Are We The World? – The Export of Dutch Planning

Join us on January 20th at Pakhuis de Zwijger for an evening around our new book ‘Design & Politics #6 – Are we the World?’ The event is part of the Urban Books program. Speakers include Wouter Vanstiphout, Henk Ovink, Markus Appenzeller, Saskia van Stein, Marta Relats, Ekim Tan, Michelle Provoost, Roberto Rocco and others. Dutch Planning is conquering the world. Designers and planners from the Netherlands are being invited to solve complex questions with their combination of technical skills and especially the ‘Dutch approach’ of integral planning, wherein planning and process management are combined. Simultaneously the role of public… Read More

  • 15/12/2014

Book: Are We The World? Available soon!

We are extremely proud to announce that our first book ‘Are We the World? – Randstad Holland, São Paulo, Istanbul & Rotterdam’ will be for sale from November 1st! In this book we look at the export of Dutch design and planning, which has been exported for decades across the globe. After a successful period in which the polycentric Randstad model was held in high esteem, followed by the fresh, modern approach of the Super- Dutch architects, the resources and expertise of Dutch institutions have been employed for projects in Asia and South America. But, are Dutch ingenuity, pragmatism and… Read More

  • 30/10/2014

Sam Jacob, Wouter Vanstiphout and Kieran Long in Conversation

On October 9th, the MK Gallery invited Design as Politics Professor Wouter Vanstiphout and Architect Sam Jacob – the curators of this year’s British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale – to discuss the development of their exhibition, A Clockwork Jerusalem, with Architectural Historian and Broadcaster, Kieran Long. A Clockwork Jerusalem explores how the international influences of Modernism became mixed with long standing British sensibilities. and how traditions of the romantic, sublime and pastoral, as well as interests in technology and science fiction were absorbed to create a specifically British form of Modernism. The exhibition focusses on the mature flowering… Read More

  • 21/10/2014

Reinier de Graaf: Why Mayors should not rule the world

Cities and their mayors are increasingly put forward as The new forces in solving major global problems. While national governments seem to fail in addressing environmental issues, poverty reduction, food production and healthcare, cities appear capable to respond much faster, more efficient and -above all- more democratically. But not everyone agrees. OMA partner and AMO director Reinier de Graaf recently added an interesting angle to the debate by arguing why Mayors should not rule the world… This weekend, the first planning session of the Global Parliament of Mayors took place in Amsterdam: a platform for mayors from across the world, triggered… Read More

  • 07/10/2014

Nurul Azlan at he Social Media and the Transformation of Public Space conference

The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis organized The Social Media and the Transformation of Public Space conference from June 18th-20th 2014. 150 papers from 200 participants were presented, with themes ranging from the transformation of publicness to creative industries, and democracy and activism. Design as Politics’ PhD candidate Nurul Azreen Azlan was one of the speakers. Social media has been a pervasive force in contemporary public life, redefining the way we connect and communicate within the past ten years. This meteoric rise and rapid development, combined with the robust nature of the technology and the fluid way it permeates different… Read More

  • 22/07/2014

A Clockwork Jerusalem

Design as Politics’ Professor Wouter Vanstiphout together with his office Crimson Architectural Historians and FAT Architecture, is curating the exhibition of the Britsh Pavilion at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia The exhibition titled A Clockwork Jerusalem will explore how the international influences of Modernism became mixed with long standing British sensibilities. It examines how traditions of the romantic, sublime and pastoral, as well as interests in technology and science fiction were absorbed to create a specifically British form of Modernism. The exhibition focusses on the mature flowering of British Modernism; the moment it was at its most ambitious… Read More

  • 19/05/2014

NEW! Graduation Studio 2014/2015

The Design as politics team is very proud to announce our 2014/2015 TU Delft Master graduation Studio: New Utopias on the Ruins of the Welfare State. During this studio, we will try to find the utopian thinking that comes up when old orders collapse. We are living in an age where nation states seem to become weaker and weaker, under the influence of privatisation, localism but also of globalisation and supra-national politics like that of the European Union. Countries seem to be both falling apart in small fragments as well as being dissolved into huge global networks. Architecture and Urbanism have… Read More

  • 29/04/2014

The New Town- From Welfare City to Neoliberal Utopia

New Towns are Politics! That’s why, at the end of this month we will start a public lecture series organized in collaboration with the International New Town Institute carrying the title ‘The New Town– From Welfare City to Neoliberal Utopia.’ The lectures will follow a chronological story on new town planning in the 20th century, explaining how the design of New Towns was based on experiments in the pre-war period with utopian, communal living, was then discovered by national governments as ways to further their very diverse political agendas, later became a symbol of modernization and progress in the postwar… Read More

  • 08/04/2014

The Republic of Veneto

“Ballot” is not originally an English word: It comes from the Venetian word ballotta, or “little ball.” For centuries, councils elected the Doge of Venice, who ruled the city-state, with small silver and gold balls. Now Venetians have put their modern equivalent to good use in a bid to declare independence from Italy. And they have a pretty good case to make for restoring their once-mighty republic. Last week, in a move overshadowed by the international outcry over Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Plebiscito.eu, an organization representing a coalition of Venetian nationalist groups, held an unofficial referendum on breaking with Rome. Voters… Read More

  • 27/03/2014

Braudels Donkey – Historians and the Mediterranean as a Political Project

Design as Politics’ professor Wouter Vanstiphout has recently contributed to Harvard’s New Geographies magazine about The Mediterranean. The article is now turned into one of our own publications. Available here, especially for you! The Mediterranean region, at the intersection of three continents, is one of the most important areas on earth–culturally, politically, and ecologically. In the article, Wouter looks through the eyes of the French historian Fernand Braudel towards recent political and financial developments, and wonders: what unites the Mediterranean? What can Braudel teach u about the region? And what about our ‘own’ European cities?

  • 17/03/2014