Course Programme

WK 1-3 / 6 FEB - 24 FEB 2023
LEARNING FROM ROTTERDAM
During the first weeks, participants will be introduced to the School and to the city of Rotterdam. Through expeditions and lectures, look at the city from various perspectives and become familiar with different disciplines and crafts. You will explore the physical but also the invisible realities of the urban landscape while meeting different professionals within the network of the School, whose diverse backgrounds, works, experience and opinions will sharpen your own thinking. In these first weeks you will be learning from Rotterdam while critically reflecting on the trends and developments that influence the city, while developing the first ideas of your own project.

WK 4-5 / 27 FEB - 10 MAR 2023
THEMATIC BLOCK #1 SUPERDIVERSITY - LIVING ON THE SOUTH SIDE
Because of the port and its connection with the rest of the globe, Rotterdam has always attracted people from all over the world. Nowadays over 170 different nationalities call the city their home. The population has become so diverse that Rotterdam has become part of a worldwide family of Majority-Minority cities – meaning that more than half of the population has a migration background. And, not just the number of nationalities has increased: as generations pass, also the diversity within the different migrant groups has become increasingly complex and as anthropologist call it: Superdiverse. 

In these two weeks, we will develop an alternative plan for the mega-sized urban development, Feyenoord City, which is located next to Rotterdam's most diverse neighbourhoods. We will go on the streets to observe and ask people for their ideas and wishes for this part of the city. We will study the history of the location and see if it will give us inspiration for a grand redesign. Combined with our own ideas, dreams and knowledge about our favourite places, we will work on an urban strategy to turn this part of the city into a real City of Comings and Goings.

This block is also offered as a stand-alone course. More info here

WK 6 / 13 MAR – 17 MAR 2023
NO EDUCATION 

WK7- 8 / 20 MAR– 31 MAR 2023
THEMATIC BLOCK #2: THE 2,5° CITY: LIFE IN AN EXTREME CLIMATE
During this thematic block, we’ll dive into the Anthropocene – the geological era marking the dominant human impact on the Earth systems. Just as many cities around the world, Rotterdam has the ambition to become green, sustainable and resilient. All around the city we see projects being developed to transform this car-dominated city, into an attractive and green environment for all its inhabitants, while simultaneously aiming to increase awareness about climate change and sea-level rise. But is it enough?

In these two weeks we will map out the predicted effects of a 2°C - 3°C temperature rise on the Netherlands, on the City of Rotterdam and on a number of very specific places in the city. After exploring these effects, we will then use our collective knowledge and that of our guest speakers and scientific literature, to imagine how we can mitigate the negative effects of global climate change and what is needed to make life livable in a city that suffers its consequences.

This block is also offered as a stand-alone course. More info here

WK 9 - 11 / 03 April – 21 April 2023
POSITION AND STRATEGISE
During these weeks, you will take the step from research and observations, to further developing your own project. Time to organise your thoughts and reflect on the ideas and stories that emerged during the previous weeks. Which conflicts did you discovered? What issue or problem do you want to engage with? What position do you want to take as an urban professional? And how do you see the future of the city? We ask you to strengthen your position and to identify what strategy is needed to reach your ultimate goal: you can write an article, make a short movie, design an object or a campaign, plan a landscape or plan a revolution. As long as it is in line with your position and puts your research results to the best use.

WK 12/ 24 April – 28 April 2023
FINALISE AND PRESENT
Time to show your work to the world! The Independent School will organise a final collective event around the opening of the exhibition and invite the leaders of the City to see what has been produced and to react to it. We’ll show Rotterdam what we’ve got and finish this intensive programme with a bang!

METHODOLOGY

The course will use the Independent School for the City’s methodological triad of Research, Stories,  Strategies Action!

#RESEARCH
Through lectures by the best experts, precisely planned excursions through Rotterdam and mapping exercises, we will 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 will look at the city as a palimpsest of different systems, ideas, infrastructures, policies and ideologies. Each time, we 'll 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. That is the subject of the second week dedicated to each theme. Lectures and workshops will be held on the different formats and techniques, the 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 will 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 next step is to translate your insights and stories into an urban strategy. Working on the city is not value-free and can only be done together with others. We challenge participants to take a clear position and to actively relate to the city. In order to realize ambitions, partners and money are needed, politicians and local residents have to be included, or activism is necessary. Within a development strategy we describe the steps necessary to achieve our goals.

#ACTION
The last step is to design a concrete action. We have a broad view of what action is. It can be a drawing or a precisely written and timed manifesto. A poster campaign or government-funded master plan; the construction of a prototype or a tactical policy change. An active group of residents can sometimes have just as much impact on the shape of a street as an iconic piece of architecture. With an action we take the first step in the implementation of a strategy and we try to land our ideas in the 'real world'. The programme will conclude with an exhibition and a conversation with researchers, planners and politicians who have been entrusted with Rotterdam’s future.