Last week, our ‘We the people’ students moved to Almere in order to experience life in Holland’s newest New Town, and -more importantly- to participate in a real-life design workshop, organized by Design as Politics and the International New Town Institute, for the municipality of Almere.
During this workshop, the students worked on an urban plan and development strategy for a new area of the city. At the same time they got a glimpse of the –sometimes harsh– reality and the politics behind city making in the current economic situation.
At the end of the workshop, the students presented their work to members of the municipality’s planning department, where their ideas were received very well. We’ll see what will happen next, but maybe, when we come back in a few years, we can walk around in our own ‘Design as Politics’ neighborhood. We already have some suggestions for the street names; What about the Ebenezer Howardsteeg, the Robert Moses bridge or the Adri Duiveplein and the Wouter Vanstiphout plantsoen.
..or the Mike Emmerikdijk