Visionary City
The Urgencies
Visionary City is a pamphlet serving as an introduction to The Why Factory as a new research/design institute. Being the first publication of the series, the pamphlet aims at giving the public an overview of the problematic The Why Factory is addressing as well as stating its ambition, the modus operandi for the coming years of its production.
Green Dream
Everybody’s talking about Green these days; sustainable architecture and urbanism are getting almost universal attention. And they deserve it. Who could possibly oppose Green?
But there’s also a lot of suspicion around Green. Research is contradictory. Conclusions are ambiguous. Who can we trust? Some things are wrong with Green…So can we overcome this moment of confusion and abuse? What we need, to proceed effectively, is a neutral, rational tool that can balance and validate vague assumptions about Green. Can we invent a calculator for Green that exposes our dilemmas and judge our efforts? That bring about a new aesthetics, linked to a more advanced understanding of nature? That could even beat nature?
World Wonders
Testing human limits
Along with human achievements in science and technology, social development, and other advancements in life, an update on definition of the world wonders is necessary. Are we satisfied with the current collection of the world wonders, or is it valid to rethink possibilities of the future wonders?
The Why Factor(y)
Why? Why Not? Why Don't We?
This book is based on the inaugural speech by Winy Maas at October 15, 2009 to mark the acceptance of the Chair of Architecture and Urban Design at the Faculty of Architecture of the Delft University of Technology, the opening of the Why Factory in Delft by Dutch Minister of Education and Culture Ronald Plasterk and the symposium “My Future City”, where a variety of students, inhabitants, architects, urbanists, thinkers, developers, politicians, technicians offer their future city..
Hong Kong Fantasies
A Visual Expedition into the Future of a World-Class City
In general, all cities and regions are a result of different development formulae or models. The more successful cities are those that have based their planning on economic patterns and territorial understandings. This studio postulates that the formula may be found by diversifying the city’s core activities. Hong Kong will be used as a case study. In the near future, Hong Kong may need to decide and invest in its most adaptable sectors of development, without overlapping on other players within the Greater Pearl River Delta region. It must use the huge population of the GPRD as a potential selling and labor market for Hong Kong’s benefit of these future sectors.
NL To Do
Reacting to the Breaking News
To imagine the future has been regarded in the last decades as a safe step away from the complexity and urgency of our current issues. And yet, it is precisely here in the context of overwhelming realities that the future cannot be neglected anymore. In this period of severe economic crisis and uncertainty our profession more than ever seems unable to imagine, deal or project a future beyond pol. This lack of vision in the recent years is linked to our obsession to follow trends and market predictions and has been reflected in the realities of our current situation, a generic and boring landscape in a rich world with outburst of icons and a dramatic scene of uncontrollable growth in the emerging countries.