Lab Talk Series

ReTooling the Trades

Date: 2014

Place: ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, Christinenstr. 18–19, 10119 Berlin

Introduction

The ANCB series ReTooling the Trades in collaboration with the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin is about equipping the capable urban practitioner with an upgraded set of working methods, approaches, strategies, processes and systems for effective and responsible professional practice. It builds on the outcomes of the successful ANCB debate series Design & Politics: The Next Phase and ascribes to the same underpinning ideological position about a more politically engaged spatial design and planning profession. Through discussion, design studio and other formats, ReTooling the Trades presents and explores examples of new ‘tools of the trade’ that are emerging in spatial design practices in the Netherlands and elsewhere. Included, for example, are tools that better explain conditions, envision futures, create frameworks, stimulate a building culture, generate new knowledge, communicate proposals, as well as tools that make better buildings and spaces.

As the Metropolitan Solutions trade fair on smart cities – where the Netherlands were this year’s partner country – prepares to relocate from Hannover to Berlin in 2015, this ANCB symposium will reflect on and add to the trade fair’s current themes: Urban Energy, Urban Water & Waste Management, Urban Mobility & Logistics, Urban Buildings & Public Space and Urban Management. These smart city topics will be combined with a consideration of new components, including participatory and self-made-city processes, and their role in our urban planning systems. The technical focus will be enriched with the idea of tools for the ‘smart inclusion’ of citizens and urban stakeholders that can achieve responsibility and long-term sustainability in our cities.

Questions that will be considered during the discussion include: How can innovative technological solutions be made accessible and understandable to a broad range of citizens? What is the role of public space and what spatial options for these technology-based solutions and tools are present in the Netherlands and Germany? What role does networking play as a catalyst to implement smart strategies in a city?