Planning. Rotterdam, Zürich, Nantes, Bordeaux, Randstad

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1 Changing Cultures of Planning Rotterdam, Zürich, Nantes, Bordeaux, Randstad

2 ARCHITECTURE WORKROOM = CULTURAL OPERATOR ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS THINK TANK CURATORSHIP EXPERTISE CENTRE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS ATELIER ATELIERS RESIDENCES PROSPECTIVE CIVIL SOCIETY ALLIANCES OFFICE CIVIL SOCIETY AND GOVERNEMENT CIVIL SOCIETY AND GOVERNEMENT INPUT OUTPUT OPEN WORKROOM SEMINARS AND CONFERENCES The Architecture workroom functionning MASTER CLASS PUBLICATIONS (AWP, ATLAS,...) SHORT COURSES EXHIBITIONS POSTGRADE CULTURAL MANIFESTATIONS PRACTICE AND OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS Building for Brussels Architecture and Urban transformation in Europe Arnavutkoy Istanbul Atelier Making City 5th International Biennale

3 3 Architecture Workroom Brussels Architecture Workroom Brussels (AWB) was set up in 2009 with the conviction that both an organisation and a method of working could be developed and be complementary to the existing landscape of architectural institutions, their missions and operations. Hence it is an organisation that is not in the first instance dedicated to public-oriented operations (regional or local), nor to encouraging architectural quality (architects), but instead it is positioned as a place for architectural reflection, production and development. in a meaningful manner. AWB is structuring its actions as a cultural operator in three interacting segments, with a support office: a think-tank, prospective ateliers and «input/output» where the publications belong. The ultimate aim in doing so was not to develop an artistic practice focused on itself, but to develop, innovate and fulfil the role of the design and designer in relation to the important social challenges of an urbanised region, continent and world. In an increasingly urbanised society, urbanising also involves important social, ecological, economic and other modern-day challenges. As a result, the future of the city and urbanised areas, and especially our capabilities, methods and principles to give them form and to guide them, are growing in importance both for the development of design disciplines and for their possible role in society. This is the reason why the Architecture Workroom Brussels is highlighting these issues as its focus and aims. A sphere of action and a way of working Through a combination of activities initiated by the AWB itself and opportunities that were seized to create a process, a method of working has now been developed around a number of central content-based lines. The workroom operates with a team of eleven architects and urban development specialists, including artistic and business management, whose great input provides shape to the role and function of a think tank and workshop concentrating on architecture and urban planning. Functioning as a Cultural and urban Operator Architecture Workroom aims to develop itself as a cultural operator : an organisation that actively seeks a position from its intrinsic ambitions and which enters into alliances with social players and cultural institutions that have an interest in what the organisation does. Other than with relatively autonomous, critical or reflective culture production, architectural design (in the spatial sense of the term) develops its relevance and meaning in the tension that exists between its own patterns as a discipline and social challenges. The alliances built up and social constellations then form the context in which the role of and innovation in architecture and urban planning can be reinforced, developed and presented

