PartizanPublik.nl

Spontaneous City in the Making

Last week Partizan Publik worked with Urhahn Urban Design and Onlab on the design of the Spontaneous City book. Below you can find a visual summary of the discussion.

'Freedom is hard work'

'Vrijheid is hard werken', 'freedom is spiritual hard work' says Maik ter Veer who felt suffocated by the strict housing regulations, the scarcity of accommodation and the Dutch nanny state.

Together with a group of friends, he squatted in a disused shipyard in Amsterdam’s harbour district, setting up an area where people could be creative. About 150 people now live in and around the yard in warehouse spaces, boats, caravans and self-made homes.

This is the third portrait produced by radio journalist Martijn van Tol and photographer Dirk-Jan Visser as part of the Liberty City exhibition.

'Freedom is spiritual freedom'

'Vrijheid is spirituele vrijheid', 'freedom is spiritual freedom' pleas rabbi Evers. Traumatized by the faith of his family in the Holocaust he argues for the relativisation of earthly life. This is the second portrait produced by radio journalist Martijn van Tol and photographer Dirk-Jan Visser as part of the Liberty City exhibition.

'Freedom is Responsibility'

'Geen vrijheid zonder verantwoordelijkheid', 'freedom is impossible without responsibility' is the central idea of Major Hilali. Radio journalist Martijn van Tol and photographer Dirk-Jan Visser made a portrait of this Amsterdam freedom fighter for the Liberty City exhibition.

De Grey en Onsterfelijkheid

Is veroudering binnenkort verleden tijd? Voor Aubrey de Grey, die in Cambridge onderzoek doet naar de bestrijding van ouderdom, is dat allang vanzelfsprekend. De vraag is eerder, hoe de mensheid ervan te overtuigen als het zover is?

Binnen twee generaties kunnen de medische problemen die voortkomen uit menselijke veroudering verleden tijd zijn. Onze sterfelijkheid kunnen we weliswaar niet overwinnen, maar we kunnen wel de lichamelijke aftakeling uitstellen, en daardoor langer en prettiger leven. We moeten er wel in durven investeren.

In de toekomst zullen zonder twijfel behandelingen ontwikkeld worden voor specifieke ouderdomsproblemen in het menselijk lichaam. Hierdoor zal het begrip ‘biologische leeftijd’ zijn betekenis verliezen. We zijn nu al in staat om de behandelingen gedetailleerd te omschrijven en de verwachting is dat we binnen tien jaar bij proefmuizen de eerste successen hebben geboekt.

De experimenten bij muizen die we RMR noemen (robust mouse rejuvenation, red.) zullen grote gevolgen hebben voor het verouderingsdebat. Op welke manier denk je dat de samenleving zal reageren als methoden om veroudering aanzienlijk uit te stellen binnen handbereik liggen? Als de experimenten met muizen succesvol genoeg blijken kunnen we er van uitgaan dat therapieën voor mensen binnen een of twee decennia beschikbaar zullen zijn. Dit alles lijkt onzeker en ver weg, maar dat is het niet. Want wanneer experts overtuigd zijn van de dramatische resultaten, zal het niet lang duren voordat de publieke opinie volgt.

De angst die veel mensen voelen bij de discussie over het bestrijden van veroudering is dat de therapieën alleen toegankelijk zullen zijn voor de ‘wealthy few’. Iedereen met een beetje begrip van de basisprincipes van de economie zal constateren dat de geprivilegieerde groep zich binnen korte tijd zal uitbreiden, maar deze geruststelling is voor velen onvoldoende. De voorvechters van biogerontologisch onderzoek strijden altijd met beleidsmakers over deze vrees voor een tweedeling in de samenleving. Maar die angst is onrealistisch. Wanneer anti-verouderingstherapieën eenmaal ontwikkeld zijn, zullen ze vrijwel direct universeel toegankelijk zijn. Om dit te bewijzen geef ik hier een simpele vergelijking.

