We are facing a future full of questions – questions about the development of our cities. Especially in days of scepticism, populism and fear, we need answers of how visionary, green, fantastic, biodiverse, transparent, intimate, adaptable and emotional our future can be. The Why Factory, led by Winy Maas, founding partner of MVRDV tries to answer these questions with a method called design research. A method with refreshing visions that break rules and stereotypic thinking – a true combination of science and fiction.
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Until July 21, a collection of works by Winy Maas students can be seen in the current exhibition at the architecture gallery in Munich. The research lab of TU Delft acts as a future world scenario making machinery. It is a platform that aims to analyse, theorize and construct future cities.
10 years of research and education led to a wide range of demands:
The wish for common sense in a world that seems to be dominated by individualism in (W)ego Cities, the advocacy for wildlife in Biodivercity, the request for openness in Porocity, the desire for amazement in We want world wonders, the push for combination of small scale densification actions in The Vertical Village and the expression of fear of the ultimately killing Absolute Leisure and many more.
The future is coming. Are we ready?
By far not, says Winy Maas. Our current cities consist of towers and blocks that are somehow enclosed, distant, introvert and not mixed with urban life, social possibilities and ecological potentials. How can we enlarge pockets for encounters, for streams of access and communication, for enlarging zones for greenery and animals, for tunnels of cooling and refreshment, for channels and pockets of water and sanitation? What can we wonder about now since almost nothing is impossible in architecture?
Today, climate change casts a shadow of doubt on our civilisation being so self-centred. However, can ‘Green’ ideology, as we know it, embrace the whole complexity of that conflict? Can eco-city, as we know it (Masdar), be a sufficient solution? Students in collaboration with researchers of the Why Factory tried to find answers by illustrating visionary images. They looked for new intimacy between human beings and nature. They invented new cities that grow vertically, new typologies of buildings, that can disappear, or infrastructure that flies in clouds above the cities.
Let’s speculate through the eyes of architecture students and researchers about how our future cities will look like. Or, as Winy Maas would say, if curiosity makes us unique, let us enlarge our curiosity.
Imagine future cities full of gardens with flower carpets, full of playing children, humming bees and fluttering butterflies. Gardens that help to create a healthy environment, cool cities, collect rainwater and are adapted to the local climate. To make this come true, we invite students to design an exhibition garden for the EXPO 2016 in Antalya, Turkey. We challenge bachelor, master and doctoral students to come forward with innovative and holistic design proposals for gardens that:
- Make use of new flower design concepts;
- Show how gardens and landscapes can be especially attractive, instructive and functional for children;
- Show how gardens can contribute to a higher biodiversity;
- Explain landscape design principles that contribute to greener cities; and
- Present innovative concepts of hard landscaping and planting design that are more sustainable in the Mediterranean context.
Participants are invited to interpret these themes and develop design solutions that integrate these themes and make them understandable and presentable to the public at large. The competition is open to all students of landscape architecture, garden design, landscape planning, architecture, and land art. Levels of study may be Bachelor, Master or PhD.
Organisation and jury
The LE:NOTRE Institute organises this competition for the EXPO 2016 in Antalya in collaboration with the landscape architecture department of Akdeniz University. The entries with the garden designs will be judged by an international jury.
Awards
There will be three prizes awarded:
- 1st prize: costs for travel and stay 3 days (5 star hotel) for the winner and his/her family (up to 4 persons) to Antalya to attend the prize winning ceremony, 2.000 Euro prize money and construction of the garden in the EXPO, certificate.
- 2nd prize, costs for travel and stay 3 days (5 star hotel) for the prize winner and a friend/family-member (up to 2 persons) to Antalya to attend the prize winning ceremony, 1.000 Euro prize money and certificate.
- 3rd prize: costs for travel and stay 3 days (five star hotel) for the prize winner (one person) to Antalya to attend the prize winning ceremony, € 500 prize money and certificate.
Important dates
November 5, 6 pm – feedback colloquium for registered participants
December 15 – Latest registration date
January 8, 2016 – Deadline for upload of entries
January 11-12 2016 – Session of the Jury for selection
April 23 2016 – Opening of the EXPO in Antalya
