As the journey reaches an end, a new beginning emerges with insight into re-institutionalizing urban development in a more collaborative, innovative, effective and citizen-involved fashion.

Let’s be honest, we do not own the city. We can, however, take conceptual ownership. And by we, we mean people in urban areas worldwide, who are pushing the boundaries of urban development by taking matters into their own collective hands; we are talking about people-led urban initiatives. There is a contrast – who are we taking ownership from? Perhaps, from traditional top-down actors in urban planning and architecture lead urban development. We can benefit from collaborative integration of practices. To do so, traditional top-down actors need to learn how to adapt; how to enable co-constitutive ownership. The time has come to sanction a new form of urban development, where conscious partnerships between citizen initiatives and institutions is not the exception, but the practice.

The team behind We Own The City: Enabling Community Practice in Architecture and Urban Planning is on a mission to redefine urban ownership in practice. On May 27th, this mission hits a new phase with the launch of the book. For the occasion, we prepared a special program focused on addressing the Amsterdam Municipal Government. Moderated by the talented Tracy Metz, the evening will include knowledgeable local and international guests who will engage in a global discussion on how to enable community practice in architecture and planning.

Program

Urban stories: Tris Kee (Community Project Workshop - Hong Kong), Susan Chin (Design Trust for Public Space - New York) and Francesca Miazzo (CITIES - Amsterdam).

Architects pitch their projects: Carolyn Bos (UNStudio), Jeroen Zuidgeest (MVRDV) and Bart Reuser(NEXt architects).

Also attending Zef Hemel Prof. Urban and Regional Planning at UvA & supervisor De Nieuwe Wibaut.

For detailed information,please visit website

> via dezwijger.nl