Stel je voor dat HIV zou muteren en even eenvoudig overgedragen zou kunnen worden als een alledaagse verkoudheid? Alle kenmerken van HIV blijven gelijk aan de hedendaagse, bekende vorm: de typische latente periode voordat het virus zich ontwikkeld tot de ziekte AIDS, de mogelijkheid om de incubatietijd permanent te verlengen door middel van medicijnen en de afwezigheid van manieren om het virus volledig te vernietigen of om infectie definitief te voorkomen. Gelukkig is een dergelijke gemuteerde vorm van HIV virologisch onaannemelijk, maar laten we het ons proberen voor te stellen.

Uiteraard zou bijna iedereen op de planeet binnen de kortste keren HIV hebben. Het virus zou niet onder controle gehouden kunnen worden door quarantaine, alleen al door het feit dat miljoenen mensen het virus bij zich zouden dragen zonder dat ze het zouden weten. Niemand zou zich kunnen verschuilen. Behoorlijk apocalyptisch nietwaar?

Er zou koortsachtig gezocht worden naar een vaccin en naar een geneesmiddel, maar concrete resultaten zouden in het begin wel eens kunnen uitblijven. Maar wacht eens even; hoe erg zou dat zijn? We hebben toch al lang adequate Aidsremmers?

Een op de 250 inwoners van de Verenigde Staten heeft HIV, zo’n een miljoen mensen in totaal. De behandeling om een geval van HIV onder controle te houden kost ongeveer $30,000 per jaar, voor een heel land dus $30 miljard per jaar. Kortom, als iedere Amerikaan HIV zou hebben, dan hebben we het over $7500 miljard per jaar. De werkelijke kostprijs van de medicatie ligt veel, veel lager: doorontwikkelde HIV-remmers worden in India geproduceerd en op de markt gebracht voor slechts $300 per jaar. En het kan nog goedkoper. Dus zelfs als we een bescheiden winstmarge voor de fabrikanten zouden toestaan, zeg een jaarlijks prijskaartje van $1200 euro per persoon, dan hebben we het eigenlijk over $300 miljard per jaar. Voor minder dan $1 miljard per dag kunnen we iedere Amerikaan een gezond leven met HIV geven.

Nu klinkt $300 miljard per jaar natuurlijk niet echt als een fooi. Het is echter minder dan het bedrag dat de Verenigde Staten besteden aan het oplossen van de kredietcrisis. Lang niet genoeg om het land failliet te laten gaan. Ook kan ik me voorstellen dat je niet gelooft in het soepel omgaan met patenten, waardoor je bezwaar kunt maken tegen mijn rekenmethode waarmee de kosten van medicatie met een factor 25 verminderd zal worden. Maar onze wens om onszelf en onze familie te behoeden voor AIDS en een gruwelijke dood zal zeker te sterk zijn voor het patent-systeem.

Natuurlijk vinden we de middelen om iedereen te behandelen. Door een combinatie van overheidsmaatregelen en marktwerking vinden we vermoedelijk zelfs de middelen om alle patiënten in de Derde Wereld te behandelen, zoals we dat nu ook al proberen te doen. Bovendien betekent de bliksemsnelle ontwikkeling van de Chinese, Indiase en Zuid-Oost Aziatische economieën dat in de toekomst het aantal inwoners van landen die de financiering van de behandeling niet kunnen dragen, af zal nemen.

Ik hoop dat u de analogie begrijpt. Iedereen krijgt te maken met veroudering. Therapieën zullen geen directe genezing opleveren. We hebben het over behandelingen die de gevolgen van veroudering onderdrukken en die we periodiek tot ons zullen nemen zo lang we leven. Deze therapieën zullen oneindig blijven werken, maar ook vreselijk duur zijn. Vooral in de beginfase praten we op zijn minst over $1 miljard per dag.

