INTI kicked off its international research program "New New Towns. Why we need to rethink the city of tomorrow today" in Shenzhen in 2012. Its groundbreaking results will be presented on December 12 during a full-day conference entitled "Shenzhen: From Factory of the World to World City" in De Kleine Zaal of the Schouwburg in Almere.

After previous conferences in Shenzhen, this will be the first time INTI presents its research to a European audience. This event will be a crash-course for anyone working or interested in Shenzhen and other Chinese cities. Partners within the program are the Chinese University of Hong Kong, China Development Institute, Shenzhen Center for Design, architecture offices Urbanus and NODE, the City of Almere, Delft University of Technology, University of Amsterdam, CAH Almere and the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies. A list of Chinese and Dutch speakers will be announced here soon. 

The Dutch-South-African teams of the Density Syndicate are presently finalizing their designs for three locations in Cape Town. They will be presented at the exhibition “City Desired”, organized by the African Centre for Cities (ACC) in the City Hall in Cape Town. The exhibition will offer Cape Town residents and visitors insights into the challenges and possibilities facing this unique city: dynamics that echo in cities across the world. This exhibition appears against the backdrop of the World Design Capital (WDC) program, with its focus on “Live Design, Transform Life.”

The Density Syndicate uses the concept of density to tackle the many divides and challenges that currently face Cape Town. With the legacy of apartheid etched deep into every neighbourhood, particularly in the sharp separation between the neighbourhoods, the question in Cape Town today is: how can city planning contribute to a sea change in this reality that it first helped to create? How can the infinite sprawl of the segregated city be unified, opened up, woven into a coherent tapestry?
In an intensive process, working within multidisciplinary teams and in close collaboration with residents and interest groups, the teams are presenting ideas and alternative strategies to deal with the incremental growth of the informal settlements, the creation of green, collective space and in general, overcoming boundaries and barriers in the broadest sense of the word.
The Density Syndicate is a program organized by the International New Town Institute in collaboration with the African Centre for Cities.
More on the Density Syndicate

INTI aims to do for the Vinex what Herbert Gans did for the Levittowners: Gans explored the emerging urbanity of the young suburb Levittown, doing away with prejudices and cliches and showing the surprising features of this new urban environment. Now INTI has been asked to organize a group of stakeholders and start researching the present state of the Vinex-neighborhoods, their inhabitants and the urban culture they are developing.

The Vinex was probably the last generation of nation-wide planned urban extensions in the Netherlands; they date from 1990, when the Vierde Nota Extra was published by the national government. Next year, the Vinex model celebrates it’s 25th anniversary. ‘De Vinexmensen’ is one of three communities that operate within the overall program of the Dutch manifestation Jaar van de Ruimte 2015. The community is open to contributions from residents, researchers, policymakers, artists and designers and anyone willing to add ideas for the future development of these young neighborhoods. Because, even though the Vinex was top down planned, in the present era of the ‘Participation-society’ there will be a n increasing share for non-professional urban planners, architects and thinkers to shape and program the Vinex.
During 2015 several stages of the research and new program events will take place. Some of these stages are public, while others are not. The final presentation in December 2015, where ideas, plans and agendas will be presented, will be very public! Together with De Vinexmensen, INTI hopes to contribute to an inspiring and valuable agenda for the suburban future of these specific examples of the Dutch tradition of housing and spatial planning.
For more information and/or to join the community:
JaapJan Berg, project leader community ‘De Vinexmensen’
– Mail: vinexmensen@newtowninstitute.org
– Twitter: @vinexmensen
– Facebook: Vinexmensen Vinexmensen
– Website: www.wiemaaktnederland.nl

Shift Architecture is finalizing their designs for Almere Buiten Centrum, focusing on the future of the shopping centre. It is a question relevant to many other suburbs and new towns: with the sales of the shopping centers declining due to crisis and internet shopping, what can be the future meaning and program of these centers? Should they just wait and see what happens ’after the crisis’, or should they diversify and look beyond the traditional commercial functions? 
In Almere Buiten, the aim of the project is to engage the economic and social capital scattered around the neighborhoods, and to give it a platform in the center. Shift is designing and developing a square, acting as a concentration node of existing activities. It functions as a complimentary alternative to the existing shopping center, providing a catalyst for economic energy in Almere-Buiten. 
Shift has teamed up with sociologist Ivan Nio and urban strategist Elisabeth Boersma (PlanB.) This edition of ’An Eye on the Neighborhood’ was developed by INTI and Arnold Reijndorp and commissioned by Atelier Rijksbouwmeester.

Earlier this summer, INTI researcher Rachel Keeton presented a lecture on the New Town Saadiyat Island. Saadiyat Island is a “dreamscape” created by Tourism Development & Investment Company just half a kilometer from downtown Abu Dhabi. It is an amalgam of luxury residential areas, 5-star resorts and golf courses crowned by a Cultural District containing a hallucinatory collection of museums designed by five Pritzker Prize winners. Based on research for the book Rising in the East: Contemporary New Towns in Asia, this lecture presents –according to the audience– quite an outspoken view on the consequences of private urban development.
See the lecture at our website.

In September 2014 INTI was invited to be part of a Dutch delegation traveling to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro for a working visit to explore the possibilities for creative industries and arts education in Brazil. Het Nieuwe Instituut and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science invited INTI as an institute committed to exchanging experiences and knowledge regarding urban development worldwide. During this visit, meetings were organized with representatives of schools, universities, cultural institutions and the municipalities of both cities to discuss the different disciplines that form the creative industries in the Netherlands and Brazil. INTI was able to strengthen and expand its relationships with the universities and professionals in São Paulo with the goal to start an exchange focused on the gated suburb Alphaville. This exchange will engage a group of local inhabitants and entrepreneurs who are actively transforming Alphaville into a more lively and more socially inclusive city.

INTI was also greatly impressed with the way in which Rio de Janeiro uses its cultural heritage as an important instrument in transforming the city and the harbor area. The visit inspired INTI to further explore the possibilities of exchange with Latin America and Brazil in particular as we continue to extend the “New New Towns” program around the world.

As you may have noticed, over the last few months INTI has restructured its website to make our content more easily accessible. Every week, a new short read appears on our front page. These are articles related to new town development that come directly from INTI’s international network of researchers, students and professionals. The short reads give members of our network the opportunity to address issues that they are currently engaged with; providing a steady stream of focused, in-depth research presented in an easily accessible manner.
This material provides new insights into a broad range of urban topics. So far, INTI’s short reads have ranged from infrastructural innovations in China to architectural preservation in Kenya. Here you will find the stories about new town development that you won’t see anywhere else. Do you have a story to contribute? Send us a proposal at info@newtowninstitute.org.