Design as Politics

Upcoming Public lectures

We have two amazing public lectures coming up next week as part of our graduation studio Lets Work! – Industry, Architecture and the City. The first is on Monday 29 September, by Design as Politics professor’ Wouter Vanstiphout about the theme of this year’s graduation studio and what this means for Architecture and Urban Design. Albert Kahn’s daylight factory, Cedric Price’s Fun Palace, the precariat, robotization, off- and onshoring, the share economy. It’s all part of this brand new Design as Politics lecture! So join us on Monday 28 Sept. at 08:45 in Room B at the TU Delft Faculty… Read More

UPDATE! Tomorrow’s lectures relocated to Room A

We have two amazing Design as Politics / International New Towns lectures scheduled tomorrow afternoon! We’ll start at 13:45 with a lecture by Design as Politics’ Wouter Vanstiphout about two late/postmodern New Towns: Milton Keynes in the UK and Cergy Pontoise in France, followed by a presentation by the architect and professor at the Technical University of Cuba, Jorge Pena at 16:00. Jorge will not just talk about Havana as it is, but especially about the major changes it will go through and is already going through now that the country is opening up economically and politically, and the harbour… Read More

Public Lecture by Jorge Peña Díaz

On Tuesday 2 June, Jorge Peña Díaz (architect and professor on Urban Design at the CUJAE University of Havana Cuba) will give a lecture about the recent past and near future of the fascinating city of Havana, the capital of Cuba, entitled: Havana 2015 – Paths and patterns of urban development. The lecture addresses the current patterns of urban development in Havana, using the results of the project Atlas Urbano de La Habana (Urban Atlas of Havana). This project consisted of the mapping of Havana as a research tool in order to understand both the specificities of the current urban… Read More

The New Town on Gebiedsontwikkeling.nu

We have recently started again our public lecture series ‘The New Town – From Welfare City to Neoliberal Utopia” in collaboration with the international New Town Institute. Eric Burgers – A reporter from the independent Dutch platform Gebiedsontwikkeling.nu attended the first lecture and wrote a nice piece about it: On 21 April, Michelle Provoost (director INTI International New Town Institute) en Wouter Vanstiphout (professor Design as Politics) kicked off the lecture series at the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture. New town building is often associated with the post-war period, the 50’s and 60’s of the 20th century, when urban growth… Read More

New Publication: Bedside Manners

Click on image to open publication Here it is: a brand new Design as Politics publication ‘Bedside Manners’ about the extramuralization of healthcare in the Netherlands. In this publication –originally written for MacGuffin magazine – Wouter Vanstiphout explains how the Dutch health care system is currently shifting from large government controlled institutions to a system in which the amount of care given inside large facilities is being minimized, making sure that people can stay at home longer. Big institutions built to house the old and infirm are making way for healthcare new style with hospitals that resemble towns and homes fitted… Read More

Design as Politics MSc2 Studio! We Care a Lot!

Great news! We have an amazing new studio starting in September 2015, and lasting untill January. It’s a MSc2 studio within the Architecture Master, focusing on the transformation of Dutch neighborhoods through the overhaul of the Healthcare system. In this studio we will be working for the Office of the Chief government Architect of the Netherlands (Atelier Rjjksbouwmeester), with the International New Town Institute, and three fantastic architectural practices, on real locations, with real clients, and real results. Students can sign up from early May. We’ll keep you posted with updates. Click here for more info

LECTURE AND DEBATE BY MICHELLE PROVOOST, ALFREDO BRILLEMBOURG AND HUBERT KLUMPNER

The chair of Design as Politics and Utrecht Manifest present Social Design of Cities – The International New Town Institute vs. the Urban Think Thank. The event starts with two presentations: one by INTI director Michelle Provoost and one by the UTT directors Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner. We conclude the evening with a conversation with a.o. Pieter Hooimeijer, professor of Social Geography at the University of Utrecht. The event takes place on the 1st of April from 17:30 – 21:30 at the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture. The evening is moderated by Design as Politics professor Wouter Vanstiphout. Sounds good?… Read More

New Design as Politics Electives start in April!

We are very happy to announce that coming April we will again start the Design as Politics elective lecture series: The New Town – From Welfare City to Neoliberal Utopia (AR0023). This course is organized in collaboration with the International New Town Institute and contains of 9 public lectures on the planning and (re)design of New Towns all over the world and their social, cultural, political and economic context. Together with (guest) lecturers from different disciplines, we will follow the evolution of New Towns from the first experiments in the pre-war period with utopian and communal living, explore how… Read More

A Clockwork Jerusalem: architecture, politics, riots and the belief in a better world

A week from now Wouter Vanstiphout will talk at the British School in Rome, on Via Gramsci (!) about the relationship between architecture, creativity and politics. In his lecture, Wouter will discuss how architecture and town planning have for centuries been used to create the infrastructure and the institutional icons for nation states. It has been deployed as a tool to force people into certain behavioral modes and it has been instrumental in creating the visions of future cities and landscapes, that are needed to mobilize massive amounts of state and corporate power. Architecture however struggles with this responsibility. Often… Read More