Er zijn eigenlijk maar twee factoren die ons tegenhouden om dat geld te gaan uitgeven. (1) de behandelingen moeten nog ontwikkeld worden op het moment dat de experimenten met de muizen klaar zijn. En (2), het besef dat menselijke veroudering waarschijnlijk verslagen kan worden is revolutionair, want we weten niet beter dan dat veroudering universeel en onvermijdelijk is.

Maar als we eenmaal hebben aangetoond dat bestrijding van ouderdom mogelijk is, dan zal de samenleving net zo reageren als in het geval van de universele HIV-besmetting. We gaan dan vliegensvlug anti-verouderingstherapieën ontwikkelen. En ik denk niet dat onze huidige fixatie op veiligheid dan nog een grote rol speelt. Als iedereen een levensbedreigende aandoening zou hebben en er is een reële kans dat we deze aandoening niet langer levensbedreigend kunnen maken, dan zullen we die kans ongetwijfeld grijpen. Ook als het ons wereldbeeld totaal op zijn kop zet.

Dr. De Grey presenteerde dinsdag 13 april een scenario over de bestrijding van ouderdom in Theater Frascati in Amsterdam. Zijn lezing was voorafgaande aan de theatervoorstelling mightysociety 7. Andere scenario’s voor de vergrijzing op 15 en 17 april.

Free Cities in MARK

Theo Deutinger and Andrew Snow of TD Architects, partner in the Liberty City project published in MARK magazine in collaboration with Partizan Publik an info-graphic of Free Cities in the world.

They found out that 90% of the free towns on the globe are in English, Spanish, German or Slavic speaking nations.

Deutinger and Snow distinguish between German free-market towns, Sloboda settlements and 'New World' cities.

Reference: Robert Thieman (ed.), Mark 24 (2010).

Review Beyroutes

Beyroutes. A guide to Beirut was reviewed in NRC Handelsblad, the Dutch quality daily newspaper on 30 January 2010. The guide book initiated by Studio Beirut was celebrated because of its succesful collaboration between Lebanese and Dutch architects, artists and others. 

Journalist Herien Wensink mentioned the maps by artist Jan Rothuizen, photos by photographer Cleo Campert as well as the 'Fantasy Houses' article by Rani al Rajji and Christian Ernsten.

Order at your local bookstore: Beyroutes. A Guide to Beirut ISBN 9789077966549. Or online via NAi Booksellers of Reisboekhandel Pied a Terre.

Northern Avenue

HOW ARMENIA'S FUTURE OUTNUMBERED IT'S PASTS

Yerevan, March 2009. Photos by Karin Grigoryan

In March 2008, Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, a former Soviet republic in the Southern Caucasus, briefly made its way to our television screens. News channels displayed how, after a disputed election, angry masses filled the city’s central streets and squares. Northern Avenue, a recently finalized prestigious development project in the centre of Yerevan, being one of them. After an intense period of daily demonstrations and protest, outgoing president Robert Kotcharian declared a state of emergency and restored order. In response to his aggressive intervention, during which many were severely beaten and imprisoned, citizens made Northern Avenue into the key site for civil disobedience. During several months, mothers with children, elderly and veterans ignored the ban on public gatherings and held daily meetings at five o’clock in this street to demand accountability of the public administration.

Yerevan, March 2009. Photos by Karin Grigoryan

Although the buildings’ mortar is still fresh, the Northern Avenue is the final realization of a city plan, designed by bolshevist architect Alexander Tamanyan in 1924. Tamanyan circle shaped city is based on the fictional Sun City in Tomasso Campanella’s early utopian work La città del Sole (1602).  The twenty-seven meter wide Northern Avenue with eight to nine floor buildings on either side is the first pedestrian street in Yerevan. The owners of the expensive apartments are, amongst others, the more affluent members of the Armenian Diaspora. The assortment of shops and boutiques on the ground floor, notably Dolce & Gabbana or United Colours of Benetton and alike, clearly also cater to the high-end consumer. With the Northern Avenue the post-soviet elite of Armenia fulfilled their desire to create a place for all Armenians to be proud of and ‘an earth quake in terms of the architecture of their city.’(1)

Aerial photo of central Yerevan, the circle shaped city.

