Th 01 Oct 09
Open City Lecture and Debate:
Kees Christiaanse
The first keynote lecture in the series of Open City lectures and debates will be given by the curator of the 4th IABR, the architect and urban designer Kees Christiaanse. His lecture will be devoted to the main theme of the Biennial – Open City: Designing Coexistence.
According to Christiaanse, an Open City is a place in which there is coexistence between different social groups, where there is cultural diversity, where differences in scale level are visible, and where urban innovation and economic development can be found. The combination of all of these factors can have a specific sort of positive effect. At that moment we speak of an Open City (see also: Interview Archined).
Christiaanse will comment further on the Open City on the basis of examples and will present his vision of how architects and urban designers can stimulate the emergence of this positive urban condition. The lecture will be followed by a debate chaired by Ole Bouman, director of the NAI.
More about the speaker
Kees Christiaanse was a partner with OMA Rotterdam until he set up KCAP Architects & Planners, a firm with offices in Rotterdam and Zurich, in 1989. Christiaanse has designed many buildings and urban design projects all over the world. Since 2003 he has been head of the Urban Design Institute of the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich and he is a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. Christiaanse is currently involved in the development of the docklands in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Hamburg, as well as working on the design of an 'urban breeding ground' in London for the Olympic Legacy Master Plan. Christiaanse has curated the 4th International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam (2009) with his team of curators from the ETH in Zurich, the staff of the IABR in Rotterdam, and various local curators.
The lecture is part of the Open City Event Programme of the 4th IABR and has been organised in cooperation with the Friends of the NAI. Reservation is required.
This lecture is fully booked.
Where & when
Speaker: Kees Christaanse (NL) and Ole Bouman
Date: Thursday Octobre 1, 2009
Time: 8:00 pm
Location: NAI Rotterdam, auditorium
Admission: € 5,- / € 3,- / Passe Partout
Information: +31 10 4401342
