On Citizens, their Cities, and the Role of Design

A two-part online meetup in light of the current situation of online community building, self-management, and collective ownership.

Can design play an active role in community-building in economically and culturally diverse neighborhoods in transformation? Can design prevent or reduce the risk of segregation when new groups (economically, culturally) enter a neighborhood? Can design play an active role in bonding?

In this meetup, we’ll look at the affordances and promises of current (online) platforms and technologies.

We will start by questioning how media architecture can be used to create a fair(er) and inclusive city. We will follow with an exploration of the issue of inclusivity on the scale of a neighborhood, with the intention to improve the current situation by designing forms of media architecture and digital platforms.

The discussion will take several real cases as examples – including projects on which students of the Master Digital Design have been working (first half) and the experiences by Piet Vollaard and Saskia Beer (second half).

Speakers:
Piet Vollaard will talk about his experiences with City in The Making (Ci/Tm), the association he co-founded in 2013 that has taken on the redevelopment of vacant properties in Rotterdam. Driven by hands-on communities, they manage these buildings currently for a period of ten years. Now they see their challenge beyond such “temporary vacancy management” and aim towards permanence in affordable housing and working spaces in collective ownership and management.

Saskia Beer will explain her working methods through Transformcity, a company that helps municipalities and developers with their urban planning methods in a new multi-stakeholder environment. Over the past years, she has tested and proven her collaborative urban development method in Amstel III, one of Amsterdam’s largest and most complex transformation districts.

The event will be moderated by Professor Ben Schouten, Scientific Director of the Master Digital Design.

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This is a two-part event.

For the first part is exclusive to guests. Those wishing to participate may register through the following link: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/upIrd-CprjMsdFSAsCaGEo4PzJrnLNmlyg

The second part with speaker Saskia Beer and Piet Vollaard can be accessed via the following link:

https://zoom.us/j/309263825?pwd=cVRHTUVCSFFlTmVLK3hvSkVkWmNvdz09

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This meetup is part of the MAB Master Studio - a collaborative project of the Master Digital Design together with ArchisVolume, Sandberg Institute, Eindhoven University of Technology, and the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture.

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Programme: Thursday, April 9 Online meeting:

Part One. Student Cases (exclusive to guests; registration link above)
12:45. Virtual Walk-In
13:00. Start of the student presentations including discussion and feedback
14:15. Break

Part Two. Meetup Talks (public; see link above)
14:30. Piet Vollaard (Si/dM) and Q&A
15:00. Saskia Beer (TransformCity) and Q&A
15:30. Panel Discussion
15:50. Virtual Closing including Real Drinks (need to be provided by yourself)