Indeed, some distraction from daily life of Yerevan seems more than welcome to its inhabitants. The ending of the Soviet Union and the subsequent war between Armenians and Azeris over Nagorno Karabakh (1988-1994) brought the average Armenian a lot of hardship. Not only in terms of war trauma and loss of family, but since 1994 a clan controlled economy, as well as, a blockade imposed by Azerbaijan and Turkey have resulted in widespread poverty. Fifty percent of the population lives below the poverty line. And even though a committed Diaspora guarantees a steady influx of money, really only the happy few live a better life since the political transformation from communism. (2) That said, the Northern Avenue has little to offer for the majority of the inhabitants of the city accept as a shortcut route for pedestrians or as a symbolic place to protest at against the current regime.

Destruction of homes

The city quarter of which the Northern Avenue is part is as large as ten hectare and used to be made up by ‘illegal’ partly wooden houses of one or two stories. These buildings were in bad condition. According to Narek Sargsyan, the city architect, the structures were of no particular architecture and could be considered as ‘a cancer in the city’(3). The privatization of the area in 2000 cleared the way for a radical urban makeover. Approximately 2000 inhabitants were convinced to evacuate from their houses. They were entitled to have a reimbursement of 300 USD per square meter. Interestingly, a bonus system gave people an incentive to abandon their houses promptly: leaving within five days meant gaining 40 percent extra per square meter. Yet, since real estate prices in Yerevan during the last few years rose at an incredible pace none of the original inhabitants of this area found alternative housing in the neighbourhood.

Numbered house, Yerevan 2008. Photo by Aukje Dekker

Not only were tenants forced from their homes and were their houses destroyed, the realization of the Northern Avenue project also meant the destruction of an important site of memory. When clearing the area, bulldozers destroyed the green zone in the nineteenth-century Pushkin Street. The old fruit trees in this street were of symbolic meaning to the inhabitants of the city. They had survived the onslaught onto the city’s greenery during the winters of the early independence years. In this harsh period electricity black outs were so frequent that people desperately burned whatever they could find to survive temperatures of minus 25. Yet, families living in Pushkin Street adopted the fruit trees. They protected them and confined them their secret stories. And over the course of time also many others sought shelter and comfort with these plants. The destruction of the neighbourhood let to protest and to the founding of a National Citizens’ Initiative, which examined potential violation of property rights. Yet, the government muted its efforts by incriminating the lawyer who defended some of the residents.(4)

Numbered house, Yerevan 2008. Photo by Aukje Dekker

Instead, in order to pacify the people, officials promised to preserve some houses on a different location. Indeed, they pledged that the buildings would be carefully taken down stone by stone, stored, and rebuild on a later moment. They envisioned a proper nineteenth century street to be fabricated, a thematic collage from the fragments of the old buildings. Twenty-nine houses were considered worthy of rescuing according to government researchers. And thus, in a truly bureaucratic way – numbering each stone of the houses carefully - the facades of the newly appointed monuments were rescued. Yet, most inhabitants of Yerevan do not believe the government’s story. The only house that was reconstructed until now happens to be the current headquarters of the ruling Armenian Nationalist Party. Still, no one knows for sure what happened to the stones, feeding to the haunted ambiance of the Northern Avenue area.

Dreams of the future

‘This street makes me afraid’, remarked Vardan Azatyan, a local art historian.(5) According to Azatyan the new avenue, connecting Republican Square with the Opera House represents a new type of totalitarian politics, which came about since the ending of the Soviet Union. The street’s architecture is the product of an agreement between the post-soviet political regime and the capital from the Diaspora and Russian developers. The cultural vision transpiring from this agreement seems to be based on a complex set of Armenian experiences. The Northern Avenue could namely be understood as inspired by a four-vectored dream of the Armenian future: to the left – based on the remnants of the country’s Soviet legacy, to the right - celebrating the country’s national traditions, backwards - into the mythical Christian past and forward – firmly embracing market capitalism.(6) And, as such, the realization of Northern Avenue is an attempt by the Armenian elite to fix the post-soviet identity.

