The high line. Photo: George Brugmans

Exhibition | NAI Rotterdam - | 20/04/12-12/08/12

It will only be a few decades before almost 80 per cent of humankind will be living in cities. Cities may occupy only about 4 per cent of the earth’s available surface area, but they generate 90 per cent of our wealth. Such extreme urbanisation presents huge social, economic and ecological challenges. The answers to these pressing issues lie in the city itself. How do you spatially structure a mega-city like São Paulo with its 20 million inhabitants? How do we deal with rising water levels and other climate-related threats? These questions can only be answered if we make and design the city in a different way.

‘Making City’ shows how that is possible, with a range of scenarios for living in the city, driven by innovative and ever-changing alliances of designers, administrators, planners, developers and inhabitants. One of the reasons for this is the real estate crisis, which is one of the causes of large-scale vacancy in cities, sometimes right in their centres. Equally important are the threat of climate change and the air quality in cities, as well as the migratory flows to densely populated metropolises. How can we build on the city of the future together?

5TH IABR
‘Making City ’is the main exhibition of the 5th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), with a layout designed by Kossmann.dejong. The exhibition shows how the city of tomorrow is taking shape and the part that designers are playing in this. It can be seen at the NAI from 20 April 2012. The NAI and the Schieblock will also be hosting lectures and debates, and plans for the future will be presented at venues throughout Rotterdam city centre. The 5th IABR is also staging exhibitions in Almere, São Paulo and Istanbul , organising an international conference, releasing publications, and producing TV and radio programmes in association with the VPRO broadcasting corporation. Visit www.iabr.nl for the complete programme; visit the NAi lectures & debates page for more information about the platform activities.

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