workshop Project Atelier Utrecht

^{picture: Sis Pillen}

The IABR is an architecture biennale that conducts ongoing research into the future of the city. One of its main tools is the Project Atelier: a long-term research by design trajectory in which the IABR in joint partnership with (mostly local) public authorities connects existing challenges to innovative, concrete and applicable solutions.

In the context of the IABR–2016–THE NEXT ECONOMY– the IABR has set up Ateliers together with the Municipality of Rotterdam; the Municipality of Utrecht; an alliance of the Province of Groningen, the Municipality of Groningen, Eemsdelta Region and the Groningen-Assen Region; a coalition of Flemish actors, among them the Brussels-Capital Region, Ruimte Vlaanderen, the Public Waste Agency of Flanders (OVAM) and the Province of Flemish Brabant; the national government of Albania; and a consortium of public and private parties brought together to explore the potential of the North Sea for energy transition.

The ateliers deploy research by design to create spatial and economic development models, establish new alliances, and design detailed proposals for pilot projects. The results will be important anchor points in the main exhibition THE NEXT ECONOMY– and will subsequently go "back home": local implementation is always the objective.

Healthy, Energetic, and Productive
The three Dutch Ateliers that have been launched in Groningen, Utrecht, and Rotterdam are all dedicated to the theme of the 2016 biennale, The Next Economy. They focus on three major issues related to the spatial anticipation of the urban economy of the future in the Netherlands: energy transition, (health) care and ageing, and the circular economy and local manufacturing industry.

IABR–2016–PROJECT ATELIER UTRECHT: HEALTHY CITY
Project Atelier Utrecht is a collaboration between the IABR and the Municipality of Utrecht.
Atelier Master is Joachim Declerck, partner of Architecture Workroom Brussel (AWB).

The central research question is: Which innovative spatial development strategies can contribute to an inclusive, healthy city in which the solidarity between different generations, cultures, and income groups is paramount – a city that can be an inspiration for the rest of the Netherlands and for other countries as well?

For more information, click here.

IABR–2016–PROJECT ATELIER GRONINGEN: TOWARD A NEW ENERGY LANDSCAPE
Project Atelier Groningen is a collaboration between the IABR and the Province of Groningen, the Municipality of Groningen, Eemsdelta\EZ and the Groningen-Assen Region.
Atelier Master is Jandirk Hoekstra, a partner of H+N+S Landscape Architects.

The central research question is: How can a ‘next economy’, based on renewable energy and reduced CO₂ emissions, become a new, inspiring perspective for the northern Netherlands in general and the Groningen - Eemshaven region in particular?

For more information, click here.

IABR–2016–PROJECT ATELIER ROTTERDAM: PRODUCTIVE CITY
The Project Atelier Rotterdam is a collaboration between the IABR and the Municipality of Rotterdam.
Atelier master is Daan Zandbelt, associate at De Zwarte Hond.

The central research question is: How can Rotterdam launch a future-proof spatial-economic strategy, based on the regional development of a manufacturing industry that adds value locally, is circular and socially inclusive, and is rooted in the existing dynamics and (spatial) potential of the city and the region?

For more information, click here.

Atelier Productive Metropolis BXL
The aim of 'Atelier Productive Metropolis BXL' is a better match between the changing economy and the organisation of space for productive activities in the capital city's metropolitan area. How can spatial quality and the urban economy reinforce one another, and who creates the productive city?

Atelier Productive Metropolis BXL is a collaboration of the IABR, Architecture Workroom (AWB) and Brussels and Flemish actors, among them the Brussels-Capital Region, Ruimte Vlaanderen, the Public Waste Agency of Flanders (OVAM) and the Province of Flemish Brabant.

For more information, click here

ATELIER ALBANIA
In response to prime minister Edi Rama’s call to designers worldwide to contribute to Next Generation Albania, George Brugmans (IABR), Freek Persyn and Johan Anrys (51N4E, Brussels) proposed Atelier Albania.
The Atelier was established in February 2014 and integrated into the Albanian Ministry of Urban Development’s National Planning Office (AKPT), directly advising the Albanian government. AKPT’s director, Adelina Greca, is the Atelier’s director; Brugmans and Persyn were engaged as special advisors.

