INTI - International New Town Institute

Excursion to Navi Mumbai

Michelle Provoost — 2010-11-24T21:25:00Z

In the 4th quarter of 2010 the TUD will organize an excursion to Mumbai (see study guide TUD, AR0362, History of the great metropolises). INTI is participating in this project because of Navi Mumbai, the New Town that was started in 1972. From the start it had to cope with many difficulties, and now claims to be the largest planned city in the world with 800.000 inhabitants. The aim of the excursion will be to study this city and produce essays, pictures and observations which will make up an alternative travel guide to Mumbai - because of course the New town is not included in the regular tourist guides...

Contact hours: 88 hours
Course language: English
Education method: Instruction 36 hours
Independent study 80 hours
Excursion 80 hours
Assessment: Essays as contribution to the excursion guide

Enroll in the excursion by sending an email to Sophie van Ginneken at s.vanginneken@newtowninstitute.org

PhD Meeting

Rachel Keeton — 2010-11-13T09:38:00Z

The International New Town Institute is pleased to invite you to the annual PhD meeting on Wednesday, November 10 at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

INTI is inviting researchers from all over the world who are currently doing PhD research on New Towns and related topics. The purpose of this PhD meeting is to exchange knowledge and extend social and professional networks. The venue of the PhD meeting will be TU Delft. During this informal meeting, there will be an opportunity to present your research to the group.

If you would like to do so, please send in your abstract before October 15 to info@newtowninstitute.org.

Although the PhD-meeting has an informal character, a scientific board will review your abstracts in advance. This may enable you to have your university cover your travel & hotel expenses.

New Towns & Politics

Rachel Keeton — 2010-11-12T09:50:00Z

The ultimate political act in town planning is the building of a New Town. Governments, developers and planners conspire to create a brand new community on a tabula rasa, based on the latest models of social and economic behavior.

Or is the idea to build a New Town from scratch just proof of a fatal misunderstanding of what makes a city a city? Is it a sign of a gross ignorance on the part of politicians, planners and all those involved in this process of the complexity and the unpredictability of the urban? Whatever the situation might be, New Towns and Politics are closely related, even condemned to each other.

With the fourth INTI conference, New Towns & Politics, we wish to explore thoughts, analyses, projects, designs and political actions pertaining to the political dimension of New Towns, old and new. Authoritative and provocative speakers as Kees Christiaanse (KCAP), Nathalie de Vries (MVRDV), Zvi Efrat (University of Tel Aviv), Kieran Long (Evening Standard) and many more will enliven the event with their presentations and a film program will open up unexpected vistas on the question of New Towns & Politics.

Erasmus Descartes Conference Institut Neerlandais

Jacob Buitenkant — 2010-10-19T10:32:00Z

Na de opening door Winy Maas zullen andere gerenommeerde Nederlandse en Franse architecten hun projecten en visies presenteren in vier panels. Na iedere discussie wordt er een half uur gereserveerd voor discussie met het publiek. In de slottoespraak zal er gereflecteerd worden op de presentaties en discussies van de dag met een kritisch oog voor de manier waarop in de projecten wordt omgegaan met de (semi-) publieke ruimte en de notie van ‘the spirit of the place', zo belangrijk voor een woningbouw van kwaliteit.

Wij willen u als specialist van satelietsteden uitnodigen als discusiant voor panel twee met als titel Heeft de ‘ville nouvelle' een toekomst? U wordt geacht om vanuit uw specialiteit commentaar te geven op de projecten. Vervolgens vragen wij u deel te nemen aan de discussie met uw collega's en het publiek.

Post-Colonial Urbanization Knowledge & Distribution in the Cold War

Jacob Buitenkant — 2010-10-16T08:22:00Z

Socialist Poland was a valued brand during the Cold War - at least in certain markets, which included the global market of intellectual labour. This pertains in particular to the labour of architects, planners and engineers from People's Republic of Poland (PRL) which was widely exported to the countries of the post-colonial South. This exhibition shows the designs of Polish professionals sent by state agencies of foreign trade to Iraq, Syria, Libya, Algeria, Ghana, and Nigeria: countries which were searching for allies among the socialist states after gaining independence since the late 1940s. The architects, planners and engineers transmitted both the heritage of Polish inter-war architecture and the experience of large socialist building sites, such as the reconstruction of Warsaw and the construction of the socialist city of Nowa Huta, which they adapted to local climatic, cultural and technological conditions. The buildings, neighborhoods, urban and regional plans as well as research projects shown in the exhibition not only testify about individual gift, knowledge and engagement of praticular designers, but also reveal the political economy of architectural labour in socialism. They became nodes of global networks of distribution of knowledge and technology which at the end of the Cold War reflected less an ideological conflict and more a new global division of labour specific for the post-socialist world.

With the former colonies in Africa and Asia gaining independence since the late 1940s, the states of the post-colonial South became increasingly important actors in the confrontation between the socialist East and the capitalist West. Military, economic, and technological modernization were essential means in this confrontation, with the Soviet Union, the United States, their European allies, but also the Non-Aligned Movement and China allocating significant resources in development aid. This resulted in numerous training and education programs, but also in planning and construction of waterworks and irrigation structures; roads and highways; factories in almost all branches of industry; prefabricated housing plants; municipal and cultural buildings; new neighborhoods and new towns.

