- Independent School for the City. Research, Stories, Strategies.-

A long cherished dream is finally coming true! Crimson Architectural Historians and ZUS (zones urbaines sensibles) have joined forces and would like to present: the Independent School for the City!

The Independent School for the City is a brand new one-year educational program for post-graduate students from all over the world (in the field of design, planning, sociology, history et cetera) and will have its epicentre in the heart of Rotterdam, in the development area Central District. The school is rooted in Crimson's and ZUS' practice of combining a critical, activist approach to the city with effecting real change through architectural and planning projects. Blurring the line between critique and practice, research and policy and a strong belief in an incremental instead of a tabula rasa approach to city planning is what ZUS and Crimson have in common.

The full curriculum of the Independent School for the City will be launched in September 2019. It builds on the belief that strategies for the city - architectural and economic, spatial and social - should be based on real, first hand, empirical research into the city. Research that can be expressed in stories: sad and happy stories that ring true, told visually and through text. We invite sociologists, architects, historians and whoever would feel comfortable with the job description 'urbanist' to take part in a one-year course, starting at our home base in Delftsestraat in Rotterdam, then fanning out to the corners of the globe, and returning to Rotterdam for the finishing up and presentation of the individually crafted projects. These projects can emphasize either the research, the storytelling or the strategic side of the program, depending on the ambition of the student.

The unaccredited status of the Independent School will offer the students and their international teachers the full academic freedom and flexibility to not only research the City in the broadest sense, but also design and develop strategies for it. Research methods will involve film making, journalism, history, art, graphic design, serious gaming, fieldwork, travelling, planning, finance and architecture.

Want to find out more? Please feel free to contact us via: info@schoolforthecity.nl

Independent School for the City:
Delftsestraat 33, 3rd Floor
3013 AE Rotterdam
The Netherlands
+31.10.2827724

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