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5 Changing Cultures of Planning Rotterdam, Zürich, Nantes, Bordeaux, Randstad Changing Cultures of Planning investigates the capacity of prospective design studies and visions to simultaneously redefine modes of urban governance and the practice of urban design and planning. The research looks at a selection of innovative processes from the recent past and the present, developed in diverse urban and political contexts and constellations, in order to better understand, document and compare the potential role of design within urban planning. This first edition of the Papers will help the Workroom to define and position itself within the cultural network as a cultural and urban operator. Editorial board: Michiel Dehaene Joachim Declerck Sarah Lévy Nathanaëlle Baës-Cantillon Context Throughout Europe, urban planning has evolved from a regulatory practice to a more project-based transformation of the urban territory. This evolution of the urban planning practice has lead to policies such as the Gebiedsontwikkeling in the Netherlands, the Schéma de Cohérence Territoriale in France, the Fläche-nutzungsplan in Germany. Although each of these policies has been conceived as an alternative to a far too generic and ineffective regulatory planning practice (zoning, etc), today these policies can be critiqued for having evolved into the new bureaucratic recipes (sets of procedures and rules). When comparing the Zuidas development in Amsterdam, the Rotterdam Central District, the Sagrera development in Barcelona or the Euratlantique development in Bordeaux, we can see the silhouette of a more or less generic form of urban development project. As generic procedures, the projet urbain in France or gebiedsontwikkeling in the Netherlands often fail to produce pertinent and specific responses to societal challenges and to truly engage with complex social and urban contexts. However, considering the very complex challenges cities are facing today, we can observe a shift in planning and ways of thinking urbanity and larger territories as the raw material to work upon to build new urban concepts. The question is to give coherence to disparate urban elements, not only focusing on the large voids of the city but on the different types of urban fabric and urban landscape. When Planning sets limits and restrictions, the project opens up opportunities. It is evolving into a political device that informs on the definition and potential of new territorial challenges, on the strategies that link visions with operational logics, on the new possible coalition of actors. Urban processes allow moving from reflection to implementation while defining the potential role of speculative design studies. 5 case studies This publication combines a study on five alternative urban transformation processes. In different ways and in different places and moments in time, they present innovative methods for conceiving urban policies, visions and participatory processes. And more importantly, each of the selected processes assigned an important role to design, either through prospective design studies, calls for ideas or 1:1 scale exhibitions. These processes anticipated or lead to inspiring urban transformations. We will therefore try to understand how cities like Rotterdam, Zürich or Nantes have managed their transformation by experimenting new methods of planning and how these methods (public participation, open discussions, architecture competitions ) remodeled the practice of planning itself. In order to make this concrete and understand the initial motivations and political contexts that produced such developments, this proposal will focus on five projects and/or programmes that respectively assigned a different role to prospective design: - Architecture International Rotterdam (AIR) Kop Van Zuid, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; - Ile de Nantes, Nantes, France; - Zürich West, Zürich, Swiss; Dwellings, Bordeaux, France; - Atelier Stedenbaan Randstad - Zuidvleugel, The Netherlands. The five processes operate in different contexts: with different timing, within different territories, around different constellations of actors, and organize themselves in nonlinear decision-making process. Without imposing a model, each project finds its way of transformation in the reality of territories and modes of governance and takes into account the uncertainties and inertias inherited. They are all pragmatic responses that operate under a strategy of knowledge (the actors and the territory), formulate a collective imaginary from new proposed figures, and lead to the proposal of scenarios and strategies that link the project aims with the means of implementation and the involved actors. The renewal of industrial sites on the Ile de Nantes, Zurich-West, and Kop van Zuid (AIR), are emblematic of the thinking on the post-industrial city in the late 80s with the revitalization of large scale brownfields territories close to city centres. These developments brought up the question of the city as a all, of its positioning within regions and shifted the focus onto the peripheries, as important components of cities, and material for city making.

6 The prospective processes that occur in Bordeaux and the Delta Metropolis take part in larger territories, and are the result of an interpretation of the metropolitan reality. Beyond the compact city, the relations between countryside and urbanization are the focus of questioning, testing the validity of the regional territory. Each of the above mentioned urban transformation processes will be documented and investigated. The central part of the study will consist of a series of in-depth interviews with key actors of each of these urban transformation processes on the one hand: from architects to urban managers, cultural institutions and politicians that initiated these processes. On the other hand, the different urban visions and designs that have been developed within each of the five transformation processes will be collected and documented. On the basis of this study and interviews, a synopsis of each of the processes will be elaborated, describing the role of design in terms of innovation of the planning method and of urban governance.

