TReC takes part in the EU commissioned project ‘Europe from the Bottom Up?’ with other 12 representatives from Brussels, London, Barcelona, Sarajevo, Ljubljana, Copenhagen, Berlin, Vienna, Goteborg, Rouen, Milan en Zurich. Led by the Brussels based NGO citymine[d], the project aims at first visualizing diverse active local organizations all over Europe, next collecting them under an umbrella where local and temporary expertise and experience of these organizations can not only be stored but also exchanged and empowered. A solid example of such a case could be the possible collaboration and exchange between Istanbul’s Romani organization the Sulukule Platform and Italian activist architect group Stalker/Osservatorio Nomade.
Between 17-19 November 2010, over 100 members of these local institutions will meet in Brussels for an Urban Forum to form interactive partnerships amongst themselves.
City Mine[d] is an international network of individuals and collectives involved with city and local action. By means of arts projects, campaigns and debate, City Mine(d) puts current themes from neighbourhood to the European level on the public and political agenda and offers a framework in which experience, contacts and information can be shared. Urban and economic development are not only achieved through official agencies, but also small, temporary and informal intitiatives of you and me contribute to a positive dynamic.

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.

PLAY THE CITY is a multi-agent urban design game and adopts a responsive design approach between designers and other stakeholders. The Game consists of two parts:
1.a real-time, real-place design&negotiation game -to be played by real stakeholders from planning institutions to resident organizations-
2.an interactive web-game supported by google wave: an editable dynamic chat interface for crowds -to be played by Istanbul residents.-
The narrative of the game is based on a real case: the transformation of about 70% of Istanbul’s urban fabric, which is planned in an informal and decentralized manner. The urgency of the question originates from a big earthquake that is supposed to hit the city within next two decades.

“Peripheral” actions [legally, socially and spatially] represent a creative drive which offers solutions, albeit sometimes wobbly ones, to an officially unsustainable speed of amalgamation. TRCairo is focusing on the diverse nature of this alternative urbanisation; cumulative, additive, corrosive, competitive, absorptive…in order to distill innovative or popular approaches to using and developing the city.

These observations will prepare the groundwork for a Mapping Workshop in/of Istanbul, April 2010. TReC will trigger the discussion of Istanbul’s densification potential by drawing parallels, inspiration and experience from Cairo.

The scientific research part of the project is about to start and it focuses on creating an alternative vision for Istanbul. The public act part of the project will happen in Istanbul coming July and August. This part will be a mix of scientific, cultural and artistic projects. We will be based in an empty building where we will continue our work with the Istanbul residents. Currently we are in search of an inhabited building. Below I will post few alternatives we have been working on.

Our partner in this project is DUS Architects from Amsterdam. At this moment, the working team [the research and the public act] is being established, please feel free to jump in! We are open to work with fresh ideas on envisioning cities and organizing public acts such as interacting with the neighborhood, setting up projects with inhabitants, involving them in thinking and making process of a city. With this blog, we will keep you updated on developments of this fast emerging and evolving project.

TReC is invited to exhibit EURASIAN INFORMALITY research for International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam-IABR 09. We will be organizing interactive events under the title The Eurasian Informality. Visit our pavilion in RDM terrain, to pick up the
Istanbul Manifesto Book of Gecekondu placing Istanbul’s 50 year informality in the international context A Future Vision for Gulensu; an informal settlement in the Asian Wing of Istanbul
to join in Real-time squat act in the exhibition arena [for further info send an email to e@theresponsivecity.org]
Hourly 10 min-brainstorm sessions ‘Istanbul 2020’ while sipping Turkish Coffee

TReC in Complexity Theories of Cities Come of Age Conference; 24-27SEPTEMBER09
Three decades of research have established the field of complexity theories of cities as a dominant approach to cities. Now that the field has come of age, it is time to stop for a moment, look back at what has been achieved, with appreciation, but also with sober criticism and then look forward at potentials that have yet to be realized. We will present the TReC’s complexity approach through the ‘city games’ Ekim Tan is developing in INTI/TU Delft. Here is a short review.

TReC IN OUDE WESTEN; 15-28AUGUST2009
‘The Responsive City Game’ in Oude Westen
Het Oude Westen Game attracted positive reaction from the Rotterdam Municipality as a not yet tested planning tool, from the Rotterdam Architecture Academy as an excellent education tool.

Client: AGORA
Title: Adaptive Design [Dynamisch design heeft toekomst]
read here

Client: EU
Title: STREET LEVEL DESIRES
read here

Client: NOVA TERRA
Title: Vermeers Wanted
read here

Client: NOVA TERRA
Title: Downtown Disney
read here

Client: Slow Management No.4 Bouwen
Title: Het paard van Troje
read here

Client: IFOU
Title: In search for opposing the generic identity
read here

Client: ATLANTIS
Title: Legibility back on the Agenda
read here

Client: ARCHINED
Title: Modernity in Fast-Motion -Istanbul
read here
for dutch

Client: ARCHINED
Title: Letters from Almere No.1
read here
for dutch

Client: ARCHINED
Title: Grand Bazaar of Architecture[s]
read here

Client: ARCHINED
Title: Noodles versus Magnum
read here

Client: ARCHINED
Title: More Sign than Space, Las Vegas Revisited
read here

Client: DYSTURB
Title: Is Almere There Yet?
read here

Client: Municipality of Rotterdam/Rotterdam Architecture Academy
Program: transformation of a 19th century central residential neighborhood, today inhabited by 70% immigrant residents
Site area: Het Oude Westen
Total floor space: 28 hectares
Duration: 2009 August

TReC IN OUDE WESTEN; 15-28AUGUST2009
‘The Responsive City Game’ in Oude Westen. During the Open City Master Class organized by Rotterdam Architecture Academy, TReC will facilitate self-organization of The Ultimate Oude Westen Block by simulating her residents as designers of their environment.

Oude Westen is a neighborhood located at the heart of Rotterdam. Exceptional for a central Dutch neighborhood, 73% of the residents is non-Dutch: 15%Surinamese, 14%Moroccon, 13%Turkish… This reality can also be traced in the local economy of Oude Westen: 70% of the shops in the quarter is owned by foreigners.

TReC thinks the physical space [built and non-built] of Oude Westen needs to reflect its distinct socio-economic profile.

TReC IN ALMERE SPORTPARK DE WIERDEN; SEPTEMBER2008
Client: INTI/TU Delft
Program: new urban expansion for Almere Haven by 300 new households
Site area: Almere Sportpark de Wierden
Total floor space: 45 hectares
Duration: 2008 September-October

Client: sLIM
Program: content organization of a lecture series on the complexity theories and the city
Site area: -
Total floor space: -
Duration: 2008 January-June

*as part of the -scape team

In ‘The Responsive City’ visions of the bottom up players calibrate visions of the top down players. Thus bottom up players do have visions just as planners and designers do. [e.g. garden-agriculture in gecekondu] They need to be detected patiently, taken seriously, and advanced collectively. [e.g. developing policies for urban agriculture in gecekondu]

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