1.

2. Northern Avenue, Yerevan 2008. Photos by Aukje Dekker

Indeed, strangely enough, the design of Northern Avenue is inspired by Stalinist architecture but becomes carrier of new type of Armenian nationalism (7), ‘high technological nationalism’, according Azatyan. To Sargsyan, the architect of the city, the Northern Avenue is, first and foremost a stylistic synthesis of the Neo-classicist Opera House and Modernist Republican Square. Yet, in explaining the origins of the project, he firmly places the dream to finalize Tamanyan’s city plan in the period of the nationalist war with Azerbaijan. It was in 1990 that Sargsyan and his colleagues were under siege in Nagorno-Karabakh, when he decided that Armenians all around the world needed the Northern Avenue as a new national symbol.(8) For Diaspora Armenians their visits to Yerevan could be seen as a spiritual experience and, align to this, their contribution to the city’s renewal a way of paying redemption for their absence. Financing the Northern Avenue is a way for them to re-root or regain a home they were once forced to abandon.

Northern Avenue, Yerevan 2008. Photos by Aukje Dekker

Mourning the past

Paradoxically, due to the construction of Northern Avenue again a part of Armenia’s past is lost, namely that of the Pushkin Street quarter. The realization of the street exemplifies how one man’s dream can be another’s nightmare. Moreover, it displays how the destruction of habitat appears to be a returning element in the Armenian history (e.g. the Armenian genocide and the loss of the national symbol, Mount Ararat).  Azatyan detects a strategic mourning amongst Armenians leading to an extreme spiritual seclude in terms of the national collective experience, namely a focus on the exclusive role of the Armenians in the Christian history and the suffering they had to endure. Explaining the remaking of the capital, he argues that Armenians make their own suffering last longer by a perpetual destruction of their own cultural environment. As such, Northern Avenue can be seen as cutting open an old historical wound.(9) And, as a result, the every day memories of the old neighbourhood are erased by mythologized history of collective survival.(10)

Northern Avenue, Yerevan 2008. Photos by Aukje Dekker

Northern Avenue constitutes a particular dream about the Armenian future, align to a nationalist ideology; the numbered stones of the houses are the evidence of a more fragmented past. The memory the neighbourhood only lives through in oral history of the people. Consequently a question comes to mind, namely: who owns the Armenian past? And, would there be space for a different politics of hope? Instead of contributing to a further marginalization of the urban poor, urban professionals could give an incentive to deal in a more profound way with the socio-economic and cultural challenges of post-Soviet Armenia. Could the Armenian dream encompass an ambitious urban agenda and a vision on human rights and social justice? At the moment, the first people move into the new apartments above the fancy storefronts of the Northern Avenue. As their first act they could reconcile with the old inhabitants of the place, which pasts were outnumbered by their vision on the Armenian future.

By Christian Ernsten and Joost Janmaat

Sources

1. Interview with Narek Sargsyan, 29 May 2008.

2. URL: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=2454&l=1 (5 October 2008).

3. Interview with Narek Sargsyan on 29 May 2008.

4. URL: http://oneworld.blogsome.com/2007/02/28/protest-outside-presidential-palace/#more-1388 (12 October 2008) and URL: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR01/017/2006/en/dom-EUR010172006en.html (12 October 2008).

5. Interview with Vardan Azatyan on 17 Januray 2008.

6. Idem.

7. Interview with Vahram Aghasyan on 22 January 2008.

8. Interview with Narek Sargsyan on 29 May 2008.

9. Public Culture 2 (2008).

10. Interview with Vardan Azatyan on 17 Januray 2008.

Atlas of Love and Hate

Edited by Christian Ernsten, Edwin Gardner and Andrew Herscher and designed by Nina Bianchi, the Detroit Unreal Estate Agency presented in Volume #22 the ATLAS OF LOVE AND HATE.

