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Concept: Crimson Historians & Urbanists Editors: Annuska Pronkhorst, Michelle Provoost, Wouter Vanstiphout Graphic design: Ewout Dorman Contributors: Signe Sophie Bøggild, Massimo Bressan, Lena Knappers, Elke Krasny, Stephan Lanz, Annuska Pronkhorst, Michelle Provoost, Justinien Tribillon, Wouter Vanstiphout Translation and text editing: Cassandra Wilkins, Shannon Boekhorst, Nena Namysl Editorial assistant: Anne Erdl Printing: Tripiti, Rotterdam Publisher: nai010 publishers, Rotterdam Special thanks to: Francesco d’Alessio, Hugo Corbett, Lieke Droomers, Catja Edens, Nathalie van Hoeven, Han Joosten, Han Meyer, Ankie Petersen, Isabel Potworowski, Gilles Provoost, Eline Splinter, Laura Thomas, Grazia Tona and Desiree Uitzetter This publication was made possible by financial support from BPD, EFL Foundation and Creative Industries Fund NL
Although every effort was made to find the copyright holders for the illustrations used, it has not been possible to trace them all. Interested parties are requested to contact nai010 publishers, Korte Hoogstraat 31, 3011 GK Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
cover image: Allegorical panorama of the City of Comings and Goings by Crimson Historians & Urbanists in collaboration with Hugo Corbett, made for the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2018.
nai010 publishers is an internationally orientated publisher specialised in developing, producing and distributing books in the fields of architecture, urbanism, art and design. www.nai010.com nai010 books are available internationally at selected bookstores and from the following distribution partners: North, Central and South America Artbook | D.A.P., New York, USA, dap@dapinc.com Rest of the world - Idea Books, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, idea@ideabooks.nl For general questions, please contact nai010 publishers directly at sales@nai010.com or visit our website www.nai010.com for further information. Printed and bound in the Netherlands
ISBN 978-94-6208-493-3 NUR 648 BISAC SOC007000
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© 2019 CRIMSON/nai010 publishers, Rotterdam. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For works of visual artists affiliated with a CISAC-organisation the copyrights have been settled with Pictoright in Amsterdam. © 2019, c/o Pictoright Amsterdam EFL STICHTING
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Signe Sophie Bøggild Art historian educated at the University of Copenhagen and Goldsmiths, University of London with studies at the University of Roskilde and Paris 8 VincennesSaint-Denis. Works as program curator and editor at Copenhagen Architecture Festival and does research, lectures, publishes and curates on architecture and urbanism in relationship to the welfare state in Denmark and abroad. Previous work and research experience include a project on Green Heritage and the Welfare City at Landscape Architecture and Planning, University of Copenhagen and New Towns on the Cold War Frontier with Crimson Historians & Urbanists. Visiting scholar at the Danish Institute in Rome and Athens. External censor at the architecture schools in Copenhagen and Aarhus. Massimo Bressan Massimo Bressan is an cultural anthropologist, partner of IRIS Ricerche, a private company active in social, territorial and economic research and planning based in Prato (Italy), and one of the founding members of the Italian Society for Applied Anthropology. With IRIS he works on several projects of social and economic impact evaluation of public investments programs in European Regions and Cities, combining field and desk research. His research specialization includes urban and migration studies. In this field he has co-edited the book ‘Chinese migration to Europe. Prato, Italy, and Beyond’ (2015), and co-authored a chapter of the book of Elizabeth Krause ‘Tight Knit: Global Families and the Social Life of Fast Fashion’ (2018), with Krause they recently published the article ‘Circulating Children, Underwriting Capitalism: Chinese Global Households and Italian Fast-Fashion’ (2018). Lena Knappers Lena Knappers graduated in 2017 from the Urbanism department at the Delft University of Technology. She currently works at the Chief Government Architect in The Hague and on a research- and design project supported by a talent development grant from the Creative Industries Fund NL. The rationale of this project is to connect ethnography and migration studies as a frame to analyse and understand complex phenomena brought to bear by global mobility, with
