The Next City

'The Next City - Excursions on Future Living and Lifestyles' is a Master Class that brings together a distinguished group of institutions, designers and thinkers to examine the implications of new approaches to projective research and design. It gathers eight schools in a multidisciplinary research of Beijing and Rotterdam: CAFA, Tsinghua and BIFT from Beijing, TU Delft The Why Factory, Design Academy Eindhoven, Sandberg Institute and ArtEZ Fashion Masters from the Netherlands.

Central to this joint research and design studio is the question of how and where cities will need to change in order to accommodate future sustainable growth in respect of current conditions but more important its dreams and desires. What improvements are to be undertaken and what problems need to be solved in order to achieve a high(er) quality of life for the next generation inhabitants of Beijing and Rotterdam?

Each discipline is asked to formulate, visualize and thus contribute (within the context of his/her profession) to the many possible futures for cities to come.

'The Next City - Excursions on Future Living and Lifestyles' is a straightforward attempt to study the contemporary city through the investigation on its possible futures.

The first part of this MasterClass took place from October 5 to 15, when TU Delft welcomed a group of Chinese students and professors to The Netherlands to begin a collaborative exploration of Rotterdam and the Dutch city in general.

The second part took place in Beijing from 18 to 28 October, where Chinese students and professors have prepared a in-depth introductory programme for their Dutch counterparts. 

The Dutch MasterClass students presented their projects to fellow students and teachers on the 31st of January 2011 at the Design Academy in Eindhoven. The presentation was followed by a dialogue led by Christine de Baan, director of the DutchDFA. The students shared their impressions of their visit along with their thoughts on the strengths and challenges of working alongside other disciplines.

The Fashion students of Artez presented their projects in a video ‘Concrete Sightings'. The video gathers impressions drawn from Beijing’s Urban environment.

Concrete Sightings - ArtEZ Fashion Masters from Aleks Pietrzykowska on Vimeo.

Finally the MasterClass, which is part of this semester's curriculum at all schools involved, resulted in a publication and presentation at Beijing Design Week from 28 September until 3 October 2011.

Exhibition in the Dutch Design Generator at Beijing Design Week

In the exhibition visitors were immersed in the thoughts, discussions and possibilities that emerged from the master class. All were centred around urgent and more latently present questions in anticipation of the city, the designer and the school of the future.

Dialogues Programme Tuesday 27th September

09.30 Venue open Next City, Next Education

10.00-12.00 Next City

Lecture by Jacob van Rijs (MVRDV) & Jiang Jun

Forum discussion

First edition NEXT book presented to Wang Min (CAFA)

14.00-16.00 Next Education

Lecture by Jurgen Bey (Sandberg Institute)

Forum discussion with Jurgen Bey, Wang Min and Yolande van Kessel (Design Academy Eindhoven)

Student presentations on Next Education

Next Steps: concluding remarks by Wang Min