School's Out! #37 with Eva Pfannes

What if humanity begins to see itself as an integral, everyday participant in nature? By redefining our relationship to nature, we can shift away from a paradigm of burnout, towards one which considers planetary capacity. Eva will illustrate this by sharing OOZE’s most recent research and projects, Future Island in Sweden and City of 1000 Tanks in India. Main topics will be how making ideas and systems visible is paramount because people often only come to appreciate something once it is actually performing and improving their lives. And how, in many ways, a pilot project can be a microcosm of a city, and thus be as a conversation piece as well as a stepping stone to demonstrate ways in which nature can transform the city.

After his talk, we watched a short movie handpicked by AFFR curator Jord den Hollander.

Programme

18:00 - 19:00 Doors open, drinks, bites and tunes
19:00 - 20:00 Talk by Eva Pfannes + Q&A
20:00 - 20:30 Short film, selected by Jord den Hollander
20:30 - 22:00 Drinks, bites and tunes

About Eva Pfannes
Based in Rotterdam, Eva Pfannes is an architect and urban designer working in Europe, India and Brazil. She co-founded the international design practice OOZE in 2003 with Sylvain Hartenberg, working across scales, from regional strategies to architecture and research, combining an elaborate understanding of natural, ecological processes, with technological expertise and deep insights in to the social-cultural behaviour of users of the built environment. The cyclic closed-loop processes found in nature are the foundation for each intervention and integrate the human scale within a comprehensive urban strategy.

Eva was co-curator of the ninth edition of the International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam (IABR), DOWN TO EARTH (2020 - 2021) and in 2020 she was the lead designer of the IABR–Atelier Rotterdam III, working on a Local Energy Action Plan (LEAP) to decarbonize a local neighbourhood. She is the team lead for the City of 1000 Tanks project in Chennai, part of the global Water as Leverage program of the Dutch Government. Her expertise covers urban, participatory and climate resilience strategies including Nature Based Solutions and developing multi system models with an interdisciplinary team.

Eva's work was widely published, including the Materials Book by Ruby Press, DOMUS, AJ and The Guardian and exhibited in the Venice Biennial, Studio-X-Rio, the Sao Paulo Architecture Biennial and the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam. Awards include the 2017 Landscape Institute Award UK for ‘Best Design for Temporary Landscape’ and the LafargeHolcim Bronze Award-Latin America 2017. In 2015, she was Practitioner in Residence at Central Saint Martins (UAL) and served on the jury for the Rotterdam Architecture Prize 2018. Eva is a Jury member for the 6th International LafargeHolcim Awards-Europe 2020.

Eva Pfannes is a passionate practioner and loves working in complex and fast developing environments with public sector and cultural clients, focused on the benefits for society and the natural environment. She specializes in strategic and holistic systems thinking on urban and neighbourhood scale, as well as bankable concept developments that mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts. For WATER AS LEVERAGE, she is the team lead for the CITY OF 1000 TANKS project in Chennai, developing a water balance model across the city to make the most inclusive, efficient and economic use of water locally.