The Exhibition

The exhibition, Projects for the Open City, will take place in the École Nationale Supérieur d’Architecture de Paris-Malaquais. The exhibition, curated by Ralf Pasel, features an inspiring selection of projects of the 4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), Open City: Designing Coexistence.

Projects for the Open City displays an extract of projects originating from different universities all around the world, rendering a unique cross-section on how the Open City is perceived and discussed globally. Compared to so-called "best practice" projects the selection shows how Open City conditions are discovered and designed in an academic context, enhancing the situation of urban living and mutual coexistence.

Whilst some of the displayed projects refer directly to the Open City as such, others strive to overcome the closed character of an urban existence, relating to issues like Squat, Refuge, Diaspora, Community, or Collective.
However manifold and divers the projects, Projects for the Open City provides an astonishing collection in drawings, film, models and text on urban societies. It explores how coexistence can be designed and establishes links to specific urban contextualities.

Projects for the Open City allows a glance into the future of our cities, triggering curiosity in which direction urban life may develop over the generations to come.

All exhibited projects were originally produced for the Parallel Cases exhibition, a co-production of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), the Rotterdam Academy for Architecture and Urban Design (RAvB) and the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (IHS).

Parallel Cases Paris was kindly supported by the IABR, pasel.künzel architects, Rotterdam and the Working on Cities Programme - WOC