Open City

by Kees Christiaanse (editor), Tim Rieniets (editor), Jennifer Sigler (editor)

In an age when migration is changing the face of many cities, when mass mobility and communication are altering our perception of distance and difference, when individualism has become a driving force of social life, living together in cities has become a tenuous notion. The question is no longer if we want to live together, but how to live together, and how to share the resources and opportunities cities offer. The fourth International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) launched the theme Open City: Designing Coexistence to generate concrete answers to these questions. This book presents research and proposals by international experts who were asked to develop methods to facilitate access to promote go existence in the contemporary city. With introductions by the curator, Kees Christiaanse, and IABR’s president George Brugmans, and contributions by Ash Amin, Marc Angelil, Regina Bittner, Stephen Cairns, Angelus Eisinger, Orhan Esen, Gerald Frug, Stephen Graham, Dieter Läpple, Mark Michaeli, Robert Neuwirth, Arnold Reijndorp, Tim Rieniets, Christian Salewski, Saskia Sassen, Peter Sloterdijk and Michael Zinganel.
Part Two documents research and proposals by international architects, urban designers and activists. Interboro Partners, Stepen Cairns and Daliana Suryawinata, Philipp Misselwitz and Can Altay, Jörg Stollmann and Rainer Hehl, and Bart Goldhoorn and Alexander Sverlov were asked to initiate urban design projects in situations where the Open City is most challenged, projects that were presented in the main exhibition of the biennale.

464 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2009