About the project:

The Urban Tendency is collaboration between the Netherlands Architecture Institute, The Flemish Architecture Institute, P3 and the University of Westminster Architecture School, The Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands in the UK, The Flemish Representation in the UK and The British Council. It is a key international partnership project of The London Festival of Architecture 2008.

The project takes as its starting point ' Horror Vacuii – Metropolitan Implosions', originally curated by Hans Ibelings on behalf of the Netherlands Architectural Institute as an invitation to the Lisbon Triennale of Architecture 2007.

Ibleing's project, later reworked as an exhibition project back in the Netherlands, examines the re-emergence of an urbanism and, in particular, the notion of 'the compact city' within the Netherlands. Some of the particularly notable points that his project raises are the general trends against –or at least in addition to- the preceding tendency to suburban sprawl and suburbia and the fact that this tendency towards reinvigorating the city centres and urban environment is occurring without the kinds of pressures that might be driving similar moves elsewhere in the world. Most notably it highlights that this 'neo-urbanisation' is taking place in cities where there is little or no population growth rather than a response to overpopulation; that the thoughtful use to redesigning and rearranging urban space is concomitant with increases in available private living space rather than the traditional expectations that urban environments are intrinsically densely populated and restricted in personal space.

In effect, what Ibeling's project, in part highlights, is the return of a tendency for wanting the urban environment, for a kind of renewed excitement and interest in living in cities and building projects that embrace the urban.

The Urban Tendency, takes Ibeling's project as its starting point and builds on and extends its discussions to other locales where, for example, the driving forces for reinvigorating the urban environment might be different but that there is, nonetheless, similar evidence of the zeitgeist –arguably appearing in the 1990s'– speaking of an interest in the city as a place to both live and work.

The project is a collaboration between The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the UK, the Netherlands Architecture Institute, the Flemish Architecture Institute, the University of Westminster Architecture School, the Flemish Representation in the UK and The British Council as part of the London Festival of Architecture 2008. The project takes Ibeling's project as its starting point and develops it into a 'dialogue' project in which the curators trace themes raised by 'Horror Vaccuii' through architecture and urban planning projects from within the Netherlands, Flanders, the UK and other locales that both present and extend some of the key the discussions raised in 'Horror Vaccuii'.

The exhibition project will present a range of phenomena that highlight these issues, focussing on architectural manifestations, but also tracing how these themes and ideas have been picked up in contemporaneous art, design and 'lifestyle' objects speaking of 'the Urban Tendency'. It is envisaged that this approach may encourage the visitor to make the connections between architectural and urban planning thought and practice and its connections to the daily processes of life within these evolving urban environments. 

Whereas architecture and planning have often demonstrated the Utopian and positive drives for engaging with this renewed interest in the compact urban environment, contemporary art, by contrast, has often offered a critique or remained somewhat ambivalent towards the contemporary city. Some artists, however, prefer to turn their attention to the formal issues of the city and urban life in their manifestation of art works.

Engagement with 'Fresh 2008'

The Urban Tendency' connects with a number of key points implicit in Hans Ibeling's 'Horror Vacuii' intersecting with the issues that the 'Fresh 2008' –the theme of this year’s London Festival of Architecture- addresses. These topics are manifest in examples of this renewal of the city environment ranging from multiple uses for land in densely populated areas through to the reclaiming of former industrial land for new urban 'ecosystems', through to issues of sustainability and low environmental impact, despite being clearly urban in nature and aesthetic.

'The Urban Tendency' is about the notion of wanting to be urban as much as actually being urban; the way in which green, sustainability and liveability agendas have all been brought to the fore in a fresh approach to the compact urban environment; the way in which architects and planners are 'rehabilitating' the negative connotations associated with the vernacular of 'the city' after assimilation of Marxist critiques of the impact of capitalist industrialization and broader critiques of  the 'failures' of Modernism.

Hence –as will be shown in various examples exhibited- certain environmental factors such as water long ago developed a 'double meaning': they were barriers to local agrarian economies without substantial infrastructure/engineering investment, yet, excellent resources once the technology for international trade developed ( Amsterdam/New Amsterdam etc) and provided excellent internal trade communications (canal systems etc). Once overcome, they effectively meant economic wealth and development. In an age of the electronic flow of capital these meanings are different and the uses have changed. Arguably, they reflect certain ideological positions - water as a sign of lifestyle affluence (Amsterdam, London Docklands, Manchester/Salford, etc)

And, it is in these ideological as well as practical constructs that we see 'the urban tendency', the desire to be a dweller with an urban identity. This tendency is now informed by a fresh approach to the city in terms of green technologies and sustainability agendas. The tendency speaks of a possibility to flourish in an urban environment economically and in terms of quality of life.  It is arguable that it almost links back to the fifteenth and sixteenth century development of a 'city' identity, whilst rehabilitating the 'failures' of modernist approaches to urban development by combining aesthetics and vernaculars heavily informed by the lessons of Modernism underpinned with new low-impact technologies and 'urbosystems'.

If we look at numerous artefacts –such as actual architecture through to graphic design- emerging from the mid 1990's onwards, we can see that many allude to a vision in which the sleek, modern and urban can also be objects of desire, ideologically sound, sustainable and practical. There is a generation for whom the city need not be Dickensian, despite the challenges of Globalism. There are approaches - in China or London for example- in which embracing the city is a necessity but one in which it can potentially feel like an active choice, feel like the decisions made in the Netherlands or in the Midlands and Northern England where stable or reducing populations mean that if they had wanted to they could have made the regenerated city less 'urban', yet instead have embraced it. And, perhaps, in the western tradition at least, despite all of its problems historically, being urban and urbane also speaks of a lot of benefits in terms of how we see ourselves within the world.

Whereas architecture and planning have often demonstrated the Utopian and positive drives for engaging with this renewed interest in the compact urban environment, contemporary art, by contrast, has often offered a critique or remained somewhat ambivalent towards the contemporary city. Some artists, however, prefer to turn their attention to the formal issues of the city and urban life in their manifestation of art works.

Curatorial

'The Urban Tendency' is curated in London by Ken Pratt, who has curated numerous projects for institutions in the Lowlands,  taking as his starting point, ‘Horror Vaccuii’ curated by Hans Ibelings. Themes and ideas from Ibeling's 'Horror Vaccuii' will be incorporated into the London exhibition.

Manifestation

The exhibition will manifest in the form of a substantial exhibition presentation of various media and objects. This will naturally include the full range of media able to effectively communicate the architectural project ranging from models and photography to video and print. In addition to this, works of art and design objects by contemporary artists and designers, including new exhibition/site-specific works, such as the large-scale sculpture produced by Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen

Partners:

The Netherlands Architecture Institute, The Flemish Architecture Institute, P3 and the University of Westminster Architecture School, The Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands in the UK, The Flemish Representation in the UK, The British Council and The London Festival of Architecture.

Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen courtesy of Koraalberg, Antwerp; Schlechtriem Contemporary, New York/Berlin & Monique Meloche, Chicago
Boris van Berkum courtesy of Witzenhausen Gallery, Amsterdam
Wouter Feyaerts courtesy of Transit, Mechelen
Florian Göttke courtesy of Metis_NL, Amsterdam
Paul Hosking courtesy of Fred, London/Leipzig
Pascal Rousson & Aram Tanis courtesy of Vegas Gallery, London
Michael Samuels courtesy of Rokeby, London
Karen Tang courtesy of The Agency Contemporary, London
Anneke Wilbrink courtesy of Maurits van der Laar, The Hague & MDZ, Knokke

Partners & Sponsors: