ABOUT THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL FOR THE CITY

ABOUT THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL

The Independent School for the City is a playground for all urban thinkers, do-ers and designers – based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It brings together critical and experimental ideas in the field of urban research, design, strategy and activism. Through a wide range of activities, it provides a platform where urban professionals can meet, informally discuss, and work on the challenges facing modern cities.

We work from the belief that urban challenges that are often viewed separately and from different disciplinary perspectives (climate change, migration, affordable housing and inequality) have become inextricably linked in recent years. We believe that our cities must not only be redesigned, but also rethought. When dealing with today's city, we can no longer afford to separate the conceptual from the practical, the political from the technical, form from content. 

The Independent school therefore aims to be a platform for "urbanism" that embraces design, sociology, economics, history and anthropology; anything that helps to understand and make our cities better. The School offers a variety of activities that encourages the exchange between different disciplines, ranging from lecture evenings and one-day workshops, to seminars and an intensive 12-week programme on contemporary urbanism. Our approach is always open-minded but critical, inclusive but discerning, flexible but precise. This offers the participants in our activities and their international team of teachers the full intellectual freedom to research the city in the broadest sense. 

The school is fully independent and does not defend professional, commercial, or political interests, nor is it constrained by academic formalities or disciplinary boundaries. Its research is rooted in the diverse disciplines in which teachers and participants have been trained. Participants and teachers form a learning community, in which the advanced and less experienced will inform each other and contribute to the research. The activist and multidisciplinary approach of the Independent School is strongly embedded in all activities, whether you participate in one single course or sign up for all of them.

Methodology

In all its activities the Independent School for the City’s uses the methodological triad of Research, Stories, Strategies.

# RESEARCH
We believe that strategies for the city should be based on real, first-hand, empirical research. Empirical because the reality of the city offers interesting conflicts and unpredictable synergies to learn from and build upon. Through lectures by the best experts, precisely planned excursions through Rotterdam, mapping exercises and desk research, we can uncover the invisible layers of the city, look at sites through various lenses and collect the data needed to take a position vis-à-vis the city’s challenges. We look at the city as a palimpsest of different systems, ideas, infrastructures, policies and ideologies. Each time, we consider Rotterdam as a means to get a close-up view of global trends and networks.

# STORIES
To share our position on the city with others, in order to turn it into action, we need to construct a strong narrative. We use different formats and techniques, different languages and methods with which a story can be told. From the written manifesto to the exhibition, the political campaign to the utopian plan, the movie to the historical essay. We aim to discover how a narrative approach not only carries the message we want to share but will shape and influence it too. Through the stories we tell, we start to change the reality of our cities.

# STRATEGIES
The last step is to translate our insights and stories into strategies and concrete actions. Find a way to change the environment, to bring your story to the widest possible audience, to influence policies with your research, to make an actual physical thing or to start a process of transformation that involves as many people as possible. A precisely written and timed manifesto could have as much influence as a government funded masterplan; a tactical policy change can have as much impact on the shape of a street as an iconic piece of architecture. What is your end goal, and which kind of process, which strategy, would you choose to reach it?

ABOUT ROTTERDAM

Rotterdam is a young and dynamic port city, internationally renowned for its innovative drive, unpolished charm and its distinct character. A fascinating place to study because of its rich history of architecture and urban planning, and the varied transformations that are now occurring across its rapidly changing landscape. The Independent School for the City is strongly rooted within the city of Rotterdam and within more than a century of architectural and urban renewal at an international level, from Michiel Brinkmans' Justus van Effen block in Spangen via the Lijnbaan by Jo van den Broek and Jaap Bakema up to OMA’s De Rotterdam and MVRDV’s Markthal. To understand Rotterdam, it is important to recognise that it is not a city that excels through coherence, harmony or even the beauty of its architecture. It is special because of its experimental nature and the fact that things are being built here that can only happen elsewhere much later. This has to do with the concentration of architects in Rotterdam, but especially with the extraordinary challenges that Rotterdam has always posed to architects and urban planners.

The hustling and shocking history of the city, with the port as a lifeline and a jamming station at the same time, with the bombing during World War II and the radical reconstruction after the war, and with the city as an 'arrival city' for crowds of labour migrants from regions as exotic as Brabant and China, makes Rotterdam a habitat where innovation is the 'default position'. Due to the intensity of its changes and the sharpness of its contrasts, Rotterdam is a city where experimentation can and should be done. This makes it a breeding ground for innovation, not only for architects and urban planners, but also for sociologists, historians, visual artists, writers, economists and administrators.

Rotterdam is a city under the influence of globalization, migration, (super) diversity like no other. Climate change, refugee crises, crime and economic fluctuations are very direct and tangible in our city. The situation in the world can be read on every Rotterdam street. Knowing how to read, handle and even predict the effects of global trends at a local level is therefore an important innovation agenda for our school. This city is a confluence of the many quintessential case studies that students of the modern urban environment must consider and assess. Those that study the diverse built environment of Rotterdam will find a microcosm of some of the more challenging scenarios that will be applicable to cities worldwide in the coming decades. 

Rotterdam is also a "gateway". Through the port, the universities, the many architectural firms and the open, relatively affordable city space, new Rotterdammers are constantly being created, and the connecting lines with cities around the world are open. Rotterdam is a laboratory for the School. In Rotterdam, things can be researched, designed and developed that could be of interest to the rest of the world, because in Rotterdam we can find situations that are often related to cities in very different parts of the world. It is for these reasons that the Independent School for the City takes the city of Rotterdam, in all its complexity, as the point of departure for study, with the goal of stimulating and inspiring a new generation of urbanists to apply their creativity to finding new solutions for the city.

CONTACT

Independent School for the City
Delftsestraat 33 III
3013 AE Rotterdam
The Netherlands
+31 010 2827724

info@schoolforthecity.nl

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Chamber of Commerce (KVK) number: 77038436
RSIN number: 860880072
VAT (‘BTW’) number: NL860880072B01

ANNUAL OVERVIEW

Annual Overview 2023
(download link)

Annual Overview 2022
(download link)

Annual Overview 2021
(download link)

Annual Overview 2020
(download link)

Overview October 2018 – May 2020 (download link)

WHO WE ARE

The Independent School for the City is an initiative of Crimson Historians and Urbanists and ZUS and is rooted in their practices of combining a critical and activist approach to the city with effecting real change through architectural and planning projects. The School is run by a small organisation that works together with various experts from all over the world to enrich its programme. The Independent School has a board that consists of five members who perform unpaid and independent work. Find more about the people involved here

INDEPENDENT UNIVERSE ALUMNI NETWORK

Over the years more than 300 unique thinkers, do-ers and designers have participated in the activities of the Independent School for the City. Find out more about our alumni here

STATEMENTS

Opening of the Independent School for the City, 19 October 2018. Speech by dean-team member Michelle Provoost

Statement "Lets not always be nice" as read by our Dean Team members Michelle Provoost and Wouter Vanstiphout at our School Party on 24 June 2022. Red the full text here.

FLEXIBLE SPACE FOR RENT

The Independent School for the City is located in the heart of Rotterdam, just next to the Central Station. The School provides spaces for external parties to organize small-scale creative and corporate events such as brainstorming sessions, workshops and (book and film) presentations. The School’s auditorium can seat around 100 people and offers professional AV and catering options.

Events that have taken place recently:

• Housing Futures Weekend - Het Nieuwe Instituut
• Strategy session - PosadMaxwan
• American planning association Benelux Meetup
• Meeting Post-war reconstruction Community Rotterdam
• Final presentation Dutch Designs for a Cycling Country - Board of Government Advisors
• Seminar New Towns Heritage:  Exploring Boundaries
• Final presentation 500 Mile City - Global Housing Studio TU Delft
• Book presentation The New Craftschool - TU Delft
• Launch Independent School for the City
• International symposium “New Town Boom Town”

Interested in organizing an event and looking for a cool space with a great view? Send your email to info@schoolforthecity.nl