Author: Anne de Man

Ethan Kent

Ethan Kent works at PPS, supporting placemaking organisations, projects, and leadership around the world for a global placemaking movement to build systemic change towards place-led urbanisation.

During the almost twenty years at PPS – founded by his father – he travelled to more than 800 cities and 55 countries to promote and advance the cause of Placemaking and public spaces. He has worked on over 200 PPS projects and led a broad spectrum of placemaking efforts. Utilising his broad experience and knowledge, Kent creates and conducts placemaking training courses for professionals of various disciplines, from city planning staff in Vancouver, to public housing developers in Sweden.

Kent wants to institutionalise placemaking in cities, and therefore initiated and led local Placemaking Partnerships and Campaigns with public, private and non-profit leaders. He has applied his strategy in many cities including Chicago, San Antonio, Seattle, San Francisco, Flint, MI, Mexico City, Quito, Nairobi, Adelaide, and Mississauga.

This approach has had the most tangible effect in New York City where Ethan co-founded the NYC Streets Renaissance Campaign. The campaign and its projects led to a significant shift in NYC transportation policy including a Public Plaza Program, managed by former PPS staff, that is reclaiming street space for dynamic new public spaces throughout the city.

Ethan also forges major partnerships to advance public spaces and Placemaking, including leading the creation of the “Heart of the Community” program with Southwest Airlines,

He is a Senior Fellow with the Insitute for Place Management.

Ethan Kent will speak about his experiences at the conference Co-Creating the City on Thursday 21 June.

Ger Baron

Ger Baron is the first Chief Technology Officer of Amsterdam. In this capacity, he’s responsible for innovation in the city. He has to make sure new technologies are used in a smart way to resolve problems, such as mobility, connectivity or issues concerning the nuisance caused by parked bikes. In some cases, rules need to be changed and in all cases, it is important for stakeholders to meet.

Ger Baron will share his experiences at the conference Together – Strategies on How to Make the City of Tomorrow on Wednesday 20 June.

Everyone Healthy in the City

The urban environment has a significant impact on the physical well-being of its inhabitants. Living in a small space with a lot of people puts a lot of pressure on hygiene, air quality, open spaces, nature, and opportunities for exercise.

How can we convince people to eat healthily and exercise in the urban environment?

Also, there seems to be a strong connection between aspects of education, income and cultural background on the one hand and health on the other. Looking at postal codes, we can see big differences in health in different area’s. It’s a growing concern in our growing cities.

Measuring the exact impact is a complex task, and it raises several issues. We will look at these issues from different points of view at the conference Everyone Healthy in the City: how can we both understand and diminish the differences in physical well-being? How can we convince people to eat healthily and exercise in the urban environment? How can we decrease loneliness in Amsterdam neighbourhoods? And what are the implications of the advancing digital fabrication – making it possible to fabricate your own products – on the self-sufficiency of patients and their environment?

The conference Everyone Healthy in the City will take place on Thursday 21 June and is co-hosted by AMC, GGD, AHTI, Amsterdam Economic Board, Waag en de Gemeente Amsterdam.

SEEYOU@ART Presents: SEEYOU@ART Preview

Saturday, June 23 is the day: SEEYOU@ART will bring the passage at De Hallen – near Gallery ‘Beeldend gesproken’ to life with an exhibition of visual art, bodypainting, textile art, workshops and exciting art objects to stimulate all of your senses.

You are all invited to discover, discuss and create art, together. Apart from looking at art you can join workshops, play the djembé, collaborate on art or be part of a proper parade. And that’s not all: this whole edition is about experiencing things – that’s why the theme is FEEL.

SEEYOU@ART is aimed at both young and old – it starts at 2 pm and the admission is free for all.

Natalie Camilleri

Natalie Camilleri is the Director of Strategic Planning Projects at the Greater Sydney Commission, which is leading metropolitan planning to make Greater Sidney more productive, sustainable and liveable. Camilleri’s primary project is resetting the vision for Greater Parramatta and the Olympic Peninsula, forging new kinds of collaboration between government, industry and the community. 