urbanism as a tool to offer spatial interventions, to interfere with spatial design. For the cities Athens, Brussels and Amsterdam, Knappers makes a comparative analysis and designs a number of interventions. Elke Krasny Elke Krasny, PhD, professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Her scholarship focuses on critical practices in architecture, urbanism, and art addressing ecology, economy, labor, memory, and feminisms. Her exhibition Hands-on Urbanism. The Right to Green was shown at the 2012 Venice Biennale of Architecture. Edited volumes include Critical Care. Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet with Angelika Fitz (MIT Press), and In Reserve! The Household with Regina Bittner (Spector Books). Recent essays include ‘Citizenship and the Museum: On Feminist Acts’ (2017), and ‘Divided We Share: On the Ethics and Politics of Public Space’ (2019). Stephan Lanz Stephan Lanz, Dr. phil., is an urbanist, urban planner, author and curator based in Berlin. Trained in geography, urban planning as well as sociology, Stephan Lanz lectures in Urban Studies at the Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Germany since 2001. His main research interests are urban governance, migration and urban development, urban cultures and urban movements. In the last years, Stephan Lanz was conducting research in Berlin, Istanbul and Rio de Janeiro. In addition, he is a founding member of metroZones – Center for Urban Affairs, an independent association for critical urban research that brings together different approaches in knowledge production, cultural practice and political intervention at the interface of art, academia and politics. Prior to his work as a researcher, Stephan Lanz worked as an urban planner and was involved in the project ‘social city’, a neighbourhood management project in Hannover-Vahrenheide, a large housing estate from the seventies. Annuska Pronkhorst Annuska Pronkhorst is an architectural historian and in 2004 became partner of Crimson Historians & Urbanists. With Crimson she works on several
projects in the field of urban planning and architecture, combining historical research, urban strategy and project development. In 2007-2013 she worked as Program Manager for Hofbogen BV and was responsible for the physical and conceptual redevelopment of a nineteenth century elevated train line running through the centre of Rotterdam and connecting it to its outskirts. In 2018 she became member of Amsterdam Committee for Spatial Quality. The committee advises the municipality of Amsterdam on the integral quality of the physical environment: urban planning, public space, cultural history and monuments. Michelle Provoost Michelle Provoost is an architectural historian, researcher and writer specialised in twentieth century modernist architecture and urban planning. She is founding partner of Crimson Historians & Urbanists and the Independent School for the City, and director of the International New Town Institute. Justinien Tribillon Justinien is an urbanist, writer and editor based in London and Paris. A researcher at Theatrum Mundi, he is editor and a co-founder of Migrant Journal and he also writes for publications such as Failed States and MONU, he is a regular contributor to The Guardian. Justinien is a teacher and PhD candidate at The Bartlett, University College London where he researches the divide Paris/Banlieue. He is trained in political science and urban studies at Sciences Po and the London School of Economics. Wouter Vanstiphout Wouter Vanstiphout is an architectural historian, researcher and has written extensively on urbanism and spatial politics. He is founding partner of Crimson Historians & Urbanists and the Independent School for the City. He holds the chair Design & Politics at the TU Delft, which is exploring, researching and defining the boundaries, commonalities and tensions between the fields of politics and design.
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Content 10: Introduction Michelle Provoost / Wouter Vanstiphout 58: London, United Kingdom Justinien Tribillon 110: Prato, Italy Massimo Bressan 142: Berlin, Germany Stephan Lanz 176: Amsterdam, The Netherlands Lena Knappers / Annuska Pronkhorst 9
216: Aarhus, Denmark Signe Sophie Bøggild 258: Vienna, Austria Elke Krasny 287: The Catalogue: How are we doing so far?
Introduc 10
In this book, we want to look at the effects of migration on contemporary European cities, viewed as a fundamental phenomenon. Fundamental, because migration has shaped and helped develop cities from the beginning of time. Refugees and fortune seekers, artists and workers, poor and rich travellers, they have always created cities, influenced culture and shaped their economy; whether it is Swedish and German farmers trying their luck in Denmark a century ago, Italian and Turkish workers attracted by the Amsterdam harbour in the 1960s, or Bosnians fleeing to Germany in the 1990s. Apart from the obvious positive effects on our economies and the migrants fortunes, migration has also caused tension and even upheaval; it has contributed to inequality and exploitation and has caused political and social polarisation. Even if we just look at the last century, migration to and across Europe has always been a basic ingredient of urban economy, culture, daily life and political debate. It is not fundamentally more important now, in our own era, than in the past, despite how it might come across in the heated public debate of recent years, since the ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015.