7 7 The publication is composed of three main elements per selected urban transformation process,: - The stories: a synopsis of the urban development methodology for each of the five case studies; - The storytellers: a summary and selection of the interviews conducted with the main actors and initiators of each case, including policymakers and designers such as politicians, architects, urban planners and developers; - The projects: a selection of representative and competing urban projects and visions developed within each of the case studies. Case Study 5: Stedenbaan, South Wing - The Netherlands Stories - Henk Ovink, director of Spatil Planning, I&M - Paul Gerretsen, former director of the South Wing Studio. TABLE OF CONTENTS Prologue Case Study 1: Architecture International Rotterdam - AIR Story - Anne-Mie Devolder : From 1998 till 2003 she has been the director of the AIR foundation. - Reyn Van der Lugt: Former director of AIR from 1982 till Case Study 2: Ile de Nantes Story - Jean-Marc Ayrault: mayor of Nantes since Alexandre Chemetoff: landscape architect, in charge of the Ile de Nantes project from 2000 to Laurent Théry, former directore of SAMOA, Nantes Case Study 3: Cooperative development planning in Zürich West Stories - Franz Eberhard: director of the office for urbanism of the city of Zürich - Christian Kerez: Swiss architects, participated in the Stadt Forum competition. -Kees Christiansee: Dutch architect, professor at ETH Zürich Case Study 4: dwellings in Bordeaux (ongoing) Stories - Michel Jacques: artistic director arc-en-rêve Bordeaux - Vincent Feltesse: president of the Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux and mayor of Blanquefort. -Jean-Baptiste Rigaudy: director of urban development at the Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux - Freek Persyn 51n4e and Ido Avissar Grau

8 AWB Joachim Declerck is founder and program director of the Architecture Workroom Brussels. Educated as architect and urban designer at Ghent University (BE) and the Berlage Institute (NL), Declerck s activities focus on innovation within the disciplines of architecture and urban design, while exploring their role within the transformation of the built environment. At the Berlage Institute, complementary to the postgraduate, PhD, and public and publications programs, the professional development program broadens the institute s research activities to the professional sector and opens its laboratory to architectural practitioners, practices, and other related organizations (public and private). From 2008 till 2011 he was head of the professional development program at the Berlage Institute. Before taking this position, Declerck co-edited the Berlage Institute publication Brussels A Manifesto: Towards the Capital of Europe and was curator of the exhibition A Vision for Brussels. Together with Vedran Mimica, he formed the curatorial team when the Berlage Institute was the curator of the 3rd International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, in He is member of the Curator Team of the 5th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam Making City. Roeland Dudal studied Architecture at the University of Ghent. From 2001 until 2003 he was the coordinator of the debate platform Open City Studio, in Brussels. Between 2004 and 2009, he worked as a project leader for the Flemish Institute for Architecture in Antwerp. During these years, he was responsible for the organization of the Day of Architecture, he collaborated on the production of the series Young Architects in Flanders as well as on the exhibition concatenation 35 m3 of Young Architecture and he realized the exposition Mare Meum (Rotterdam 2005, Ghent 2005, Oostende 2006). In 2008 he coordinated the project for the Belgian pavilion of the 11th Biennale of Architecture in Venice. He is project assistant for architectural designs at the University of Ghent. Since November 2009, he is co-founder and Managing Director of Architecture Workroom Brussels. Nathanaëlle Baës-Cantillon studied architecture in Bordeaux (ENSAPBx), Porto (FAUP) for Erasmus exchange and graduated from the Versailles School of Architecture in The same year, she has won Europan competition on the Istanbul-Zeytinburnu site with the project Urban Sliding. Since then, she worked in London and Berlin, for LIN - Finn Geipel & Giulia Andi on the prospective project Grand Pari de l Agglomération Parisienne. She has been working since 2009 in Brussels on diverse project. She was project leader on two district contract for Urban Platform and Artgineering. She has been joining Architecture Workroom in april 2010, where she is responsible for the process of the masterplan for the canal zone in Brussels and project leader for the Architecture Workroom Papers. GRAPHIC DESIGNER Joris Kritis studied Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts, Sint-Lucas, Ghent. From 2006 till 2008 he was a participant in the master program Werkplaats Typografie in Arnhem. Together with Julie Peeters, he works for clients in the cultural field like the Royal Museums for Fine Arts, Brussels, De Appel in Amsterdam, If I Can t Dance..., Metropolis M Magazine, OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, Beursschouwburg Brussels, MuZee Ostend, Architecture Workroom, Brussels, etc.

9 Architecture Workroom Brussels European Centre for Innovation in Architecture and Urbanism Barthélémylaan 5 Boulevard Barthélémy B 1000 Brussels info@architectureworkroom.eu