POWER -
Producing the Contemporary City


24 May - 2 September 2007
 
PowerLounge

24 May - 10 June 2007

Kunsthal Rotterdam

 

The PowerLounge is the central meeting point of the biennale. During the opening weeks this will be the heart of the biennale. During the opening fortnight, this is the place where discussion will be waged on the biennale’s theme, POWER, through debates, lectures, presentations and conferences.

 

 


During the day in the PowerLounge, visitors can consult the catalogue at their leisure or watch video projections. At least as long as no other biennale events are taking place, such as the two-day international conference Visionary Power, or the presentation and award ceremony that concludes the Master Class, or the debate  Noord versus Zuid in één Randstad (North vs. South within One Randstad), part of the New Dutch City gathering, where the future plans for the Noord- en Zuidvleugels (north and south sections) of the Randstad, the urban conglomeration in the west of the Netherlands, will also be presented.

In addition, partners of the biennale such as the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects (BNA), Kristal (project developer for, as well as with, six housing corporations in the Randstad) and Atelier Zuidvleugel are also organizing various activities in the PowerLounge.

 

 

 

Every weekday from 5:30 pm (except Monday) the PowerLounge is the location for a PowerTalk: a lecture, debate or round-table discussion about POWER and the future of the city.
The PowerTalks bring together various players who make the city what it is: from architects, urban designers and planners to project developers, researchers and administrators. They will debate the current urban agenda and the challenges for architecture and urban design: from the contemporary city losing its colour to the strength of local power, and from the role of residents in the global city to the design dilemmas inherent in the future plans for the Randstad.

See the agenda for a complete overview of the public events held in the PowerLounge. This agenda also lists lectures and debates organized by the Netherlands Architecture Institute during the biennale, including those marking the exhibition A Better World – Another Power presented at the NAI.

Agenda

 

Various debates and lectures held in the PowerLounge will be recorded and available for viewing from June though August on the website of the Dutch public broadcaster VPRO: http://www.hollanddoc.nl

"The only maxim of art is not to be imperial. This means today: it does not have to be democratic, if democracy implies confirmity with the imperial idea of political liberty." (Alain Badiou, 2005)