Van Eesteren Lecture Series 2021 - Session 3

Resilience is the buzzword today. Planners, designers, but also politicians and policy makers are looking for solutions and developments that are robust, that are able to cope with the challenges, changes and transformations. If we look at the current condition in regions and cities globally we see a wide range of challenges and issues, such as climate change, migration, increased segregation and uneven development. These crises have been often used as a justification for certain planning interventions that eventually increase the uneven development of cities and regions. The rational behind numerous of these interventions is to make the area future-proof or robust, but in doing so they fail to incorporate the intrinsic characteristic of our human fragility. In essence we are all social animals and we are all physically vulnerable.

The work of the community Architects Network values the strength, knowledge and capacities of people and seeks to mobilise these in and through the participatory development of housing.