For more information, click here

Atelier North Sea: 2050 - An Energetic Odyssey
The European climate objective – 80 to 95 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 compared with 1990 – requires significant system changes. 2050 – An Energetic Odyssey shows how far-reaching the energy transition from fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and gas to an energy supply largely fed by renewable energy sources actually is.
The project explores a system leap that makes it possible to bridge this gap by the very large-scale production of wind energy on the relatively shallow North Sea for the countries that surround it.

IABR with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Van Oord, Shell, TenneT, Zeeland Seaports, European Climate Foundation, Natuur & Milieu, RWE, Port of Rotterdam Authority and Port of Amsterdam.
Research by design and animation by H+N+S Landscape Architects, Ecofys and Tungsten Pro

For more information, click here

IABR–Ateliers always focus on applicable results and eventual implementation
In recent years, the IABR has produced Ateliers in, among other places, São Paulo, Istanbul, and Albania. In the Netherlands, the IABR organized Ateliers as a lead partner of the Dutch government and under the authority of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment.
In the context of the previous Biennale, IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE–, the IABR collaborated with the Municipality of Rotterdam and the Municipality of Texel as well as with an alliance of the Province of North Brabant, BrabantStad and the Brabant Water Boards. These three Project Ateliers resulted in innovative spatial and economic development models and detailed project proposals, which the authorities involved have subsequently implemented.

The Province of North Brabant is deploying the development principles designed in the IABR–Project Atelier BrabantStad in the Brabant-wide discussion about the future that will lay the foundations for the new Regional Plan for the Province of North Brabant will present in 2018. On a number of sites, work on the transition from regional development principle to local implementation is already underway, for instance in the Dommel Valley.
In December 2014, Texel’s municipal council enthusiastically and unanimously carried the Court of Mayor and Aldermen’s proposal to use the results of the IABR–Project Atelier Planet Texel as guidelines and principles for the future development of the island and to facilitate the implementation of the plan, starting in De Koog. The "Texel Principles", designed in the Atelier, have become established guidelines for governance on the future development of the island.
The Municipality of Rotterdam is using the results of the IABR–Project Atelier The Metabolism of Rotterdam as a source of inspiration and a foundation for further work on the transition to a sustainable and circular economy.

For a complete list of IABR–Project Ateliers and Test Sites, click here

The IABR initiates and produces the Project Ateliers as a lead partner for the Regional and Local Design Dialogue Program, within the framework of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment’s Action Agenda for Architecture and Spatial Design 2013–2016.

Workshop Project Atelier Rotterdam: JCFO and .Fabric, NYC Sept2013

The mainstay of the research and development trajectory of IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE– are the three Project Ateliers that the IABR has set up in collaboration with the municipalities of Texel and Rotterdam and with the province of North Brabant, in direct response to concrete and existing spatial challenges.

Sabbatical Detour
An IABR–Project Atelier is a temporary workspace created to provoke all partners into using the free cultural space and the international setting the IABR offers in order to evolve new, design driven perspectives through an open exchange of knowledge and expertise. This sabbatical detour model, as the IABR has been developing it since 2009, facilitates design based research and reflection on an existing urban challenge and the subsequent design of alternative approaches. This process of testing should however always result in concrete proposals for strategies, action plans and/or pilot projects that IABR’s partners then can implement.

By applying the sabbatical detour model the IABR–Project Ateliers confront real and existing urban design challenges with design driven research, the results of which are presented on the platform of the Biennale, i.e. displayed in the main exhibition as well as discussed in the public program. The main goal however is to see the results subsequently deployed by the participating local and regional governments.

