The workshop will take place at AMS Institute between 6-10 May 2019 and will bring together students, young professionals, young researchers and experts from different disciplines, as well as stakeholders including representatives of the City of Amsterdam, to develop spatial design solutions to problems found for three different riverside urban areas in Amsterdam. The design instruments, recently developed at TU Delft, will support the participants to develop social-ecologically integrated spatial interventions.
Why is this topic of importance?
Is your city crossed by a river, canal or waterway? It most probably is and water most probably has a significant relationship with the city. Yet, that relationship is very often functional, as the riverfront is occupied by transport or flood-defense infrastructure, industrial activities, or privatized land, in addition to the engineered character of the river itself. As a result, the quality of riverside public spaces does not meet its social and ecological potentials. Current riverfront regeneration projects around the world signal a trend of re-appropriation, driven by the need for establishing a more sustainable and resilient relationship between the natural dynamics of the river and the socio-economic importance of riverside public spaces. The design of those spaces is crucial for both people and ecosystems and it requires an integrated approach.
Diagram of the design instruments for sustainable riverfronts
About the workshop
In response to these challenges and potentials, between 6-10 May 2019, the Chair of Environmental Technology and Design from the Department of Urbanism, TU Delft, in partnership with Amsterdam-based AMS Institute (Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions) and the City of Amsterdam, organizes a design workshop on the development of spatial design solutions in different riverside urban areas in Amsterdam. The workshop is part of the NWO-funded design research project “I surf – Instruments for sustainable urban riverfronts”, which tests, refines and demonstrates the use of four spatial design instruments previously developed by dr. Claudiu Forgaci at TU Delft (Forgaci, 2018) that can aid designers in developing social-ecologically integrated solutions for urban riverfronts.
The workshop is a follow-up to the international design workshop URCB - Urban River Corridors of Bucharest organized in the Romanian capital in 2017. Impressions of the URCB workshop can be seen here.
The I surf workshop will be organised at the inspiring new location of AMS Institute, at Marineterrein in Amsterdam (Kattenburgerstraat 7; 1018 JA, Amsterdam).
Speakers
- Project lead: Arjan van Timmeren, Professor of Environmental Technology and Design, TU Delft Faculty of Architecture, Scientific Director of a joint initiative by TU Delft, WUR, and MIT; AMS Institute (Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions)
- Workshop conducted by:
- Claudiu Forgaci, Postdoc Researcher at TU Delft and Research Fellow at AMS Institute
- Nina Bohm, Program Developer Education at AMS Institute
- Anca Ioana Ionescu, Researcher at TU Delft
Who can apply?
The event is now closed for application.
Find the poster of this event here.
Poster: Sustainable urban riverfronts design workshop
Outcomes
On the last day of the workshop, the workshop outcomes will be exhibited and discussed with local experts and stakeholders.
This workshop is organized by Delft University of Technology and AMS Institute, in partnership with the City of Amsterdam.