Polish architects, planners, engineers and, sometimes, artists, were contributing to these processes, contracted by state agencies of foreign trade, such as POLSERVICE. The exhibition will present a range of such engagements, from the fair area in Accra (Ghana) designed and built between 1962 and 1967; the master-plans of Baghdad, Algiers, and the region of Tripoli in the 1960s and 1970s; housing neighborhoods in Iraq, Libya, and Syria (1970s and 1980s); a large research project General Housing Programme for Iraq (1970s); and typical projects of industrial plants exported to the developing countries by state planning offices such as BISTYP (Office for Research and Typical Projects of Industrial Architecture) or CEKOP (Central Export Agency of Complete Industrial Plants). The exhibition will focus on specific buildings, locations, situations, and institutions in which Polish architects, planners, and engineers were cooperating and competing with local professionals and experts coming from other countries.

Masterplan of Baghdad (1967) Masterplan of Baghdad (1967), Miastoprojekt Kraków

This exhibition will take place in the Museum of Technology in the Palace of Science and Culture in the center of Warsaw. The design of the show will be made by the Dutch collective Metahaven: Studio for Design and Research. Metahaven engages the field of visual identity and works on the intersection between graphic design and architecture, questioning their political and social conditions and consequences. The design of the show will critically address the persuasive means of representation as an essential part of export of architecture and urban design: from the contributions to architectural competitions, through folders of companies offering turn-key sugar plants or steel mills, to carefully staged photographs of completed buildings as promises of modernity and carriers of identity.

This exhibition will be complemented by the symposium Socialist competence. Post-Colonial Urbanization and Knowledge Distribution in the Cold War . The symposium contextualizes the experience of architects, urbanists and engineers coming from socialist Poland within a more general perspective on the Cold War architecture and urbanism. The exhibition and the symposium will initiate a long-term research project which aims at examining the technologies and institutions, still conditioning the current urbanization processes in the Global South; but also questions the significance of this experience for architecture practices in post-socialist countries.

Curator: Łukasz Stanek Cooperation: Piotr Bujas, Tomasz Fudala, Alicja Gzowska Design: Metahaven

http://south-of-eastwest.net/index....

Learning from Almere

Rachel Keeton — 2010-09-14T08:52:00Z

In collaboration with the WSF Flevoland/De Nieuwe Bibliotheek, INTI is pleased to offer a new course for inhabitants and other people who are interested in Almere.

Almere is, similar to every other city, the result of a combination of deliberate choices and coincidences. The development of the city is therefore much less transparent compared to the promises made beforehand in spatial plans or outlines. In the context of Almere this lack of transparency is even increased by the speed with which this new town has been developed. To give an overview of and some calm in this urban whirlwind INTI and WSF Flevoland/De Nieuwe Bibliotheek offer a course of six lectures. The course ‘Learning from Almere' will start in September 2010.

The course offers city inhabitants and other people interested in Almere a unique opportunity to learn and understand the development of this unique city. The course is structured along important themes in (the development of) Almere that will be presented, analyzed and discussed by several experts.

The course consists of six lectures by experts in a specific field or theme. Every lecture will address a certain element of the history, building, governance and management of this city. The course will be moderated and hosted by the staff of both International New Town Institute (INTI) and the WSF Flevoland/De Nieuwe Bibliotheek.

Overall purpose of the course is to inform participants but also to enhance their fascination and understanding of Almere.

Details:

Tuesday evenings: 14/9, 21/9, 28/9 en 5/10, 12/10, 19/10 2010

NEW!: 18/1, 25/1, 1/2, 8/2, 15/2, 22/2 2011

Openbare Bibliotheek Almere (Het Nieuwe Lokaal)

Stadhuisplein 101, 1315 XC Almere

Start at 20.00 hrs (hall open at 19.45 hrs)

Estimated length of each lecture: approximately 1,5 hours (coffee and tea included)

Click here for more information.

Dutch Spoken

Costs Participating costs are € 60,- for the full program.

It's is also possible only to attend separate meetings. Participation costs will then be € 12 for every evening and you will not receive texts for further reading or a certificate of participation.

The maximum number of participants is forty.

If you are interested in participating in the course Learning from Almere please contact info@plusbibliotheekflevoland.nl, or click here for more information.

Inquiry probes plan for new town

Jacob Buitenkant — 2010-09-09T07:27:10Z

The planned Middle Quinton development near Stratford-upon-Avon was discussed at Molineux Stadium in Wolverhampton.

Experts considered how the 6,000-home development would impact on the area.

The project has been strongly opposed by some residents as well as celebrities including author Jilly Cooper and actor Dame Judi Dench.

Under the West Midlands scheme, up to 500,000 new homes could be built across the region over the next 20 years.

Protesters are worried about the impact of the new homes and claim there has not been sufficient consultation.

However, the developers say the site will help create affordable homes and new jobs.

The new town plans are expected to be decided by the government early next year.

www.bbc.co.uk

Five schools for planned new town near Inverness

Jacob Buitenkant — 2010-09-08T07:57:48Z

Moray Estates appointed US planning consultant Andres Duany and his company DPZ to guide the design of the town.

A planning application has now been submitted to Highland Council and, if approved, construction work could begin in 2013.

Andrew Howard, managing director of Moray Estates, said: "We aim to create a very special place - somewhere people want to live and work and which is sustainable in the long-term.

"We were very impressed from the outset by Andres Duany and his firm, who are leading advocates of a return to traditional town planning and who have moved away from the approach which has led to sprawling suburbs with few facilities."

Exhibitions and workshops to develop the plans were attended by about 600 local people and Mr Howard said the community had been closely involved in the design process.

Dr Duncans Tema

Ewout Dorman — 2010-09-07T10:58:51Z

To Catch Cairo Overflow, 2 Megacities Rise in Sand

Jacob Buitenkant — 2010-09-07T07:06:36Z

The highway west out of Cairo used to promise relief from the city's chaos. Past the great pyramids of Giza and a final spasm of traffic, the open desert beckoned, 100 barren miles to the northwest to reach the Mediterranean.

- World Wide Newsfeed