Cities are the future. Collection centres for people and production, knowledge and creativity, problems and progression. This is where it will happen in the near future. Predictions are within 35 years, more than 75% of the world population will be living in cities.
This is exactly the reason why FabCity has been set up as part of ‘Europe by People’, the Amsterdam EU2016 Arts & Design programme. Inspired by the Fab City initiative that started in Barcelona two years ago. From the 11th of April till the 26th of June, FabCity will be a temporary living lab on Kop Java–island in Amsterdam. Even better, a campus – for and full of people that want to be part of sustainable and local solutions for our global urban problems. Problems of which everyone – politicians, scientists and citizens – acknowledges the urgent need for collective action. We have exhausted the resources of our planet, and gaps between races, genders, classes and religions continue to exist and even grow. At the same time, we are developing new technologies, means of communication, transport and forms of producing energy and food. Our urban environments are complex, manmade systems, bringing out the best and worst of human beings.
FabCity contains almost fifty pavilions, divided into eight areas. Here students, professionals, researchers and artists demonstrate, develop and test solutions for our future cities, including alternative forms of energy, new ways of transportation, different possibilities for treating water, local food supplies and re-using waste.There is also a number of performing arts and installations from innovative creators. Their vision of the future will take shape in theatre, dance, film and music performances. Visit FabCity between 11 April and 26 June for innovation, inspiration and collaboration.
Problems are magnified in cities, the pressure cookers of our society. FabCity, a campus for urban innovators, is also a pressure cooker, where in a confined space and in a confined amount of time, a creative and innovative force of young people – the rulers of tomorrow – co-create examples of how things can and should be. An interconnected, hyper-connected and self-sufficient society, built by and for people. Investigating our everyday basic human needs: energy, food, housing, healthcare, education, privacy and human interaction. Using what is locally available; from produce to knowledge, technology and creativity.
FabCity is about collecting and sharing data and information, learning from each other, creating a community in which we are all connected, both digitally and spiritually. It not just about developing the new – it is also about showcasing what is already there. All over the world and in the Netherlands, solutions already exist. Local companies are finding and producing new raw materials through recycling. Individuals are thinking up solutions to our housing problems, creatively avoiding red tape. Small co-operations are creating new ways for producing and distributing food – making us healthier and happier.
The new citizens of our cities aim to be more than just consumers who eat, drink, work, party, produce waste and shop. They want to be creators, producers, constructors and conservers. They’re building our new cities by transforming and upgrading infrastructure, changing the way we move around, redesigning and renewing neighbourhoods, public spaces and the way we live and interact, inventing ways of saving and producing energy. They give us hope.
People want to take responsibility for their environment, for their own and other’s well-being, for our next generation, for our planet’s existence. They can not and will not wait for our governments to implement solutions – people want to be part of the solution. Solutions that are often as simple as they are genius, stemming from an urgent and human need and applied on a human scale. A scale people – and not just Europeans – can relate to.
FabCity is about fabricating fabulous cities together!