The Atlas, which was conceptually based on an idea of the geographer William Bunge, includes amongs others work by The Netherlands - based artists Lado Darakhvelidze, Jimini Hignett and Raymond Huizinga.

Andrew Herscher wrote the introduction, other University of Michigan affiliated contributors were Mireille Roddier, Marc Maxey and Craig Wilkins.

Herscher invited Detroit - based artists Nick Tobier as well as Shelby Moffett and Robert Smiley Jr. to contribute.

Partizan Publik's Ernsten, Gardner and Joost Janmaat developed three Utopia/Dystopia scenarios based on real existing urban renewal scenarios in Detroit.

Dutch Femke Lutgerink and Corine Vermeulen contributed with beautiful material from their 'Walk-in Portrait Studio'.

Bianchi's design was published as part of Volume #22 entitled 'The Guide'.

Close-Up: Beyroutes

Available in Amsterdam in Atheneum and Architectura & Natura booksellers. Soon also in Beirut and elsewhere in the world the Studio Beirut initiated BEYROUTES. A Guide to Beirut published by ARCHIS and produced in collaboration with Partizan Publik and Pearl Foundation. 

If you want to read more about the Eifel Tower, the Tate Modern or the Time Square of Beirut then don't buy this guide. BEYROUTES is not an ordinary guide, it won't bring you to the usual places.

Instead of providing facts and figures, landmarks and places to eat BEYROUTES presents a series of stories about the Lebanese capital. The stories are told by a varied group of individuals. 

Experienced researchers, artists and writers as Tony Chakar, Mona Harb, Hassan Choubassi and Michael Stanton but also by local professionals and students in the fields of architecture, arts and design as well as foreigners as artist Jan Rothuizen and other frequent visitors of the city contributed and made BEYROUTES into a guide to experience Beirut at this moment of time.

The book which designed by Pascale Hares under art direction of Nicolas Bourquin and Jeanno Gaussi is losely organized around four chapters. The First Impression City, the Official City, the Emotional City and the Invented City.

By changing in each chapter the perspective on Beirut the editors attempt to give visitors tools to engage with the city and its inhabitans without providing an over-arching narrative.

Purposely BEYROUTES focuses both on known areas as Hamra and Ashrafieh or Solidere as well as lesser known quarters of the Lebanese capitals as Dahiya, Karantina and Bourj Hammoud.

Each chapter of BEYROUTES includes a background essay from a cultural or architectural perspective, a walking tour and a series of subjective tales about the different city quarters.

BEYROUTES can also be ordered online via NAI Booksellers.

Launch Beyroutes Guide together with Volume # 22

As a supplement to VOLUME # 22 The Guide, Partizan Publik presents the separate publication Beyroutes, a guidebook to Beirut, one of the grand capitals of the Middle East. Beyroutes presents an exploded view of a city which lives so many double lives and figures in so many truths, myths and historical falsifications. Visiting the city with this intimate book as your guide makes you feel disoriented, appreciative, judgmental and perhaps eventually reconciliatory. Beyroutes is the field manual for 21st century urban explorer.

Beyroutes was initiated by Studio Beirut in collaboration with Partizan Publik, Archis and the Pearl Foundation. Supported by Prince Claus Fund, Fund Working on the Quality of Living and the Netherlands Embassy in Lebanon.

The launch wil take place at Athenaeum News Centre, Spui, Amsterdam, December 22, 5-7pm.

Warren Special Report

As a supplement to Volume #20 the Warren Special Report: From Crisis to Project imagines the redefined American Dream. Analyzing an utilizing the current crisis, the report seeks to imagine future suburbia taking Detroit's largest suburb Warren as a rolemodel. Bold visions, tools for transitionmanagement and new forms of organization and collaboration are the result of an ongoing research practice leading the way from Crisis to Project.    

