Reports
CloseOpen
The social and the democratic, in social democratic European cities
The Design & The City team asked Dan Hill to report and reflect on the conference. He shares his insights of the day and asks himself what we mean by the development of European cities? And how should we develop European cities?
“It is the people that make great cities”
According to Tony Garcia, policy planners are bad at making great cities, it is the people that make great cities. The approach he suggests is called Tactical Urbanism, which is inspired by hacker culture. Watch his presentation at Design & The City.
“It is not about expanding our cities, but making them better”
In Berlin, citizens are organizing themselves in building groups to create housing solutions that fit their needs - and in doing so they are efficiently using the available space in the city. Watch Kristien Ring's presentation at Design & The City.
“From a corporate economy by the few, to a civic economy by the many”
Joost Beunderman argues that new forms of citizen entrepeneurship are generating social outcomes that the private sector has found hard to achieve. Citizens for example organize their own energy and ways of learning. Watch his presentation at Design & The City.
“’Smart’ in smart cities should be about smart ways of involving citizens”
Liesbeth Huybrechts talks about the importance of involving citizens and local initiatives in thinking about the future of the city. She specifically shares her experiences in the project De Andere Markt in Genk. Watch her presentation at Design & The City.
“Use design as a way to address issues of governance”
Design and governance share many similarities, but the infrastructures behind design are sometimes invisible. Dietmar Offenhuber proposes an accountability-oriented design approach. Watch his presentation at Design & The City.
“Data is replacing the voice – whether we like it or not”
The designs of Christian Nold illustrate how designers can engage in public controversies. One of these examples is the proposed third runway at Heathrow Airport. Watch his presentation at Design & The City.
“You can crowdsource a revolution, but you can’t crowdsource a light rail system”
By talking the audience through his personal notebook of the day Dan Hill reflects on the Design & The City conference. Watch his closing presentation at Design & The City.
Lab of Labs Public Presentations
After two intense days the teams of the Lab of Labs design charretes presented their first outcomes and thoughts at the public presentation in the AUAS' Kohnstammhuis.
Theme & Essays
CloseOpen Design & The City was a four-day event that brought together international experts, researchers, designers, educators and policy makers to explore citizen-centered design approaches to the smart city. During our workshops, a round table conference and a session on living lab methodologies, the role of designers was addressed as initiators, innovators, campaigners, connectors, organisers, critics and imagineers of alternative urban futures. In addition, we discussed concrete design strategies that can contribute to more liveable, sustainable and sociable urban communities.Essays
Design & The City Newspaper
Download the conference newspaper
Investing in a Flourishing 21st Century Urban Commons
by Joost Beunderman
Democratic dialogues that make smart cities ‘work’
by Liesbeth Huybrechts
How designers can reshape public controversies
by Christian Nold
Self Made City: Strategies for Future Urban Living
by Kristien Ring
The Transactionalization of Infrastructure as a Case for Accountability-Oriented Design
by Dietmar Offenhuber
Economic Resilience at Buiksloterham
by Matthijs Bouw
Tactical Urbanism: Planning for People
by Tony Garcia
Programme
CloseOpen19/20
April
2016 Lab of Labs
The Lab of Labs consisted of hands-on design charrettes that explored a variety of approaches for living labs and design research practices, led by high-profile international practitioners concretely demonstrating their own methodologies.
21
April
2016 Conference
Leading international experts discussed the implications of the rise of social media, big data and other new media technologies for the practice of urban design during the Design & The City conference.
22
April
2016 Workshops
We invited designers, students, scholars, public administrators, artists, activists and all smart citizens to join us in sharing insights, collaborate on research practices, experimenting with research methods, and cooperating towards new civic platforms.
Speakers
CloseOpen
Dan Hill
Closing Speaker
Dan Hill is an Associate Director at Arup, and Head of Arup Digital Studio, a multidisciplinary design team that helps develop transformative digital technology for cities, spaces, infrastructure, buildings and organisations.
Kristien Ring
Keynote Speaker
Kristien Ring is an architect, curator, publicist and Assist. Professor at the University of South Florida for Architecture and Community Design, and principal of AA PROJECTS I Interdisciplinary Studio.
Dietmar Offenhuber
Keynote Speaker
Dietmar Offenhuber is Assistant Professor at Northeastern University in the departments of Art + Design and Public Policy, where he heads the Information Design and Visualization graduate program.
Liesbeth Huybrechts
Keynote Speaker
Liesbeth Huybrechts (1979, Leuven, Belgium) is Postdoctoral researcher in the area of participatory design and spatial transformation processes in the research group Arck, University of Hasselt.
Joost Beunderman
Keynote Speaker
Joost Beunderman is a Director of the London-based design and strategy practice 00, where he joined in late 2008 to lead on a wide range of research and strategy projects.