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Since 2015, the debate has centred around the policies regarding refugees from the Middle East and Africa. These migrants are usually considered to be a completely different group from other types of migrants in Europe, who are seen as a heterogeneous group with a series of highly distinct categories: migrant workers, expats, children of political refugees and thirdgeneration immigrants. The newcomers are subject to different policies, regulations, views, investigations and political opinions. Looked at closely, they are a group with specific needs and characteristics which make them stand out from other travellers, and who are in demand of policies and political decision making that others do not. However, considered from a historic standpoint, or from the day to day practicalities
of having to absorb classes of new citizens under the condition of mutual ignorance of cultural values and economic opportunities, even the African and Middle Eastern migrants are not so different from the migrant groups that have been arriving in our cities for centuries now. Maybe the differences are actually exacerbated through the way we try to absorb and repel them. That is why we propose to zoom out of space and time in this book, and view migration as a general phenomenon as to bring into view the similarities and shared needs of migrant groups instead of their obvious differences. Viewed separately, their problems are driving us apart and, moreover, can rarely be adequately solved. Looked at in the context of migration as a fundamental part of our cities opportunities and challenges, perhaps we can come up with more pragmatic approaches. Looking at the future and the developments in the world around us, there is no reason to think that the influx of migrants to Europe will decrease. The combination of the effects of climate change with those of extreme population growth in Africa – where the population is forecasted to increase in fourfold from 1.1 billion to more than 4 billion – creates an almost unimaginable future for migration.1 In 2014 alone, 60 million people were forced to leave their homes or were otherwise affected by the effects of climate change.2 Forecasts for the number of climate refugees in the year 2050 are 200 million on average, while they reach up to one billion in some scenarios.3 Like war refugees, the majority of climate refugees and the millions of Africans who move to other cities will do so within their own region.4 But even if just one per cent of the new African generations moves to Europe, this
1] According to the United Nations Populations Division, www. un.org/en/development/desa/population/index.asp. 2] news.un.org/en/story/2019/01/1031182. 3] unu.edu/media-relations/media-coverage/climate-migrantsmight-reach-one-billion-by-2050.html. 4] In late 2015, the EU launched the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, a two-billion-euro aid programme aimed at securing African countries’ cooperation in tackling irregular migration, with Niger as the first country to be actively involved, www. thenewhumanitarian.org/special-report/2017/02/02/eu-strategystems-migrant-flow-niger-what-cost.
will mean some 30 million migrants, whereas there are currently only around 5 million Africans in the EU. 5 Solving hunger and disease might stop regional migration in frequent stricken areas, but it would have little effect on migration to Europe since it is not the poorest or most acutely deprived that leave for our shores, but those whose families can come up with the capital necessary to undertake the journey. Of course, war and fear of prosecution are important drivers for refugees, but only for a small part of the mass of travellers. In most cases, economic migration is caused by a positive choice to make a better life for oneself. In that very basic human self-emancipatory choice, migrants of all ranks, from all economic and legal positions and ethnic and cultural backgrounds, are the same. Pity for one group, fear of another, and desire for the next should not be our default position. Pragmatism to all would be wiser. In the discussion on migration in Western Europe, two polarised positions exist. Vocal advocates for open borders and of the myriad advantages of migration to our shores never cease to point out that we have always absorbed foreigners and that the recent numbers of labour migrants and refugees are relatively normal, low even compared to other ages and centuries. On the other hand, the opponents of a liberal migration policy point at the stress placed on our societies, welfare systems, cultural values and legal systems. The advocates point to the inevitable internationalization of our society, to the fact that we ourselves are free to roam the world at will, and they highlight that our current economy would collapse without the inflow of migrant workers. The opponents then commiserate with the native inhabitants of neighbourhoods that have become predominantly foreign, where native shops have been replaced by shops from the Middle East, Africa or Asia, which make the natives feel less and less ‘at home’ in their own streets. But in fact, the pro- and anti-migration voices are speaking about something entirely different; they are 5] According to the International Organization for Migration, www.iom.int.
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Push factors for immigration: Climate Change, Conflicts, Poverty, Demographic Growth
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The Catalogue: How are we doing so far?
The examples are loosely organised in the categories of housing, working, education, public space and integration.
ROBUSTNESS, SHARED SPACE AND EMANCIPATION We have scored a diverse list of projects, policies and businesses using three criteria: Robustness, Shared Space and Emancipation. These are three qualities that we believe best serve the City of Comings and Goings. R = Robustness Buildings, public spaces and even non-spatial programmes should be durable and strong, not temporary or ephemeral. Their sense of permanency should be accompanied by a sense of ambition and pride that reflects the principled acceptance of movement as a fundamental dimension of urbanity, not as a temporary crisis to be addressed with emergency measures. Pride and durability can be reflected in materials, in ornamentation, in monumentality but also in long term investment models or in the way that projects and programmes are legislatively embedded. S = Shared Space The featured projects should help different groups of migrants meet each other but also the citizens that are already there. There are different degrees of publicness on which this can happen, from programs and spaces aimed at a coalition between two different groups whose interests overlap on one or more areas of interest, to public spaces in the classic sense, open and accessible to all groups. Sharing is not just dependent on what happens within the space or the project, but also on where the project is located, on the margins of the city, cut off from the economic and social opportunities of the city or on the crossroads of the citizens
daily trajectories, making them easily findable and readily accessible. E = Emancipation Lastly the projects in the catalogue are examined for their emancipatory potential. By emancipation we mean possibilities to add to your skills and knowledge through education, to strengthen your economic position by finding jobs or setting up your business, to assert the many rights given to you by the complex system of the liberal welfare state or to make your voice heard and your presence felt through participation. Mere charity or emergency aid is not enough to earn the distinction of being emancipatory. Neither do projects that merely add luxury and efficiency to the lives of affluent but time-starved migrants. Only if projects contain tools for upward mobility, can they contribute to the ultimate goal of the city of comings and goings, which is becoming an emancipation machine for migrants.
