Working on cities is featured at the exhibition ZEEËN VAN VRIJHEID about housing projects around the world. The exhibition shows both a selection of the work of Pasel.Künzel Architects as well as the projects of WOC*Ghana studio. Come and have a look!

ZEEËN VAN VRIJHEID
TOP - Techniek Ontmoetings Punt Delft
Hippolytusbuurt 14
2611 HN Delft
8 July – 9 September 2010
For more information visit: paselkuenzel.com

WOC project 'THE ROYAL TREES' by John de Groot, Henk-Jan Imhoff and Jens Jorritsma received an honorable mention at the BLUE AWARD in the category Urban Transformation and Development. The Blue Award is an international student competition for sustainable architecture organized by the Faculty of Architecture at the Vienna University of Technology; the Department of Spatial and Sustainable Design.

The Royal Trees, according to the jury is based on a subtle study of the qualities of the land, the local species of vegetation and the population’s behavior in both private and public spaces.

A radio-interview with the Royal Trees team by Architektur im Radio "A Palaver" can be downloaded here (track B; starts at 20 mins.)

More information on the competition: BLUE AWARD

A selection of projects from Parallel Cases//IABR@RDM will be shown in Paris from 11 January until 12 February 2010. The exhibition, Projects for the Open City, will take place in the École Nationale Supérieur d’Architecture de Paris-Malaquais and features a selection of projects of the 4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), Open City: Designing Coexistence.

 

We're very proud to announce that our award winning project 'Working on Cities' is one of the chosen projects to be featured at the exhibition! So if you happen to be in Paris the next coming weeks, don't hesitate to drop by!

Projects for the open city
9th January - 13th February 2010
École nationale supérieur d’architecture de Paris-Malaquais
1, Rue Jacques Callot
75006 Paris - France
Google Maps

For more information, please visit the IABR website of download the Project for the open city flyer (pdf)

Working on Cities has received the Parallel Cases Award for the contribution for this year’s Parallel Cases Exhibition, part of the 4th International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam. In the Parallel Cases exhibition, student teams and researchers from 28 universities in 20 different countries respond to the Open City theme. At the opening ceremony Lars Lerup announced three winners out of a total of 45 projects. Apart from him the jury consisted of Liesbeth van der Pol (NL), Chief Government Architect of the Netherlands, Dieter Läpple (Ger), Professor of Urban and Regional Economics at the HCU Hamburg, Emiliano Gandolfi (I), architectural critic and Floris Alkemade (NL), architect and urban planner.

The exhibition runs until Sunday December 13th at the RDM Campus in Rotterdam. More information about the Biennale and the Parallel Cases exhibtion can be found here.

Working on cities is a student initiative which has grown to a collaboration of the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design (AvBR) and the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), which is affiliated with the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The objective of WOC is to combine design, planning and research in order to come to broad and integral solutions for urban challenges - Working on Cities.
Four teachers, two from each institution, who will collectively bring in their knowledge from their specific backgrounds, will teach a studio that consists of 12 students per institute. The group of in total 24 students, comprising architects, urban planners and researchers will work in interdisciplinary teams on four specific project proposals for informal settlements..

Rapid global urbanization is putting researchers, urban planners and architects under increasing pressure. Worldwide more than 3 billion people live in metropolitan areas, one third of which, under precarious conditions in informal settlements. The global community is confronted with an urbanization process, exceeding all demographical developments of mankind so far. Nevertheless, governments, plannin10g departments, housing corporations, educational institutions, as well as architects and urban planners in the western world, tend to ignore the existence of this phenomenon. Proving nothing but the powerlessness towards this global development. In order to overcome the evident paralysis within these professions, it is inevitable to find strategies to close the gap between the actual necessities of the urban poor and the insufficient solutions developed so far.

As to the uncertainty of permanence, frequently resulting from the lacking in infrastructure, informal settlements are an astonishing source of efficiency and surprising creativity. Dwellings have to be built with a minimum of materials, often waste products of local industries. Potable water, sewage and electricity have to be ‘organized’. Governance and social coherence has to be negotiated. Ethnic, religious and racial identities are challenged. However, due to missing financial means, and consequently the necessity of being economical and sustainable with the little possessions people have, informal settlements bear an enormous potential of urban intelligence. It is here, where future cities grow. It is here, where urban life will be defined. It is here were the future field of action will be.

Objective of the studio is to obtain insight in the cultural and social structures of informal settlements in order to contribute more and more effectively to the environment of the urban poor. The group elaborates low cost housing projects located in a specific area of the informal settlements within the urban tissue of the city of Kumasi, Ghana. The programming of private and public space, the typologies considered, as well as the construction methods are all included into the design process. Additional profound research on socialeconomical, financial and political issues is incorporated, rendering the design results in a concrete feasible context. To support this approach the specific site will be chosen in collaboration with the involved institutions, government, university and the private sector.