European Guest City / Rotterdam

16:15 - 16:45

La Centrale

For our Ten Years Edition, the European Guest City is Rotterdam, which hosted Part 1 of our anniversary last May. The question it brings to Turin is shared by almost every European city: building and labour costs are rising, borrowing is more expensive and house prices keep climbing — while demand for homes grows and new construction has to be sustainable, low-carbon and circular. The common answer is to densify within existing city limits, with smaller, more affordable homes. The result is buildings with far more residents than we are used to: in the five largest Dutch cities, there are numerous examples with over a thousand apartments.

How do you organise collective life, build community and create a sense of ownership at that scale? In short: how do you achieve social quality in new buildings? Emiel Arends, urban designer for the City of Rotterdam, presents a debate that has been open in the Netherlands for two years. Rotterdam is testing guidelines in its tenders; the five largest cities are drafting their first-ever joint policy on social quality; and Stichting Hoogbouw, the Dutch council on tall buildings that brings together developers, architects, contractors and municipalities —and on whose board Arends sits— has made it its central theme for the years ahead. From the problem to concrete examples, in hardware, software and beyond: space, services and management.

Emiel Arends Urban designer

City of Rotterdam

Emiel Arends is the City of Rotterdam's Urban Designer. He joins Utopian Hours as Rotterdam returns as European Guest City of the festival.

Arends is a senior advisor on urban affairs in Rotterdam. He has worked on several of the city's masterplans, including Wilhelminapier and RCD, wrote its last two high-rise visions, co-authored the inner-city plan and works on long-term climate adaptation strategies.

He is also a senior lecturer in water management at Rotterdam University and part of the supervision team of the Zuidas in Amsterdam. His recent book, 'City without fear of heights: the development of a European high-rise typology', traces 125 years of high-rise in Rotterdam.

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