287 A City of Comings and Goings – The Catalogue
The 100 projects presented here form a selection from a catalogue of projects, gathered in six Western European countries: Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. They are not chosen because they are the best and should therefore be copied. We have selected them to understand how architects, planners, entrepreneurs and policy-makers are dealing with the issue of migration. Each of them rises to the specific challenge of how to make urban places for a population on the move. Some are inspiring because of their inventiveness, others for the sheer scale of their ambition and idealism and then there are projects that demonstrate the complexities of building for ‘coming and going’, despite their shortcomings. We have focused on cities of degrees of importance in six western European countries with varying track records regarding the welfare state, diversity and migration. The contexts of the cities and the countries should not be discounted from evaluating the projects, yet we believe that all of the chosen examples have something to teach other countries and cities, even outside of Western Europe.
TYPE OF PROJECT
SIZE OF THE PROJECT
housing
small
working
medium
education
big
public space
DURATION OF THE PROJECT
288 A City of Comings and Goings – The Catalogue
integration
permanent temporary
TYPE OF MIGRANT international student
TYPE OF INTERVENTION
expat
new construction
digital nomad
conversion
EU worker refugee
TYPE OF INITIATIVE private
illegal public other
DETAILS RSE
R S E
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number of units
robustness shared space emancipation
length of stay min – max / d (day-s) / w (week-s) / m (month-s) / y (year-s)
2016 – Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Stichting Nieuw Thuis
housing, education and training for refugee families
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R S E
Rotterdam is expected to accommodate around 2,200 refugees by the beginning of 2018 and provide them with a residence permit and a temporary home. Among these refugees, Syrians represent the largest ethnic group. To address this challenge, Stichting Nieuw Thuis (SNTR) programme was established to house 200 Syrian families. The focus on a specific ethnic group will make it easier to create a specific programme because of the common language. SNTR is responsible for acquiring proprieties in Rotterdam (made possible by charity organisation De Verre Bergen) and selling them for rent to the Syrian families. The rent
will be used by SNTR to cover the costs of services provided for those families including language courses, volunteering activities, training, intensive support and information about basic services such as healthcare and education. Client: De Verre Bergen Website: www.sntr.nl
2005 – London, United Kingdom
Pocket Living micro housing units
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R S E
Pocket Living’s compact one-bedroom housing units all across London aim to help middle-income young workers afford buying their first house in London. The units are at least 20 per cent cheaper than other homes in the surrounding areas. Pocket homes are based on a strict design code that uses minimal space as efficiently as possible. The initiative operates on a financial model that secures small affordable sites in the most expensive areas of the city, and builds units in a way that maximizes the profit for investors. In this way, costs are controlled, and residents can live in central locations.
For every housing unit complex a different designer is selected. The micro houses project has been criticised for not being affordable at all, it is merely seen as an easy investment for foreign buyers. Developer: Pocket Living Website: www.pocketliving.com
The European city would be nothing without the constant coming and going of its inhabitants, whether they be refugees, tourists, guest workers, expats or digital nomads. The ebb and flow of migrants, sometimes staying for generations, sometimes a mere couple of days, has a profound effect on how we perceive, administrate and design our cities. Sometimes doing our best to draw people in, sometimes struggling to keep them out, sometimes celebrating the presence of our visitors, sometimes denying their right to even be here. In this book, Crimson brings together a cast of European cities that are marked by migration, represented through compelling essays by local scholars. These cities are also the source of a Catalogue of one hundred projects that tackle the issue of migration in many different ways and on different scales. The essays, the Catalogue of projects and Crimson’s manifestolike introductory essay, make for a book that demonstrates how planning and architectural design can play a crucial role in making the Western European city into a resilient and exciting City of Comings and Goings. 410
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