#14 WHAT CITY?
Open Urbanism
Why the talk is inspiring?
In the last 30 years European urbanism has developed a new paradigm – one that is based on diversity and urban block typologies. To a large extend this is a reaction to a shift from socialist to capitalist ideology. However, this model appears to be unfit for mass housing. As a result recipies developed in the 1950s and 60s are still prevailing. Open Urbanism aims at developing a new model for mass housing that genuinely reflects the principles of the free market and resolves the conflict between mass production and customisation.
2014
Speaker
Bart Goldhoorn
How the speaker is exceptional?
Bart Goldhoorn graduated in 1989 from the faculty of Architecture of the Technical University in Delft. After a few years of working as a practicing architect he went to Russia with a grant of the Dutch Ministry of Culture. In 1995 he founded the journal Project Russia – a bilingual magazine on Russian architecture, urbanism and design, followed by Project International and Project Baltia. In 2008 he co-founded the Moscow Architecture Biennale and he has been the Biennale curator since then. In 2009 he was one of the curators of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam.Goldhoorn is active as a curator of architectural competitions and as a consulant in the field of architecture and urbanism. Recently, Goldhoorn has brought his activities together in the Open Urbanism Institute with offices in Amsterdam and Moscow.
RECOMMENDS TO READ
Volume #21: The Block
Why the book is worth reading?
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-size-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.
