Architecture Biennale Rotterdam opens with Derk Loorbach as co-curator

Fifty years after the publication of the Club of Rome report, the 10th edition of the Architecture Biennale Rotterdam takes stock: how is it possible that we ignored the warnings and now find ourselves in the crises already predicted back then? The exhibition paints a picture that is at once worrying and hopeful. It shows work by architects, urban planners, artists, academics and landscape designers that identifies the causes and consequences of climate change. Furthermore, it argues that the current moment of transition offers the opening for great leaps forward. 

The Club of Rome already pointed out the negative consequences of fossil and linear growth, but other problems were more urgent or short-term interests more dominant each time. Meanwhile, we know and feel first-hand the existential and acute threat posed by the continuation of our current model. The 10th edition of the Architecture Biennale Rotterdam is, therefore, more than a wake-up call; besides presenting an impressive picture of the current state of the world, it shows real, hopeful possibilities of new, more radical courses towards a liveable future. She makes visible, sweeping, doable transitions that lead to a just and ecologically healthy world. The use of imagination, architecture and landscape design is a crucial factor in this.

So, thanks partly to Derk, you can visit a biennale that connects transition science and design practice. The 10th edition is thus more than an exhibition. Transition talks take place in a transition arena, allowing visitors to see and participate in transitions in practice. Transition talks about cities that no longer own cars, stopping the construction of new roads, the future of hay water protection, the ecological-economic transition in the Delta, or the transition in underground infrastructure. These conversations are initiated by cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam or national programmes and guided by design and research.

"During the biennale, we will show transitions in a new way. Short-term thinking and crises have slowed down transitions, but we are now in a transition moment. To move forward, we also needed a physical transition arena in the exhibition. This way, we will make room for transformative innovation and energy needed for desired and radical action. And we will discover how design and transition can join hands," says Derk.

The exhibition IT'S ABOUT TIME has been curated by Véronique Patteeuw, Léa-Catherine Szacka, Peter Veenstra and Derk Loorbach.

Visit the Architecture Biennale Rotterdam website here.