How to create a sustainable community? Festivalcity_Rotterdam was presented at an Enviu Workshop.
Festivalcity_Rotterdam, the urban strategy on the symbiotic collaboration between festivals and urban development together with the casestudies: ‘Caribean Summer @ Afrikaanderwijk’ and ‘the Rotterdam urban theatre’ was presented at an Enviu Workshop focussing on sustainability. Enviu develops social startups and has as a goal to create impact for a large group of (marginalised) people and improving their livelihood. The participants of the workshop learned from this lecture that sustainability is more than just ‘green’, it is also about creating strong communities and branding a city.
The strategy Festivalcity_Rotterdam sees the collaboration between the festivals and the city as the interaction between a tulip and its flower bulb. The tulip is a metaphor for the festival that blossoms once a year and shows it’s beauty to all who want to see. The flower bulb is a metaphor for the supporting community which organises the festival. The tulip cannot flourish without the bulb grounded in a fertile ground, the city.
For urban design project Caribbean Summer @ Afrikaanderwijk the city was first investigated in search of hotspots where the bulb of the festival can be planted and where it can root as a catalyst in the development of identity of the area. The hotspots are a concentration of people and activities connected to the festival.
The design has 2 developmental phases. First, there is the experimental phase. A cultural incubator is located in a desolated area of the district. The entire program (temporary and long term) is concentrated in this cultural incubator. If the festival develops and the inhabitants of the district adopt the festival, then the expanding phase can start.
In this second phase the program spreads over the district and connects to the people and the program already in the district. In all the phases, the design creates multi-functional (in space and time) urban locations for different people and activities to use.
phase o1
phase o2