The International Design Workshop week Antwerp 'Commons' (10-14th feb)

The International Design Workshop week is open to radical pedagogical experiences, which open the eyes, change sides and widen thinking. It stimulates crossing disciplinary boundaries. The week is jointly curated by a team of students and faculty. It provides a forum for international exchange; simultaneously, it is an informal platform for discussing design education and its agency. This fourth edition investigates the potentials of commons.

Capping of the ring road and fractures of society: design and build for the meantime

The capping of the heavily congested ring road in Antwerp will bridge areas and communities that have been separated for decades. For some communities this new piece of infrastructure is seen as an asset for new opportunities, whilst elsewhere communities are not really interested in being connected with each other. Moreover, the long construction period of the new infrastructure risks to increase separation of the involved communities, rather than bringing them closer to each other.

Can the cap of the ring become a new common? And for whom? Can temporary commons provide solutions for overcoming the decrease of interaction during the time of construction? Can the construction period be an occasion for intensifying communication between communities?

The city administration wants to involve all inhabitants of these neighbourhoods in the definition of a program, and solutions for the meantime. IDW aims to lever this process.

IDW2020 immerses itself in such an affected area, and occupy empty buildings in the area Luchtbal and Lambrechtshoeken. 17 groups of 17 students and their workshop leaders will work, lecture, discuss, eat and drink and design new commons, either as drawn or built concepts, implemented services, or as tactical interventions. As a real living lab tutors and students will also have the occasion of working together with residents of all ages and all origins.

Commons Lab Antwerp contributes to the International Design Workshop Week: we share our knowledge, experience, networks, ideas, we will participate in a few experiments, debates, …

Link: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/projects/international-design-workshops/