Camilleri has worked in many manners on the integration of land use, design, and infrastructure in Sydney. She has worked for several agencies, such as Sydney Water, Transport for NSW, the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning and Landcom. In 2010 she published her book “The Creative City – Reality or Rhetoric?’.

Natalie Camilleri will speak at the conference Up Close and Liveable on Friday, June 22.

Kristiaan Borret

Kristiaan Borret is an urban designer and teaches Architecture and Design at different Belgian universities. Until 2014 he was Antwerp’s Government Architect. He participated in interdisciplinary research on contemporary transformations of the city and public space and contributed to various urban design projects in Belgium, Netherlands, and France. He is the supervisor Oostenburg for the City of Amsterdam

After his studies, he worked as an urban designer for the project team Urban Design at the KU Leuven. Since 1996 he’s part of the department Architecture and Urban Design of the Ghent University and in 2005 he started teaching at the UGent and joined the Ghent Urban Studies Team. He was the Head of Department Spatial Planning at Technum and became Antwerp’s Government Architect in 2006.

He was awarded the biennial Award by the Flemish Community for Architecture and Design.

Borret is dean of the Faculty Design Sciences at the University of Antwerp and board member of the Flemish Architectural Institute and architecture magazine A+. Hij publishes in journals on a regular basis and is the co-author of, among others, ‘Homeward. Contemporary Architecture in Flanders’ (1998) and ‘The Urban Condition: Space, Community, and Self in the Contemporary Metropolis’ (1999).

He is a member of the International Scientific Committee of Europan and of the Cercle de Qualité for the project of Ile de Nantes (France).

Kristiaan Borret is a speaker at the conference Up Close and Liveable on Friday, 22 June.

Visit A Lab, a Living City Lab

During WeMakeThe.City, A Lab will be buzzing with activities, organised by its members. On Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 June, you can visit a theatre or dance performance at the former Shell lab, have a look at the Vertical Farm and taste some new types of lettuce, or get inspired by music lessons!

A Lab is a living lab, fusing the power of the Amsterdam creative scene, technological talent, and an unconventional spirit in a 5000 square meter hotbed for extraordinary experiments. We accommodate creatives and technicians and stimulate labs which are researching new ways of living in the network society of the near future. We develop ideas and enterprises and value failure as much as we do success.

Our strength lies in our communities, our inspiration is drawn from our location, our programmes are our success. You can hire a desk, an office or an inspirational space. As a member of A Lab, you have access to an active community and all of our events. In our physical and virtual labs, we unite the ecosystems that can change our world. To name a few: Bio, Art & Cultures, Journalism, Music, Social Robotics, Blockchain & Visual. 

WeMakeThe.City in North

On the other side of the river IJ lies North Amsterdam, the many-faced city district where history can be found everywhere. Tolhuistuin (garden to the toll house) for instance reminds us of the toll people had to pay here until the 17th century. And many of the ship wharves built in the 19th century are still here – every festivalgoer has partied at least once the NDSM-wharf. In the 20th century, the district was home to heavy industry; landmark A’DAM used to be the headquarters of oil company Shell.

As diverse as its past is its present: developments are taking place in many different ways. WeMakeThe. City will show you how and where. You can go on an expedition with one of the Noordmakers (makers of North): people who are making the district more beautiful, liveable and better. They will show you hidden places on an adventurous trip.

If you’d rather go on your own, you can start at the NDSM wharf and have a look at the art installation by Atelier van Lieshout – it is a tribute to the earlier mentioned industries. Next stop might be vanPlestik where plastic waste is turned into raw material for a 3D printer. You can end on a bright note at Brewery Oedipus, which offers you no less than 12 different beers from draught in their tasting room.

Are you a fan of photography? Try Docking Station, North Amsterdam’s smallest workspace; troubadours will tell you the stories behind the beautiful pictures. You can find more photo’s at A Lab, at the exhibition Buurtbanden ( neighbourhood ties) on the relationships between locals in the district. Don’t leave in a hurry as the former Shell laboratory offers theatre and dance performances, you can taste new types of lettuce at the Vertical Farm or take music lessons to get inspired. And everyone should come and celebrate De Ceuvel’s birthday – it will be a star-spangled party.