Tony Garcia
Keynote Speaker
Tony Garcia is a Principal of Street Plans Collaborative, and leads the firm’s Miami office. Anthony is a nationally recognized architect, writer, speaker and advocate in the in the field of transit, pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.
Christian Nold
Keynote Speaker
Christian Nold is an artist, designer and academic who builds participatory technologies for collective representation. In the last decade he has been creating large-scale public projects such as the widely acclaimed 'Bio Mapping' and 'Emotion Mapping' projects.
Tracy Metz
Moderator
Tracy Metz, a native of California, is a journalist and author based in the Netherlands. She is the director of the John Adams Institute, an independent foundation that brings the best and brightest American thinkers and writers to the Netherlands.
Geleyn Meijer
Conference Speaker
Geleyn Meijer is the Dean of the Faculty of Digital Media and Creative Industries at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
Ben Schouten
Conference Speaker
Prof. Dr. Ben Schouten is Full Professor Playful Interactions in Smart Environments at Eindhoven University of Technology and Lector of Play & Civic Media Research at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
Matthijs Bouw
Conference Speaker
Matthijs Bouw is a Dutch architect and founder of One Architecture (est 1995), an award-winning Amsterdam and New York-based design and planning firm.
Saskia Beer
Conference Speaker
Saskia Beer is an Amsterdam-based urban transformation entrepreneur and founder of ZO!City (formerly known as Glamourmanifest) and TransformCity®.
Willem van Winden
Conference Speaker
Dr. Willem van Winden (PhD) is an urban economist specialized in urban innovation and policy. He is professor of Urban Knowledge Economy & Strategy at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
Dorien Zandbergen
Conference Speaker
Dorien Zandbergen is an anthropologist researcher at the department of sociology at the University of Amsterdam.
Frank Suurenbroek
Conference Speaker
Dr. Frank Suurenbroek (1974) is Professor Urban Transformation at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
Thijs Turèl
Conference Speaker
Thijs Turèl is program manager of the Democracy by Design program at Alliander. He is working both on smart grid innovations and the societal implications of the energy transition.Knowledge Mile
CloseOpen
The location of Design & The City was the Knowledge Mile: an area in the heart of Amsterdam which runs from the Amstelplein to the Nieuwmarkt. A coalition of universities of applied sciences, citizens, municipality, organisations and companies has formed an applied research ecosystem to develop, test and display smart solutions for metropolitan challenges in the area.
Parallel Events
CloseOpen
Sense in the City: for active and healthy living
18/04 - Sense in the City offers an insight in the use of (sensor) technology in the city for an active and healthy lifestyle. Researchers, students, companies and (non-) governmental institutions gather to present the latest developments and to discuss the possibilities and challenges.
International Shadow EU-Summit ‘Managing Tomorrow’s Cities’
19/04 - 22/04 - Are you curious about the role of technology in tomorrow’s cities? Why citizens are ‘future proof’, but their cities are not? Which challenges cities face and how they should be dealt with? Join the international shadow EU-summit ‘Managing tomorrow’s cities’ for students.
Smart city projects: What lessons can be learned from the experiences so far?
20/04 - Getting smart city solutions off the ground is not just about developing and applying technology: it asks for new networking and management competencies. How to set up and manage projects in which different stakeholders collaborate to get results?
Street Values: Commons workshop Reinwardt Academy Amsterdam
19/04 - 20/04 - Street Values (Dutch: Straatwaarden) is a year-long exploratory research project at the crossovers between design, heritage and community, charting the new practices of contemporary place-making and ‘heritage making’. The first part of the project is organized in three 3-day Studio Workshops. During Design & The City, the second Studio is organized.
First FabCity Summit
20/04 - A worldwide network is working out the concept of locally productive and globally connected cities: a Fab City. Fab City is a new urban model for self-sufficient cities in which citizens are empowered. Amsterdam will join this network too. To become a Fab City requires having a more precise knowledge of the way cities work. Which steps should be taken now to make our cities more resilient to future challenges?
Round Table on Smart Society for the Not So Early Adopters
20/04 - Round table for invited experts to critically discuss knowledge, practice and strategies on how to engage less media savvy groups with the emergence of a smart society. Het Nieuwe Instituut organizes this round table within the framework of its programme The State of Eindhoven.
Smart citizen talk 1: Making Sense of the smart city
21/04 - This first edition of the Smart Citizen Talks, we’ll explore participatory sensing. How do we collectively measure and make sense of our environment? How do we - along with citizens, scientists, and designers - stay in tune with the ever emerging smart city? How do wé make sense of a (smart) city that likes to make sense of ús instead?
LAPS & Open! present Technology / Affect / Space #1: Mapping Affect Space
22/04 - A public discussion and research meeting about mapping technologies and embodiment in the emergent techno-sensuous spatial order of Affect Space. In this meeting we discuss how the emergent techno-sensuous spatial order of Affect Space can be mapped using the very technologies that produce these new dynamics.
Organisers & Partners