Microrayon Living

As a supplement to Volume 21 Partizan Publik published Microrayon Living, which is basically an inventory of everyday life strategies and D.I.Y. practices in the Post Soviet Microrayon. Together with several local partners we conducted research in Gldani, Tblisi and in Veshnyaki, Moscow, two identical city quarters in terms of layout, the former at the periphery of the former Soviet Union, the latter in the center of power. Striking similarities and differences came to the fore.

Microrayon living is also part of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam:Open City. The next step in the research trajectory will be the development of a scenario for a social housing strategy in this context which will be presented at the Moscow Architecture Bienalle 2010.

You can follow the research on our Social Housing after the Soviets blog. You can also order the publication at our office for free.

Opening Amsterdam Biënnale 2009 + Mediamatic Travel

The Amsterdam Biennale 2009 is the first ‘crowd sourced’, ‘user generated’ biennale in the world. More than 30 curators from the Mediamatic Travel network present contemporary art from their city.

The exhibition opens on Friday with the pavilions of Kabul, Napels, Amsterdam, Melbourne, Belgrade, Boston, Talinn and Brooklyn. We will have weekly openings of new pavillions untill the end of the exhbition.

The Biennale is a part of Mediamatic Travel, the new travel-office to the contemporary art worldwide. Friday travel.mediamatic.net will go on-line.

Mediamatic and Partizan Publik will present the Travel Catalogue Destinations 2010.

With a live perfomance of Firestone and DJ Margit (Talinn), DJ Katja Novi (Talinn, Amsterdam) & DJ Velovich (Belgrade, Amsterdam).

The Amsterdam Biennale 2009 is opened from 17 October till 13 December 2009. Open from Monday – Friday from 1 pm – 7 pm and Saturday + Sunday from 1 pm – 6 pm. Location: Mediamatic BANK, Vijzelstraat 68, Amsterdam

Mediamatic Travel is a project of Mediamatic and Partizan Publik. The project is made possible by Hivos-NCDO Cultuurfonds, the Mondriaanstichting and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

Also this week: Pecha Kucha #11

On Wednesday 14 October from 20.20 hrs a Pecha Kucha in Mediamatic BANK presenting 12 elevator pitches with the lock pickers of Toool, Strawberry Earth, Hete Bliksem, 'Hot100' Sander Veenhof and more.

Volume 21: The Block

Vast urbanizations in developed, developing and under-development countries have one common denominator: an immediate need for quality housing. Housing the billions: never before were those involved in architecture and construction confronted with such a challenge. A one-fits-all solution seems unthinkable since most mass housing schemes in the past failed and originated in dictatorship or total absence of power. Based on an analysis of one of the housing experiments of the past, the Soviet Microrayon, Volume proposes a new prototype. A housing block, which is custom-made but mass-produced and conceived via open source standards.

Partizan Publik contributed to this edition with the Microrayon Living Supplement and an interview with James C. Scott on Societies of Rejected Standards.

Microrayon Living at IABR 2009

The publication and exhibition that are the outcome of the "Social Housing After the Soviets" research workshop has been presented at the International Achitecture Biennale Rotterdam at the Dutch Architecture Institute (NAi) in Rotterdam under the title: "Microrayon Living"

More info and pictures here

Collective Action Approach

In an interview with Metropolis M Christian Ernsten of Partizan Publik and Merijn Oudenampsen are elaborating on the importance of breaking down demarcations between various disciplines and different segments of society in order to come to a more collective approach in tackeling societal issues.

Volume #20 Storytelling

Volume #20 is dedicated to the art of storytelling. It presents the storylines of current events and architecture to show that while the truth is important, so is the ability of fiction to elevate fact. Storytelling communicates facts, but it also builds upon real-life accounts to enrich public expectations and elevate beliefs. For good reason, people say a story isn’t worth telling if it can’t be told to a child. A simple, distilled story that clarifies the crisis, and that aids the formulation of policies to better understand and animate the physical environment, is definitely worth telling.

With contributions from C-Lab, Geoff Manaugh and many others...

Publication: Emotional Cartography