXT ECONOMY is also a ten-week platform for conferences, debates, lectures, workshops, brainstorming sessions, and meetings that further explore the relationship between spatial design and tomorrow’s economy. The program for the next couple of weeks includes SUSTAINABLE URBAN DELTAS, a conference organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Delta Coalition, as well as the launch of the first Rotterdam RESILIENCE STRATEGY. Both conferences focus on the long-term resilience of cities.