Partners of The Missing Link in the Delta of the Low Lands, Photo: Architecture Workroom Brussels
De Lage Landen 2020-2100, 2014-2017In the publication De Lage Landen 2020-2100 we look a century further into the future. New production technologies such as CAD/CAM represent an opportunity to transform the current logistics chain of production in low-wage countries into a short chain. From now on, production will take place where and when it is needed.
The Missing Link' scheme, 2017The large gap between the many innovative experiments on the one hand and the many important agreements and objectives on the other: the greatest creative challenge of our time
Bruno Latour, Down to earthA plea for a new common orientation that takes us back to earth. Within AW, we read this book as a guide not to speak in abstraction about big tasks, but to apply and read them in our existing living environments.
Bruno Latour, Down to earthPositioning a third attractor (the "Earthly") in relation to the "Local" and the "Global", as opposed to the "Bottomless", based on the conviction that the traditional vector between the political left and right is no longer relevant in the light of the current climate crisis.
Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation (2002)A socioeconomic reading of the Industrial Revolution, which resulted in land, drinking water, food and housing being bombed into a market commodity - and which means that agriculture, water or biodiversity now have to compete with the market logic of real estate companies.
Illustration by Ben Katchor on 'The Great Transformation' by Karl PolanyiPublished in The New York Times as a graphic review of this 1944 classic.
The entrepreneurial state, Mariana MazzucatoA plea for a new role for the government in which it no longer acts as a neutral facilitator of market forces, but consciously steers towards necessary social innovations.
The entrepreneurial state (Mariana Mazzucato): “Who made your iPhone?"Various examples show that the seemingly more dynamic, innovative private sector often only dares to invest in products and programmes for which an entrepreneurial government has first undertaken the exploratory, uncertain phase of research: look at large pharmaceutical companies or the Internet. Can we devise an alternative innovation model to that in which the public sector takes risks, but in which revenues are privatised?
Terugkerende opgaven. Illustratie: Chloé Nachtergael.Certain tasks occur several times in the territory and can be thematized in 'families of tasks'. We divide the overwhelming complexity of tasks into manageable and achievable subprojects. A programmatic policy can be set up around these families of tasks, in which subprojects can learn from each other, and in which the available policy budget can be used as a lever for several locations at the same time.
Open Promotor PlatformProposal for an alternative development model for the Oudaan in Antwerp as an example for a new collaboration between designers, government and citizens.
Maarten Gielen, Rotor, interview, You Are Here, 2018Maarten Gielen is one of the pioneers in Europe in the field of the circular economy. Rotor harvests materials from buildings destined for demolition to reuse them elsewhere. The materials are kept as close as possible to their original state so that minimal energy is lost.
Delta Atelier Stedelijk Beheer, “10 punten voor het beheer van de toekomst” Together with the 'Kopgroep Stedelijk Beheer', AW is investigating how a social 'by-catch' can be generated when the sewers are repaired or replaced. The unimaginable budgets that have been set aside - totalling 15 billion euros annually in the Netherlands for the management of public space - can at the same time make it possible to achieve the social, sustainability and circularity objectives. These new funding mechanisms will be needed to accelerate the transitions we are facing.
Peer-to-Peer Talks and Holochain Brussels Meetup - Interview with Michel Bauwens
Pakhuis De ZwijgerHow do you design these new spaces where horizontal cooperation between citizens, entrepreneurs and organisations, academics, interest groups, policy makers and politicians can work? Pakhuis De Zwijger is a fine example, a cultural centre in Amsterdam that provides a forum for discussion about a sustainable urban society with a programme of debates, presentations, theatre performances and exhibitions in a former cold store. A conscious choice was made for a substantive line around the themes of creative industry, city and global trends. And anyone taking part in an event - which is almost always free of charge - becomes part of a broad community of 'city makers'.
De Andere Markt, Genk, University of Hasselt and LUCA School of Arts, with support from the city of Genk and the European Union through the FP7 project TRADERSA shop window near Winterslag will be used to devise, discuss and design alternative futures for (work in) the city of Genk together with local residents. The physical location close to the residents serves as a base and starting point for the development of a much wider and more dispersed network. Feel free to call it the 'social infrastructure' in a neighbourhood, where there is freedom to experiment and the aim is to strengthen the local community, and then to translate the tasks harvested here into a supra-local knowledge and political level.
You Are Here, documentary in the context of Bap!, 2018There is a continuing need for productive settings to explore alternative strategies and methods and to bridge the missing link between initiatives in the field and ambitious goals on paper. In the former WTC 1 tower in the Brussels North Quarter, a whole floor was made available for temporary use between June and December 2018. We set up the twenty-third floor as the ultimate physical in-between space: an inspiring work exhibition with the work in progress of Dutch and Belgian practices, work sessions, guided tours, public debates and lectures gathered more than ten thousand actors. The participating actors experienced this collective workplace as a productive incubator or joint innovation platform.
You Are Here, booklet in the context of Bap!, 2018What lessons can we learn from the WTC pilot? The role of spatial design and planning is to facilitate change in order to 'land' in our shared territory: through new projects, new coalitions and new platforms that embrace complexity.
Text: Joachim Declerck and Hanne Mangelschots
Thank you very much: Isabel Maria Finkenberger and Katja Veil
Flemish Land Agency, Open Ruimte Platform (Open Space Platform). In: Website VLM, consulted on 27 Architecture Workroom Brussels, Floris Alkemade Architect, LOLA Landschape Architects (2014) Reweaving the Urban Carpet. Rotterdam: The International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam & Province of North Brabant.
Architecture Workroom Brussels, Jelte Boeijenga, Vereniging Deltametropool (2018), De Lage Landen 2020-2100. Een toekomstverkenning (The Low Countries 2020-2100. An exploration of the future), Department of the Environment, Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the College of Government Advisers and the Flemish Government Architect Team, Brussels.
Celen, G., Claeys, M., Declerck, J., Leinfelder, H., Lüdtke, S., Vandemoortel, B. (2019) Tafels van vermenigvuldiging zorgen voor beweging in de Vlaamse open ruimte (Multiplication tables provide movement in the Flemish open space.)
Declerck, J. (2018) Between Plan and Pragmatism: Families of Challenges. In: Viganò P., Cavalieri C., Barcelloni Corte M. (eds.). The Horizontal Metropolis Between Urbanism and Urbanization. Publisher Springer, Cham.
Latour, B. (2018) Waar kunnen we landen? Politiek oriëntatie in het Nieuwe Klimaatregime (Down to earth. Political orientation in the New Climate Regime). Amsterdam: Octavo publications.
Mazzucato, M. (2018), The entrepreneurial state. Debunking public vs. private sector myths. London: Penguin Books Ltd
Polanyi, K. (1944) The Great Transformation. The political and economic origins of our time. Originally published 1944, New York: Farrar & Rinehart. Revised edition 2001, Boston: Beacon.
