IT’S ABOUT TIME! 10th Architecture Biennale Rotterdam opens 22 September

 
Fifty years after the publication of the Club of Rome report, the 10th edition of the Architecture Biennale Rotterdam is taking stock. The exhibition, running between 22 September and 13 November, brings together historical research (from 1972 onward), inspiring practical examples (in 2022) and future scenarios (towards 2072).
 
DRIFT will be involved in curating the exhibition, co-creating a parallel program and the development of transition ateliers to make IT’S ABOUT TIME as radically transformative as it can be.
 

 
A picture both worrisome and hopeful
The 2022 Architecture Biennale Rotterdam paints a picture that is both worrisome and hopeful. The exhibition features the work of architects, urban designers, artists, academics and landscape designers that documents and maps the causes and consequences of climate change.
 
Their observations create a contemporary landscape that reflects the effects of climate change and calls for a response to this constructed hyperreality.
 
In a former natural gas container
The 10th edition of the Architecture Biennale Rotterdam will take place from 22 September to 13 November 2022 in Rotterdam’s city harbors. The exhibition ‘IT’S ABOUT TIME’ will be presented in the Ferro, an imposing former Natural Gas Container in Rotterdam’s western harbor area.
 
Connected to this exhibition is a broad, parallel program of guided tours, lectures, debates, and workshops for children and young people, which will make room for dialogue, knowledge building, and experimentation.
 
Involved as curator…
Derk Loorbach – DRIFT director, professor socio-economic transitions and academic lead for the Design Impact Transition platform – is one of the four curators of this tenth edition. This collaboration will make it possible to focus on exploring how design and transition thinking can have a positive impact on society at large. Derk and the rest of the organisation will also be involved in the parallel program.
 
He is in good company. Derk is part of a four-headed curatorial team, consisting of Peter Veenstra, co-founder of LOLA Landscape Architects, Dr. Léa-Catherine Szacka, senior lecturer in Architectural Studies at the University of Manchester and visiting lecturer at The Berlage, Delft University of Technology, and ETH Zurich, and co-founder of PASZA Platform for Architectural Research, and Dr. Ir. Véronique Patteeuw, lecturer at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et du Paysage Lille, visiting lecturer at the KU Leuven and EPFL Lausanne and academic editor of OASE.
 
…and transition accelerator!
On top of that, DRIFT is also involved in developing ‘transition ateliers’ that give room for ACCELERATOR, ACTIVIST and ANCESTOR projects and concepts. These ateliers are a method to help guide and accelerate radical transitions towards nature-positive futures.
 
After an open call in May, we have selected a number of local transition initiatives across the Netherlands. The first ateliers have started in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Tilburg, and more will follow, focusing on neighborhoods, deltas and ports. The initiatives will then be paired with architects, designers and reseachers, so that, over the next two years, these pairings can reimagine and redo the way we conceive and build our world.
 
>>> Go IT’S ABOUT TIME’s website <<<