Karl-Filip Coenegrachts

Smart City Innovation Accelerator Karl-Filip Coenegrachts is responsible for the long-term strategy of Ghent smart city strategy, data and information management, and future urban strategies for Ghent Group.

He specialised in European Law and subsequently worked for the Federal Ministry of Justice as coordinator for the European Union, the UN and Schengen in the field of criminal legislation and home affairs. In 2001, he chose a career in local government, in Ghent as a political advisor to the Deputy Mayor responsible for personnel and IT. He co-founded Digipolis which uses ICT to improve living and working conditions in the city, and Gentinfo , the first local government civil service center in Europe.

As head of the Department of Strategy, Co-ordination and International Relations of the City of Ghent and Chief Strategy Officer in 2015 he is responsible for the long-term strategy of Ghent smart city strategy, data and information management, and future urban strategies for Ghent Group (local government and government agencies in Ghent). He has a special interest in urban trend watching and foresight and founded the City of People concept.
He is currently expert on the Board of Directors of Digipolis, Ghent representative in the Executive Committee of Eurocities, and Member of the Board of the Knowledge Centre Flemish Cities.

Karl-Filip Coenegrachts will talk about his experiences at the conference Co-Creating the City on Thursday 21 June.

Levente Polyák

Levente Polyák is an urban planner, researcher, and policy adviser. He is also the co-founder of Eutropian, an organisation helping civic involvement in urban transformation processes. For example, Eutropian organises workshops in Collaborative Planning, in which they share their know-how about transforming the city together with different stakeholders.

Polyák is specialised in bringing together urban regeneration and community participation. He also researched new organisational and economic models of community-led urban development projects.

Levente Polyák will speak about his experiences at the conference Co-Creating the City on Thursday 21 June.

Gabriella Gómez-Mont

Gabriella Gómez-Mont is the founder of Laboratorio para la Ciudad, the experimental arm and creative think tank of the Mexico City government, reporting to the Mayor. The Lab creates links between civil society and government, accommodating multidisciplinary collaborations. As the head of the lab, Gómez-Mont is experimenting with unusual solutions to difficult issues.  It crowdsourced the first citywide bus map via a lab-built app. The lab also built a digital discussion-and-debate platform – the city used it for communicating with citizens after anti-Uber protests turned violent last summer, but it can be adapted for any other topic. The lab’s team includes artists, graphic designers, policy experts, social scientists, data analysts, architects, an urban geographer, and experts in civic tech and AI.

Gabriella is also a journalist, visual artist, director of documentary films, and creative advisor to several cities, universities, and companies. She has been awarded several international recognitions such as the first prize in the Audi Urban Future Award, and the TED City 2.0 Prize. She is a Yale World Fellow, TED speaker, TED Senior Fellow, an MIT Director’s Fellow, an Institute for the Future Fellow, a World Cities Summit Young Leader and part of the international advisory committee for the Mayor of Seoul on Social Innovation. She was recently named one of the 100 most creative people by Fast Company magazine.

Anni Sinnemäki

Anni Sinnemäki is deputy mayor of Helsinki, being responsible for real estate and city planning. From 2017 onwards she’s the deputy mayor for Urban Environment. She pushes for public transport; in 2020 an autonomous bus line will be piloted as part of the FABULOS project which focuses on how cities can use self-driving minibusses in a systemic way, which should stimulate people swapping their cars for public transport.

Anni Sinnemäki was elected to the Finnish parliament in 1999 and was the Minister for Labour from 2009 to 2011. In 2009 she was also chosen to be the chairwoman of the Green League. She as also been a member of the city council of Helsinki since 2004. She studied Russian literature, wrote two collections of poetry and lyrics for the band Ultra Bra. Her biggest political disappointment is the decision on nuclear power in 2002.

Sinnemäki is one of the speakers at Co-Creating the City on Thursday, 21 June.