1.1 Background

To understand the origins of the masterclass, it is important to understand the origins of the Stadmakerscongres. The annual congress held every year in Rotterdam has its roots in a tradition of urban discourse that dates back as early as 1982. It echoes a practice of inviting an external perspective to critically reflect on the Rotterdam’s urban development. Rotterdam is proudly international; it is home to a variety of nationalities, and it houses the largest international port in Europe. This international status opens the city to a series of development goals that could benefit from the perspective of an outsider; enter Toni L. Griffin, an American who has been championing for more diverse and inclusive city development.

On 10 November 2017, Toni L. Griffin, an urban planner, Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the founder of Urban Planning for the American City, spoke at the annual Stadmakerscongres held in Rotterdam on the invitation of the Architecture Initiative Rotterdam (AIR) and the Van der Leeuwkring and the Municipality of Rotterdam. She joined the congress speaking from the perspective of a guest critic, reflecting on the state of urban development in the city of Rotterdam. The goal of the congress is to find new ways to develop the city and learn from various ‘gamechangers’ to scale-up the impact of a project. Guest critics in the past like Uli Hellweg (Director of the International Building Exhibition Hamburg), Alexandros Washburn (Head of Urban Planning, City of New York) and Henk Ovink (Special Envoy for International Water Affairs) have spoken about the city as an experimental environment and the need for resilient cities.

The congress typically features a wide range of participants including the municipality, developers, housing corporations, design agencies and multiple interest groups who get together to support communityled bottom-up initiatives to improve urban resilience in the city. The Stadmakerscongres supports knowledge sharing, innovation and networking through various city labs to enrich Rotterdam’s development agenda. This agenda has a series of goals that relates to spatial development of the city and changing socio-economic conditions, climate adaptation, creating diverse spaces and preventing urban sprawl. Griffin joined the congress to reflect on this agenda and emphasize the need for urban justice and the idea of a just city. She called on the community and stakeholders to determine the needs of the city to realise the ideal version of itself. While her lecture inspired and intrigued the audience, it also opened questions on the practical use of the Just City Index and how it could be used by interested stakeholders. This interest kept the door open for future collaboration with designers and professionals in the city. The Veldacademie became the backdrop for a workshop to test the model in Rotterdam.

“… the key to achieving a just city is by bringing together diverse communities and finding a horizon of commonality […] in this model I am asking each city to determine what it needs to do to become a just city. Because Rotterdam is not Amsterdam, it is not Paris, it is not Houston and it is not Gary Indiana. So as a community you need to determine the values that are important to you.”

Toni L. Griffin, Stadmakerscongres 2017

The Veldacademie is a research organisation that seeks to improve transdisciplinary research on city development through collaboration with different educational organisations. In June 2018, on the invitation of the Veldacademie and AIR, Griffin returned to Rotterdam to lead a week-long masterclass titled, ‘Design for a Just City’. The workshop provided a

framework and knowledge to show how design can be used as a means to achieve values of social justice

This publication hopes to capture a small fragment of the intensity and frenzy that took place during the week of 18 – 22 June 2018 in the written word. It has a dual purpose, as a chronicle of the masterclass and as a blueprint for other academics and professionals involved in the development of cities and public spaces to replicate such a workshop.