Workshop 2018 Amsterdam Workshop

Amsterdam Intensive Urban Design Workshop 6-13 November 2018, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Spatial Re-Thinking of Urban Well-being: Urbanising Baaibuurt
The aim of the broader project to which this exercise belongs is to imagine alternative urban development scenarios, in this case for the city of Amsterdam and the new island of Baaibuurt. The specific aim is to explore, through design, dialogic relationships between the established hydraulic practices of Dutch culture and the opposite logic of aquatic environments. The critical focus will be on dialectics between water and land and the edge condition. The main focus of this intensive fieldwork/workshop is to engage students in design-research explorations which will point at possible and desirable futures for the island.

Process rather than product: narratives of growth
Students will explore alternative spatial scenarios for Baaibuurt, exploring both a variety of theoretical, “what-if” scenarios and existing places and practices that could enable approaches other than tabula rasa. By identifying existing places and practices may have the capacity to inform design and enhance the sense of place, the workshop will address processes of urbanisation, possible phasing scenarios and development of meaningful places over time. What are the crucial elements that can be “requalified” to trigger the new meaning to this future community. We aim for the place that reflects its identity, embrace the diversity and engage its residents.
The workshop is part of the continuing collaboration between the City of Amsterdam, Keio University co+labo Radović and I-AUD Meiji University.