Each atelier connects to one of the three core themes of IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE– that are the backbone of the main exhibition: the relation between city and nature in A PLANET CULTIVATED (Project Atelier Texel), the importance of thinking in terms of flows in THE URBAN METABOLISM (Project Atelier Rotterdam) and new ways to come to terms with urban landscapes in STRATEGIES FOR THE URBAN LANDSCAPE (Project Atelier BrabantStad).

The curator of IABR–2014–, Dirk Sijmons, also acts as Atelier Master. For each atelier the IABR has commissioned a team consisting of a landscape architect and an urban design office. Each atelier involves an alliance of private and public stakeholders.

The IABR initiates and produces the Project Ateliers as a lead partner for the Regional and Local Design Dialogue Program, within the framework of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment’s Action Agenda for Architecture and Spatial Design 2013–2016.

Test Site São Paulo

^{picture: Fabio Knoll}

The temporary concentration of specific knowledge of the issues raised by a given biennale edition, the IABR feels should not just be unleashed to create an exhibition, but can also be brought to bear on existing urban challenges.

Since 2009 therefore the IABR has set up collaborative alliances to work on concrete urban challenges with local partners in Rotterdam, São Paulo and Istanbul: the three IABR Test Sites. New, open and often temporary alliances between local governments and designers, urbanists, engineers, entrepreneurs and developers are the backbone of these Test Site-collaborations that were first presented to the public n all three cities at the 5^th IABR: Making City.

deploying design in a sabbatical detour
The advantage of collaboration between a city and a cultural organization like the IABR is the relatively free space that is temporarily created in which new alliances can be formed and design can take the lead. Research by design, the development and exchange of knowledge and expertise in an international setting, public presentations, reflection and debate and implementation are riveted together in this model, all with the aim of making city differently and possibly better.
What the IABR has to offer a city with this solution-oriented working method is, literally, time and space: a sabbatical detour, a qualitative diversion that wants to contribute added value to the usual way of approaching an urban design challenge. Collaboration with the IABR may result in greater quality because the sabbatical detour provides conditions that allow for broader reflection, a collaborative search with an international network of experts for alternatives, for new alliances, new perspectives, and unexpected solutions.
While normal procedures and business ánd politics as usual are momentarily banned, this process is still fully geared towards eventual implementation. The results are presented at the IABR after which the projects go 'back home' in order to be realized and implemented.

são paulo, istanbul and rotterdam
In collaboration with the city of São Paulo, the motor of the Brazilian economy and the biggest city in the southern hemisphere, and starting in 2009 the IABR developed approaches and concrete project plans for the favela Paraisópolis, plans that the municipality decided to implement. Consequently, in 2010, the partners decided to set up the Atelier São Paulo that was briefed to develop input for the new Urban Plan the city wanted to develop for Cabuçu de Cima, in the northeast of the megapolis, as well as propose concrete pilot projects that were to integrate the ecological and economic agenda with new social housing.

Field trip Istanbul, 2010

^{picture: George Brugmans}

For the Municipality of Arnavutköy in Istanbul the IABR Atelier Istanbul developed a Strategic Vision and Action Plan that has since been accepted and was presented to the mayor of Istanbul on 8 December 2011. The next phase was to develop design proposals based on this plan for pilot projects to be realized by 2014. The municipality of Arnavutköy lies in the drinking water reservoir of the Istanbul metropolitan region. This area is largely agrarian. But as the city advances, tension is growing between ecological interests and urbanization. The challenge is to incorporate urban developments in the existing productive landscape. In June 2013 the IABR reached an agreement with a public-private alliance of local stakeholders including the municipality of Beykoz, on the Asian side of the Bosphorus –an area that is regularly flooded. Here too the focus is on an approach integration water management and urban design.

Test Site Rotterdam, a project that concentrates on Rotterdam Central District, is an ongoing project of ZUS with the support of the IABR that wants to be one of the forces driving the further development of the area. Just as in many other cities, literally ten thousands of square metres of office space lie empty right in the heart of the city. At the same time, there is a desperate need for smaller living and working units. The challenge is to transform the Central District in such a way that it becomes a lively part of the city again.