Circular Buiksloterham report

Posted on by

landscape-architects-urbanism

This report contains the final results of a study on Buiksloterham’s potential to
become a leading example of Circular City development in Amsterdam. The study was commissioned and executed by a consortium of local stakeholders who are active in the area of Buiksloterham and see its potential as a global example for a new kind of sustainable urban development (…) Though Buiksloterham is unique in Amsterdam, it also has many features that make it a good case study for the transformation of other post-industrial neighborhoods in cities around the world (…) Its polluted lands and open spaces can become the center of the implementation of new clean technologies and a hub for the closure of urban material cycles. The activities needed to close these local material flows can be used as a driver for local industry and the strengthening of local social networks.

Action Plan

  • Designate Buiksloterham as an official experimental zone or Living Lab
  • Develop an inclusive governance and management structure for Buiksloterham
  • Create new incentive structures and financial vehicles
  • Build capacity for urban sensing and open data
  • Implement a Circular Neighborhood Action Plan

Technical Interventions

  • Fully Renewable Energy Supply
  • Water Innovation
  • Alternative Mobility
  • Soil as Natural Capital
  • Close the Loop

Full Report and Image available here

Artist (Residency) and the City (article)

Posted on by
ARTISTS AND THE CITY

Arrow Factory founders Pauline Yao, Rania Ho and Wang Wei standing in their space, mid-bricking, August 2017.

Introduction by Livia Alexander

Art and artists today are identified as a key instrument in urban development and community planning (…) Artists are being invited to engage in the most unexpected corporate settings, recognized as critical, outside-the-box thinkers as business entrepreneurs are enlisting their services to propel innovation and growth. Government officials and departments are deploying artists to address pressing problems of public policy and governance. These developing practices frequently take the form of artists working in newly formed residencies situated in communities, business places, government offices and a wide range of other settings (…) Are there ways for art programs to build the communities, and wealth for the people already living in them?

The article sets out to respond via five examples:

  • Community-Based Artist Residencies in China, by Kira Simon Kennedy
  • The African Artists’ Foundation, by Azu Nwagbogu
  • The Sharing Economy that Keeps Brooklyn Artists Going, by Livia Alexande
  • Social Drawing as a Model for Community-First Engagement, by Francesca Fiore &
  • Amsterdam: Counting our Precarious Blessings?, by Nat Muller

Full article available here

Mode 2: Transdisciplinar Knowledge

Posted on by

COMPLEXITY THEORY

  • problem solving carried out following the codes of practice relevant to a particular discipline: the context is defined in relation to the cognitive and social norms that govern basic research
  • problem solving organized around a particular application (mode 2): knowledge results from a broader range of considerations, it is produced under an aspect of continuous negotiation and it will not be produced unless and until the interests of the various actors are included, it is also socially distributed.

Transdisciplinarity has four features:

  • it develops a distinct but evolving framework to guide problem-solving efforts. This framework is generated and sustained within the context of application, not extrinsic to it.
  • the solution comprises both empirical and theoretical components and it is an undeniable contribution to knowledge but not necessarily disciplinary knowledge
  • the results are communicated to those who have participated, in the course of that participation. the diffusion of the results is initially accomplished in the process of their production, subsequent diffusion occurs as original practitioners move to new problem contexts not by reporting
  • it is dynamic, on the move, it is difficult to predict the future applications of the knowledge produced

 

References

Gibbons, M., Limoges, C., Nowotny, H., Schwartzman, S., Scott, P., Trow, M., 2005. The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies. London; Thousand Oaks; New Delhi: Sage Publications, First published in 1994. ISBN 0-8039-7793-X, pp. 3-6

Image available here